Mohammed Ahmed Salam

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Mohammed Ahmed Salam is a citizen of Yemen, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in Cuba.^[1] His detainee ID number is 689. The Department of Defense reports that Salam was born on October 1, 1980, in Ta'iz, Yemen.

[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.

[edit] Allegations

A memorandum summarizing the evidence against Salam prepared for his Combatan Status Reiew Tribunal, was among those released in March of 2005.^[5] The allegations Salam faced were:

a. The detainee is associated with forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States and its coalition partners.

1. The detainee stated that he traveled from Yemen to Pakistan in May 2001.
2. The Jama'at al-Tabligh ^[sic] organization paid for his travel to Pakistan.
3. The Jama'at al-Tabligh ^[sic] , a Pakistani-based-Islamic-missionary organization, is being used as a cover to mask travel and activities of terrorists, including members of al Qaida.
4. The detainee stayed at the al Qaida "Nibras" guesthouse in the early summer of 2001.
5. The detainee stayed at the "Hasan" guesthouse in Kandahar, Afghanistan in late summer of 2001.
6. The "Hasan" guesthouse is where trained Mujahidin reside.
7. The detainee was at al Farouq during the summer of 2001.
8. The detainee was arrested in Pakistan by Pakistani police during a house raid.

[edit] Testimony

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

[edit] Witness request

Mohammed Ahmed Salam requested the testimony of his brother Amed Amhed Salam. His Tribunal's President ruled that his brother's testimony would be relevant, but, since attempts to secure the cooperation of the Yemeni government failed, he ruled that his testimony was not reasonably available.

Main article: witnesses requested by Guantanamo captives

[edit] Opening Statement

When invited to make an opening statement Mohammed Ahmed Salam replied:

"I will not present, but my Personal Representative will speak on my behalf. I will just speak. I hear from the other young men in the prison, that these courts are lies, not just, that's the reason I am here, but I don't believe that, I want to speak for myself. Is there any evidence here, I have heard that there's classified evidence. So if you can say it now during this session, it would be preferable."

After some further discussion, and after taking the Muslim oath, the captive said:

"When I first came here, when I hear the words all the words you said, I was very pleased with it. And when I heard the oath it seems that you'd be fair and just in my case. But when I heard that there's classified documents, I knew that you would not be just in my case. If there is any classified evidence or classified statements present, then present them now so that I may answer them. If there is any trial, in any place, they present all the evidence so that the accused has the opportunity to answer. Thank you."

[edit] Mohammed Ahmed Salam's responses to the allegations to his Personal Representative

• Mohammed Ahmed Salam told his Personal Representative that he couldn't recall the exact date. He said he traveled from Yemen to Pakistan for medical treatment. He said that his travel documents were all in order.
• Mohammed Ahmed Salam told his Personal Representative that his travel was paid for by a generous individual, not by any organization.
• Mohammed Ahmed Salam told his Personal Representative denied that he had anything to do with the Tablighi Jamaat. He has no ties with any organization whatsoever. He does not know any terrorists. He has never been in jail. He as always stayed away form trouble.
• In response to the last five allegations Mohammed Ahmed Salam's Personal Representative read from his notes:

"About the statement concerning tht he stayed in Nibras and Hasan guesthouses in Afghanistan, and Al Farouq, he will swear under oath that this unclassified summary of evidence is the first time he hear of staying at the guesthouses. He never went to those places. He never went to Afghanistan and has never been to al Farouq. In fact item one accuses him of going to Pakistan and item eight states that he was arrested in Pakistan, so how could he be in Afghanistan."

[edit] Answers to Tribunal questions

• Mohammed Ahmed Salam testified that the medical treatment he sought was the removal of skin from his nose. He said he was told the operation was a success.
• Mohammed Ahmed Salam testified he could no longer remember the name of the generous person who sponsored his travel.
• Mohammed Ahmed Salam testified he had spent approximately eight or nine months in Pakistan prior to his capture.
• Mohammed Ahmed Salam testified the other men who were captured in the same raid he was were all present in Guantanamo.
• Mohammed Ahmed Salam testified that ordinary people generously donating money to help strangers was not unusual. Generosity was an obligation for observant Muslims.
• Mohammed Ahmed Salam testified that traveling from Yemen to Pakistan for medical treatment was also quite usual.
• Mohammed Ahmed Salam testified he was not married and was about 24.
• Mohammed Ahmed Salam testified that he did not work in Pakistan.
• Mohammed Ahmed Salam confirmed that he had a close friend who could verify that he was in Pakistan, Abdul Rahamen.
• Mohammed Ahmed Salam testified he received his medical treatment in Karachi. He didn't remember the name of the clinic because it wasn't an Arabic name.
• Mohammed Ahmed Salam testified that when he was captured he had all his travel documents, and they were still in order.

[edit] Mohammed Ahmed Salam's closing question

[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".^[7]

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.

[edit] First annual Administrative Review Board hearing

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the case of Salam, Mohammed Ahmed (2005-07-25)

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Mohammed Ahmed Salam's first annual Administrative Review Board, on 25 July 2005.^[8] The factors for and against his continued detention included:

• That he met Mohammed Quahtani ^[sic] at a Jam'at Al-Tabligh ^[sic] mosque in Ta'izz, and that he suggested going to Pakistan.
• Mohammed Quahtani ^[sic] told him to contact Abdul Rahman once in Pakistan.
• That Quahtani paid $800 for his plane ticket.
• That he studied the Koran at the Salafi Mosque.
• That he was seen at the Nibras guesthouse where recruits were assembled prior to being sent to the Al Farouq training camp, that he was seen at the al Farouq training camp, and that he was een at the Hasam guest house, were recruits who had been trained at al Farouq were marshalled.
• Abdul Rahman paid for his lodging in Karachi.
• That he as a history of inciting disturbances in Guantanamo.

[edit] Transcript

There is no record that he chose to participate in his Administrative Review Board hearing.

[edit] References

1. ^ list of prisoners (.pdf), US Department of Defense, May 15, 2006
2. ^ Guantánamo Prisoners Getting Their Day, but Hardly in Court, New York Times, November 11, 2004 - mirror
3. ^ Inside the Guantánamo Bay hearings: Barbarian "Justice" dispensed by KGB-style "military tribunals", Financial Times, December 11, 2004
4. ^ 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.
5. ^ Summary of Evidence memo (.pdf) prepared for Mohammed Ahmed Salam's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - October 20, 2004 - page 73
6. ^ Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Mohammed Ahmed Salam's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 13-19
7. ^ Spc Timothy Book. "Review process unprecedented", The Wire (JTF-GTMO), Friday March 10, 2006, pp. 1. Retrieved on 2007-10-12. 
8. ^ OARDEC (25 July 2005). Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the case of Salam, Mohammed Ahmed 1-3. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2007-10-22.