Karam Khamis Sayd Khamsan

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Karam Khamis Sayd Khamsan (also transliterated as Karama Khamis and Khamis Al-Mulaiki) is a citizen of Yemen, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.[1] His Guantanamo detainee ID number is 586. American intelligence analysts estimate that Khamsan was born in 1969, in Al Mahra, Yemen.

Contents

[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.
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.

Khamsan chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.[2]

[edit] allegations

The allegations that Khamsan faced during his Tribunal were:[2]

a. The detainee is associated with al Qaida and/or the Taliban.
  1. The detainee traveled to Afghanistan in 2001.
  2. The detainee was given airline tickets to Karachi, Pakistan.
  3. The detainee had his passport altered after he was denied boarding on an airplane bound for Pakistan.
  4. The detainee's travel facilitator lived in Sana'a, Yemen.
  5. The travel facilitator's support to the detainee mirrors that of a known al Qaida and/or Taliban recruiter.

[edit] testimony

Khamsan acknowledged that he was given an airline ticket from his friend Tarek Mohammed. He denied his passport was altered. He said his passport was a brand new, newly issued one.

Khamsan said that his friend Tarek was a drug dealer. Khamsan said that his role in Tarek's enterprises was to travel to Afghanistan to serve as a hostage.

Khamsan said this trip was his first experience with the illegal drug trade. He was going to be paid 50,000 Riyals for his role, which he planned to use to finance his marriage.

[edit] Abuse while in detention

The New Standard News reports that during Amnesty International's interview with Khamsan he reported being abused.[3][4] Khamsan reported being beaten, stripped naked, and being stacked in a pile with other naked captives, and then photographed, while held in Bagram. He also reported being threatened with rendition to Egypt or Jordan. Elements of the 519th Military Intelligence Battalion, under Captain Carolyn Wood, were responsible for the interrogation of captives in Bagram, before being transferred to Abu Ghraib, where they were to play a role in the abuse recorded in the photos that started to be released in the winter of 2005.

Main article: Bagram torture and prisoner abuse
Main article: Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse

Khamsan told Amnesty International that, during the long flight to Guantanamo, his handcuffs were so tight they ripped off his flesh, when they were removed. Amnesty's report quoted Khamsan about his abuse in Guantanamo:[4]

"In Guantánamo, Karama Khamisan described how, on one occasion, he was taken to the shower room where guards attempted to sexually abuse him. As he pushed them away, ten guards entered the room and beat him before transferring him to a solitary cell where he was held for 25 days, naked. He said that he was only taken to use the toilet and shower once in this entire period and that he ate no solid food in order to avoid having to defecate in his cell."

[edit] Determined not to have been an Enemy Combatant

The Washington Post reports that Khamsan was one of 38 detainees who was determined not to have been an enemy combatant during his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.[5] They report that Khamsan has been released. The Department of Defense refers to these men as No Longer Enemy Combatants.

[edit] Yemeni arrest and acquittal

The Americans eventually concluded that Khamis was not part of al Qaeda, but that his presence in Afghanistan was due to his membership in a drug smuggling ring.[6] Consequently he was repatriated to Yemen.

According to the Yemen Observer Khamis was arrested on December 24, 2005, when he tried to approach the US Ambassador, while armed with a pistol and two hand grenades.[7] The Yemen Times says the alleged threat to the Ambassador was in December 2004.[8] Khamis has been charged with attempted assassination.

The Yemen Times' account says a conspirator has confessed that the impromptu attack was fueled by qat, a local narcotic, and anti-American sermons by radical clergy.

Khamis's defense lawyer have requested bringing in foreign medical experts to attest to his mental state.

Khamis was acquitted on March 13, 2006.[9][10]

[edit] See also

  • Ghaleb al-Zaiedi an alleged co-conspirator
  • Mohammed al-Ahdal alleged leader of Yemen's local al Qaeda

[edit] References

  1. ^ list of prisoners (.pdf), US Department of Defense, May 15, 2006
  2. ^ a b Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Karam Khamis Sayd Khamsan's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - - mirror - pages 12-18
  3. ^ "Report: Inside or Out, Gitmo Detainees Face Hardship, Detention", New Standard News, February 8, 2006.
  4. ^ a b "Guantanamo: Lives torn apart – The impact of indefinite detention on detainees and their families", Amnesty International, February 6, 2006.
  5. ^ Guantanamo Bay Detainees Classifed as "No Longer Enemy Combatants", Washington Post
  6. ^ Guantánamo: Fate of former detainees. Amnesty International (December 8, 2006). Retrieved on February 18, 2007.
  7. ^ "Panel Court Postpones Case of Guantanamo detainee", Yemen Observer, December 30, 2005. Retrieved on March 12, 2007.
  8. ^ "U.S. Ambassador’s attackers stand trial", Yemen Times, December 15, 2005. Retrieved on March 12, 2007.
  9. ^ "Security & Terrorism", United Press International, March 18, 2006. Retrieved on March 19, 2007.
  10. ^ "Court acquits Ex-Guantanamo Detainee", Yemen Observer, March 14, 2006. Retrieved on March 19, 2007.
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