Mohammed Mubarek Salah Al Qurbi

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Mohammed Barak Salem Al Qurbi (also transliterated as Mohammed Mubarek Salah Al Qurbi and Mohammed Mubarek Salim Al Qurbi) is a citizen of Saudi Arabia, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.^[1] Al Qurbi's Guantanamo detainee ID number is 342. The Department of Defense reports that Al Qurbi was born on July 30, 1975, in Khamees Musheet, Saudi Arabia.

[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.

Al Qurbi chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.^[2]

[edit] allegations

The allegations Al Qurbi faced during his Tribunal were:

a. -- The general summary of the allegations that establish an association with terrorism were missing from the transcript. --

1. The detainee traveled extensively during the period December 2000 through November 2001, Multiple visits to Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, a one-week stop in Syria and a five-month stay in Malaysia are recorded on the passport.
2. An Al Qaida operative is known to have falsified passports using Malaysian visa stamps in order to eliminate evidence of travel in Afghanistan and Pakistan,
3. The detainee was a member of Al Qaida and a member of al-Nashri s security element.
4. The detainee was observed on board a Taliban airplane carrying fighters down towards Northern Afghanistan,
5. The detainee was identified as an Al Qaida member by a farmer guard at Usama Bin Laden's complex at the Kandahar, Afghanistan Airport,
6. The detainee served as the manager of the Al Qaida frontline's guesthouse in Kabul, Afghanistan.
7. Pakistani police in Quetta arrested the detainee on 25 November 2001.

[edit] Response to the allegations

• Al Qurbi corrected his travel itinerary - the correct order was Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, then Pakistan, then Malaysia, then Syria.
• In response to the allegation that an al Qaida operative was known to have falsified passports using Malaysian visa stamps Al Qurbi pointed out that his passport was fine. The Saudi government had checked his passport, and it was fine.
• In response to the third allegation Al Qurbi asked what al-Nashri was. When it was explained to him that Al-Nashri was the name of someone suspected of involvement in the USS Cole bombing, and that he was suspected of being on this man's bodyguards, Al Qurbi said this was not true.
• In response to the allegation that he was seen aboard a Taliban airplane, in Afghanistan, he pointed out that he had never been to Afghanistan.
• In response to the allegation that he was identified as an al Qaida member by another captive he suggested someone had falsely identified him because he was subjected to pressure during his interrogation.

In response to the allegation that he managed a Kabul guest house he repeated that he had never been to Afghanistan.

[edit] Al Qurbi's statement

In addition to correcting the record on his travel itinerary, Al Qurbi corrected the pronunciation of his name. His real name was pronounced Mohammed Barak Salem Al Qurbi, not Mohammed Mobarck Salem Al Qurbi.

[edit] Response to Tribunal questions

Al Qurbi confirmed that he was from Saudi Arabia.

Al Qurbi had trouble understanding a question about the dates of his travel because he didn't understand the Julian calendar. So the question was rephrased. When he was asked if he undertook all that travel in a single year, he confirmed that he had.

The transcript records al Qurbi being asked the purpose of his travels, and responding by asking, in turn, "Are you interrogating me or are you asking me?"

Al Qurbi responded to the repetition of this question, and a further question, by informing his Tribunal: "You have all that information in my files."

The Tribunal's President then brought the unclassified session to an end.

[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.

Al Qurbi chose to participate in his Administrative Review Board hearing.^[3]

[edit] The factors for and against Al Qurbi's continued detention

Most captive's transcripts record the factors for and against the captive's continued detention. Al Qurbi's Recorder didn't bother to record the factors in the transcript. He only recorded Al Qurbi's answers.

[edit] Responses to the factors

• Al Qurbi tried, again, to bring the official version of his travel itinerary into line with his actual travel itinerary. He pointed out that the correct version was recorded on his passport.
• Al Qurbi denied attending a religious meeting in Lahore.
• Al Qurbi denied any knowledge of Jama'at al Tabligh
• Al Qurbi told his Board, as he had told his Tribunal, that he had never been to Afghanistan.
• In response to an allegation under the heading "training" Al Qurbi assured his Board that his passport was not forged, and contained no forged exit or entry stamps.
• In response to the allegations under the heading "connections" Al Qurbi assured his Board he had no connection to al Qaeda, or to a gentleman named "Al Nashiri".
• In response to the factors under the heading "other relevant data":
  • Al Qurbi corrected the dates of his capture. He was captured on the twenty-third of Ramadan, the date that was recorded on his factor's list, November 25, 2001, was actually the date the Pakistani authorities handed him over to the Americans.
  • Al Qurbi denied owning suspicious notebooks described in the factors.
  • Al Qurbi pointed out that he was handed over to the Americans along with many other suspects, and suggested that the records of which evidence was associated with which suspect got confused.

[edit] Statement

Al Qurbi noted that none of the corrections he had tried to make to the record during his last meeting, his Tribunal, had been taken into account when the factors favoring his continued detention were drafted.

They still had his name wrong, and they still had his itinerary wrong.

[edit] Response to Board questions

• Al Qurbi declined to answer a question about what he did during his five months in Malaysia. He said he preferred to confine his answers to the allegations in his summary of evidence.
• Al Qurbi denied that he had ever received any military training.
• Al Qurbi said he traveled to Pakistan to attend Tabligh meetings.
• Al Qurbi denied performing Da'wa work prior to his arrival in Pakistan.
• Al Qurbi repeated that he didn't know Al-Nashiri. The Board wanted clarification -- did he know of him? Al Qurbi clarified that not only didn't he know Al-Nashiri, but he had never heard his name before his capture.
• Al Qurbi was asked why the Pakistanis arrested him. He told his Board he had no idea. They held him, without charge, for a month and a half, before they turned him over to the Americans, and they never gave him any clue as to why he was arrested.
• Al Qurbi was asked if he had asked for a transfer to Camp five.^[4]
• When Al Qurbi corrected the pronunciation of his name the Recorder recorded his correction as: "Ny name is 'Mohammed Mubarek Salim Al Qurbi' not Salah."

[edit] References

1. ^ list of prisoners (.pdf), US Department of Defense, May 15, 2006
2. ^ Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Mohammed Mubarek Salah Al Qurbi's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 10-13
3. ^ Summarized transcript (.pdf), from Mohammed Mubarek Salah Al Qurbi's Administrative Review Board hearing - page 106
4. ^ Camp four was the camp reserved for the most compliant captives.