Ali Muhammad Nasir Muhammad Said

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Ali Muhammad Nasir Muhammad Said is held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.

1 Identity
2 Combatant Status Review Tribunal
3 Administrative Review Board hearing
- 3.1 The following primary factors favor continued detention:
- 3.2 The following primary factors favor release or transfer:
4 References

[edit] Identity

The United States Department of Defense, under court order, released the identity of the Guantanamo detainees. On April 20, 2006 they released a list of the names of 558 detainees who were held in Guantanamo Bay in July 2004, when they started conducting Combatant Status Review Tribunals.^[1] On May 15, 2006 they released a list of all the names of all the detainees who had been held in Guantanamo.^[2]

Numerous detainee's names were spelled differently on the two lists -- some of them markedly so. Said's name is not on either list. But the DoD released a memo summarizing the factors for and against his continued detention ^[3]

[edit] Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held in a small trailer, the same width, but shorter, than a mobile home. The Tribunal's President sat in the big chair. The detainee sat with his hands and feet shackled to a bolt in the floor in the white, plastic garden chair. A one way mirror behind the Tribunal President allowed observers to observe clandestinely. In theory the open sessions of the Tribunals were open to the press. Three chairs were reserved for them. In practice the Tribunal only intermittently told the press that Tribunals were being held. And when they did they kept the detainee's identities secret. In practice almost all Tribunals went unobserved.

Initially the Bush administration asserted that they could withhold all the protections of the Geneva Conventions to captives from the war on terror. This policy was challenged before the Judicial branch. Critics argued that the USA could not evade its obligation to conduct a competent tribunals to determine whether captives are, or are not, entitled to the protections of prisoner of war status.

Subsequently the Department of Defense instituted the Combatant Status Review Tribunals. The Tribunals, however, were not authorized to determine whether the captives were lawful combatants -- rather they were merely empowered to make a recommendation as to whether the captive had previously been correctly determined to match the Bush administration's definition of an enemy combatant.

Because of the DoD's confusion over Said's name it is not clear whether he participated in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.

[edit] Administrative Review Board hearing

Detainees who were determined to have been properly classified as "enemy combatants" were scheduled to have their dossier reviewed at annual Administrative Review Board hearings. The Administrative Review Boards weren't authorized to review whether a detainee qualified for POW status, and they weren't authorized to review whether a detainee should have been classified as an "enemy combatant".

They were authorized to consider whether a detainee should continue to be detained by the United States, because they continued to pose a threat -- or whether they could safely be repatriated to the custody of their home country, or whether they could be set free.

The factors for and against continuing to detain Said were among the 120 that the Department of Defense released on March 3, 2006.^[3]

[edit] The following primary factors favor continued detention:

a. The detainee is a Taliban fighter:

The detainee admitted he affiliated himself with the Taliban.
The detainee voluntarily traveled from Yemen to Afghanistan in 2001.
When the detainee arrived in Afghanistan, he stayed at house used by Taliban fighters.

b. The detainee participated in military operations against the coalition.

The detainee served on the frontlines and as a rear guard in AF, where he carried an AK-47.
Following the U.S. bombing campaign in AF, the detainee fled to the Tora Bora Region.
The detainee escaped into Pakistan, where he was captured by Pakistani guards.

c. Based upon a review of recommendations from US Government agencies and classified and unclassified documents, Enemy Combatant is regarded as a threat to United States and it’s Allies.

Detainee’s overall behavior has been generally compliant and non-aggressive. However, on 30 July 2004, detainee and several others were singing songs that encouraged resistance to the Joint Task Force (JTF) mission and praising praised Usama Bin Laden for his actions. On 27 February 2003, detainee threw water on guards.
Detainee stated during his initial interviews he lied about attending a terrorist training camp because he was not sure who else has trained at the camp and he did not want to be labeled as a terrorist. Detainee now admits that the attended the training camp for approximately 40 to 45 days.

[edit] The following primary factors favor release or transfer:

Enemy Combatant in his own oral testimony denied knowledge that the Taliban were fighting the United States. Admitted traveling from Yemen to Afghanistan just to visit and to see what was going on with the brothers fighting the Northern Alliance there.