Rashid Awad Rashid Al Uwaydah

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Rashid Awad Rashid Al Uwaydah
Detained at: Guantanamo
ID number: 669
Conviction(s): no charge, held in extrajudicial detention

Rashid Awad Rashid Al Uwaydah is a citizen of Saudi Arabia, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.[1] His Guantanamo Internee Security Number is 669. American intelligence analysts estimate he was born in Sakaka, Saudi Arabia.

Contents

[edit] Background

On May 27, 2008 the Pakistani newspaper The Post] reported that Captive 669 "Saudi vows to continue hunger strike", The Post, Tuesday May 27, 2008. Retrieved on 2008-05-27. </ref>

[edit] Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Combatant Status Review Tribunal notice read to a Guantanamo captive.
Combatant Status Review Tribunal notice read to a Guantanamo captive.

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

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Rashid Awad Rashid Al Uwaydah's Combatant Status Review Tribunal, on 5 October 2004.[2] The memo listed the following allegations against him:

a. The detainee is associated with al Qaida:
  1. The detainee voluntarily traveled from Saudi Arabia to Pakistan in June or July 2001.
  2. One of the detainees known aliases was on a list of captured al Qaida members that was discovered on a computer hard drive associated with a senior al Qaida member.
  3. The detainee's name is on a list of "trust accounts of al Qaida Mujahidin found during raids against al Qaida safe houses in Pakistan.
  4. The detainee's name is on a list of names, aliases and nationalities recovered during raids of suspected al Qaida safe houses in Pakistan.

[edit] Transcript

According to his testimony during his Administrative Review Board hearing Rashid al Uwaydah said he chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal. However, he said, he and his Tribunal's President had a dispute, and he was dismissed before the unclassifed session ran to completion. Other captives who were dismissed from their Tribunals, like Feroz Abbasi, still had the transcripts of their partial sessions released when the Department of Defense complied with US District Court justice Jed Rakoff's court order. There is no record that the Department of Defense has offered an explanation as to why they did not comply with the court order and release Rashid al Uwaydah's transcript.

[edit] Administrative Review Board

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".[3]

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.

Rashid Awad Rashid Al Uwaydah chose to participate in his Administrative Review Board hearing.[4]

Almost half of the transcript was devoted to a misunderstanding between his him and his Board's Presiding Officer, over his concerns whether he would be able to speak freely in response to the allegations against him.

During this dispute Rashid al Uwaydah described being dismissed from the unclassified session of his Combatant Status Review Tribunal, due to a dispute with the President of his Tribunal.

Rashid al Uwaydah had another dispute, and became agitated when he heard the Designated Military Officer request for a closed session.

Rashid al Uwaydah 's Presiding Officer compromised, and allowed the Designated Military Officer to re-read the factors, one at a time, allowing Rashid to respond to each in turn, rather than the scheduled re-reading by his Assisting Military Officer.

[edit] The following primary factors favor continued detention:

— This heading was missing from the transcript —
  1. The detainee voluntarily traveled from Saudi Arabia to Pakistan in June of July 2001.
b. Connections/Associations:
  1. A list containing the detainee’s name was found on a floppy disk recovered from the raid of an al Qaida residence in Pakistan.
  2. The detainee’s name is on a list of ‘trust’ accounts of al Qaida Mujahideen found during raids against al Qaida safehouses in Pakistan.
  3. The detainee’s name is on a list of names, aliases and nationalities recovered during raids of suspected al Qaida safehouses in Pakistan.
c. Other Relevant Data:
  1. The detainee traveled to Pakistan to escape possible arrest by Saudi authorities for drug dealing. In Pakistan he attempted to acquire drugs for resale in Saudi Arabia.
  2. The detainee was arrested in Islamabad, Pakistan with several Libyans who were helping Arabs get out of Pakistan.
  3. The detainee stated he is not a terrorist; however he believes Americans are enemies of God. The detainee explained that because the Koran states Americans are infidels, all fighting against them is justified.

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

a. The detainee was identified by a delegation from his country of origin as being of low intelligence or law enforcement value to the U.S. and unlikely to pose a terrorist threat to the U.S. or its interests. Further, the delegation indicated the government it represented would be willing to take custody of the detainee for possible prosecution.
b. The detainee said he had never been in Afghanistan until the Americans put him in prison there.
c. The detainee denied having any affiliation with al Qaida or the Taliban.
d. The detainee denied having any knowledge of the attacks in the U.S. prior to the execution on September 11th and also denied knowledge of any rumors or plans of future attacks on the U.S. or U.S. interests.

