Hani Saiid Mohammad Al Khalif

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Hani Saiid Mohammad Al Khalif is a citizen of Saudi Arabia held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.^[1] His Guantanamo detainee ID number is 438. American intelligence analysts estimate that Al Khalif was born in 1972, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

1 Combatant Status Review Tribunal
2 Administrative Review Board hearing
- 2.1 The following primary factors favor continued detention:
- 2.2 The following primary factors favor release or transfer:
3 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's 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. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate 1st Class Christopher Mobley

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 Khalif chose not to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.

[edit] Administrative Review Board hearing

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.

The factors for and against continuing to detain Al Khalif were among the 121 that the Department of Defense released on March 3, 2006.^[2]

[edit] The following primary factors favor continued detention:

a. Commitment

The detainee, a Saudi Arabian citizen, traveled to Afghanistan in November of 2000 to fight in the jihad. He paid for his own travel with savings from his job at the Ministry of Islamic Affairs.
The detainee told the Taliban that he was there to fight in the jihad.
The detainee decided on his own that it was his duty as a Muslim to join the jihad in defense of other Muslims.
The detainee traveled from Riyadh through Jordan to Damascus, Syria. He then took an Iranian Air Flight from Damascus to Tehran, Iran and then onto Mashed [sic], Iran. He then crossed into Afghanistan from Mashed.
This is a travel route for the movement of jihad volunteers from Saudi Arabia to Afghanistan.

'b. Training

While in the Saudi Army, the detainee learned to use a 9mm pistol and a Hechler & Koch G-3 assault rifle.
The detainee was trained to use the Kalishnikov rifle, the PK machine gun, the 9mm pistol, and rocket-propelled grenades while at the Farouq camp. He also had physical training, learned to read maps, dig trenches, and use camouflage techniques.
The detainee trained at al Farouq in the detection, avoidance, disarming, and displacement of various antitank and antipersonnel mines.
The detainee trained in the use and maintenance of the 82mm mortar near Konduz, Afghanistan.

c. Associations

Detainee seems to know another detainee well.
That detainee was the acting Taliban Governor of Mazar-e-Sharif [sic].
Upon arrival in Afghanistan, detainee stayed at a guesthouse.
The guesthouse was managed by a close personal friend of Mullah Omar.
The guesthouse manager sent the detainee to an Arab guesthouse in Kandahar.
An al Qaida facilitator knew the detainee as Haydarah Salim Al-Libi.
Haydarah Al-Libi was in charge of logistics for the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group in Karachi, Pakistan.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has designated the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group as a foreign terrorist organization.

d. Intent

After finishing training in early 2001, the detainee was sent to the frontlines at Kabul, Afghanistan, and fought there for five or six months.
The detainee was then sent north to the frontlines near Konduz, Afghanistan, and fought there for about five months until his capture in late 2001.
The detainee was captured in late 2001 by General Dostum's Northern Alliance Forces near Mazir-e-Sharif, after the U.S. bombing campaign of the Konduz region had started.
The detainee stated he would only wage jihad against the United States if the United States was involved in killing Muslims.

[edit] The following primary factors favor release or transfer:

a. During the Gulf war, the detainee fought side by side with the United States Marines in Saudi Arabia.

b. The detainee said he has never been an enemy of the United States, nor has he supported any efforts against them.

c. The detainee said he left Saudi Arabia to fight the jihad long before Americans were in Afghanistan. If he were released, the detainee would like to get a job, start a family and have a normal life.

d. Detainee denies any affiliation with al Qaida and denies knowing anyone from al Qaida.