Omar Hamzayevich Abdulayev

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Omar Hamzayevich Abdulayev is a citizen of Tajikistan, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.^[1] Abdulayev's Guantanamo detainee ID number is 257. The Department of Defense reports that Abdulayev was born on October 11, 1978, in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.

[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 Abdulayev prepared for his Combatan Status Reiew Tribunal, was among those released in March of 2005.^[2]

a. The detainee is associated with al Qaida and the Taliban:

1. The detainee was captured carrying numerous documents, including three handwritten notebooks with information on weapons systesm; extensive information about counterintelligence architecture and methods; extensive references to chemistry and poisons.
2. The detainee was captured carrying a small black book containing information on fighters associated with the Islamic Group ^[sic] Nahzat-Islami and weapon serial numbers associated with names of mujahidin fighters.
3. The detainee was a member of the Islamic fundamentalist group Nahzat-Islami.
4. Nahzat-Islami is a Tajik Islamic fundamentalist group that fought against the Russian-backed government of Tajikistan.
5. The detainee studied in a madrassa for at least a year under the Taliban, and received terrorist training in Afghanistan, or Pakistan, from several instructors in military doctrine, intelligence, weapons, training methods, and terrorist operations.
6. The detainee lived at Camp Babu in Pakistan from early 2001, until his capture.
7. The Taliban and al Qaida trained male and female suicide attackers at Camp Babu in Pakistan.

[edit] Testimony

The caption to this poster, distributed by the CIA in Afghanistan, reads: “You can receive millions of dollars for helping the Anti-Taliban Force catch Al-Qaida and Taliban murderers. This enough money to take care of your family, your village, your tribe for the rest of your life. Pay for livestock and doctors and school books and housing for all your people."

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

Abdulayev responded to each allegation, in turn, as they were read out loud:

• Abdulayev said that when he was captured by Pakistani intelligence officials, in a Pakistani bazaar, all he was carrying were two personal letters. He said that first the intelligence officials tried to shake him down for a bribe. He said that when he told them he was a poor refugee who could not afford to pay any bribes. They then gave him three printed books, and told him to copy them out in longhand. He says he refused, so they beat and tortured him, until he complied. Once he had completed the copies they handed him over to the Americans. When he told the American interrogators he was just a poor refugee, they told him they knew he was lying because the Pakistani intelligence had supplied them with the three handwritten notebooks in his hand-writing. He explained their provenance, but the Americans didn't believe him.
• Abdulayev's explanation of the small book was the same as the three notebooks. Corrupt Pakistani intelligence officials made him copy the information in his handwriting.
• Abdulayev denited being a member of the Nahzat-Islami party. He arrived in Afghanistan, as a refugee, who didn't know anyone.
• Abdulayev said he was about 12 or 13 years old when he arrived in Pakistan. As the oldest child he had to stop his education, and work in construction to help support his younger siblings.

Abdulayev had the following exchange with one of his Tribunal officers.

Main article: American bounty program in the global war on terror

[edit] References

1. ^ list of prisoners (.pdf), US Department of Defense, May 15, 2006
2. ^ Summary of Evidence memo (.pdf) prepared for Omar Hamzayevich Abdulayev's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - November 3, 2004 - page 42
3. ^ Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Omar Hamzayevich Abdulayev's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 1-8