Djamel Ameziane

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Djamel Saiid Ali Ameziane is an Algerian citizen, and former resident of Canada, who was captured and detained in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.^[1] His Guantanamo detainee ID number is 310.^[2] The Department of Defense reports that he was born on April 14, 1967, in Al Jesera, Algeria.

With the assistance of a legal team lead by Burlington, Vermont attorney Robert D. Rachlin, Ameziane launched a writ of habeas corpus, Civil Action No. 05-392.^[3] Rachlin has said: "There's nothing here that shows that he so much as held a firearm or did anything against the United States -- he's one of those guys who were at the wrong place at the wrong time. There's nothing more here than guilt by association^[1]."

[edit] Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Combatant Status Review Tribunal notice read to a Guantanamo captive. During the period July 2004 through March 2005 a Combatant Status Review Tribunal was convened to make a determination whether they had been correctly classified as an "enemy combatant". Participation was optional. The Department of Defense reports that 317 of the 558 captives who remained in Guantanamo, in military custody, attended their Tribunals.

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 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 Tribunal. 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.

To comply with a Freedom of Information Act request, during the winter and spring of 2005, the Department of Defense released 507 memoranda. Those 507 memoranda each contained the allegations against a single detainee, prepared for their Combatant Status Review Tribunals. The detainee's name and ID numbers were redacted from all but one of the memoranda. However 169 of the memoranda had the detainee's ID hand-written on the top right hand of the first page corner. When the Department of Defense complied with a court order, and released official lists of the detainee's names and ID numbers it was possible to identify who those 169 were written about. Djamel Saiid Ali Ameziane was one of those 169 detainees.^[4]

[edit] Allegations

a. The detainee is associated with al Qaida:

1. In late 2000, the detainee, who claims ###### ###### ######, traveled to Afghanistan from Canada on a fraudulent passport.
2. Prior to his departure from Canada, the detainee received 1,200 to 1,500 Canadian dollars from a [Tunis]]ian man who had encouraged the detainee to travel to Afghanistan.
3. The detainee was instructed to go to a guesthouse in Kabul upon his arrival in Afghanistan, which direction the detainee ultimately followed.
4. The detainee noted that a number of the other residents of the guesthouse were Taliban fighters.
5. The guesthouse in Kabul was run by an al Qaida communications specialist.
6. The detainee then stayed in a guesthouse in Jalalabad, Afghanistan with a number of Arab men.
7. The detainee traveled with Taliban fighters through the Tora Bora mountains during the U.S. bombing campaign.
8. The detainee traveled illegally to Pakistan without any documentation and was captured by the Pakistani military at a mosque.
9. The detainee escaped from a bus that was forcibly overtaken by other prisoners with the detainee, but he was captured again a short time later by Pakistani authorities.

[edit] Testimony

There is no record that Ameziane chose to participate 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 Ameziane were among the 121 that the Department of Defense released on March 3, 2006.^[5]

[edit] The following primary factors favor continued detention:

a. Commitment

1. In late 1995, the detainee traveled to Canada from Austria with a fake Dutch passport.
2. In late 2000, the detainee, who claims Algerian citizenship, traveled to Afghanistan from Canada on a fraudulent French passport.
3. The detainee traveled illegally to Pakistan without documentation and was captured by the Pakistani military at a mosque.
4. The detainee used an alias to hide his Algerian identity from Pakistani and U.S. military authorities.

b. Connections/Associations

1. The detainee attended the Al-Salaam mosque in Montreal Canada.
2. Prior to his departure from Canada, the detainee received 1,200 to 1,500 Canadian dollars from a Tunisian man who had encouraged the detainee to travel to Afghanistan.
3. The detainee was instructed to go to a guesthouse in Kabul upon his arrival in Afghanistan, which the detainee ultimately followed.
4. The detainee noted that a number of the other residents of the guesthouse were Taliban fighters.
5. The guesthouse in Kabul was run by an Al Qaida communicaitons specialist.
6. The detainee traveled with Taliban fighters through the Tora Bora mountains during the U.S. bombing campaign.

c. Intent

1. After residing in Canada illegally for five years, the detainee traveeled from Canada to England and then to Iran and Afghanistan on a false French passport.

d. Other Relevant Data

1. The detainee escaped from a bus that was forcibly overtaken by other prisoners with the detainee, but was captured again a short time later by Pakistani authorities.

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

1. While in Afghanistan, the detainee did not receive any military or terrorist training and did not see any fighting.
2. The detainee denied ever having participated in any fighting of terrorist activity and denied he had any intention of participation in such activity if he is released. The detainee denied knowledge of future planned terrorist attacks in the United States and denied knowledge of the locations of terrorist training camps or the identity of individuals with al Qaida or other terrorist organizations.
3. The detainee stated he left Canada because they would not grant him asylum. He was not even thinking of jihad when he moved to Afghanistan.
4. The detainee decided to flee Afghanistan because the non-Taliban and the opposition were killing Arabs.
5. In the Tora Bora mountains the detainee did not see any type of military training being conducted and he was never issued a weapon.
6. The detainee stated, "I am not a member of al Qaida."
7. The detainee denies ever viewing any extremist material or visiting any radical Islamic websites.

The Globe and Mail suggested that Ameziane's Tunisian contact could have been Raouf Hannachi.^[1]

[edit] See also

• Omar Khadr
• Abdurahman Khadr
• Ahcène Zemiri
• Mohamedou Ould Slahi

[edit] References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Third Montrealer on detainee list at Guantanamo, Globe and Mail, March 10, 2006 - mirror
2. ^ list of prisoners (.pdf), US Department of Defense, May 15, 2006
3. ^ Vt. lawyers represent Guantanamo detainees, WCAX
4. ^ Summary of Evidence memo (.pdf) prepared for Djamel Saiid Ali Ameziane's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - September 30, 2004 page 235
5. ^ Factors for and against the continued detention (.pdf) of Djamel Ameziane Administrative Review Board - pages 11-13