Faha Sultan

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Faha Sultan is a citize of Saudi Arabia held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.[1] His Guantanamo detainee ID number is 130. JTF-GTMO analysts estimate he was born in 1972, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Contents

[edit] Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Combatant Status Review Tribunal notice read to a Guantanamo captive. During the period July 2004 through March 2005 a Combatant Status Review Tribunal was convened to make a determination whether they had been correctly classified as an "enemy combatant". Participation was optional. The Department of Defense reports that 317 of the 558 captives who remained in Guantanamo, in military custody, attended their Tribunals.
Combatant Status Review Tribunal notice read to a Guantanamo captive. During the period July 2004 through March 2005 a Combatant Status Review Tribunal was convened to make a determination whether they had been correctly classified as an "enemy combatant". Participation was optional. The Department of Defense reports that 317 of the 558 captives who remained in Guantanamo, in military custody, attended their Tribunals.

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.

[edit] Summary of Evidence memo

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Faha Sultan's Combatant Status Review Tribunal, on 24 September 2004.[2] The memo listed the following allegations against him:

a. The detainee is a member of the Taliban:
  1. The detainee, a Saudi Arabian citizen, traveled to Afghanistan after January 2001, where he was told he would fight in a war and serve the Taliban.
  2. Detainee stayed in "Thaker centers" in Kabul and Konduz, Afghanistan.
  3. The Thaker centers were under the control of Taliban leader, Mullah Thaker.
  4. Detainee received training in the use of AK-47s while staying at the Taliban run Thaker centers.
b. The detainee participated in military operations against the coalition.
  1. Detainee was on the front line in Konduz.
  2. Detainee retreated from Konduz to Qala-I Junghi where he was wounded during a grenade attack.

[edit] Transcript

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

[edit] Administrative Review Board hearings

Hearing room where Guantanamo captive's annual Administrative Review Board hearings convened for captives whose Combatant Status Review Tribunal had already determined they were an "enemy combatant".
Hearing room where Guantanamo captive's annual Administrative Review Board hearings convened for captives whose Combatant Status Review Tribunal had already determined they were an "enemy combatant".[3]

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.

[edit] First annual Administrative Review Board hearing

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Faha Sultan's first annual Administrative Review Board, on 6 September 2005.[4] The memo listed factors for and against his continued detention.

[edit] Transcript

There is no record that Faha Sultan chose to participate in his first annual Administrative Review Board hearing.

[edit] Second annual Administrative Review Board hearing

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Faha Sultan's second annual Administrative Review Board, on May 17, 2006.[5] The memo listed factors for and against his continued detention.

a. Commitment
  1. The detainee responded to a fatwa that a sheikh issued in January 2001 from a mosque in Taif, Saudi Arabia. The fatw directed participants to defend the Taliban in Afghanistan.
  2. The sheikh was a Saudi mufti, a specialist in Islamic law authorized to issue a fatwa. The sheikh issued a fatwa calling for jihad in Afghanistan. He also condoned the 11 September 2001 attacks and continued to raise money for Usama bin Laden until the sheikh's death in Saudi Arabia in 2001.
  3. The detainee paid for travel to Afghanistan with money received from his father, who was unaware of his plans.
  4. The Taliban assigned the detainee to the Muntazara section behind the front line in northern Afghanistan. He did not see any combat at this location.
  5. The detainee's commander was in charge of operations in the northern Afghan front. The commander exercised overal control of both Taliban and Arab volunteers in that region.
  6. The detainee was identified as someone who worked in a distribution center handing out Kalashnikovs.
  7. A Taliban truck driver identifed the detainee as someone who spent a long time on the north line and was in charge of supplying the Arab group on the north lines.
  8. The detainee's Taliban group stayed in the Taliban-controlled village of Khvaheh Ghar, Afghanistan for ten months. Their mission was to guard women, children, sheikhs, any other non-combatants, and supplies.
  9. The members of the Taliban group were armed with Kalashnikov rifles. When United States air strikes began, the commander ordered a withdrawal toward Konduz and then to Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan.
  10. A known Taliban member saw the detainee at the frontline during the retreat to Konduz, Afghanistan and shared the same room with him in a basement at Qala-i-Jenki, Afghanistan. The detainee was wounded during the attack on Qala-i-Jenki. The Taliban member believed the detainee was an administrator, as the detainee was always in the rear purchasing food.
  11. The detainee was seen at Konduz fighting,; Qala-i-Jenki, Afghanistan; Sheberghan prison; and Kandahar, Afghanistan.
b. Training
  1. The detainee attended two of his commander's centers in Kabul and Konduz, Afghanistan. The commander's group consisted of 300 Arab and Taliban members. The commander often taught the basic use of the Kalashnikov on the premises.
c.
  1. The detainee was identified as a friend of a senior al Qaida leader and had a good relationship with another individual who was a close associate of the senior al Qaida leader.
  2. The senior al Qaida leader was one of Usama bin Laden's closest commanders and the person in charge of al Qaida fighters in the Afghan northern front.
  3. The detainee's name 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. The detainee was listed as having a Saudi passport.
  4. A floppy disc recovered during an 11 September 2002 raid on an alleged al Qaida residence in Karachi, Pakistan contained a list of names and amount of money taken from each individual. The detainee's name was listed with the amount of 1,500 Saudi Riyals.
  5. On 8 December 2001 United States and coalition forces raided an Arab office in Kandahar, Afghanistan. They retrieved 160 applications to Afghanistan military training camps. One application was for the detainee, providing his name, alias, home city, year of birth, and contact name.
  6. On 28 November 2003 a Foreign Government Service raided the home of an Islamic extremist and recruiter. The detainee's alias and telephone number were found on a telephone listing seized during the raid.
d. Other Relevand Data
  1. The detainee was captured sometime before late December 2001 north of Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan while carrying a weapon.
  2. The detainee has acted as if in a catatonic state during interviews, and he was overheard after one interview telling another detainee that he had fooled the interrogator into thinking that he was "messed up."

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

a.

In early July 2002 a foreign delegation identified the detainee as one of low law enforcement and low intelligence value.
b.

The detainee denied any knowledge of the attacks on the United States prior to their execution on 11 September 2001.

[edit] Transcript

There is no record that Faha Sultan chose to participate in his second annual Administrative Review Board hearing.

[edit] References

  1. ^ list of prisoners (.pdf), US Department of Defense, May 15, 2006
  2. ^ OARDEC (24 September 2004). Summary of Evidence for Combatant Status Review Tribunal -- Sultan, Faha pages 41-42. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2007-12-04.
  3. ^ Spc Timothy Book. "Review process unprecedented", JTF-GTMO Public Affairs Office, Friday March 10, 2006, pp. pg 1. Retrieved on 2007-10-10. 
  4. ^ OARDEC (6 September 2005). Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the case of Sultan, Faha pages 58-59. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2007-12-04.
  5. ^ OARDEC (May 17, 2006). Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the case of Sultan, Faha pages 8-10. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2007-12-04.