Said Muhammad Husayn Qahtani

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Said Muhammad Husayn Qahtani is a citizen of Saudi Arabia, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.^[1] His detainee ID number is 200.

1 Combatant Status Review Tribunal
2 References

[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.

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

[edit] Al Qahtani's initial questions

Al Qahtani asked two questions:

How trustworthy was the Tribunal?
Why were some detainees being released without going through a Tribunal? Al Qahtani said that many of those who had been released were more dangerous than those who had been released.

Main article: Guantanamo detainees who fought America after release

[edit] Allegations

Many of the detainee's transcripts repeat the allegations against the detainee. Al Qahtani's transcript does not repeat the allegations. But it contains his answers.

a. Association

Al Qahtani acknowledged traveling to Afghanistan. But he did so prior to September 11, 2001, when his country recognized the Taliban as a legitimate government, and travel to Afghanistan was legal.
Al Qahtani acknowledged returning to Afghanistan in April 2001, after hearing a fatwa advising assisting the Taliban.
"Yes, I said I was with one of the persons in Rawalpindi, but at that time I didn't know he was from al Qaida."
- Al Qahtani pointed out that someone could visit someone who was not the best person in the world, without being a bad man themselves.

b. Hostile activity

Al Qahtani acknowledged receiving military training and small arms training, but he said that was not at a Taliban camp. He acknowledged receiving armor training ^[sic] at a Taliban camp. His Personal Representative clarified for the Tribunal that the Kubah training camp was in Pakistan, not Afghanistan.
Al Qahtani acknowledged serving with the Taliban on the front lines.
The allegation said that Al Qahtani fled through Tora Bora, and that he was captured by Pakistani forces on Decmeber 18 2001. Al Qahtani clarified that he sought out a Pakistani police station, looking for their assistance contacting his embassy, because he had lost his travel documents.

[edit] Testimony

Prompted by questions from his Personal Representative Al Qahtani described his relationship with the man he knew as Tariq who American intelligence analysts identified as a member of al Qaeda.

"I didn't know anything about him. When they (interrogators) showed me his picture, I told them I knew who he was and that I had met him at his home, and I told them what had happened. They told me his name was Abu Zubaydah and he was one of the famous people of al Qaida."

Al Qahtani clarified he was on the front line, for a short time. But there wasn't any fighting while he was there.

Al Qahtani said he didn't think he had done anything wrong with going to Afghanistan, receiving military training, of serving on the Taliban's front lines. The transcript does not record whether his front line service was prior to, or following, the attacks of September 11, 2001.

Al Qahtani said that the first time he had traveled to the area he didn't know anything about the Taliban. He didn't agree about the fighting between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance. When he returned to Saudi Arabia, and told his Imam about everything he had seen. His Imam's interpretation was that the Taliban had brought peace to "95%" of Afghanistan. And as soon as they vanquished the Northern Alliance the entire country would be at peace. Therefore assisting them in vanquishing the Northern Alliance was his recommendation.

Al Qahtani acknowledged carrying a weapon in Afghanistan -- one he bought for himself -- not one he was issued by the Taliban.

Al Qahtani said several of the people he traveled with also ended up at Guantanamo. Two of them were in Camp 4 (the camp for the most privileged detainees) with him. His Tribunal asked him if he traveled with fifteen other men. He couldn't remember. Maybe less. He couldn't remember how long they spent traveling to Pakistan. He estimated thirty to forty days.

Al Qahtani was congratulated on his ability to speak English, and was asked where he learned it so well. He said that 75% of his English was acquired in Guantanamo.

Al Qahtani was asked why he hadn't called the other men he traveled with to testify that they had voluntarily surrendered. He said he hadn't realized that it would help his case, because they had all, already told their interrogators how they surrendered.

Al Qahtani said he had been a student of Islamic law prior to traveling to Afghanistan.