Siddeeq Noor Turkistani
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Saddiq Ahmad Turkistani is an ethnic Uyghur born and raised in Saudi Arabia and an opponent of the Taliban. A prisoner of the Taliban, he was briefly freed when the they were overthrown, but was then promptly captured by the Americans and shipped to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.[1]
In a list of the names of detainees the Department of Defense released on May 15, 2006 Turkistani's place of birth was given as Taif, Saudi Arabia.[2] Unusually, his date of birth was given as "UNKNOWN". His Guantanamo detainee ID number is 491.
Turkistani was imprisoned by the Taliban for four and a half years, because he was alleged to have been involved in a plot to kill al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Turkistani admits being opposed to the Taliban, Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, but he denies that he was involved in any plots.[1]
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[edit] Read into the Senate records
During a debate on Senator Lindsey Graham's motion to prevent detainees having access to the US courts Senator Jeff Bingeman had several Washington Post articles on the plight of the Uyghur detainees read into the Senate Record.[3] One of the articles focussed on Turkistani's plight.[1]
No official American sources have said why Turkistani was captured, why he was held, or why he was shipped to Guantanamo Bay.
[edit] Combatant Status Review Tribunal
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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.
No record of Turkistani's Combatant Status Review Tribunal has been made public.
[edit] Determined not to have been an Enemy Combatant
The Washington Post reports that Turkistani was one of 38 detainees who was determined not to have been an enemy combatant during his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.[7] They report that Turkistani is one of several still not released.
On May 10, 2006 Radio Free Asia quoted from an interview with Abu Bakker Qassim, one of the five Uighurs who had been transported to Albania on May 5, 2006.[8] Qassim said he left four innocent detainees behind at Camp Iguana: a Russian, an Algerian, a Libyan, and a man who had been born in Saudi Arabia to Uighur exiles.
[edit] Turkistani's Garden
Turkistani is reported to have told his lawyer, Sabin Willett, that he and fellow prisoners had planted a garden with seeds saved from their rations.[9] [10] Turkistani and the other men in Camp Iguana had to cultivate their clandestine garden with plastic spoons.
[edit] Transfer to Saudi Arabia
On June 25, 2006 14 men were transferred from Guantanamo to Saudi Arabia.[11] While some press reports described these men as 14 Saudis, others described them as 13 Saudis, and a Turkistani who had been resident in Saudi Arabia.[12]
[edit] Turkistani and other former Taliban prisoners
Turkistani was one of nine former Taliban prisoners the Associated Press pointed out had gone from Taliban custody to American custody.[13]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Detainee Cleared for Release Is in Limbo at Guantanamo, Washington Post, December 14, 2005
- ^ list of prisoners (.pdf), US Department of Defense, May 15, 2006
- ^ Guantanamo Prisoners, US Senate, December 21, 2005
- ^ Guantánamo Prisoners Getting Their Day, but Hardly in Court, New York Times, November 11, 2004 - mirror
- ^ Inside the Guantánamo Bay hearings: Barbarian "Justice" dispensed by KGB-style "military tribunals", Financial Times, December 11, 2004
- ^ 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.
- ^ Guantanamo Bay Detainees Classifed as "No Longer Enemy Combatants", Washington Post
- ^ Guantanamo Uyghurs Try to Settle in Albania, Radio Free Asia, May 10, 2006
- ^ Guantanamo Bay prisoners plant seeds of hope in secret garden, Uyghur Human Rights Project, April 29, 2006
- ^ Guantanamo prisoners planting seeds of hope, Al Jazeera, May 1, 2006
- ^ Anant Raut, Jill M. Friedman (March 19, 2007). The Saudi Repatriates Report. Retrieved on April 21, 2007.
- ^ Thirteen Saudis and a Turkistani return to Saudi from Guantanamo, Middle East News, June 25, 2006
- ^ Paul Haven. "From Taliban jail to Gitmo – hard-luck prisoners tell of unending ordeal", San Diego Union Tribune, June 30, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-07-01.
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