Hamoud Abdullah Hamoud Hassan Al Wady

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Hamoud Abdullah Hamoud Hassan Al Wady is a citizen of Yemen, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in Cuba.^[1] Al Wady's Guantanamo detainee ID number is 574. The Department of Defense reports that Al Wady was born on September 5, 1965, in Sana'a, 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 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. Hamoud Abdullah Hamoud Hassan Al Wady was one of those 169 detainees.^[2]

[edit] Allegations

a. The detainee is associated with Taliban and Al Qaida.

1. The detainee traveled to Afghanistan from Yemen via Iran and Syria in early 2001.
2. The detainee was recruited to go to Afghanistan and a religious educator financed his travel.
3. The detainee went to Afghanistan to fight Jihad.
4. The detainee stayed in multiple safehouses in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
5. The detainee is knowledgeable in the use of a Kalashnikov rifle.
6. The detainee was a money courier.
7. The detainee delivered money to the Taliban in Herat.
8. The detainee was captured in a safehouse in Pakistan.

b. The detainee supported military operations against the coalition.

1. The detainee served at the Said Center for the rear guard near Bagram for the Taliban.

[edit] Transcript

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

[edit] Confusion over the Tribunal process

Al Wady's transcript records him describing his confusion over the Tribunal process.

[edit] Testimony

[edit] References

1. ^ list of prisoners (.pdf), US Department of Defense, May 15, 2006
2. ^ Summary of Evidence memo (.pdf) prepared for Hamoud Abdullah Hamoud Hassan Al Wady's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - October 13, 2004 - page 256
3. ^ Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Hamoud Abdullah Hamoud Hassan Al Wady's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 1-13