Rafiq Bin Bashir Bin Jalud Al Hami

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Rafiq Bin Bashir Bin Jalud Al Hami is a citizen of Tunisia, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.^[1] His Guantanamo Internee Security Number is 892. The Department of Defense reports that he was born on March 14, 1969, in Omaron, Tunisia.

1 Combatant Status Review Tribunal
- 1.1 Opening statement
- 1.2 testimony
2 Administrative Review Board hearing
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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The CSRT transcript reveals Al Hami was captured while carrying a false Italian passport with a Pakistani visa and 200DM. He is suspected of having been a member of Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, attending Khalden in December 2000 for training on the AK-47 and SKS, as well as heavy artillery and anti-aircraft weapons, but currently denies it. ^[5]

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 Hami chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.^[6] Most detainee's transcripts contain a reading of the allegations against them. Rafiq's transcript does not.

Unlike most detainee's transcripts Rafiq's recorder only recorded summaries of Ragiq's answers. He or she did not choose to record the questions put to him.

[edit] Opening statement

Rafiq denied all the allegations against, and expressed a lack of understanding of the Tribunal's procedures.

[edit] testimony

In answer to Tribunal members questions:

Rafiq denied training on weapons in Afghanistan. He asked whether his file said he was a fighter.
He pointed out that he had recanted his admission of fighting.
He said he had been abused into making false confessions when he was in custody in Afghanistan.
- He said he had been left out all night in the cold.
- He described two months of imprisonment in a prison where he was kept in total darkness, where he was bombarded with loud music, and he was deprived of water and shoes, and he was not allowed to pray or fast during Ramadan. (See the dark prison.)
Rafiq said that when he first arrived in Guantanamo he didn't know he wouldn't be punished if he recanted his false confessions.
Rafiq denied attending the Khalden training camp.
Rafiq denied being a member of either Al Qaeda or the Taliban.
Rafiq and his Personal Representative discussed whether he had committed himself to taking an oath during their earlier meeting.
Rafiq said he couldn't explain why his accounts of torture had not been recorded in his file.
Rafiq said he was not a member of the Al Nadah party. He was only 7 years old when that party was active.
Rafiq said that Mr Zubair had not encouraged him to receive weapons training.
Rafiq denied receiving military training. He pointed out that his hands were injured, one hand was only 35% functional, from an old wound, from when he was a carpenter in Tunisia.
Rafiq denied ever participating in combat.
Rafiq said that he had not intended to travel to Afghanistan. His destination was Pakistan. He did stay in Pakistan with another Tunisian. Then Pakistan had a crackdown on foreigners, so he went to Afghanistan.
Rafiq denied going to the Halden camp.
Rafiq confirmed he had not been tortured while in Cuba.
Rafiq said he had consistently told his Guantanamo interrogators the truth, rather than the false confession his American interrogators in Afghanistan had tortured out of him, from his second month in Guantanamo.

[edit] Administrative Review Board hearing

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 Al Hami were among the 120 that the Department of Defense released on March 3, 2006.^[7]

[edit] The following primary factors favor continued detention:

a. Commitment

Detainee sees jihad as necessary only when non-Muslims attack Muslims, and/or for defending a Muslim country from assault on their religion.
The detainee continues to be noncompliant and routinely troublesome to JTF GTMO camp guards.
The detainee acquired and traveled on a false Italian passport with a Pakistani Visa, for the sum of 200 Deutch Marks.

b. Training

Detainee admitted he voluntarily attended the Khalden training camp in Afghanistan.
At the Khalden training camp, Detainee was trained on the Kalashnikov, heavy artillery and antiaircraft weapons.
When the detainee entered the Khalden Camp in December 2000, it was under the command of an Usama Bin Ladin Lieutenant]].

c. Connections / Association

Detainee admits to being affiliated/friends with Izz Al Din, a known al Qaida member.
The detainee was recruited by Izz Al Din, who convinced him to travel to Pakistan and onward to Afghanistan to join the jihad.
Detainee traveled to Lahor ^[^sic] Pakistan, around November 2001, where he joined Lashkar-Al-Tayibah (LT).
U.S. Department of Homeland Security designated LT as a "Foreign Terrorist Organization" for its association with al Qaida and Usama bin Ladin.

