User:Geo Swan/gitmo/Jamil al Banna

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'''Jamil al Banna''', also known as '''Jamil Abdul Latif El Banna'''. is a [[Jordan]]ian with [[refugee]] status in the [[United Kingdom]]. While on a business trip to [[Gambia]] with his friend and business associate, [[Bisher Amin Khalil Al-Rawi]], he was apprehended and transported to to [[United States|US]] custody at [[Camp Delta]] at the US naval base at [[Guantánamo Bay]], [[Cuba]]. Al Banna's lawyer, [[Clive Stafford Smith]], quoted in an article in [[The Guardian]], said al Banna was a participant in both the [[hunger strike]] that ended when the camp authorities made promises on July 28, 2005, and a second that started on August 8th. Smith said that al Banna told him that one of the reasons for the second hunger strike was that guards were still searching through the prisoner's copies of the [[Koran]] by hand. Al Banna's case has caused controversy within the UK (see [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4205989.stm]) as the British Government refuses to make representations on his behalf, due to his not having attained British citizenship before his imprisonment. All the British nationals imprisoned at Guantánamo were freed before September 2004, following British Government representations. ==Allegations against Al Banna== Like his friend Al-Rawi, Al Banna chose to participate in his [[Combatant Status Review Tribunal]]. The allegations against him recorded in the documents were: :''a. The detainee is a member of al Qaida: :# ''[[Abu Qatada|Abu Qutada]] is a known al Qaida operative arrested in the United Kingdom as a danger to national security.'' :# ''Detainee visited Abu Qatada while Qatad was in hiding from the British police.'' :# ''Detainee has been indicted by a Spanish National High Court Judge for membership in a terrorist organization.'' :# ''Detainee was arrested in Gambia, while attempting to board an airplane with equipment that resembled a homemade electronic device.'' The Tribunal President struck from the record an allegation that Al Banna had helped transmit some money to a charity. The record is not clear why the Tribunal President struck this allegation. ===Al Banna's relationship with Abu Qatada=== Al Banna admitted knowing Abu Qatada. He had known him for over nine years, prior to the attack on September 11, 2001. They had lived in the same neighbourhood. And their wives had given birth to children at the same time. Abu Qatada had lead prayers at the mosque he attended. And they were both refugees from Jordan. But they weren't close. ===Al Banna's visit to Abu Qatada while he was in hiding=== Al Banna admitted driving Abu Qatada's wife and children to visit him, after British authorities had announced he was going to be arrested. He did so at the request of his friend Al Rawi. ===Al Banna's Spanish indictment=== Al Banna, was indicted by Spanish "superjudge" [[Baltasar Garzón]]. But he claimed that he had no idea why. ===Arrest for traveling with homemade electronics=== Al Banna corrected the Tribunal's "home-made electronics" allegation on several points. * The arrest was in England, not Gambia. * The device was carried by his friend, Al Rawi, not himself. * British authorities determined that the device was not modified, but was just what Al Rawi said it was, a mundane battery charger. ==Al Banna's capture in Gambia== Al Banna and Al Rawi travelled to Gambia to meet a shipment of machine parts to be used to set up an edible oil factory owned by Al Rawi's brother. They arrived in Gambia on November 7, 2002. At first they were under a kind of unofficial house arrest. They weren't formally charged with any crimes under Gambian law. They were told that they would be released when their machinery had been checked to make sure it wasn't something that could be used for terrorism. They weren't detained in a Gambian jail, but rather in a [[safehouse]], provided by American security officials, guarded by Gambians, but interrogated by Americans. When the decision to take them from Gambia the team that arrived to do that wore black uniforms, their faces covered by black balaklavas. They cut their clothes from their bodies, when they bound them for transportation to Cuba. ==External links== *[http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/jan2004/spai-j09.shtml *[http://wid.ap.org/documents/detainees/abdullatifelbanna.pdf Documents from Al Banna's Combatant Status Review Tribunal (.pdf)] *[http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1388268,00.html Tortured, humiliated and crying out for some justice], [[The Guardian]], January 12, 2005 *[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4205989.stm UK's 'forgotten' Cuba detainees], [[BBC]], 25 January, 2005 *[http://www.guardian.co.uk/guantanamo/story/0,13743,1566197,00.html Hunger strikers pledge to die in Guantánamo], [[The Guardian]], September 9, 2005 [[Category:U.S. detainees|Banna]]