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. American intelligence analysts estimate Al Khalaqi was born in 1968, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

1 Combatant Status Review Tribunal
2 References

[edit] Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held in a small trailer, the same width, but shorter, than a mobile home. The Tribunal's President sat in the big chair. The detainee sat with their hands and feet shackled to a bolt in the floor in the white, plastic garden chair. A one way mirror behind the Tribunal President allowed observers to observe clandestinely. In theory the open sessions of the Tribunals were open to the press. Three chairs were reserved for them. In practice the Tribunal only intermittently told the press that Tribunals were being held. And when they did they kept the detainee's identities secret. In practice almost all Tribunals went unobserved.

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.

Al Khalaqi chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.^[2]

[edit] allegations

The allegations Al Khalaqi faced during his Tribunal were:

a. -- The general summary of the allegations that establish an association with terrorism were missing from the transcript. --

The detainee arrived in Afghanistan in late 2001 from Yemen via Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.
The detainee is associated with the Jama’at al Tabligh [sic].
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.
The detainee is associated with the Jaish E Mohammed Islamic Fundamentalist Group.
The Jaish E Mohammed Islamic Fundamentalist Group is a terrorist organization associated with al Qaida and the Taliban.
The detainee completed paramilitary training.
The detainee may have stayed in a guesthouse in Afghanistan.

b. -- The general summary of the allegations of hostile activity were missing from the transcript. --

The detainee was at the front lines in Bagram.

[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.^[3] 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.