Mohammed Ahmed Salam

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Mohammed Ahmed Salam is a citizen of Yemen, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in Cuba.^[1] His detainee ID number is 689. The Department of Defense reports that Salam was born on October 1, 1980, in Ta'iz, 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

A memorandum summarizing the evidence against Salam prepared for his Combatan Status Reiew Tribunal, was among those released in March of 2005.^[2] The allegations Salam faced were:

a. The detainee is associated with forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States and its coalition partners.

1. The detainee stated that he traveled from Yemen to Pakistan in May 2001.
2. The Jama'at al-Tabligh ^[sic] organization paid for his travel to Pakistan.
3. The Jama'at al-Tabligh ^[sic], a Pakistani-based-Islamic-missionary organization, is being used as a cover to mask travel and activities of terrorists, including members of al Qaida.
4. The detainee stayed at the al Qaida "Nibras" guesthouse in the early summer of 2001.
5. The detainee stayed at the "Hasan" guesthouse in Kandahar, Afghanistan in late summer of 2001.
6. The "Hasan" guesthouse is where trained Mujahidin reside.
7. The detainee was at al Farouq during the summer of 2001.
8. The detainee was arrested in Pakistan by Pakistani police during a house raid.

[edit] Testimony

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

[edit] References

1. ^ list of prisoners (.pdf), US Department of Defense, May 15, 2006
2. ^ Summary of Evidence memo (.pdf) prepared for Mohammed Ahmed Salam's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - October 20, 2004 - page 73
3. ^ Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Mohammed Ahmed Salam's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 13-19