Bisher Amin Khalil al-Rawi

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Bisher Amin Khalil Al-Rawi (Arabic: بشر امين خليل الروى‎, Bišr Amīn Ḫalīl ar-Rawī) is an Iraqi citizen, who became a resident of the United Kingdom in the 1980's.^[1] Until March 30, 2007 he was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. His detainee ID number is 906.^[2] The Department of Defense reports that Al Rawi was born on December 23, 1960, in Bagdad, Iraq.

Bisher contends that he was on a business trip to Gambia with his friend and business associate, Jamil al-Banna, when he was arrested by the Gambian National Intelligence Agency on arrival at Banjul airport on November 8, 2002. He was turned over to U.S. authorities, who transported him to Bagram Airbase, where he helped Moazzam Begg prepare meals and taught an Afghan detainee how to use a toothbrush.^[3], and from there to Guantanamo Bay. The U.S. contends that Bisher is being held under the suspicion that he has links with al-Qaeda.

[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.^[4][5] Three chairs were reserved for members of the press, but only 37 of the 574 Tribunals were observed.^[6]

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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 United States 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.

Fluent in English,^[3] Bisher is one of the detainees who appeared before a Combatant Status Review Tribunal. He told his tribunal that his "Personal Representative" had not prepared, had only met with him twice, for a total of two and a half hours, and had not reviewed key documents.

The Tribunal concluded that Bisher had been properly classified as an "enemy combatant".^[1]

[edit] Allegations

The allegations against Al Rawi were:

• The detainee is associated with al Qaida:
• The detainee provided harbor in London, United Kingdom to a known al Qaida fugitive named Abu Qatada.
• The detainee assisted Abu Qatada by locating an apartment where Abu Qatada hid from British authorities.
• Abu Qatada has strong links to senior al Qaida operatives and facilitated the travel of individuals to an al Qaida guesthouse located in Pakistan.
• Abu Qatada is a known al Qaida operative who was arrested in the United Kingdom as a danger to national security.
• In addition to helping Abu Qatada evade British authorities, the detainee transferred funds between branches of the Arab Bank at Abu Qatada’s direction in 1999 or 2000.
• In November 2002, the detainee was arrested in Gambia after arriving from the United Kingdom and was later transferred to U.S. custody in Bagram, Afghanistan.

[edit] Witnesses

Al Rawi requested seven witnesses.^[7]

The Tribunal's President had initially ruled that all the witnesses were irrelevant.^[8] During the course of Al Rawi's testimony he decided that the testimony of Alex, Matthew and Martin was relevant after all. He directed the Tribunal's Recorder to locate them. The Tribunal's Recorder was unable to locate them. The reason the President changed his mind is redacted.

[edit] Testimony

Al Rawi's testimony contained many redacted sections.

[edit] Ties to Abu Qatada

Many of the questions Bisher faced at his Tribunal concerned his friendship with Abu Qatada, a Muslim cleric. Bisher claimed that Abu Qatada had asked him to help him look for an apartment in the UK, to help with some small home repairs and to help send money to Abu Qatada's father in Jordan. The Tribunal countered these claims by contending that Bisher was helping Abu Qatada to hide from British authorities when he was supposedly house hunting. When Bisher was asked if he knew that Abu Qatada's name had been linked with al-Qaeda, he replied that he only found that out later, after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

[edit] Suspicious electronic device

Other questions concerned a suspicious electronic device that he had carried in his luggage. Al Rawi acknowledged that security authorities in London had been suspicious of an electronic device he was carrying -- a mundane consumer battery charger. He and el-Banna had missed their original flight while security officials checked to see that the electronic device was just a simple battery charger as he had claimed. But they did determine it was a simple battery charger, it was returned to him, and he was allowed to book a later flight.

In the allegations against his friend el-Banna he too is accused of carrying a suspicious electronic device.^[9]

[edit] MI5 informant

Following the partial compliance of the Department of Defense with Justice Jed Rakoff's court order to release documents from detainees' Combatant Status Review Tribunals many newspapers repeated that Al-Rawi was an informant for Britain's counter-intelligence agency, MI5. ^[10][11]

[edit] Comfort items

One of Al Rawi's lawyer's Brent Mickum, described how comfort items were withheld from Al Rawi.^[12] Al Rawi toilet paper ration was fifteen sheets a day. However, when he tried using sheets of toilet paper to block out the 24 hours of light in his cell, his toilet paper ration was withheld. When Al Rawi was subject to extremes of temperature, and was kept in a very cold cell, his prayer rug was confiscated when he tried to use it as a blanket.

