Mohamed Abdullah Al Harbi

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There was at least one other Saudi named Mohamed Al Harbi detained in Guantanamo, Mohamed Atiq Awayd Al Harbi.

Mohamed Abdullah Al Harbi is a citizen of Saudi Arabia, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in Cuba.^[1] His detainee ID number is 536. American counter-terrorism analysts estimate he was born in 1979, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

1 Combatant Status Review Tribunal
- 1.1 Allegations
- 1.2 Testimony
2 Press reports
3 References

[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.^[2]^[3] Three chairs were reserved for members of the press, but only 37 of the 574 Tribunals were observed.^[4]

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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 Harbi chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.^[5]

[edit] Allegations

a The detainee is associated with al Qaida and the Taliban.

The detainee traveled from his home in Saudi Arabia to Afghanistan via Bahrain and Iran, after 11 September 2001.
The detainee was recruited to train for Jihad.
The detainee reported to an Arab guesthouse in Kabul, Afghanistan, with the intent to receive military training.
The detainee was taken into custody by Northern Alliance forces in Kabul, Afghanistan, in mid November 2001.
The detainee is a Taliban fundraisers who offered Northern Alliance forces a bribe for his freedom.

[edit] Testimony

The Tribunal addressed two topics before Al Harbi gave his initial statement: his passport; and his witness request.

[edit] Missing Passport

Al Harbi had requested an inventory of the items that were captured with him. His Personal Representative reported that the record showed he had been captured with just one item -- a blue notebook.

Al Harbi said he didn’t have a notebook -- he had money and his passport. His Personal Representative pointed out that the record would only show items that had been handed over by the Afghans who captured him.

[edit] Witness Request

Al Harbi had wanted to call a witness, an Afghani, captured at the same time he was, who could testify that the Afghani bounty-hunters who captured them had offered to let them go, rather than hand them over to the Americans, if they could pay a ransom. But he only knew this individual by his first name - Mohamed.

The Tribunal’s President took a recess to discuss whether a search for the witness would be worthwhile. After the Tribunal reconvened, the President jumped ahead to the fifth allegation against Al Harbi; “The detainee is a Taliban fundraiser who offered Northern Alliance Forces a bribe for his freedom.”

When Al Harbi replied that his witness could have rebutted the allegation that he offered a bribe, in return for freedom, the Tribunal’s President announced that rather than delay the Tribunal they would consider that allegation to have been disproved.

[edit] Al Harbi's Statement

Al Harbi denied that he was associated with Al Qaeda or the Taliban. He stated he did not support the Taliban.

He acknowledged that he had traveled to Afghanistan after September 11, 2001. But he said that he had said that when he set out: “...I had no knowledge of the problems between the US and Afghanistan.”

He stated that he became more informed while watching the news in Saudi Arabia, after he had already set out.

He denied traveling to Afghanistan for Jihad. He said he traveled to Afghanistan for religious training, which he thought would be faster in Afghanistan, “because it was in the purest Islamic state.”

He denied that he had reported to a guesthouse for military training. He was seeking religious training.

[edit] Al Harbi’s Q & A

In answer to questions Al Harbi answered:

He was 28 when he left. He worked as a mechanic. He paid for his travel expenses from his own savings.

He ended up spending almost his entire time, prior to his capture, in the guesthouse. He said he didn’t see any weapons there, and that he didn't really interact with anyone. Shortly after he arrived he wanted to return home, but it wasn’t safe, and the Iranian border had been closed.

[edit] Press reports

Canadian journalist, and former special assistant to US President George W. Bush, David Frum, published an article based on his own reading of the transcripts from the Combatant Status Review Tribunals, on November 11, 2006.^[6] It was Frum who coined the term "Axis of Evil" for use in a speech he wrote for Bush. Al Harbi's transcript was one of the nine Frum briefly summarized. His comment on Al Harbi was:

"A Saudi mechanic said that he had journeyed to Afghanistan because someone had persuaded him that it was the ideal place to complete his religious education. Who was this person? "I don’t know.'"

Frum came to the conclusion that all nine of the men whose transcript he summarized had obviously lied.^[6] He did not, however, state how he came to the conclusion they lied. His article concluded with the comment: