Saeed Ahmed Mohammed Abdullah Sarem Jarabh

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Casio F91W, in daily alarm mode. The watch is currently set to ring an alarm, and flash its light, at 7:30am.

Saeed Ahmed Mohammed Abdullab Sarem Jarabh was captured and transferred to the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in Cuba.^[1] Jarabh's Guantanamo detainee ID is 235.^[2] Joint Task Force Guantanamo counter-terrorism analysts estimate he was born in 1976 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

[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.^[3][4] Three chairs were reserved for members of the press, but only 37 of the 574 Tribunals were observed.^[5]

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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.

Jarabh chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.^[1]

[edit] Allegations

Jarabh chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal. The allegations against him were:^[6]

a. The detainee is a member of al Qaida:

1. The detainee attended training for approximately one week at the Abu Abaida training camp near Jalalabad Afghanistan.
2. The detainee received weapons training on the Kalashnikov rifle while at the Abu Abaida training camp.
3. The detainee admits having contact with whom ^[sic] he believes to be an al Qaida member.

b. The detainee participated in military operations against the coalition.

1. The detainee was present with fighters in the Tora Bora region.

[edit] Detainee Session Notes

Unusually, the unclassified dossier for Jarabh contained a two page form not released for other detainees, entitled “Detainee Session Notes”.^[7]

The form has room for notes for three sessions. It records the number of the Personal Representative, the “3 or 4 digit ISN” – redacted in this case; the date of the sessions, and the start and end times.

[edit] Initial Session

The following actions must be completed and the information accrued forwarded (sic) to the OIC, CSRT through the Chief of Staff.

Detaine’s participation election (as reflected on the Detainee Election Form you will also provide to the OIC, CSRT through the Chief of Staff):

Will attend Tribunal and make statements under oath

Detainee’s demeanor/attitude while explaining the CSRT process (ex. Eager to listen, distructful, non-responsive, etc.):

Polite and calm. Asked many questions. There is a recurring theme where detainees are wondering why people are being released without going through a tribunal.

Explain detainee’s witness and/or documentary evidence requests:

Detainee claims to have gone to AF for 3 months to teach the Koran. As evidence he says his father will testify that he gave him $300 in US currency to make the trip. His father is a gold dealer/jewelry shop owner and deals in US currency. Location data for father redacted

Also Yemeni Airlines sold him a round trip ticket. This ticket was lost in AF, but the airline can provide a copy. The Iranian embassy in Sanaa, Yemen also issued him a Visa, that shows he was planning on returning to Yemen.

[edit] Notes from Final Session

Annotate any changes to detainee’s original election. If No Change, indicate No Change.

‘None

Annotate the purpose for the Final Session and what occurred:

Advised that witness and documentary evidence was deemed not relevant. Reviewed statements for Tribunal. Detainee is very interested in what country he may be repatriated and whether he has a say in this.

[edit] Testimony

Initially Jarabh's initial testimony backed up the version of events he had told his Personal Representative. But midway during his testimony the Tribunal President called a recess to allow him to read a letter his brother had written that contradicted his account on some key points.

Following the recess, when he had an opportunity to read the letter, Jarabh was emotional. He gave a rambling different account, that included a search for gold, and two new companion, Abdul Malek and Fallulah Mahmoud.

[edit] Initial testimony

The Personal Representative read out the allegations against Jarabh, then told the Tribunal the responses Jarabh offered during their meeting. Jarabh had told him that all but one of the allegations were completely false. The one that had an element of truth was that he had attended a camp for a week. But it was not for AK47 training. He had already learned to shoot in Yemen. He and some friends had gone there for an informal marksmanship competition.

• Jarabh had said he was not a member of al Qaeda.
• Jarabh denied that he had ever met any al Qaeda members.
• The camp Jarabh visited for the marksmanship competition was near Kandahar, not Jalalabad.
• Jarabh said that he never participated in any hostilities.
• Jarabh said that he was never in Tora Bora.
• Jarabh said that he had gone to Afghanistan to teach the Qu’ran, but that his plans hadn’t worked out as he planned, and that he was already planning to leave before the attacks of 911.
• Jarabh said that his trip was paid for by his father, not by al Qaeda.
• Jarabh, had traveled first to Iran. While there he had spent a couple of weeks trying to obtain a Visa to Azerbijan, thinking it would be safer, but he ended up going to Afghanistan, when he couldn’t get a visa to Azerbijan.

[edit] Post recess testimony

Jarabh's post recess testimony was rambling and confused. He was obviously emotional. His Tribunal members invited him to take another recess.

He told a rambling story of making two friends, Abdul Malek and Fallulah Mahmoud, with whom he went on a search for gold.

[edit] Brother’s affidavit

Jarabh’s brother’s affidavit contradicted his testimony on several points:

• He said his father sells “the famous honey from Yemen” - when Jarabh said he was a jeweler and gold dealer.
• He said there were nine siblings - Jarabh said there were sixteen.
• He said Jarabh traveled to Pakistan, not Afghanistan. He said the purpose of his trip was honey-selling, not Koran teaching.

Other details from the letter are that Jababr is 29, married, with two daughters. He said that they learned of his detention in Guantanamo through the internet. He referred to his brother by a completely different name than that used in the documents in his dossier -- Saeed Ahmed Al-Sarim.

According to the letter, the brother who is the author of the letter is the third of five sons, two years older than Saeed, the fourth brother. His brothers all work in the family honey business. He is a teacher of Islamic education.

His brother described, in detail, the effects of the absence of their father is having on his daughter, the youngest of who waits for her father to come home every day.

[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".^[8]

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 Jarabh were among the 121 that the Department of Defense released on March 3, 2006.^[9]

[edit] The following primary factors favor continued detention:

a. Commitment

1. The detainee was influenced by another Yemeni at a mosque to go to Afghanistan.
2. The detainee was once captured in Turkey en route to Chechnya.
3. The detainee agreed that the Koran states that killing non-Muslims who refuse to pay Jizzia, and also refuse to leave the Islamic state, is acceptable.
4. The detainee stated he believed America was at war with Islam.
5. The detainee indicated that he "cannot promise" he would not attack American citizens in the future.

b. Training

1. The detainee possesses information on the Abu Obeida Training Camp.
2. The detainee attended training for approximately one week at the Abu Obeida training camp near Jalalabad, Afghanistan.
3. The detainee received weapons training on the Kalashnikov rifle while at the Abu Obeida training camp.
4. The detainee attended the al-Farouq training camp in Afghanistan.

c. Connections

1. The detainee has associated with members of al Qaida.
2. The detainee has direct ties to several established al Qaida members.
3. Despite the knowledge of the detainee's al Qaida links, he has continued to deny knowledge of these al Qaida associates.
4. The detainee's alias appeared on a list of al Qaida mujahidin recovered during a raid against al Qaida associated safe houses in Pakistan.

d. Intent

1. The detainee was a machine gunner at Tora Bora.
2. The detainee was in possession of a watch type that has been used in bombing linked to radical terrorist improvised explosive devices.
3. The detainee threatened to kill a guard.

e. Other Relevant Data

1. The detainee falsely reported that his family was kileed in a bombing raid.
2. The detainee's country of origin is Yemen.
3. Yemen is not a nation supporting the Global War on Terrorism.
4. The detainee was captured by Pakistani Boarder ^[sic] Guards in mid-December 2001.

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

a. Detainee statements

1. The detainee stated that he has nothing to hide.
2. The detainee stated that he traveled to Afghanistan to teach the Koran.
3. The detainee stated that in his previous statement in which he said he could not promise interrogators that we ^[sic] would not attack the United States, he did not mean to imply he harbored any animosity towards the United States.
4. The detainee stated that he believes the attacks of September 11th were wrong.
5. The detainee denied associations with al Qaida members.

b. Mitigating circumstances surrounding participation in the war in Afghanistan.

1. The detainee denies gaining knowledge of future attacks against the United States during his training in Afghanistan.
2. The detainee stated that he never had any intention of joining al Qaida.

c. Other relevant information

1. The detainee is a 26 year-old born in 1978, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
2. The detainee went to elementary school in Saudi Arabia and to high school in Yemen.
3. The detainee began working part-time in his father's gold and silver business while in high school and worked full-time after graduating high school.

[edit] References

1. ^ ^{a b} documents (.pdf), from Saeed Ahmed Mohammed Abdullah Sarem Jarabh's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - mirror 29-39
2. ^ 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.
3. ^ Guantánamo Prisoners Getting Their Day, but Hardly in Court, New York Times, November 11, 2004 - mirror
4. ^ Inside the Guantánamo Bay hearings: Barbarian "Justice" dispensed by KGB-style "military tribunals", Financial Times, December 11, 2004
5. ^ 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.
6. ^ allegations (.pdf), against Saeed Ahmed Mohammed Abdullah Sarem Jarabh, page 30 of his Combatant Status Review Tribunal
7. ^ Detainee Sessions Notes(.pdf), from Saeed Ahmed Mohammed Abdullah Sarem Jarabh's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - page 25
8. ^ Spc Timothy Book. "Review process unprecedented", The Wire (JTF-GTMO), Friday March 10, 2006, pp. 1. Retrieved on 2007-10-12. 
9. ^ Factors for and against the continued detention (.pdf) of Saeed Ahmed Mohammed Abdullah Sarem Jarabh Administrative Review Board - page 60