Akhdar Qasem Basit

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Akhdar Qasem Basit
Born:	November 4, 1973(1973-11-04) Ghulja, China
Detained at:	Guantanamo
ID number:	276
Conviction(s):	no charge, held in extrajudicial detention
Status	Transferred to an Albanian refugee camp.

Akhdar Qasem Basit is a citizen of China, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.^[1] His Guantanamo Internee Security Number is 276. Joint Task Force Guantanamo counter-terrorism analysts report Basit was born on November 14, 1973, in Ghulja, China.

Basit is one of approximately two dozen detainees from the Uyghur ethnic group.^[2]

Main article: Uighur detainees in Guantanamo

[edit] Identity

His name has been transliterated into English text in several different ways over the years, including;

• Captive 276 was identified as Akhadar Qasem in the Information paper: Uighur Detainee Population at JTF-GTMO.^[3]
• Captive 276 was identified as Akhdar Qasem Basit on the Summary of Evidence memo prepared for his Combatant Status Review Tribunal, on 12 November 2004.^[4]

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Information paper: Uighur Detainee Population at JTF-GTMO

He is one of approximately two dozen Uyghur detainees accused of membership in the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement.^[2]

Documents released in response to the writ of habeas corpus Hassan Anvar v. George W. Bush contained a December 30 2004 memo which provided one-paragraph biographies of 22 Uyghur captives, and asserted they were all caught at an "ETIM training camp".^[3]

The brief biography of Akhdar Qasem Basit stated:

Akhdar Qasem Basit is a 31-year-old Chinese citizen who is an ethnic Uighur from the Ghulja province of China. Basit was last interviewed at the end of 2002. He has no reported incidents of violence in his discipline history. Basit is suspected as being a probable member of the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM). He is suspected of having received training in an ETIM training camp in Afghanistan.

The information paper also identified him as "Akhadar Qasem".

[edit] Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held in a trailer the size of a large RV. The captive sat with his hands cuffed and feet shackled to a bolt in the floor.^[5] Three chairs were reserved for members of the press, but only 37 of the 574 Tribunals were observed.^[6]

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] Combatant Status Review

CSRT notice read to a Guantanamo captive.

Initially the Bush administration asserted they could withhold the protections of the Geneva Conventions from captives in the War on Terror, while critics argued the Conventions obligated the United States to conduct competent tribunals to determine the status of prisoners. Subsequently the Department of Defense instituted Combatant Status Review Tribunals, to determine whether the captives met the new definition of an "enemy combatant".

The trailer where CSRTs were convened.

From July 2004 through March 2005, a CSRT was convened to make a determination whether each captive had been correctly classified as an "enemy combatant". Akhdar Qasem Basit among the two-thirds of prisoners who chose to participate in their tribunals.^[7]

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for the tribunal, listing the alleged facts that led to his detainment. Akhdar Qasem Basit's memo accused him of the following: ^[4]

a. The detainee is associated with the Al Qaida and the Taliban:

1. The detainee, in August 2001, departed China for Kyrgyzstan, to Islamabad, Pakistan, continued to Jalalabad, Afghanistan and to Tora Bora, Afghanistan.
2. The detainee was at the Uighur training camp in Tora Bora, Afghanistan.
3. The detainee received training on the AK-47 assault rifle at Uigher training camp in Tora Bora, Afghanistan.
4. The detainee received training on the PK machine gun and military tactics at a Uigher training camp.
5. The training camp was provided to the Uighers by the Taliban.
6. The ETIM operated facilities in the Tora Bora region Afghanistan in which Uigher expatriates underwent small arms training. These camps were funded by Bin Laden and the Taliban.

b. The detainee participated in military operations against the United States and its coalition partners.

1. The detainee fled, along with others, when the United States forces bombed their camp.
2. The detainee was captured in Pakistan, along with other Uigher fighters.

[edit] Transcript

Basit chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.^[8] On March 3, 2006, in response to a court order from Jed Rakoff the Department of Defense published a six page summarized transcript from his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.^[9]

[edit] Testimony

• Basit confirmed he received training on the AK-47, during which he fired three or four bullets.
• Basit stated that there wasn't much time for marksmanship lessons, because they were so busy doing construction work.
• Basit stated the [[American aerial bombardment followed shortly after his arrival.
• Basit stated that he was directed to the camp by a Uyghur he met in Kyryzstan.
• Basit stated he didn't meet any Arabs in Afghanistan.

[edit] Determined not to have been an Enemy Combatant

The Washington Post reports that Basit was one of 38 detainees who was determined not to have been an enemy combatant during his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.^[10][11] The Department of Defense refers to these men as No Longer Enemy Combatants.

[edit] Asylum in Albania

A lawsuit demanding release from Guantanamo was scheduled by the attorneys for five of the Uyghur captives who had been determined to have not been enemy combatants, including Akhdar Qasem Basit, to take place in the US District Court on May 8, 2006.^[12] However, three days before the trial it was announced that Albania had offered to accept patriation of all five prisoners.^[13][14] The same day, the Department of Justice filed an "Emergency Motion to Dismiss as Moot", asking that the trial be cancelled.^[15][16] Attorney Barbara Olshansky characterized the sudden transfer as an attempt to "avoid having to answer in court for keeping innocent men in jail"^[17]"

On June 8, 2007, in an interview in the Dallas Star-Telegram Basit described his health deteriorating in his Albanian refugee camp.^[18]

[edit] References

v • d • e Captives held at Guantanamo Bay before being exonerated and found to not be "enemy combatants" Afghanistan Abdul Rahman, Mohammad Gul, Gul Zaman, Abdul Rahim Muslimdost, Qalandar Shah, Shahwali Zair Mohammed Shaheen Naqeebyllah, Rasool Shahwali Zair Mohammed Mohammed, Abdul Qudus, Shahzada, Hammdidullah, Mohammad Nasim, Kako Kandahari, Feda Ahmed, Nasibullah, Habib Noor, Jalil, Hukumra Khan Algeria Ahmed Adil, Akhdar Qasem Basit, Mohammed Ayub, Abu Bakr Qasim, Adel Abdulhehim, Sadik Ahmad Turkistani Egypt Sami Abdul Aziz Salim Allaithy, Allah Muhammed Saleem France Mustaq Ali Patel Jordan Khalid Mahomoud Abdul Wahab Al Asmr Maldives Ibrahim Fauzee Pakistan Fazaldad, Shed Abdur Rahman Saudi Arabia Saleh Abdall Al Oshan Sudan Hammad Ali Amno Gadallah Tajikistan Maroof Saleemovich Salehove Turkey Salih Uyar Uzbekistan Zakirjan Asam Yemen Karam Khamis Sayd Khamsan