Hassan Anvar

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Hassan Anvar
Born: August 25, 1974(1974-08-25)
Urumchi, China
Detained at: Guantanamo
ID number: 250
Conviction(s): no charge, held in extrajudicial detention

Hassan Anvar is a citizen of China held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.[1] His Guantanamo Internee Security Number is 250. The Department of Defense reports that he was born on August 25, 1974, in Urumchi, China.

Contents

[edit] Uyghur captives in Guantanamo

Hassan Anvar is one of 22 Uyghur refugees who were taken captive during the "war on terror".

Main article: Uyghur captives in Guantanamo
Wikisource has original text related to this article:

He is one of approximately two dozen Uyghur detainees accused of membership in the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement.[2]

Documents released in response to the writ of habeas corpus Hassan Anvar v. George W. Bush contained a December 30 2004 memo which provided one-paragraph biographies of 22 Uyghur captives, and asserted they were all caught at an "ETIM training camp".[3]

The brief biography of Hassan Anvar stated:

Hassan Avnar is a 30-year-old Chinese citizen who is an ethnic Uighur from the Tashkuroq Village, Yining, Xinjiang province of China. Avnar was last interviewed at the end of 2002. He has no reported incidents of violence in his discipline history. Avnar is suspected as being a probable member of the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM). He is suspected of having received training in an ETIM training camp in Afghanistan.

The information paper also identified him as "Ali Mohammed".

[edit] Combatant Status Review 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.
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.

Hassan Anvar is one of the captives known to have had multiple reviews convened, after his initial review determined he was not an enemy combatant.

According to the study entitled, No-hearing hearings, Hassan Anvar did not choose to attend his Tribunal.[4] But he did submit a written statement. The Department of Defense has not provided an explanation for why the unclassified session of his Tribunal, where it considered his written statement, has not been released.

The study identified Hassan Anvar as one of the captive whose first Tribunal had determined that they should not had been classified as an "enemy combatant" in the first place, only to have subsequent Tribunals convened, which reversed the earlier determination.[4]

James R. Crisfield, in his Legal Sufficiency Review, endorsed the overall sufficiency of the Tribunal. He made the following comments[5]:

"On 16 November 2004 a tribunal unanimousely determined that the detainee was not properly designated as an enemy combatant. Following that tribunal, CSRT intelligence personnel conducted another search of the Government Information for evidence relevant to ISN 250's status. They collected additional evidence which eventually became exhibits R-18 though R-29. Due to the detachment from OARDEC of two of the three members of the original tribunal panel, the additional evidence, along with the original evidence and original Tribunal Decision Report, was presented to Tribunal panel 32 to reconsider the detainee's status. (One of the members of the original tribunal sat on the new tribunal panel.) Following their consideration of the new information along with the original information, this Tribunal unanimously determined that the detainee was properly classified as an enemy combatant."

"I note that Exhibit R-18 contains a troubling statement: 'Inconsistencies will not cast a favorable light on the CSRT process or the work done by OARDEC. This does not justify making a change in and of itself, but it a filter by which to look at the overall Uigher transactions since they are all considered the same notwithstanding a specific act.' Fortunately, there is no indication that the Tribunal adopted this inappropriate 'one size fits all' policy."

"A letter from the personal representative initially assigned to represent the detainee at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, reflects the detainee’s elections and is attached to the Tribunal Decision Report as exhibit D-b. The original Tribunal proceedings were held in absentia outside Guantanamo Bay with a new personal representative who was familiar with the detainee’s file. This personal representative had the same access to information and evidence as the personal representative from Guantanamo Bay. The addendum proceedings were conducted with yet a third personal representative because the second personal representative had been transferred to Guantanamo Bay. This personal representative also had full access to the detainee’s file and original personal representative’s pass-down information. The detainee’s personal representatives were given the opportunity to review the respective records of proceedings and both declined to submit post-Tribunal comments to the Tribunal."

[edit] Summary of Evidence memo

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Hassan Anvar's Combatant Status Review Tribunal, dated 2 November 2004.[6] The memo listed nine unclassified allegations against him:

[edit] Hassan Anvar's statement

Hassan Anvar chose not to attend his CSR Tribunal, but, with the help of the first of his three Personal Representatives he dictated a point by point response to the allegations.[7] This response was not released with the other captive's statements in March 2006. It was released in September 2007, as part of the package of documents released in response to Hassan Anvar v. George W. Bush.

