Mohammed Ahmed Said Haidel

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Mohammed Ahmed Said Haidel
Born: 1978 (age 29–30)
Ta'iz, Yemen
Detained at: Guantanamo
ID number: 498
Conviction(s): no charge, held in extrajudicial detention

Mohammed Ahmed Said Haidel is a citizen of Yemen, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.[1] His Guantanamo Internee Security Number is 498. Joint Task Force Guantanamo counter-terrorism analysts estimate that Haidel was born in 1978, in Ta'iz, Yemen.

Contents

[edit] Identity

Captive 498 was identified inconsistently on official Department of Defense documents:

[edit] Press reports

On July 12, 2006 the magazine Mother Jones provided excerpts from the transcripts of a selection of the Guantanamo detainees.[10] Haidel was one of the detainees profiled. According to the article his transcript contained the following comment:

"When I was in the Kandahar prison, the interrogator hit my arm and told me I received training in mortars. As he was hitting me, I kept telling him, “No, I didn’t receive training.” I was crying and finally I told him I did receive the training. My hands were tied behind my back and my knees were on the ground and my head was bleeding. I was in a lot of pain, so I said I had the training. At that point, with all my suffering, if he had asked me if I was Osama bin Laden, I would have said yes…. Am I an enemy of the United States? I never knew any Americans until I came to this prison. Americans should know who their real enemies are. What is my crime for being here for three years? That is all I would like to say."

[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. Three chairs were reserved for members of the press, but only 37 of the 574 Tribunals were observed.
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.[11] Three chairs were reserved for members of the press, but only 37 of the 574 Tribunals were observed.[12]

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.

[edit] Summary of Evidence memo

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Mohammed Ahmed Said Haidel's Combatant Status Review Tribunal, on 8 October 2004.[13][7] The memo listed the following allegations against him:

a. The detainee supported the Taliban and associated with al Qaida:
  1. The detainee arrived in Afghanistan from Yemen via Pakistan.
  2. The detainee traveled to Afghanistan for military training to prepare to fight.
  3. The detainee stayed at an Arab guesthouse in Kandahar.
  4. The detainee provided general information about an al Wafa office in Kabul.
  5. Al Wafa has been designated as a terrorist organization.
  6. The detainee trained at al Farouq.
  7. The detainee received weapons training for the Kalishnikov [sic] rifle, the PK rifle, and rocket-propelled grenade launcher.
  8. The detainee received mortar training while serving in the back lines.
b. The detainee participated in military operations against the coalition.
  1. The detainee fought for the Taliban.
  2. The detainee fought at the front line against the Northern Alliance.
  3. The detainee was in Tora Bora during the U.S. air campaign.
  4. The detainee was injured by a bomb blast in Tora Bora.
  5. The detainee was captured by Northern Alliance forces during his retreat from Tora Bora.

[edit] Testimony

Haidel chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.[14] On March 3, 2006, in response to a court order from Jed Rakoff the Department of Defense published a three page summarized transcript from his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.[15]

[edit] Administrative Review Board hearing

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".[16]

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.[17] 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

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Mohammed Mohammed Ahmen Said's first annual Administrative Review Board, on 28 September 2005.[8] The three page memo listed fourteen "primary factors favor[ing] continued detention" and six "primary factors favor[ing] release or transfer".

[edit] Second annual Administrative Review Board

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Mohammed Mohammed Ahmen Said's second annual Administrative Review Board, on 7 June 2006.[9] The three page memo listed eight "primary factors favor[ing] continued detention" and ten "primary factors favor[ing] release or transfer".

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b 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. ^ OARDEC (April 20, 2006). List of detainee who went through complete CSRT process. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2007-09-29.
  3. ^ OARDEC (July 17, 2007). Index for Combatant Status Review Board unclassified summaries of evidence. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2007-09-29.
  4. ^ OARDEC (September 4, 2007). Index for testimony. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2007-09-29.
  5. ^ OARDEC (August 9, 2007). Index to Summaries of Detention-Release Factors for ARB Round One. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2007-09-29.
  6. ^ 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.
  7. ^ a b OARDEC (8 October 2004). Summary of Evidence for Combatant Status Review Tribunal -- Haidel, Mohammed Ahmed Said (published September 2007) pages 26-27. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2008-04-21.
  8. ^ a b OARDEC (28 September 2005). Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the case of Said, Mohammed Mohammed Ahmen pages 60-61. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2008-04-21.
  9. ^ a b OARDEC (7 June 2006). Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the case of Said, Mohammed Mohammed Ahmen pages 82-84. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2008-04-21.
  10. ^ "Why Am I in Cuba?", Mother Jones (magazine), July 12, 2006
  11. ^ Inside the Guantánamo Bay hearings: Barbarian "Justice" dispensed by KGB-style "military tribunals", Financial Times, December 11, 2004
  12. ^ Annual Administrative Review Boards for Enemy Combatants Held at Guantanamo Attributable to Senior Defense Officials. United States Department of Defense (March 6, 2007). Retrieved on 2007-09-22.
  13. ^ OARDEC (8 October 2004). Summary of Evidence for Combatant Status Review Tribunal -- name redacted (published March 2005) pages 103-104. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2008-04-21.
  14. ^ OARDEC (date redacted). Summarized Statement pages 9-11. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2008-04-21.
  15. ^ "US releases Guantanamo files", The Age, April 4, 2006. Retrieved on 2008-03-15. 
  16. ^ Spc Timothy Book. "Review process unprecedented", JTF-GTMO Public Affairs Office, Friday March 10, 2006, pp. pg 1. Retrieved on 2007-10-10. 
  17. ^ Army Sgt. Sarah Stannard. "OARDEC provides recommendations to Deputy Secretary of Defense", JTF Guantanamo Public Affairs, October 29, 2007. Retrieved on 2008-03-26.