Mohamed Abdullah Al Harbi

Mohamed Abdullah Al Harbi is a citizen of Saudi Arabia who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.^[1] His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 536. American counter-terrorism analysts estimate he was born in 1979, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Al Harbi was captured in Afghanistan in November 2001 and he was repatriated to Saudi Arabia on February 20, 2007.^[2][3][4]

Two individuals named al-Harbi were repatriated on February 20, 2007, identified by the Saudi Interior Ministry upon their repatriation as Majed al-Harbi and Muhammad al-Harbi.^[3]

Combatant Status Review Tribunal

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 Harbi chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.^[8]

Allegations

a The detainee is associated with al Qaida and the Taliban.

1. The detainee traveled from his home in Saudi Arabia to Afghanistan via Bahrain and Iran, after 11 September 2001.
2. The detainee was recruited to train for Jihad.
3. The detainee reported to an Arab guesthouse in Kabul, Afghanistan, with the intent to receive military training.
4. The detainee was taken into custody by Northern Alliance forces in Kabul, Afghanistan, in mid November 2001.
5. The detainee is a Taliban fundraisers who offered Northern Alliance forces a bribe for his freedom.

Administrative Review Board

Detainees whose Combatant Status Review Tribunal labeled them "enemy combatants" were scheduled for annual Administrative Review Board hearings. These hearings were designed to assess the threat a detainee may pose if released or transferred, and whether there are other factors that warrant his continued detention.^[9] Two Administrative Review Board hearings were convened for Al Harbi, in 2005 and 2006.^[10][11] Following his 2006 hearing Gordon England the Designated Civilian Official, with the final authority to clear captives for release, made the decision he should be transferred on November 17, 2006.

The record shows Al Harbi did not choose to attend either his 2005 or 2006 reviews.

First annual Administrative Review Board hearing

A two-page Summary of Evidence memo was drafted for his first annual Administrative Review Board hearing.^[10] The two-page memo listed ten "primary factors favor[ing] continued detention" and four "primary factors favor[ing] release or transfer". The new factors listed on his memo included:

• One new factor stated that he paid for his own travel expenses.
• One new factor stated that he had told his initial Afghan captors that he was a charity worker—but that "He told them this to gain their sympathy, as they threatened to cut his throat.
• One new factor was that he said he had been beaten during eleven weeks he spent in Afghan captivity.
• One new factor was that he denied participating in any military training or military activities.

Second annual Administrative Review Board hearing

A two-page Summary of Evidence memo was drafted for his second annual Administrative Review Board hearing.^[11] The two-page memo listed seven "primary factors favor[ing] continued detention" and four "primary factors favor[ing] release or transfer". The one new factor listed on the 2006 memo was that his Afghan captors had tried to blackmail him to pay a ransom, had offered him a choice of paying a ransom, or turned over the Americans in return for a bounty.

Repatriation

On November 26, 2008 the Department of Defense published a list of the dates when captives were transferred from Guantanamo.^[2] According to that list Al Harbi was transferred on February 20, 2007.

Press reports

Canadian journalist, and former special assistant to US President George W. Bush, David Frum, published an article based on his own reading of the transcripts from the Combatant Status Review Tribunals, on November 11, 2006.^[12] It was Frum who coined the term "Axis of Evil" for use in a speech he wrote for Bush. Al Harbi's transcript was one of the nine Frum briefly summarized. His comment on Al Harbi was:

"A Saudi mechanic said that he had journeyed to Afghanistan because someone had persuaded him that it was the ideal place to complete his religious education. Who was this person? "I don’t know.'"

Frum came to the conclusion that all nine of the men whose transcript he summarized had obviously lied.^[12] He did not, however, state how he came to the conclusion they lied. His article concluded with the comment:

"But what’s the excuse of those in the West who succumb so easily to the deceptions of terrorists who cannot invent even half-way plausible lies?"

References

External links

• The Guantánamo Files: Website Extras (8) – Captured in Afghanistan Andy Worthington