Mohammed Mohammed Hassen

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Mohammed Mohammed Hassen (born 1983) is a Yemeni who was captured and detained in the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in Cuba.[1]

Hassen's Guantanamo ISN is 681.[2] The Department of Defense reports that Hassen was born on April 20, 1983 in Ta'iz, Yemen.

Main article: minors detained in the global war on terror

Contents

[edit] Identity

The Yemen Times reported, on March 11, 2007, that a Yemeni named Mohammed Mohammed Al-Odaini, who was also born in Ta'iz, was on the list of Yemenis who had been cleared for release.[3] The official list does not include a captive named Mohammed Mohammed Al-Oadaini.[2] Mohammed Mohammed Hassen's name is the closest match.

[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. Three chairs were reserved for members of the press, but only 37 of the 574 Tribunals were observed. The neutrality of this section is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page.(December 2007)Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved.
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.[4][5] Three chairs were reserved for members of the press, but only 37 of the 574 Tribunals were observed.[6]
The neutrality of this section is disputed.
Please see the discussion on the talk page.(December 2007)
Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved.

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.

[edit] Summary of Evidence memo

Several version of the Summary of Evidence memo were prepared for Mohammed Mohammed Hassen's Combatant Status Review Tribunal.[7] These memo listed the following allegations against him.

a The detainee is an al Qaida associate.
  1. Detainee, a Yemen citizen who traveled to Pakistan in early 2001, was captured at the ‘Crescent Mill’ guesthouse in Faisalabad, Pakistan and was identified by a senior al Qaida lieutenant.
  2. A senior al Qaida Lieutenant identified detainee in a photo as having possibly seen him in Afghanistan.

[edit] Transcript

Hassen chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.[8]

[edit] Testimony

Hassen said he had traveled to Pakistan to study the Koran at the Salafi University.[9]

He said he knew almost nothing about the guesthouse he was visiting when he was arrested, it was his first visit there. He visited because he heard there were fellow Kuwaitees there. His friend Emad had invited him. He said he had never heard the name "Crescent Mill guesthouse" until his Tribunal.

He assured his Tribunal he had never traveled to Afghanistan, prior to his capture.

He assured his Tribunal he had never heard of Al Qaeda prior to his interrogations following his capture.

The raid where he and the 14 other residents of the guesthouse were captured, occurred at about 2am.

[edit] Appeal in Federal Court

In 2007, after the Military Commissions Act of 2006 closed off Guantanamo captives' access to habeas corpus some captive started the process to have Federal courts in DC review their Combatant Status Review Tribunals.[10][11] The Department of Justice took the lead role in the Defense of the Bush Presidency's position.[12] Its position was that the captives' attorneys did not need access to any other "evidence" than the Summary of Evidence memos.

On October 12, 2007 the Department of Justice had a deadline[clarify]

The Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 (DTA) closed off the right of Guantanamo captives to submit new petitions of habeas corpus. (Pending cases were left open.) The DTA opened a path for Guantanamo captives to submit a limited appeal to Federal Courts of appeal in Washington DC.[11] The Military Commissions Act of 2006 (MCA) closed down the pending habeas corpus cases. Attorneys for the captives have both initiated a challenge to the constitutionality of the MCA's stripping of the right to habeas corpus; and they have initiated appeals in the DC Federal Courts of appeal.

The DTA's limited avenue of appeal only allows challenges as to whether the Combatant Status Review Tribunal correctly followed their rules.

Main article: Guantanamo captives' appeals in Washington DC Courts

[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".[13]

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.

The factors for and against continuing to detain Mohammed Mohammed Hassen were among the 121 that the Department of Defense released on March 3, 2006.[14]

[edit] The following primary factors favor continued detention:

a. Commitment
  1. An Imam at the Mosque in Taiz, Yemen, the leader of the local Jammat Tablique [sic] in Taiz, and the detainees father, arranged the detainee's trip to Pakistan. The detainee's father arranged for his passport, airline tickets, visa and $1,000 in United States currency.
  2. The detainee traveled by plane to Lahore, Pakistan through Karachi, Pakistan. Once he arrived in Lahore the detainee took a bus to Raywand, Pakistan where the headquarters of the Tablique Jammat [sic] was located. The detainee stayed at the Tablique Jammat [sic] mosque.
  3. Jama'at Al Tablighi [sic] , a Pakistan 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 had a three-month travel visa to Pakistan, but planned on remaining there for approximately one year. He stated he was unconcerned about over staying his visa because renewing the visa was as simple as visiting any police station in Pakistan.
  5. The detainee was identified as a fighter who traveled between Kandahar and Khost, Afghanistan.
b. Training
The detainee was identified as having trained at al Farouq.
c. Connections/Associations
  1. The detainee's father was involved with members of Tablique Jammat and favored the organization.
  2. A senior al Qaida Lieutenant identified the detainee in a photo as having possibly seen him in Afghanistan.
d. Other Relevant Data
  1. The detainee, a Yemen citizen, traveled to Pakistan in early 2001. He was captured at the Cresent Mill guesthouse [sic] in Faisalabad, Pakistan and was identified by a senior al Qaida lieutenant.
  2. The Crescent Mill guesthouse [sic] corresponds to an al Qaida safe house in Faisalabad where a number of suspected al Qaida members were eventually arrested in a raid late March 2002 by the Pakistani police.
  3. The detainee was arrested in a Pakistani police raid of a house which had harbored known al Qaida members.

