Saleh Ali Jaid Al Khathami

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Saleh Ali Jaid Al Khathami is a citizen of Saudi Arabia, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.[1] His Guantanamo detainee ID number is 191. American intelligence analysts estimate he was born in 1981, in Dharan [sic], Saudi Arabia.

Contents

[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.
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.

Al Khathami chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.[2]

[edit] allegations

During his Tribunal Al Khathami faced the following allegations:[2]

a. Alleged association with terrorism[3]
  1. The detainee traveled from Saudi Arabia to Afghanistan via Pakistan.
  2. The detainee stayed for one week in a known safe house in Jalalabad, Afghanistan.
  3. The detainee stayed at Nejim Al-Jihad, a known terrorist organization-housing compound [sic] owned by Usama Bin Laden [sic].
b. Alleged hostile activity[3]
  1. The detainee received small arms training at the Al-Farouq training camp.
  2. The detainee was listed on a computer hard drive used by suspected Al-Qaida members captured by Allied personnel in a suspected Al-Qaida safe house in Pakistan.

[edit] testimony

Al Khathami acknowledged traveling to Afghanistan. He stated that the purpose of his travel was to teach the Koran. He traveled as an individual, not as a member of any organization.

Al Khathami denied ever passing through or staying in Jalalabad. He had to have the term "safe house" explained to him. He denied staying in any safe houses. He said he always stayed with Afghans, that he didn't interact with any other Arabs during his travels.

Al Khathami said he might have falsely confessed to other things during his time in Pakistani custody. If so he recanted any such false confession, because the Pakistanis had tortured him.

Al Khathami denied staying at Nejim Al-Jihad. He had never heard of this place.

Al Khathami denied receiving small arms training at al Farooq, and said he didn't know where al Farouq was.

Al Khathami said he had no knowledge of this hard drive his name was said to be found on. He pointed out how similar Arabic names were, and how many Arabs have the same name.

When the Tribunal President started asking him questions Al Khathami said he preferred to wait to answer question when he was in a real court.

[edit] References

  1. ^ list of prisoners (.pdf), US Department of Defense, May 15, 2006
  2. ^ a b Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Saleh Ali Jaid Al Khathami's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 1-4
  3. ^ a b Most detainees Tribunal transcripts contain the allegations against the detainee. And most of those that do contain two sections of numbered paragraphs. The first section, always starts with a sentence that broadly outlines how intelligence analysts alleged the detainee was associated with terrorism. See the A Profile of 517 Detainees through Analysis of Department of Defense Data for a statistical breakdown of the frequency with which different associations were used. The second set of numbered paragraphs always started with a sentence broadly outlining the kind of hostile acts intelligence analysts alleged the detainee participated in. Both of those outline sentences were missing from Al Khathami's transcript.
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