Tolfiq Nassar Ahmed Al Bihani

Tolfiq Nassar Ahmed al Bihani is a citizen of Saudi Arabia held in the United States's Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.^[1] His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number is 893. Joint Task Force Guantanamo analysts report he was born on 1 June 1972, in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.

The United States Senate Intelligence Committee's report on the CIA's use of torture confirmed that al Bihani had been held in the Central Intelligence Agency's network of black sites, where he had been subjected to torture.

Al-Bihani arrived at Guantanamo on February 7, 2003, and has been held there, without charge, for 14 years, 6 months and 19 days.^[2]

Publication of captives' CSR Tribunal documents

In September 2007 the Department of Justice published dossiers of unclassified documents arising from the Combatant Status Review Tribunals of 179 captives.^[3] Toffiq Nassar Ahmed Al Bihani had a writ of habeas corpus filed on his behalf, but the Department of Defense did not publish it with the others.

Military Commissions Act

The Military Commissions Act of 2006 mandated that Guantanamo captives were no longer entitled to access the US civil justice system, so all outstanding habeas corpus petitions were stayed.^[4]

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 eligible to be re-instated. The judges considering the captives' habeas petitions would be considering whether the evidence used to compile the allegations the men and boys were enemy combatants justified a classification of "enemy combatant".^[5]

Protective order

On 15 July 2008 Kristine A. Huskey filed a "NOTICE OF PETITIONERS’ REQUEST FOR 30-DAYS NOTICE OF TRANSFER" on behalf of Toffiq Nassar Ahmed Al Bihani and several dozen captives.^[6] The petition would prevent the Department of Defense from transferring him out of US jurisdiction without giving his attorney's thirty days notice. The Department of Defense had transferred some captives to countries where they were subsequently subjected to abusive treatment—even though they had active habeas corpus petitions.

Habeas timeline

George M. Clarke III swore a declaration on 9 September 2008, stating that Toffiq's brother Adnan Al Bihani, serving as "next friend" initiated the habeas corpus process, in a letter dated 17 June 2005.^[7] Clarke and other attorneys formally filed the petition on 14 December 2005. Toffiq had initially declined to sign a form authoring Clarke to serve as his counsel in 2005. But when Clarke was able to meet with him on 28 March 2007 Toffiq verbally authorized him to serve as his counsel, and he followed up that verbal authorization with a letter authorizing him to serve as counsel.

Named by the US Senate as one of the CIA's captives subjected to torture, without authorization

On December 9, 2014, the United States Senate Intelligence Committee published the 600 page unclassified summary of a 6,000 page report on the CIA's use of torture.^[8] While some of the CIA's captives were identified as only been subjected to torture that had been authorized from Washington, other captives, like Bihani, were identified as having been tortured by CIA officials who did not have authorization. According to the Intelligence Committee, Bihani was "subjected to 72 hours of sleep deprivation between his arrival at detention site Cobalt and his October 2002, interrogation."

Reports his brother was killed fighting in Somalia

The Long War Journal reported that a martyrship video from Abu 'Asim al Tabuki Mansour Nasser al Bihani was published in November 2011.^[9] It reported that this individual had fought in Chechnya, lived in Afghanistan, until the fall of the Taliban, had been captured in Saudi Arabia, transferred to Yemen, where he escaped from Prison, and finally travelled to Somalia, where he died fighting for jihadists. It reported he had two brothers in Guantanamo.

Status during the Donald Trump administration

Observers noted that President Barack Obama's administration made a push to transfer as many individuals from Guantanamo, as possible, during his last year.^[10] The Washington Post reported that Tawfiq Nisar al-Bihani was one of the five individuals who had been cleared for release, who remained in Guantanamo when Donald Trump was inaugurated. During the election campaign Trump had promised that, once he took power, noone would ever leave detention at Guantanamo, that he would bring more individuals to be detained there.

See also

• Torture

References

External links

• Judge Denies Guantánamo Prisoner’s Habeas Petition, Ignores Torture in Secret CIA Prisons Andy Worthington
• Under the U.S. Supreme Court: I'm not a terrorist; I'm just the piano player UPI, May 29, 2011