The detainee is associated with the Taliban or al Qaida:
We are innocent people and didn't do anything wrong.
  1. The detainee traveled to Afghanistan for weapon and tactics training.
    I went to Afghanistan to get weapons training, not tactics training. I went there so I could train to fight against the Chinese, not against the American. I have no reason to fight against the U.S. It doesn't make any sense to fight against the US forces or Coalition forces. The Uighur people are tortured and executed by the Chinese and that is the reason to get training so we can fight back against the Chinese.
  2. The detainee traveled with an illegal passport.
    No, not true. My passport was legal. When I left my country, it was a legal passport. Maybe the translator was misunderstood.
  3. The detainee did labor work on the house while at the Tora Bora training camp.
    True. I did some work on the houses in the training camp because we didn't have a bathroom and I helped build one and we were living these old run down houses so I worked on them to improve our living conditions.
  4. The detainee arrived at the training camp in September of 2001.
    True.
  5. The detainee received weapon training on the A-K rifle.
    Yes, but I shot the rifle only once and only at targets. I only shot 4 or 5 bullets at targets not at people and not in battle.
  6. The detainee knew that the land where the terrorist training cmap was located was donated by the Taliban.
    I didn't say that. I didn't know who the camp was associated with. Just that it was a Uighur training camp. I went there because I heard Uighur people were there. Only Uighur people.
  7. The detainee joined the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement.
    I don't know what the Eastern Turkis Islamic Movement is until I got here and heard it here. I was not part of this organization, ever.
  8. Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement is suspected of having received training and financial assistance from al-Qaida.
    I don't know anything about this. I don't know who gave the money for the training.
  9. The detainee provided a false name when captured.
    True. Because we were afraid that if we gave our real names, they would send us back to China, so we told them false names. If they turned us over to the Chinese, we would have a big problem. If they turned us over to Americans, we would be safe and better so we told them we were Afghanis.

[edit] Hassan Anvar v. George W. Bush

A writ of habeas corpus, Hassan Anvar v. George W. Bush, was submitted on Hassan Anvar's behalf.[8] In response, on 8 September 2006 the Department of Defense released 35 pages of unclassified documents related to his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.

[edit] Two Tribunal panels

Two Tribunal panels considered whether to confirm Hassan Anvar's "enemy combatant" status. On November 16, 2004 Tribunal panel 18 unanimously determined that he had not been an enemy combatant after all. Additional classified documents were submitted to Tribunal panel 32, which determined, on January 25, 2005, by 2 to 1, that he was an enemy combatant. One of the original officers from panel 18 sat on panel 32.

Hassan Anvar had three Personal Representatives. The one who initially met with him was reassigned, and did not participate in either Tribunal.

[edit] Legal Sufficiency Review

James R Crisfield, OARDEC's Legal Advisor noted what he called a "troubling statement" in one of the new documents:

"Inconsistencies will not cast a favorable light on the CSRT process or the work done by OARDEC. This does not justify making a change in and of itself, but it a filter by which to look at the overall Uigher transactions since they are all considered the same notwithstanding a specific act."

[edit] Current status

Five Uyghurs, whose CSR Tribunals determined they had not been enemy combatants were transferred to detention in an Albanian refugee camp in 2006. A man who was born to Uyghur parents, in Saudi Arabia, and thus was considered a Uyghur, was nevertheless returned to Saudi Arabia. All the other Uyghurs remain in Guantanamo.

In September 2007 the Department of Defense released all the Summary of Evidence memos prepared for the Administrative Review Boards convened in 2006.[9] While a Board reviewed his status in 2005 no Board reviewed his status in 2006.

In September 2007 the Department of Defense released the recommendation memos from 133 of the Administrative Review Boards that convened in 2005 and the recommendation memos from 55 of the Administrative Review Boards that convened in 2006.[10][11] No recommendation memos were released for Hassan Anvar.

[edit] References

  1. ^ OARDEC (May 15, 2006). List of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from January 2002 through May 15, 2006. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2007-09-29.
  2. ^ "China's Uighurs trapped at Guantanamo", Asia Times, November 4, 2004. Retrieved on 2008-03-28. 
  3. ^ Department of Defense, Information paper: Uighur Detainee Population at JTF-GTMO, December 30, 2004
  4. ^ a b Mark Denbeaux, Joshua Denbeaux, David Gratz, John Gregorek, Matthew Darby, Shana Edwards, Shane Hartman, Daniel Mann, Megan Sassaman and Helen Skinner. No-hearing hearings. Seton Hall University School of Law. Retrieved on April 2, 2007.
  5. ^ James R. Crisfield. "Legal Sufficiency Review of Combatant Status Review Tribunal for detainee ISN 250", OARDEC, 8 February 2005, pp. pages 6-7. Retrieved on 2007-12-18. 
  6. ^ OARDEC (2 November 2004). Summary of Evidence for Combatant Status Review Tribunal -- Anvar, Hassan page 81. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2007-12-18.
  7. ^ Hassan Anvar's response to the CSRT allegations pages 19-20. United States Department of Defense (12 November 2004). Retrieved on 2007-12-18.
  8. ^ Hassan Anvar v. George W. Bush pages 4-37. United States Department of Defense (8 September 2006). Retrieved on 2007-12-16.
  9. ^ OARDEC (July 17, 2007). Index of Summaries of Detention-Release Factors for ARB Round Two. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2007-09-29.
  10. ^ OARDEC (July 17, 2007). Index to Transfer and Release Decision for Guantanamo Detainees. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2007-09-29.
  11. ^ OARDEC (August 10, 2007). Index Index of Transfer and Release Decision for Guantanamo Detainees from ARB Round Two. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2007-09-29.