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

Detainee stated he did not fight or train on weapons in Afghanistan.
Detainee stated he is not a member of al Qaida or the Taliban.
Detainee has never thought about harming the United States or its citizens, and stated that he never would.
Detained recanted attendance/training at Khalden camp. Detainee stated he was tortured and beaten daily, and that the translator told the Detainee that he would be killed if he did not confess to attendance at the camp. Detainee stated he confessed to stop the beating and save his life.
Detainee stated his hand is only 35% functional and that he could not have trained.
Detainee does not believe in the sixth pillar of Islam and does not believe that jihad is a 6th ^[^sic] pillar of Islam.

[edit] Transcript

Al Hami chose to participate in his Administrative Review Board hearing.^[5]

[edit] Opening dialogue

Rafiq expressed confusion as to why he couldn't attend the closed sessions if allegations against him were to be discussed there.

His Assisting Military Officer told his Board that "His reason for wanting to explanations directly to you and this panel is because his interrogators are not sworn to ensure what they write about him is truthful."

Rafiq followed up with asking the Board why his interrogators lied about him.

Rafiq's Presiding Officer said the Board was not concerned with whether or not interrogators swore an oath. Rafiq's Presiding Officer explained that the information that would be discussed during the closed session would be classified, and he could not reveal any of it to Rafiq because it "...could affect national security."

Rafiq assured the Board that he was not a threat to the United States, or any other country. He has never considered hurting any country.

[edit] testimony

Rafiq acknowledged that the definition of jihad he originally told his interrogators soon after his arrival in Guantanamo. Rafiq expanded on his earlier definition. And asked if a country didn't have a right to defend itself if it were attacked? He asked whether this definition was an accusation, and, if so, how expressing this view made him an "enemy combatant".

The Presiding Officer replied that his Administrative Review Board's responsibility was to determine whether he was a threat.

Rafiq then asked whether the view he expressed made him a threat. And the Presiding Officer replied: "If you want to do harm to the United States and its allies, yes."

Rafiq acknowledged friction with the guards, but he blamed (1) mean-spirited guards, (2) the natural frustrations of years of indefinite imprisonment, without charge. He complained that some guards tried to trigger reactions, which they then filed as examples of "noncompliance".

Rafiq acknowledged that he traveled on a forged Italian passport.

Rafiq said he arrived in Germany in 1996.
Rafiq said that when he lived in Germany worked in restaurants, for a cleaning company, and worked in illegal drugs.
Rafiq said he traveled to Pakistan, from Germany, on the forged Italian passport in 1999.
Rafiq said three months after he arrived in Pakistan he moved to Lahore, where ne enrolled in a religious studies program at the La Madhori Academy.
Rafiq acknowledged traveling from Pakistan to Afghanistan, spending eight months in religious study in Kandahar.
Rafiq said he had never traveled to Italy, and was shocked to be asked, during his last interrogation, how he was arrested in Italy.
Rafiq said that after his capture he spent approximately one year in American prisons in Afghanistan.

Rafiq denied attending the Khalden training camp, he denied receiving military training in Afghanistan or Pakistan, he denied knowing anyone in al Qaeda.

He denied even hearing of Khalden until he was in American custody. He acknowledged that, during the time he was being tortured, and threatened with death unless he confessed, he did confess to being trained at the Khalden camp. But he claimed that the allegation that the camp was under the command of an al Qaeda lieutenant was not taken from his false confession. That allegation was new to him.

Rafiq acknowledged knowing Izz Al Din, but denied that Izz Al Din was an al Qaida member. He denied that Izz Al Din recruited him to join al Qaeda. He asked to know what proof there was tha Izz Al Din was with al Qaida.

The Presiding Officer said, "I have to go with what it says there. I can't tell you anymore or any less. Are you telling me that he is not an al Qaida member?"

When asked why he traveled to Pakistan and what he did there Rafiq initially told the Board to look in his file. He later told them he went there for religious study.

Rafiq denied joining the Lashkar-Al-Tayibah.

Concerning the factor favoring release, that he didn't believe that jihad was the sixth pillar of Islam, he pointed out that there are only five pillars to Islam.

The Board members clarified that Rafiq was not claiming he was tortured in Guantanamo.

The Board members asked for confirmation that he claimed he had never received any weapons training.

Rafiq asked for an explanation for what an "enemy combatant" was. The Presiding Officer repeated this definition:

"An individual who was part of or supporting al Qaida or Taliban forces or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners. This includes any person who has committed a belligerent act or has directly hostilities ^[^sic] in aid of enemy armed forces."

When Rafiq then asked: "So if I didn't participate in any combat or any of that, I'm not an Enemy Combatant?" -- he was told that his Enemy Combatant status had already been determined by his Tribunal.