Yusef Abdullah Saleh Al Rabiesh

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Yusef Abdullah Saleh Al Rabiesh, also spelled as Yusef Abdallah Saleh Al Rabiesh, 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 109. American intelligence analysts estimate Al Rabiesh was born in 1981, in Al Khasim, Saudi Arabia.

[edit] Served as a witness

Al Rabiesh served as a witness for Muhammad Surur Dakhilallah Al Utaybi.^[2] Al Rabiesh testified that he met Al Utaybi as they fled the American bombing. He testified that he never saw Al Utaybi carry a weapon, or engage in hostilities. He confirmed Al Utaybi's story that he had gone to search for a relative.

[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.

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

[edit] Allegations

Al Rabesh's transcript does not record any of the allegations against him.

[edit] Opening statement

Al Rabesh's transcript opens with a long opening statement, where he explained how he came to be in Afghanistan.

He testified that the only aspect of the allegations was the dates of his travel.

The reason he traveled to Afghanistan was that his younger brother had suddenly left, without any warning.

Al Rabesh told his Tribunal that his brother's departure had a terrible effect on the health of his elderly parents. When they finally received a telephone call from his brother Al Rabesh decided to travel to Afghanistan himself, meet with his brother, and convince him to return, for the sake of their parent's health.

Al Rabesh said he traveled openly and legally to Afghanistan, through Pakistan. However, when he and the driver of his rented car were passing through a checkpoint outside Kabul they were both arrested, because they were carrying material the Taliban regarded as contraband, such as tapes with recorded music on them, and because Al Rabesh was breaking the law, because he was clean-shaven.

Al Rabesh testified that he spent four to five months in a Taliban prison. He was tortured there, largely he, suspected, due to translation problems. Eventually however, he was interrogated by someone who spoke Arabic. This person told him he would check to see if he really had a brother on the front lines. When he learned that Al Rabesh's story was true, he was released, and he was told to report to a Taliban government building in Konduz. Al Rabesh was able to fly to Konduz, because the American aerial attacks hadn't begun.

The Taliban wouldn't allow him to go to the front lines, to see his brother, because he was just a civilian. But he was able to see his brother, because the front line collapsed, and the fighters were released.

Al Rabesh said that the Northern Alliance had agreed to let the fighters leave Konduz, so long as they surrendered their weapons first. However, the Northern Alliance betrayed them, captured them, and sent them to the al Jangi prison outside Mazari Sharif. He and his brother spent one night in an underground prison. The next morning they were allowed to exit the dungeon, two at a time, when they were stripped of their clothes, handcuffed, and made to sit in a large field. After several hours of sitting the Northern Alliance suddenly opened fire on the seated prisoners. His brother was killed, and he was injured. He lost consciousness.

He was transferred to another of General Dostum's prison, where he was tortured every time he offered a truthful account of his presence in Afghanistan. He decided the safest way to avoid more torture was to tell them his brother's story.

Eventually he was transferred to American custody, in Kandahar. Where, he regretted to say, American interrogators also tortured him when he offered the truthful account of his presence in Afghanistan. And, he was tortured in Guantanamo too, until a Saudi delegation arrived in Guantanamo. When the Saudi delegation told the American that his account was credible the torture stopped. So, he was surprised that the allegations presented to his Tribunal reflected the old story he had adopted to avoid torture, not the truthful account that he had just repeated to his Tribunal.

[edit] Response to Tribunal questions

• Al Rabesh told his Tribunal that the Taliban never tried to enlist him because they didn't trust him.
• Al Rabesh told his Tribunal that he paid for his travel by selling his motorcycle.
• Al Rabesh explained that he was not religious.
• Al Rabesh said he was a student, and he worked in an electronics shop.

[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 Al Rabiesh were among the 121 that the Department of Defense released on March 3, 2006.^[4]

[edit] The following primary factors favor continued detention:

a. Commitment

1. The detainee stated he financed his own trip to Afghanistan.
2. The detainee surrendered to the Northern Alliance at Konduz, AF.
3. The detainee and other were issued arms and told to guard two valleys near the front lines.

b. Training

The detainee received Kalashnikov, PK, and grenade training at a Taliban training camp in Talukan ^[sic], Afghanistan.

c. Connections/Associations

1. The detainee is a member of the Taliban.
2. The detainee stayed at multiple Taliban guesthouses while traveling in the cities of Kandahar, Kabul, and Talukan, in AF.
3. The detainee knew the Yemeni leader of an element of foreign fighters approximately 100 strong.
4. The detainee's information was found on a document listing 324 Arabic names, aliases and nationalities recovered from safe house raids associated with suspected al Qaida in Karachi, Pakistan.

d. Intent

1. Source decided to go to Afghanistan after learning about the conflict on internet sites. He read about fatwas issued by Shiek Ibin (Jibril) ^[sic] and Shiek Hamud al Ukla ^[sic]. Both fatwas called on Saudis to help the Taliban with money or service.
2. Sheikh Hamoud al Uqqla ^[sic] is a Saudi Mufti who issued fatwas, including a fatwa calling for Jihad in Afghanistan, and encouraged people to fight Jihad against Christian and Jews. Al Uqqla condoned the 11 Sep 01 attacks against the United States. In addition, he helped raise money for Usama Bin Laden until his death in Saudi Arabia in 2001.

e. Other Relevant Data

1. Detainee was present during the prison uprising in Mazar-E-Sharif ^[sic].
2. The detainee's travel route consisted of leaving Riyadh, Saudi Arabia between May and June 2001, flying to Bahrain, traveling to Dubai, followed by flying to Karachi, Pakistan followed by flights to Quetta, Pakistan then traveled by ground to Kandahar, Afghanistan. From there he traveled to Kabul and then a final flight to Konduz, Afghanistan upon a Taliban aircraft. He then traveled with his brother by taxi to Talukan.

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

a. The detainee denied being a Taliban fighter and stated that he did not participate in military operations against the coalition.

b. The detainee reported that the story he originally provided during his detainment in Kandahar, Afghanistan (AF) and in Cuba was fictional, based on bits of information the detainee had heard from his brother's own experience in Afghanistan. The detainee stated that during his time in Shabragan prison, (AF) he observed other prisoners that were beaten by the Afghanis because they were denying any Taliban involvement. Detainee did not want to be beaten by them as well, so he provided the minimal information he felt was needed to assure his own safety.

[edit] References

1. ^ list of prisoners (.pdf), US Department of Defense, May 15, 2006
2. ^ Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Muhammad Surur Dakhilallah Al Utaybi'sCombatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 1-16
3. ^ Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Yusef Abdullah Saleh Al Rabiesh's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 125-149
4. ^ Factors for and against the continued detention (.pdf) of Yusef Abdullah Saleh Al Rabiesh Administrative Review Board - page 84