[edit] Rashid al Uwaydah’s apology

After the factors had been read out, and he had a chance to respond to each of them in turn, Rashid al Uwaydah apologized to the Presiding Officer:

"I don’t know about the classified ... when I get mad I cannot control myself and I would like to apologize. The situation I am in is very hard and the place where I am in detention and the circumstances I am going through makes me be like this. I don’t want to be like this. But, what I said before ... I was very mad ... when someone gets mad and divorces his wife they don’t consider it because they are angry. I was very angry."

Rashid al Uwaydah’s Assisting Military Officer added: “Sir, I would just like to add during my interviews with the detainee he was very cooperative and polite through both interviews.

[edit] Response to the factors

  • Rashid al Uwaydah acknowledged traveling from Saudi Arabia to Pakistan.
  • Rashid al Uwaydah explained that he traveled to Pakistan to buy illicit drugs, but when he met his contacts they stole his money, wallet, passport and personal papers. He suggested his name could have gotten on al Qaida lists because the thieves sold his passport to al Qaida.
  • Rashid al Uwaydah acknowledged traveling to Pakistan to escape possible arrest for drug-dealing in Saudi Arabia, and to purchase illicit drugs for resale in Saudi Arabia.
  • Rashid al Uwaydah said the Libyans who came to his assistance were an officially recognized group, lead by Gaddafi’s son Saif Al-Islam. He repeated that while they helped him, he had never worked with them
  • Rashid al Uwaydah stated that he thought the factor that he stated America should be attacked because it is a nation of infidels who fight the religion of Islam was based on a misunderstanding. He believes that those who fight the religion of Islam are infidels, but he does not believe Americans are infidels.

[edit] Response to Board questions

  • Rashid al Uwaydah testified that he chose to travel to Pakistan because a “soldier citizen” from Syria named Yosif Shaban told him “goods” are cheaper in Pakistan. Shaban gave him a phone number and contact name in Pakistan.
  • Rashid al Uwaydah testified he got travel money from his savings, and from his family, but they didn’t know he wanted money for traveling.
  • Rashid al Uwaydah denied hearing any fatwa’s [sic] to join the jihad in Afghanistan.
  • Rashid al Uwaydah, when asked how he learned English, answered that he didn’t really know English, except for the most simple things - - he did have some classes in school.
  • Rashid al Uwaydah said he met the Libyans after his passport was stolen. Someone told him they could help him get his passport back. However, he was almost kidnapped by their associates. He escaped, sought help from some bystanders, asking them if they could take him to any Arab people, and they took him to the Libyans.
  • Rashid al Uwaydah was asked about the safehouse mentioned in the factors. Had he stayed in a suspected safehouse in Pakistan? When the term safe house was explained to him, and his Presiding Officer reminded him that several factors said his name was found on computer lists of al Qaida associates, he answered that all of the houses he stayed in were the homes of people involved in the drug trade, and that none of those people used computers.

[edit] Board recommendations

In early September 2007 the Department of Defense released two heavily redacted memos, from his Board, to Gordon England, the Designated Civilian Official.[5][6] The Board's recommendation was unanimous. Because the memos are so heavily redacted the Board's actual recommendation is not public.

[edit] Repatriation

According to The Saudi Repatriates Report Al Uwaydah was repatriated on May 19, 2006.[7]

[edit] References

  1. ^ 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 (5 October 2004). Summary of Evidence for Combatant Status Review Tribunal -- Al Uwaydah, Rashid Awad Rashid page 30. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2007-11-20.
  3. ^ (Spc Timothy Book. "Review process unprecedented", JTF-GTMO Public Affairs Office, Friday March 10, 2006, pp. pg 1. Retrieved on 2007-10-10. 
  4. ^ Summarized transcript (.pdf), from Rashid Awad Rashid Al Uwaydah's Administrative Review Board hearing - pages 46-60
  5. ^ OARDEC (July 26, 2005). Administrative Review Board assessment and recommendation ICO ISN 664 pages 88-89. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2007-11-20.
  6. ^ OARDEC (June 14, 2005). Classified Record of Proceedings and basis of Administrative Review Board recommendation for ISN 664 pages 90-95. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2007-11-20.
  7. ^ Anant Raut, Jill M. Friedman (March 19, 2007). The Saudi Repatriates Report. Retrieved on April 21, 2007.