Riyad Bil Mohammed Tahir Nasseri

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Riyad Bil Mohammed Tahir Nasseri is a citizen of Tunisia held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.[1] Nasseri's Guantanamo detainee ID number is 510.

Contents

[edit] Combatant Status Review Tribunal

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 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 Tribunal. 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. Riyab Bil Mohammed Tahir Nasseri was one of those 169 detainees.[2]

The allegations that Nasseri would have faced, during his Tribunal, were:

a. The detainee is associated with the Taliban and al Qaida.
  1. The detainee is ############### who traveled to Afghanistan to learn how to fight.
  2. The detainee traveled to Afghanistan via Italy and Pakistan.
  3. The detainee received military training at the Derunta camp [sic] in Jalalabad, Afghanistan and Khaldan camp [sic] near Khowst [sic] Afghanistan.
  4. The detainee received training on light arms while at the camps.
  5. The detainee fled from Jalalabad, Afghanistan to the Tora Bora region after this area fell to the Northern Alliance.
  6. The detainee stayed in the Bilal cave in the Tora Bora region.
  7. The detainee was injured in the Tora Bora region during the United States bombing.
  8. The detainee and others arranged their surrender.

[edit] Testimony

There is no record that Nasseri chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.

[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 Nasseri were among the 121 that the Department of Defense released on March 3, 2006.[3]

[edit] The following primary factors favor continued detention:

a. Commitment
  1. The detainee left Italy in the mid-1990s for Bosnia where he received military training and participated in the war along side Bosnian mujahidin.
  2. The detainee led a band of thieves in Italy and Spain who cooperated with Algerian terrorists.
  3. The detainee is a member of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA).
  4. The Armed Islamic Group (GIA) is an Islamic extremist group that aims to overthrow the secular Algerian regime and replace it with an Islamic state.
  5. The detainee was condemned in Italy for making and passing counterfeit money; had a warrant order issued for terrorism related crimes and subversion and has an international arrest order on record.
  6. The detainee was sentenced in Tunisia to a ten year sentence for being a member of a terrorist organization operating abroad.
  7. The detainee, known as a Tunisian terrorist, supervised a guesthouse in Afghanistan.
  8. The detainee was involved in establishing the Tunisian Combat Group.
  9. The Tunisian Combat Group (TCG), also known as the Jama'a Combattante Tunisienne, reportedly is seeking to establish an Islamic regime in Tunisia and also targets US and Western interests. The group has come to be associated with al Qaida and other North African extremist networks that have been implicated in terrorist plots during the past two years.
  10. The detainee is considered one of the most dangerous Tunisian operatives.
  11. The detainee is also a known member of the Tunisian Islamic Front (TIF).
  12. The Tunisian Islamic Front (FIT) is suspected to be the armed wing of En-Nahda.
b. Training
  1. The detainee received military training at the Derunta camp in Jalalabad, Afghanistan and Khaldan camp near Khowst, Afghanistan.
  2. The detainee received training on light arms while at the camps.
  3. Derunta was one of Usama bin Laden's [sic] most important bases in Afghanistan. The camp provided training in the use of explosives and toxic chemical usage. Derunta also contained several secondary bases belonging to Usama bin Laden.
  4. Khalidoun Camp [sic] or "Al Khalidoun" [sic] was supervised by Ibn Cheikh al-Libi [sic]. Training consisted primarily of tactics for escaping from rockets, the use of rocket launchers, the manufacture of explosives and training in destructive techniques (physical liquidation). The camp was well known for bringing in volunteers recruited from North Africa, many of whom had been living in Europe and transferred to Afghanistan via Karachi, Pakistan.
c. Connections/Associations
  • The detainee was identified by a senior al Qaida lieutenant as having trained at Khaldan camp and eventually taking over as the Emir of the Tunisian Group in Afghanistan.
d. Intent
  • The detainee has hated America since he was a baby because it always takes the side of Israel. He stated that America will eventually receive justice for its crimes against Islam.
e. Other relevant data
  1. The detainee fled from Jalalabad, Afghanistan to the Tora Bora region after this area fell to the Northern Alliance.
  2. The detainee was injured in the Tora Bora region during the United States bombing.
  3. The detainee and others arranged their surrender.

[edit] The following primary factors favor release or transfer:

  • The detainee maintains that he never participated in, observed nor heard of any training in chemical or biological weapons while at the Darwanta Camp [sic].
  • The detainee stated he did not receive any training at or near Khost and had not heard of a terrorist training camp prior to the interview.
  • The detainee claims not to have belonged to any Tunisian Islamist group and has never tried to overthrow the Tunisian government.
  • The detainee claims that he was never the leader of any group.

[edit] References

  1. ^ list of prisoners (.pdf), US Department of Defense, May 15, 2006
  2. ^ Summary of Evidence memo (.pdf) prepared for Riyad Bil Mohammed Tahir Nasseri's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - October 21, 2004 - page 148
  3. ^ Factors for and against the continued detention (.pdf) of Riyad Bil Mohammed Tahir Nasseri Administrative Review Board, April 27, 2005 - page 5
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