Mohammed Rafiq (Guantanamo detainee 495)

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Mohammed Rafiq is a citizen of Pakistan, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camp, in Cuba.^[1] Rafiq's Guantanamo detainee ID number is 495. American intelligence analysts estimate Rafiq was born in 1980, in Kabal, Pakistan.

[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

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. Mahmmoud Omar Mohammed Bin Atef was one of those 169 detainees.^[2]

The allegations Rafiq faced, during his Tribunal, were:

a. Detainee is a member of the Taliban.

1. Detainee joined the Taliban to fight against the Northern Alliance and United States.
2. Detainee stated that he attended an anti-western rally and then joined the jihad against the Americans.
3. Detainee claims to be connected with the Tarik Nafaz SharIati Muhammed Molakand Organization (TNSIMM) or Tarik Nafaz Shariati Muhammedi Molakan Danija (TNSMMD) which brought over five thousand people to Mazer-E-Sharif ^[sic] from Pakistan for Jihad in November of 2001.
4. The Tarik Nafaz Shariati Muhammedi Molakan Danija is a Pakistan based Islamic militant group that is based in the Northeast portion of Pakistan that was sent to Mazer-E-Sharif ^[sic] to fight with the Taliban forces.

[edit] Transcript

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

[edit] Testimony

[edit] References

1. ^ list of prisoners (.pdf), US Department of Defense, May 15, 2006
2. ^ Summary of Evidence memo (.pdf) prepared for Mohammed Rafiq's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - page 252
3. ^ Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Mohammed Rafiq's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 115-120