Mohammed Ahmad Said Al Edah

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Mohammed Ahmad Said Al Edah


Born:	1962 (age 45–46) Hay al-Turbawi Ta'iz, Yemen
Detained at:	Guantanamo
ID number:	033
Conviction(s):	no charge, held in extrajudicial detention
Status	enemy combatant, detainee
CSRT Summary	* "2004" on Wikisource. "2006" on Wikisource.
CSRT Transcript	* "Detainee Statement" on Wikisource.
Occupation:	Yemeni soldier (1982), worked at a Yemeni oil refinery

Mohammed Ahmad Said Al Edah is a citizen of Yemen, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.^[1] His detainee ID number is 033. Joint Task Force Guantanamo counter-terrorism analysts estimate he was born in 1962, in Hay al-Turbawi Ta'iz, Yemen.

1 Combatant Status Review Tribunal
2 Mohammed Ahmad Said Al Edah v. George W. Bush
3 Administrative Review Board hearings
- 3.1 First annual Administrative Review Board
  - 3.1.1 Transcript
- 3.2 Second annual Administrative Review Board
  - 3.2.1 Transcript
4 References

[edit] Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held in a 3 x 6 meter trailer. The captive sat with his hands cuffed and feet shackled to a bolt in the floor.^[2] Three chairs were reserved for members of the press, but only 37 of the 574 Tribunals were observed.^[3]

Casio F91W, in daily alarm mode. The watch is currently set to ring an alarm, and flash its light, at 7:30am.

Mohammed Ahmad Said El Edah's Casio A159W digital watch, a model similar to the Casio F91W that has triggers Joint Task Force Guantanamo counter-terrorism analysts suspicions.

Initially, the Bush Presidency asserted that it could withhold all of the protections of the Geneva Conventions from the captives of 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 whether the captives fit the Bush Presidency's definition of an enemy combatant.

[edit] Summary of Evidence memo

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Mohammed Ahmad Said El Edah's Combatant Status Review Tribunal, on 6 October 2004.^[4]^[5] The memo listed the following allegations against him:

a. The detainee is associated with forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States and its coalition partners: The detainee traveled to Afghanistan in July 2001. The detainee traveled from Kandahar to Khost, Afghanistan on a bus filled with wounded Taliban soldiers. The detainee helped with the needs of the wounded Taliban soldiers during the bus trip. The detainee was present in Kabul, during the U.S. air campaign there. The detainee was arrested by Pakistani authorities, in Pakistan. At the time of his capture, the detainee was in the possession of a Casio watch, model A159W (silver version of the F-91 W). This model has been used in bombings that have been linked to al Qaida and radical Islamic terrorist improvised explosive devices.

[edit] Transcript

Al Edah chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.^[6]

[edit] Responses to the allegations

Al Edah acknowledged traveling in Afghanistan in July 2001. He said he was accompanying his sister "..for the purpose of taking her to her husband. In the Muslim society, a woman does not travel by herself."

whether he traveled on a bus, from Kandahar to Khost, filled with Taliban soldiers, Al Edah replied:

"I did travel from Kandahar to Khost ... but I did not travel with soldiers from the Taliban. They were some people there that were injured. They were civilians or soldiers and as you know the Afghani people, they cannot tell the difference between the civilians or the soldiers because the clothing and uniforms are the same."

In response to the allegation that he helped nurse wounded Taliban soldiers while riding the bus, Al Edah replied:

"That is not correct. First, I'm not from that part of the world that I know the way; and, two, I don't have any experience in medical treatment. I was not working for a community or organization and I didn't have any money to help these people. In addition to that, I was injured myself."

Al Edah acknowledged being present, in Kabul, during the US bombing campaign.

Al Edah acknowledged being captured, while riding a bus, in Pakistan.

Al Edah acknowledged owning a digital watch. But disputed that it was a Casio Al 59W:

"I looked at the document that was presented to me by the Personal Representative and having looked at it, I knew that watch is not mine. When they captured me Pakistan, I had a watch. But because I did not know how to read and write the English language, I do not know the name of the watch, the model, I can tell the watch is mine only by looking at it. The document that the Personal Representative showed me, is not my watch."

Al Edah's Personal Representative then reported on the research he had done on the "Casio World Website", and further disputed that Al Edah should be detained because of the doubt whether he was wearing the watch in question, and because the Al 59W1 and F91W were both extremely common, inexpensive, simple watches.

[edit] Responses to Tribunal officer's questions

The reason Al Edah was traveling with his sister on a trip to join her husband in Afghanistan is that he was in Afghanistan working for a charitable organization. He could no longer recall the name of the charitable organization.

Al Edah confirmed he had gone through military training. He had been drafted, in 1982, in Yemen. He had military training, but it was compulsory.

Al Edah's worked at a Yemeni oil refinery.

When Al Edah was asked about the injuries that he incurred while in Afghanistan, he replied that he had fallen off of a motorcycle.

Al Edah was asked how he could prove that the wounded men on the bus were not Taliban soldiers, if, as he said, Taliban soldiers wore clothes indistinguishable from civilian clothes.

When asked why he was arrested in Pakistan Al Edah replied:

"I was on a bus. They were capturing everybody that had Arabic features. I gave them my passport, and that shows that I'm an Arab. They said, 'Why don't you follow us? We need you in the Center.' From that point on, they brought us over here."

[edit] Mohammed Ahmad Said Al Edah v. George W. Bush

Twenty-nine pages from his Combatant Status Review Tribunal were made public, on July 13, 2005, when a writ of habeas corpus was filed on his behalf.^[7]

[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".^[8]

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.