Said Salih Said Nashir

Said Salih Said Nashir (a.k.a. Hani Saleh Rashid Abdullah) is a citizen of Yemen, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.^[1] His Internment Serial Number is 841. American intelligence analysts estimate that Nashir was born in 1974, in Habilain, Yemen.

As of December 7, 2009, Said Salih Said Nashir had been held at Guantanamo for seven years two months.^[2]

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.

Allegations

The allegations against Nashir were:^[2]

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

1. Originally from Lahaj, Yemen, the detainee traveled to Kandahar, Afghanistan via San’aa, Yemen; Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Karachi, Pakistan; and Quetta, Pakistan.
2. The detainee was a recruited in Al Baraida, Yemen by an al Qaida facilitator.
3. In late June 2001, while traveling from Yemen to Afghanistan, the detainee stayed in a Taliban guesthouse in Quetta, Pakistan.
4. The detainee attended basic training at al Farouq training camp from July to September 2001, where he received instruction in the Kalishnikov rifle, Rocket-Propelled Grenades (RPG), hand grenades, land mines and explosives.
5. The detainee attended two speeches by Usama Bin Laden while, training at the al Farouq camp.
6. The detainee, armed with a Kalishnikov rifle, worked for al Qaida as a guard at the Kandahar airport.
7. The al Qaida members guarding the Kandahar airport armed with Anti-Aircraft guns, SA-7, Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPG), and AK-47s.
8. The detainee was given $1,000 US by an al Qaida operative for travel from Afghanistan to his home country of Yemen.
9. The detainee was captured following a two and a half hour firefight in a Karachi Pakistan apartment, along with several other members of al Qaida during raids on al Qaida safe houses on 11 September 2002.
10. Passports belonging to Usama Bin Ladin’s family members were found at the suspected al Qaida residence on Taria Road in Karachi, Pakistan during raids on 11September 2001.

b The detainee engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners:

1. According to an al Qaida associate, the detainee fought north of Kabul.

Transcript

Nashir chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.^[3] On March 3, 2006, in response to a court order from Jed Rakoff the Department of Defense published a three page summarized transcript from his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.^[4]

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.^[5]

First annual Administrative Review Board hearning

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Sa id Salih Sa id Nashir's annual Administrative Review Board on 23 November 2005.^[6] The three page memo listed twenty-two "primary factors favor[ing] continued detention" and three "primary factors favor[ing] release or transfer". The factors he faced included:

• His neighbor's account of his own experience traveling to engage in jihad is alleged to have inspired Said Salih Said Nashir to travel to Afghanistan. He is alleged to have accepted $300 from this neighbor.
• He was alleged to have stayed at a "Taliban guesthouse in Quetta, Pakistan and the Nebras guesthouse in Kandahar" on his way to the al Farouq training camp.
• He was alleged to have trained to use the Kalashnikov rifle, a pistol, rocket propelled grenades, hand grenades, land mines, Composition-3 (C-3) and Composition-4 (C-4) explosives, and how to read maps.
• He was alleged to have heard Usama bin Laden speak at al Farouq.
• He is alleged to have served as a guard at the Kandahar airport from 11 September 2001 to either late November 2001—or to 3 December 2001. His CO at Kandahar was the head of the suspect guest house in Kabul named Khan Ghulam Bashah.
• The factors state he spent nine weeks traveling through clandestine routes from Afghanistan to Karachi. They don't state an allegation as to what he did in the six months between his arrival in Karachi and his capture.

Second annual Administrative Review Board hearning

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Salih Said Sa id's annual Administrative Review Board on 20 October 2006.^[7] His name was spelled Salih Said Sa id in 2006, where it had been spelled Sa id Saleh Sa id Nashir on earlier documents.

The three page memo listed nineteen "primary factors favor[ing] continued detention" and three "primary factors favor[ing] release or transfer". The factors he faced were essentially the same as those he faced in 2005, except that the man who was alleged to have commanded his ten man squad at the Kandahar airport was alleged to have been al Qaeda's commander of the Northern Front in Kabul in 2000.

Boumediene v. Bush

On June 12, 2008 the United States Supreme Court ruled, in Boumediene v. Bush, that the Military Commissions Act could not remove the right for Guantanamo captives to access the US Federal Court system. And all previous Guantanamo captives' habeas petitions were re-instated.

On July 18, 2008 his attorneys Charles H. Carpenter and Stephen M. Truitt filed a "Status report for Hani Saleh Rashid Abdullah" summarizing the renewed petitions on his behalf.^[8]

See also

• Hani Abdullah possibly the same person

References