Asim Thahit Abdullah Al Khalaqi

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Asim Thahit Abdullah Al Khalaqi is a citizen of Yemen, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in Cuba.^[1] His Guantanamo detainee ID number is 152. Joint Task Force Guantanamo counter-terrorism analysts estimate Al Khalaqi was born in 1968, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

[edit] Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held in a trailer the size of a large RV. The captive sat on a plastic garden chair, with his hands and feet shackled to a bolt in the floor.^[2][3] Three chairs were reserved for members of the press, but only 37 of the 574 Tribunals were observed.^[4]

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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 Asim Thahit Abdullah Al Khalaqi's Combatant Status Review Tribunal, on 4 November 2004. ^[5] The memo listed the following allegations against him:

a. The detainee was associated with al Qaida and the Taliban:

1. The detainee arrived in Afghanistan in late 2001 from Yemen via Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.
2. The detainee is associated with the Jama’at al Tabligh ^[sic] .
3. The Jama’at al Tabligh ^[sic] , a Pakistan-based Islamic missionary organization, is being used as a cover to mask travel and activities of terrorists including members of al Qaida.
4. The detainee is associated with the Jaish E Mohammed Islamic Fundamentalist Group.
5. The Jaish E Mohammed Islamic Fundamentalist Group is a terrorist organization associated with al Qaida and the Taliban.
6. The detainee completed paramilitary training.
7. The detainee may have stayed in a guesthouse in Afghanistan.

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

1. The detainee was at the front lines in Bagram.

[edit] Transcript

Al Khalaqi chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.^[6]

[edit] Testimony

[edit] Press comments

On July 12, 2006 the magazine Mother Jones provided excerpts from the transcripts of a selection of the Guantanamo detainees.^[7] Al Khalaqi was one of the detainees profiled. According to the article his transcript contained the following exchange:

al khalaqi: Are these evidence or accusations?

tribunal president: They are in the form of both….

al khalaqi: I’m sorry, I just don’t understand. How does it fit the two pictures or definitions? For example, if I say this table is the chair and the chair is the table and they are the same thing, does that make sense?

tribunal president: No, that doesn’t make sense. But this process makes sense to me and hopefully it will make sense to you, because you’re the one who’s going to have to provide us with evidence and tell us that you did or did not do these things as listed on the summary of evidence.

al khalaqi: So I just answer the accusations. But I’m going to call it accusations. I’m not going to call it evidence.

tribunal president: Very well, you can call it as you wish.

[edit] Habeas corpus submission

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Gherebi, et al. v. Bush, January 31st 2007

Al Khalaqi is one of the sixteen Guantanamo captives whose amalgamated habeas corpus submissions were heard by US District Court Judge Reggie B. Walton on January 31, 2007.^[8]

[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".^[9]

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.

[edit] First annual Administrative Review Board

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Asim Thahit Abdullah Al Khalaqi's first annual Administrative Review Board, on 29 June 2005.^[10] The memo listed factors for and against his continued detention.

[edit] Second annual Administrative Review Board

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Asim Thahit Abdullah Al Khalaqi's second annual Administrative Review Board, on 4 April 2006.^[11] The memo listed factors for and against his continued detention.

[edit] References

1. ^ OARDEC (May 15, 2006). List of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from January 2002 through May 15, 2006. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2007-09-29.
2. ^ Guantánamo Prisoners Getting Their Day, but Hardly in Court, New York Times, November 11, 2004 - mirror
3. ^ Inside the Guantánamo Bay hearings: Barbarian "Justice" dispensed by KGB-style "military tribunals", Financial Times, December 11, 2004
4. ^ 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.
5. ^ OARDEC (4 November 2004). Summary of Evidence for Combatant Status Review Tribunal -- Al Khalaqi, Asim Thahit Abdullah page 52. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2007-12-04.
6. ^ Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Asim Thahit Abdullah Al Khalaqi'sCombatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 11-23
7. ^ "Why Am I in Cuba?", Mother Jones (magazine), July 12, 2006
8. ^ Reggie B. Walton (January 31, 2007). Gherebi, et al. v. Bush. United States Department of Justice. Retrieved on May 19, 2007.
9. ^ Spc Timothy Book. "Review process unprecedented", JTF-GTMO Public Affairs Office, Friday March 10, 2006, pp. pg 1. Retrieved on 2007-10-10. 
10. ^ OARDEC (29 June 2005). Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the case of Al Khalaqi, Asim Thahit Abdullah pages 74-75. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2007-12-04.
11. ^ OARDEC (4 April 2006). Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the case of Al Khalaqi, Asim Thahit Abdullah pages 22-25. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2007-12-04.