[edit] The following primary factors favor release or transfer:

a. The detainee denies ever going to Afghanistan. He stated, "I do not know Afghanistan. The only time I was there was when they took me to prison there. The Americans took me to Afghanistan."
b. The detainee stated he neither served in the Yemeni military nor received any kind of military training. In addition, he stated he did not own a Kalashnikov nor has he ever fired one. The detainee said he never participated in the Hajj and does not follow any fatwas. The detainee stated he did not like what al Qaida and Usama bin Laden did on 11 September 2001. The detainee explained he has no personal knowledge of Al Qaida, Usama Bin Laden or the Taliban.

[edit] Transcript

His transcript doesn't record Hassen personally participating in his Administrative Review Board hearing.[15] The record contains a three page letter from Marc D. Falkoff, a lawyer who volunteered to present a writ of habeas corpus on his behalf. Falkoff's April 17, 2005 letter, to Hassen's Administrative Review Board, was released in a heavily redacted form.

"Dear Members of the Board:
"I am an attorney Mohammed Mohammed Hassen in habeas corpus proceedings in federal court in the District of Columbia. I respectfully submit this letter in support of Mohammed's release from detention at Guantanamo Bay. Over the past few months, I have met with Mohammed a number of times and have grown to know him quite well. I am convinced that he poses no danger to the United States or anyone else.
"I recognize that this hearing will not revist the CSRT panel's determination that Mohammed is an "enemy combatant." I believe, however, that any decision concerning Mohammed's future "dangerousness" should be reached only after the panel considers how slight and unreliable the evidence of this "enemy combatant" stat us. In addition, I note that the federal judge presiding over Mohammed's habeas petition has held that the CSRT proceedings in his case were unconstitutional and violated due process of law.
-- The remainder of the first page of the letter was redacted
"There is not a shred more evidence of Mohammed's enemy combatant status in the record presented to the CSRT panel. It is therefore no surprise to learn that Mohammed has been repeatedly recommended for release from Guantanamo by
-- The remainder of the first two-thirds of the second page was redacted.
"Under these circumstance, it should be clear that Mohammed poses no threat to anyone and that he can be released from Guantanamo without jeopardizing American safety.

The reamining paragraphs of the letter address the support and example Hassen would receive from his family, to complete his education, and be a peaceful, productive member of Yemeni Society.

[edit] Release

Mark Falkoff told the Yemeni Times that he had to threaten legal action to get the Pentagon to release a list of the Yemenis who had already been cleared for release.[3] The Yemeni Times reported that the Pentagon had cleared some of the captives for rrelease as early as June 2004 — which precedes the first Combatant Status Review Tribunal by over a month.

[edit] References

  1. ^ documents (.pdf) from Mohammed Mohammed Hassen's Combatant Status Review Tribunal
  2. ^ a b list of prisoners (.pdf), US Department of Defense, May 15, 2006
  3. ^ a b Amel Al-Ariqi. "Yemeni detainees are the largest group at Guantánamo", Yemen Times, March 11, 2007. Retrieved on March 15. 
  4. ^ Guantánamo Prisoners Getting Their Day, but Hardly in Court, New York Times, November 11, 2004 - mirror
  5. ^ Inside the Guantánamo Bay hearings: Barbarian "Justice" dispensed by KGB-style "military tribunals", Financial Times, December 11, 2004
  6. ^ 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.
  7. ^ OARDEC. Summary of Evidence for Combatant Status Review Tribunal -- Mohammed Mohammed Hassen page 30. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2008-01-08.
  8. ^ Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Mohammed Mohammed Hassen's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 65-80
  9. ^ Summarized transcripts (.pdf) from page 15 of Mohammed Mohammed Hassen's Combatant Status Review Tribunal
  10. ^ William Glaberson. "Guantánamo Detainees’ Suit Challenges Fairness of Military’s Repeat Hearings", New York Times, May 15, 2007. Retrieved on 2008-01-05. 
  11. ^ a b Carol D. Leonnig. "Detainee Evidence Probe Weighed: Judge Told Guantanamo Information May Have Been Destroyed", Washington Post, Saturday, December 22, 2007, pp. Page A02. Retrieved on 2008-01-06. 
  12. ^ Dahlia Lithwick. "The Dog Ate My EvidenceWhat happens when the government can't re-create the case against you?", Slate magazine, Tuesday, October 16, 2007. Retrieved on 2008-01-06. 
  13. ^ (Spc Timothy Book. "Review process unprecedented", The Wire (JTF-GTMO), Friday March 10, 2006, pp. 1. Retrieved on 2007-10-12. 
  14. ^ Factors for and against the continued detention (.pdf) of Mohammed Mohammed Hassen Administrative Review Board - pages 112-113 - April 13, 2005
  15. ^ Summarized transcript (.pdf), from Mohammed Mohammed Hassen's Administrative Review Board hearing - page 94-96