Algerian Six

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Algerian Six

The Algerian Six were six islamic clergy, who worked for charities in Bosnia, who fell under suspicion of plotting to attack the American embassy in Bosnia. All six men were born in Algeria, but five of them were naturalized Bosnian citizens.

During the wars that erupted during the break up of Yugoslavia the struggles were largely based on ethnic groups. A large fraction of the Bosnian population were muslims. They received support from other muslim nations, from Islamic non-governmental organizations, and from individual moslem volunteers. After the successful breakaway of Bosnia from the rump of Yugoslavia the newly independent Bosnian republic rewarded the foreign volunteers with an offer of citizenship. Several hundred foreign fighters accepted this offer.

The six men were formally arrested by Bosnian authorities, tried before the Bosnian Supreme Court, and acquitted of all charges. Even so, upon their release from legitimate Bosnian incarceration, following their acquital, they were captured by American security officials who transported them to detention and interrogation in the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The Associated Press has made the Combatant Status Review Tribunals of four of the six men available for download. Transcripts within these documents record the Bosnians reporting to their tribunal officers that interrogators did not believe that there had ever been any substance to the US allegations that they had planned to bomb the US embassy.

German state media revealed that this procedure had been noted by German military intelligence as far back as July 2003. The German government was slightly irritated by way the report came into being: A Bundeswehr intelligence officer had questioned the wife of one of the Algerian Six while pretending to be a journalist, which is prohibited by German military code.

The CSRT concluded that they had been correctly classified as "enemy combatants", based on classified evidence. As of September 8, 2006 all six of the men were still in US custody. The six men were:

Bensayah Belkacem	US claims he is the ringleader US alleges cell phone records show 70 calls to Afghanistan in the month following the attacks of September 11, 2001 US claims he had two forged passports US claims he had a slip of paper with Abu Zubaydah's cell phone number on it
Boudella el Hajj^[1]	Met monthly with Bensayah, and the local leaders of four other charities, to coordinated charitable activiites US alleges the charitable activities were just a front and that the meetings were really to discuss terrorist activities
Lakmar Boumediene
Sabir Mahfouz Lahmar^[2]
Mustafa Ait Idr ^[3]^[4]	Idir alleges beatings broke one of his fingers and left his face partially paralyzed. Has a black belt in karate, and was 1995 Croatian champ.
Mohammad Nechle^[5]

Three British citizens who had been detained in Guantanamo, the "Tipton Three", wrote a 131 page account of their time Guantanamo.^[6] They wrote about the Bosnians:

"By Bosnians we mean six Algerians who were unlawfully taken from Bosnia to Guantanamo Bay. They told us how they had won their Court case in Bosnia. As they walked out of Court, Americans were there and grabbed them and took them to Camp X-Ray, January 20, 2002. They arrived five days after us. They were treated particularly badly. They were moved every two hours. They were kept naked in their cells. They were taken to interrogation for hours on end. They were short shackled for sometimes days on end. They were deprived of their sleep. They never got letters, nor books, nor reading materials. The Bosnians had the same interrogators for a while as we did and so we knew the names which were the same as ours and they were given a very hard time by those. They told us that the interrogators said if they didn't cooperate that they could ensure that something would happen to their families in Algeria and in Bosnia. They had dual nationality. They had families in Bosnia as well as in Algeria."

1 Melissa Hoffer's interviews
2 The USA drops the allegation of a plot to bomb the US Embassy in Sarajevo
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Melissa Hoffer's interviews

Melissa Hoffer, of the law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, traveled to Guantanamo to volunteer her services to the Bosnians.^[7] Hoffer delivered a speech at the 17th Concours International de Plaidoiries.^[8] She said that during her interviews the Bosnians described horrific treatment.

[edit] The USA drops the allegation of a plot to bomb the US Embassy in Sarajevo

The Washington Post published a profile of the six Bosnians.^[9] The profile reported that the allegations the men faced during their Administrative Review Board hearings dropped the accusation that the men had been plotting to bomb the US embassy in Sarajevo.

The article reports the speculation that the men remain in detention because the Bush administration is unwilling to undergo the embarrassment of admitting it held the men for four years and never had any real evidence against them.

The article reports some of the new justifications Guantanamo intelligence analysts offered for continuing to detain the men following the abandonment of the claim the men plotted to bomb the US embassy, including:

Mustafa Idr had taught Karate to Bosnian orphans.
Another detainee, during his compulsory military service, when he still lived in Algeria, over ten years ago, had served as an army cook.
"Boudella was accused ... of joining bin Laden and Taliban fighters at Tora Bora, Afghanistan,.. in December 2001. In fact, at the time, Boudella was locked up thousands of miles away in Sarajevo, after his arrest in the later-discredited embassy plot."
A ring Boudella wore a ring "similar to those that identified the Red Rose Group members of Hamas," Boudella's wife has obtained an affidavit from the jeweller where the ring was purchased, explaining that this style of ring is extremely popular in Bosnia.

The article reports a confusing story of Bush administration negotiators trying to secure face-saving deals with Bosnia and Algeria. According to the article:

"U.S. officials have pressed Algeria to take back the prisoners on the condition that they be confined or kept under surveillance there. So far, the Algerian government has balked."
"Senior Bosnian officials said they have been told by U.S. diplomats that the six Algerians will never be allowed to return to Bosnia, which had granted dual citizenship to most of the men before their seizure. Instead, U.S. officials have pressed Algeria to take back the prisoners on the condition that they be confined or kept under surveillance there."
Bosnian Prime Minister Adnan Terzic requested Condoleezza Rice arrange the return of the men in a letter dated February 2, 2005.
On March 17, 2005 Rice replied the men could not be freed because "they still possess important intelligence data." Rice also said they still represent a threat to the USA.
"Three months later, the State Department offered a somewhat different explanation.., Matthew A. Reynolds, acting assistant secretary for legislative affairs, explained that the Algerians could not be released in part because the Bosnian government 'has not indicated that it is prepared or willing to accept responsibility for them upon transfer'."
"Justice Minister Slobodan Kovac said there would be no legal basis to place the men under arrest or surveillance if they were returned to Bosnia because they have already been exonerated there. 'There is no case against them here in Bosnia, no criminal case,' he said."

The article points out that even though the Bush administration has declined to discuss any real evidence they may have against the men that Lieutenant Commander J.D. Gordon stated:

"There was no mistake in originally detaining these individuals as enemy combatants. Their detention was directly related to their combat activities as determined by an appropriate Defense Department official before they were ever transferred to Guantanamo."