[edit] Repatriation request

The Guardian reported, on April 20, 2006, that the British Foreign Office formally requested that Al Rawi be freed to return to Britain.^[13][14]

On October 3, 2006 The Times reported that the United States had agreed, in confidential talks in June 2006, to return all nine of the British residents held in Guantanamo -- but only under stringent conditions.^[15] The conditions the U.S. stipulated included round the clock surveillance, and the UK government considered the condition too expensive.^[16] According to The Times:

Although the men are accused of terrorist involvement, British officials say that there is not enough evidence to justify the level of surveillance demanded by the US and that the strict conditions stipulated are unworkable and unnecessary.

The Times reports that the UK government was only interested in the return of Al Rawi, because of his cooperation with MI5.^[15]

[edit] Release

On Thursday March 29, 2007 UK Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett announced that the UK Government had negotiated al-Rawi's return from Guantanamo.^[17][18] According to the Associated Press Beckett issued a statement to Parliament which said:

""We have now agreed with the U.S. authorities that Mr. al-Rawi will be returned to the U.K. shortly, as soon as the practical arrangements have been made, This decision follows extensive discussions to address the security implications of Mr. Al-Rawi's return."

Beckett's announcement didn't say anything about al-Rawi's traveling companion Jamil al-Banna, or the other remaining former UK residents who remain held in Guantanamo.^[18] Nor did she announce an exact return date. Al-Rawi's home, in Britain, is in Beckett's constituency.

Al-Rawi had been released by April 3, 2007.^[19] According to the New Zealand Herald he said:

"I am delighted to be back in England, with my family. After four years in Guantanamo Bay, my nightmare is finally at an end. As happy as I am to be home though, leaving my best friend, Jamil el-Banna, behind in Guantanamo Bay makes my freedom bitter-sweet. Jamil was arrested with me in the Gambia on exactly the same unfounded allegations, yet he is still a prisoner..."

[edit] Civil suit

On August 1, 2007 Bisher al Rawi joined a civil suit filed under the United States' Alien Tort Statute, with the assistance of the American Civil Liberties Union.^[20]

[edit] References

1. ^ ^{a b} documents (.pdf) from Bisher Amin Khalil Al-Rawi's Combatant Status Review Tribunal
2. ^ 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.
3. ^ ^{a b} Begg, Moazzam, "Enemy Combatant", 2006
4. ^ Guantánamo Prisoners Getting Their Day, but Hardly in Court, New York Times, November 11, 2004 - mirror
5. ^ Inside the Guantánamo Bay hearings: Barbarian "Justice" dispensed by KGB-style "military tribunals", Financial Times, December 11, 2004
6. ^ 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.
7. ^ Legal Sufficiency Review (.pdf) from page 6 of Bisher Amin Khalil Al-Rawi's Combatant Status Review Tribunal
8. ^ Unclassified summary of basis for Tribunal decision (.pdf) from page 12 of Bisher Amin Khalil Al-Rawi's Combatant Status Review Tribunal
9. ^ Summarized transcripts (.pdf) from page 18 of Jamil al-Banna's Combatant Status Review Tribunal
10. ^ Britain will ask U.S. to hand over Guantanamo detainee, Duluth News Tribune, March 27, 2006
11. ^ Courted as Spies, Held as Combatants: British Residents Enlisted by MI5 After Sept. 11 Languish at Guantanamo, Washington Post, April 2, 2006
12. ^ Brent Mickum. "Guantánamo's lost souls", The Guardian, January 8, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-08-11. 
13. ^ Straw demands release of man with MI5 links from Guantánamo, The Guardian, April 20, 2006
14. ^ UK appeals for release of 'informer' from Guantanamo, Islamic Republic News Agency, April 20, 2006
15. ^ ^{a b} Britain refused US offer to return Guantanamo detainees, The Times, October 3, 2006
16. ^ UK, U.S. at odds on threat from Guantanamo inmates, Washington Post, October 3, 2006
17. ^ Robert DeVries. "UK resident to be released from Guantanamo", The Jurist, Thursday March 29, 2007. 
18. ^ ^{a b} Tariq Panja. "Briton to Be Freed From Guantanamo", Associated Press, Thursday March 29, 2007. 
19. ^ Kim Sengupta. "Freedom bitter-sweet, best friend still at Guantanamo", New Zealand Herald, Tuesday April 3, 2007. 
20. ^ Two More Victims of CIA’s Rendition Program, Including Former Guantánamo Detainee, Join ACLU Lawsuit Against Boeing Subsidiary. American Civil Liberties Union (August 1, 2007). Retrieved on 2007-08-24.

[edit] External links

• Tortured, humiliated and crying out for some justice, The Guardian, January 12, 2005
• UK's 'forgotten' Cuba detainees, BBC, 25 January 2005