Fahmi Abdullah Ahmed

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Fahmi Abdullah Ahmed was a Yemeni captured and detained in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.^[1] Ahmed' Guantanamo detainee ID number is 688. American intelligence analysts estimate Ahmed was born in 1977, in Debab, Yemen.

[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.

[edit] Allegations

The allegations Ahmed faced, during his Tribunal, were:^[2]

a The detainee is associated with al Qaida:

1. The detainee is Yemeni and was captured by Pakistani authorities in Faisalabad, Pakistan.
2. The detainee was identified by a senior al Qaida operational planner as having been a resident at a safehouse located in Kandahar, Afghanistan in 2001.
3. The detainee was identified by a senior al Qaida facilitator as having been a resident at a safehouse located in Kandahar, Afghanistan in 2000. This individaul also saw the detainee at a safehouse located in Faisalabad, Pakistan in February 2002 with a group of Yemenis who had fled Afghanistan.

b The detainee participated in military operations against the United States or its coalition partners.

1. The detainee was present on the front lines in Bagram, Afghanistan.

[edit] Transcript

Ahmed chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.^[3]

[edit] Testimony

Ahmed denied all the allegations against him. In particular, he claimed he had never even been to Afghanistan. Ahmed was given money, from his mother, to go to Pakistan to buy textiles, in hopes she could set him up as a textiles merchant.

But, he met an another Arab in the textile bazaar, who invited him to come stay with him. The two of them spent much of his capital on drugs and liquor. He didn't buy any textiles. He overstayed his visa. Over the next several years, he occasionally got informal jobs, serving as a kind of security guard. He also spent long periods of time unemployed, using drugs, and eating at soup kitchens for the destitute.

He didn't return to Yemen because he was ashamed that he had wasted the capital his mother had given him on drugs.

The last place he lived at was a residence for International students in. He had been living there only a few weeks when it was raided by Pakistani authorities and all the foreigners were arrested. He recognized that many of them had also been sent to Guantanamo.

He acknowledged that he had dropped out of school after grade eight, and could have been considered a delinquent, during his youth in Yemen

[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 Ahmed were among the 121 that the Department of Defense released on March 3, 2006.^[4]

[edit] The following primary factors favor continued detention:

a. Commitment

1. The detainee traveled from Yemen to Karachi, Pakistan and then on to Faisalabad, Pakistan.

b. Connection

1. The detainee was identified by a senior al Qaida operational planner as having been a resident at a safehouse ^[sic] located in Kandahar, Afghanistan in 2001.
2. The detainee waa identified by a senior al Qaida facilitator as having been a resident at a safehouse located in Kandahar, Afghanistan in 2000. This individual also saw the detainee at a safehouse located in Faisalabad, Pakistan in February 2002 with a group of Yemenis who had fled Afghanistan.

c. Intent

1. The detainee was present on the front lines in Bagram, Afghanistan.
2. Detainee has been identified as helping to transport equipment and wounded near the front lines.

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

• Detainee denied ever going to Afghanistan.
• Detainee stated that he got $3500 from his mother to travel to Pakistan and open a fabric store.
• Detainee stated that he worked for a year and a half as a security guard in Karachi, Pakistan.

[edit] Transcript

Ahmed chose to participate in his Administrative Review Board hearing.^[5]

[edit] References

1. ^ list of prisoners (.pdf), US Department of Defense, May 15, 2006
2. ^ Summary of Evidence memo (.pdf) prepared for Fahmi Abdullah Ahmed's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - page 24
3. ^ Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Fahmi Abdullah Ahmed's Combatant Status Review Tribunal, page 12-22 - - mirror pages 103-112
4. ^ Factors for and against the continued detention (.pdf) of Fahmi Abdullah Ahmed Administrative Review Board - page 73
5. ^ Summarized transcript (.pdf), from Fahmi Abdullah Ahmed's Administrative Review Board hearing - page 168