Tariq Mahmoud Ahmed Al Sawah

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Tariq Mahmoud Ahmed Al Sawah is a citizen of Bosnia, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in Cuba.^[1] Al Sawah's Guantanamo detainee ID number is 535.

[edit] Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held in a 3 x 6 meter trailer. The captive sat with his hands cuffed and feet shackled to a bolt in the floor.^[2] Three chairs were reserved for members of the press, but only 37 of the 574 Tribunals were observed.^[3]

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.

[edit] Summary of Evidence memo

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Tariq Mahmoud Ahmed Al Sawah's Combatant Status Review Tribunal, on 25 August 2004.^[4] The memo listed the following allegations against him:

a. Detainee is a member of Al Qaida.

1. Detainee admits being a member of Al Qaida.
2. Detainee traveled to Afghanistan and joined Al Qaida to fight against the United States and the Northern Alliance.
3. Detainee admits that he attended explosives training at Al Farouq training camp and went on to be a trainer on IED components at Tarnak Farms.
4. Detainee met Usama bin Ladin.

b. Detainee engaged in hostilities against the United States.

1. Detainee fled Jalalabad, AF on 18 November 2001, after the area fell to allied forces. Detainee traveled with fighters armed with Kalashnikovs ^[sic] , RPGss, ammunition and hand grenades.
2. Detainee was injured by shrapnel, captured, and turned over to Northern Alliance forces.

[edit] Transcript

Al Sawah chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.^[5] On March 3, 2006, in response to a court order from Jed Rakoff the Department of Defense published a summarized transcript from his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.^[6]

[edit] Translation errors

Al Sawah’s open session began with a dispute over whether he had been told that he could request witnesses and expulcatory documents. Al Sawah said he was not told this. His Personal Representative told the Tribunal he read that part of the framing documents to him. The conclusion was that Al Sawah's meeting with his Personal Representative was beset by translation errors.

Al Sawah reported translation discrepancies between the documents his Personal Representative had presented to him earlier and the versions read out at his Tribunal.

After a brief recess the Tribunal’s President ruled that the version that the translator had been given was an erroneous copy and that the version given to Al Sawah’s Personal Representative was the correct version, so there would be no need for a further delay.

The rest of his open session was beset with ongoing translation problems.

[edit] Testimony

As the allegations against him were read out, one by one, Al Sawah responded to each, in turn:

• Al Sawah denied being a member of Al Qaida. He acknowledged being in Afghanistan and with Arabic fighters in Kabul.
• Al Sawah said he traveled to Afghanistan planning to immigrate there, from Bosnia. He had been told he had to leave Bosnia. He couldn’t go back to Egypt, other more pleasant choices were closed to him, so he chose Afghanistan.
• Al Sawah pointed out that if he had wanted to fight Americans he would not have had to leave Bosnia, as there were plenty of Americans stationed in Bosnia.
• Al Sawah said he left Bosnia before 9/11.
• Al Sawah acknowledged provided training. But said that it was during the civil war with Massoud and Dostum. He challenged whether this was against any American laws. He asserted any efforts he made in opposition to Massoud and Dostum was prior to 9/11, and thus prior to their alliance with the USA.
• Al Sawah acknowledged that he was present when Osama bin Laden addressed a big meeting, of approximately 250 people. But he never talked with bin Laden. The meeting occurred at the end of July 2001.
• Al Sawah said that he tried to escape Afghanistan because the Americans were offering a bounty of $5,000 to anyone who captured a foreigner. But there was no fighting Americans, because there were no American soldiers on the ground.
• Al Sawah acknowledged some of those he traveled with engaged Dostum’s forces as he fled. He said he was traveling with wounded men, women and children. He said he himself was not armed during the retreat.
• Al Sawah acknowledged being injured by shrapnel - from the American aerial bombardment.

Al Sawah reported a discrepancy between the translation of the definition of "enemy combatant" that he had been given when he met with his Personal Representative and the one being given to him during his Tribunal.

It was also determined that the "Summary of Evidence" was in error after all. It said he had provided training at the al Farouq training camp, when, in fact, he had provided training at the Abu Abaida training camp.

[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".^[7]

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.

In September 2007 the Department of Defense released all the Summary of Evidence memos prepared for the Administrative Review Boards convened in 2005 or 2006.^[8][9] There is no record that an Administrative Review Board convened in 2005 or 2006 to review his detention.

[edit] References

1. ^ list of prisoners (.pdf), US Department of Defense, May 15, 2006
2. ^ Inside the Guantánamo Bay hearings: Barbarian "Justice" dispensed by KGB-style "military tribunals", Financial Times, December 11, 2004
3. ^ 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.
4. ^ OARDEC (25 August 2004). Summary of Evidence for Combatant Status Review Tribunal -- Al Sawah, Tariq Mahmoud Ahmed pages 59-60. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2008-01-19.
5. ^ OARDEC. "Summarized Transcript", United States Department of Defense, date redacted, pp. pages 82-92. Retrieved on 2008-05-25. 
6. ^ "US releases Guantanamo files", The Age, April 4, 2006. Retrieved on 2008-03-15. 
7. ^ Spc Timothy Book. "Review process unprecedented", JTF-GTMO Public Affairs Office, Friday March 10, 2006, pp. pg 1. Retrieved on 2007-10-10. 
8. ^ OARDEC (August 9, 2007). Index to Summaries of Detention-Release Factors for ARB Round One. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2007-09-29.
9. ^ OARDEC (July 17, 2007). Index of Summaries of Detention-Release Factors for ARB Round Two. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2007-09-29.