Jalal Salam Bin Amer

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Jalal Salam Bin Amer is an Yemeni citizen, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.^[1] His Guantanamo detainee ID number is 564. American intelligence analysts estimate he was born in 1973 in Al Muquala, Yemen.

1 Identity
2 Combatant Status Review Tribunal
- 2.1 Allegations
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

Bin Amer is one of the detainees whose name is spelled inconsistently in the various documents released by the Department of Defense. The Associated Press acquired a copy of a portable document format file containing all the unclassified documents prepared for hist Combatant Status Review Tribunal, where his name is spelled Jalal Salam Bin Amer.^[2] But the two official lists of names of Guantanamo detainees, released on April 20, 2006 and May 15, 2006, and his factors memo all used the name Jalal Salam Awad Awad.^[3]^[1]^[4]

[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 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.

Bin Amer chose not to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.

Although the Department of Defense said that on March 3, 2006 they released all the transcripts for all the Guantanamo detainees who had participated in their Combatant Status Review Tribunals they did not release Bin Amer's. The Associated Press had, however acquired a copy through an earlier FOIA request, and made it available for download. His Tribunal did consider some unclassified evidence, a letter from his brother.ref name=CsrtJalalSalamBinAmerLetter> unclassified documents (.pdf) from Jalal Salam Bin Amer's Combatant Status Review Tribunal, pages 14-17</ref>

[edit] Allegations

The unclassified allegations that Bin Amer faced during his Tribunal were:^[5]

The detainee is a Yemeni National who traveled from Yemen to Afghanistan.
The detainee trained at a Jihad Para-military training camp call "The Libyan Base," near Kabul, Afghanistan.
The detainee received training on the AK-47 assault rifle, rocket propelled grenade launcher, PK-machine gun, and other weapons.
The detainee fled Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban, using an escape network that helped fleeing Arabs and Afghans evade arrest by Pakistaini Authoriites.
The detainee was arrest at a safehouse in Karachi, Pakistan.

[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 Bin Amer 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

The detainee was found to be properly classified as an enemy combatant.^[sic]
The detainee is a Yemeni National who traveled from Yemen to Afghanistan.

b. Training

The detainee trained at the Libyan Camp Annex in the vicinity of Kabul, Afghanistan.
The detainee received training on the AK-47 assault rifle, rocket-propelled grenade lanncher, PK machine gun, and other weapons.

c. Connections/Associations

The detainee fled Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban, using an escape network that helped fleeing Arabs and Afghans evade arrest by Pakistani Authorities.
The detainee was arrested at a safe house in Karachi, Pakistan.
The detainee was caught in the house of Aziz (aka Riyadh the Facilitator).
"Riyadh the Facilitator" has been identified as an al Qaida operative.

d, Other Relevant data

Libyan training camp annex, outside of Kabul: A Libyan military training camp, known only as "the Libyan camp", is located in Kabul, Afghanistan. There is an annex to the camp also used for military training. It is an unknown distance from the main camp. The annex has an average of 10 to 12 students at a time and one trainer. (FN9)
Behavior while incarcerated:

3/08/03 Tried to incite a disturbance at GTMO

3/17/03 Verbally abusive to interpreter

3/19/03 Spat on interpreter

3/27/03 Threw toilet water on guards

3/07/03 Practices martial arts (one of approx. 10 times he was caught over the duration of his incarceration)

6/24/03 Verbally abusive to guards

1/23/04 Took part in block riot

10/10/04 Failure to comply with MP instructions (a common occurrence with this detainee)

12/17/04 Speaking what appeared to be fluent Russian with other detainees

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

In an affidavit from the detainee's brother, the detainee's brother stated, "My brother used to practice religion, but he was far from a religious fanatic - he just used to perform the basic requirements of our faith."
In an affidavit from the detainee's brother, the detainee's brother stated, "My brother, because he liked to travel, was probably as interested in seeing new place and meeting people from different cultures as he was in the ministry."
In an affidavit from the detainee's brother, the detainee's brother stated, "After September 11, 2001, and after the attack on Afghanistan, my brother called and told us that he would be home and would see us soon."
Detainee admitted he went to train because Muslims have a religious duty to do so. However, he still maintains that he originally came to Afghanistan to immigrated and not for training.