Abd Al Hadio Omar Mahmoud Faraj

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Abd Al Hadio Omar Mahmoud Faraj is a Syrian held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in Cuba.[1] Faraj's Guantanamo detainee ID number is 329. American intelligence analysts estimate that Faraj was born in 1981, in Hama, Syria.

Contents

[edit] Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held in a trailer the size of a large RV. The captive sat on a plastic garden chair, with his hands and feet shackled to a bolt in the floor. Three chairs were reserved for members of the press, but only 37 of the 574 Tribunals were observed. The neutrality of this section is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page.(December 2007)Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved.
Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held in a trailer the size of a large RV. The captive sat on a plastic garden chair, with his hands and feet shackled to a bolt in the floor.[2][3] Three chairs were reserved for members of the press, but only 37 of the 574 Tribunals were observed.[4]
The neutrality of this section is disputed.
Please see the discussion on the talk page.(December 2007)
Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved.

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 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.

Faraj chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.

[edit] Allegations

The allegations against Faraj were:[5]

a The detainee is associated with the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
  1. Originally from Syria, the detainee arrived in Afghanistan in 2000 after spending several months in Iran.
  2. The detainee stayed in a house reserved for Syrians, was located in Kabul, Afghanistan.
  3. The host of the house made training available to people going to fight coalition forces.
  4. The detainee’s name or alias appears on a document recovered from safehouse raids on suspected Al Qaeda.
  5. A foreign intelligence organization has provided information that indicates that the detainee joined an Al Qaeda training camp upon arriving in Afghanistan.

[edit] Response to the allegations

  • Faraj denied association with al Qaeda or the Taliban.
  • Faraj confirmed being a Syrian. Confirmed traveling to Afghanistan. Said he was looking for work in Iran. Said he didn't know there was fighting going on in Afghanistan. Said: "What kept me there was the lack of money to travel to Pakistan."
  • Faraj denied his host offered him military training. Denied seeing any weapons. Asserted: "The people from the Red Cross, who lived in the neighborhood around the house, knew that all of us were not fighters or Taliban, just refugees."
  • In response to the allegations that his name appeared on a document recovered from a raid on suspected al Qaeda safehouse, Faraj replied:
    "This statement is not true. My interrogator brought that paper to me and told me "this is your name," but it is not my name. The name on the paper is Abu Omar Mohammad. My name is Abu Omar Al-Hamawe. There is no one named Mohammad in my family."
  • In response to the allegation that a foreign intelligence organization claimed he had attended an Al Qaeda training camp upon arriving in Afghanistan Faraj responded:
    "This statement is not true. The interrogator said that I had trained in Kandahar; I don't even know where that is. I never went to any camp to train."

[edit] Response to Tribunal questions

[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.

Faraj chose to participate in his Administrative Review Board hearing.[6]

[edit] The following primary factors favor continued detention:

a. Training:
A foreign intelligence organization has provided information that indicated that the detainee joined an al Qaida training camp upon arriving in Afghanistan.
b. Connections/Associations:
  1. The detainee stayed in a house for Syrians, which was located in Kabul, Afghanistan.
  2. The Syrian house was located in the al Qaida enclave area of Wazir Akhbar Khan in Kabul, Afghanistan.
  3. The Syrian group guesthouse was associated with al Qaida and was used for money and document forgery operations.
  4. The detainee's name or alias appears on a document recovered from a safe house raids [sic] on suspected al Qaida [sic] .
  5. The detainee attended training from Sheikh Issa while residing at the Syrian guesthouse in Kabul.
  6. Sheikh Issa, an Egyption, was an Amir in the Egyptian Jihad Organization and was the chief Mufti of al Qaida.
  7. Al-Jihad, a.k.a. Egyptian Islamic Jihad, merged with Usama bin Laden's (UBL) al Qaida organization in June 2001, but may retain some capability to conduct independent organization in June 2001, but may retain some capability to conduct independent operations. Its primary goals are to overthrow the Egyptian Government and replace it with am [sic] Islamic stat and to attack U.S. and Israeli interests in Egypt and abroad.
c. Other Relevant Data:
Originally from Syria, the detainee arrived in Afghanistan in 2000 after spending several months in Iran.

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

a. The detainee did not receive any weapons training and did not own any weapons while living in Syria.
b. The detainee denied having any knowledge of the attacks in the United States prior to their execution on September 11, 2001, and also denied knowledge of any rumors or plans of future attacks on the U.S. or U.S. interests.

[edit] Response to the factors

[edit] Response to Board questions

[edit] References

  1. ^ list of prisoners (.pdf), US Department of Defense, April 20, 2006
  2. ^ Guantánamo Prisoners Getting Their Day, but Hardly in Court, New York Times, November 11, 2004 - mirror
  3. ^ Inside the Guantánamo Bay hearings: Barbarian "Justice" dispensed by KGB-style "military tribunals", Financial Times, December 11, 2004
  4. ^ Annual Administrative Review Boards for Enemy Combatants Held at Guantanamo Attributable to Senior Defense Officials. United States Department of Defense (March 6, 2007). Retrieved on 2007-09-22.
  5. ^ Summarized transcripts (.pdf) from Abd Al Hadio Omar Mahmoud Faraj's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 18-25
  6. ^ Summarized transcript (.pdf), from Abd Al Hadio Omar Mahmoud Faraj's Administrative Review Board hearing - page 56