Murtada Ali Said Maqram

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Murtada Ali Said Maqram is a citizen of Saudi Arabia held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.^[1] Makram's Guantanamo detainee ID is 187. The Department of Defense reports that Magram was born on March 28, 1976, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

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

The United States Department of Defense, under court order, released the identity of the Guantanamo detainees. On April 20, 2006 they released a list of the names of 558 detainees who were held in Guantanamo Bay in July 2004, when they started conducting Combatant Status Review Tribunals.^[2] On May 15, 2006 they released a list of all the names of all the detainees who had been held in Guantanamo.^[1]

Numerous detainee's names were spelled differently on the two lists -- some of them markedly so. Maqram's name is not on either list. But the DoD released a memo summarizing the factors for and against his continued detention, where his name is spelled Murtada Ali Said Maqram.^[3] Both official lists contain the similar name "Murtadha Al Said Makram". That individual did not participate in either his Combatant Status Review Tribunal or his Administrative Review Board hearing. His Guantanamo detainee ID number is 187.

[edit] Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Combatant Status Review Tribunal notice read to a Guantanamo captive. During the period July 2004 through March 2005 a Combatant Status Review Tribunal was convened to make a determination whether they had been correctly classified as an "enemy combatant". Participation was optional. The Department of Defense reports that 317 of the 558 captives who remained in Guantanamo, in military custody, attended their Tribunals.

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.

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. Murtadha Al Said Makram was one of those 169 detainees.^[4]

[edit] Allegations

a. The detainee is associated with al Qaida:

The detainee traveled to Afghanistan on a forged passport.
The detainee traveled in response to a fatwa for Muslims to fight.
The detainee provided a false name when captured.
The detainee received weapons training on the Kalashnikov ^[^sic], the PK machine gun, and the Makarov pistol at the al Farouq training camp, for one month from October - November 2001.^[5]

[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 Maqram were among the 120 that the Department of Defense released on March 3, 2006.^[3]

[edit] The following primary factors favor continued detention:

a. The detainee is an Al Qaida/Taliban fighter:

The detainee voluntarily traveled from Saudi Arabia to Afghanistan to fight in the Jihad.
While traveling through Qandahar. AF. The detainee staued at a Taliban guesthouse.
The detainee received training on the AK-47 assault rifle while in AF.

b. The detainee participated in military operations against the coalition.

While fighting in the Jihad in Afghanistan, the detainee spent seven (7) months on a secondary line approximately 30 kilometers from the front line.
After seven (7) months, the detainee then spent two (2) months on another secondary line at Bagram Hill, approximately 13 kilometers from the front line.
When the Northern Alliance attacked the front line, the detainee went to the front line on the Bagram side of the mountain.
The detainee then retreated to the Tora Bora region, and subsequently fled to Pakistan where he was captured.

c. Based upon a review of recommendations from US Government agencies and classified and unclassified documents, Enemy Combatant is regarded as a threat to United States and its allies.

In the last year, the detainee has thrown food at guards four (4) times, spit on them twice and set of the sprinkler in his cell. The most extreme conduct occurred on 12 October 2004 when he grabbed an MP through the “beanhole” in his cell and pulled him towards the door.
A list of contact points and telephone numbers for Al Qaida Mujahidin (the detainee’s name was included on the list) who were scheduled to fight in Afghanistan but who were arrested by the Pakistani authorities was recovered from a computer hard drive in an Al Qaida safehouse.
Detainee related it did not matter whether the Taliban won or lost the war but that he fought for the glory of God. Detainee stated he wanted to be a martyr for the cause.