Jabran al-Qahtani

For other Guantanamo captives names al Qahtani, see al Qahtani (disambiguation).

Jabran Said bin Al Qahtani
Born	1977 (age 46–47) Tabuk, Saudi Arabia
Arrested	March 2, 2002
Detained at	Guantanamo
Other name(s)	Jabran Said Wazar Al Qahtani
ISN	696
Charge(s)	War crimes charges have been dismissed but may be refiled.
Status	Held in Guantanamo

Jabran Said bin Al Qahtani is a Saudi currently held in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number is 696. Joint Task Force Guantanamo analysts estimate he was born in 1977, in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.

As of November 2, 2010, Jabran Said Wazar al Qahtani has been held at Guantanamo for eight years three months. War crimes charges against Mr. al Qahtani have been dismissed but may be refiled.

He graduated from the King Saud University in Saudi Arabia with an engineering degree.

Identity

Jabran Said Wazar al Qahtani was named inconsistently on various documents released by the Department of Defense:

Jabran Said Wazar Al Qahtani on the Summary of Evidence memo prepared for his Combatant Status Review Tribunal, on 30 August 2004, and on three official list of captive's names. Jabran Said Bin Al Qahtani on the charges he faced before a military commission, on November 7, 2005.

Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Initially the Bush Presidency 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 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 Presidency's definition of an enemy combatant.

Summary of Evidence memo

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Jabran Said Wazar Al Qahtani's Combatant Status Review Tribunal, on 30 August 2004. The memo listed the following allegations against him:

a. Detainee is a member of Al Qaida.

1. Detainee traveled to Afghanistan to learn to participate in Jihad in October 2001.
2. Detainee trained in the use of the Kalashnikov rifle and the hand grenades.
3. Detainee stayed in an safe house owned by ABU ZUBAYDA, a known Al-Qaida operative.
4. Detainee has stated that he is a "terrorist."

b. Detainee engaged in hostilities against the United States and/or it's coalition partners.

1. Detainee went to the battlefield to help fight the Northern Alliance.
2. The detainee constructed two circuit boards for explosive devices intended to be used against US Military Forces.

Transcript

There is no record that captive 696 participated in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.

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".

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.

In September 2007 the Department of Defense released all the Summary of Evidence memos prepared for the Administrative Review Boards convened in 2005 or 2006. There is no record that an Administrative Review Board convened in 2005 or 2006 to review his detention.

2008 Administrative Review Board hearing

On January 9, 2009, the Department of Defense published documents from the Administrative Review Board hearings convened in 2007, which for all the other captives was their third hearing. Although their first hearings convened in 2008, the documents from Jabran al Qahtani and Sufyian Barhoumi's hearing were published with the 2007 documents from the other captives' hearings.

Enemy combatant election form

His Assisting Military Officer read notes from the Enemy Combatant election form.:

"The detainee appeared at his interview wearing an orange uniform. The detainee stated that the unclassified summary was true. The detainee also stated that King Fahad was an infidel. The detainee boasted that he knows how to make explosives without training. The detainee said that he wrote manuals on the use of explosives."

Board recommendations

On January 9, 2009, the Department of Defense released two heavily redacted memos, from his Board, to Gordon England, the Designated Civilian Official. The Board's recommendation was unanimous The Board's recommendation was redacted. England authorized his continued detention on February 25, 2008.

Charges before a military commission

The original ten Presidentially authorized Military Commissions were convened in the former terminal building in the discontinued airfield on the Naval Base's Eastern Peninsula.

The Bush Presidency plans to hold up to 80 of the new Congressionally authorized Military Commissions in a $12 million tent city.

On November 7, 2005, the United States charged Jabran and four other detainees. The Bush administration intends to prosecute these detainees before a military commission. Qahtani, Sufyian Barhoumi, Binyam Ahmed Muhammad, and Ghassan Abdullah al Sharbi face conspiracy to murder charges. Omar Khadr faces both murder and conspiracy to murder charges.

Al Qahtani, Barhoumi and Al Sharbi have been dubbed "The Faisalabad Three". The three were captured together with a senior member of the al Qaeda leadership, Abu Zubaydah, in a safehouse in Faisalabad, Pakistan. The three are believed to have been members of Zubaydah's entourage. All three keep insisting they want to defend themselves.

In Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, in July 2006, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the Bush Presidency lacked the constitutional authority to set up the military commissions. Only Congress had the authority to set up military commissions. Congress subsequently passed the Military Commissions Act of 2006.

Al Qahtani was re-charged in the winter of 2008.

On 21 October 2008 charges were dropped against Al Qahtani and four other captives, Binyam Mohamed, Ghassan al Sharbi, Sufyian Barhoumi, and Noor Uthman Muhammed.

On 21 October 2008 Susan J. Crawford the official in charge of the Office of Military Commissions announced charges were dropped against Binyam and four other captives, Jabran al Qahtani, Ghassan al Sharbi, Sufyian Barhoumi, and Noor Uthman Muhammed. Carol J. Williams, writing in the Los Angeles Times reports that all five men had been connected by Abu Zubaydah -- one of the three captives the CIA has acknowledged was interrogated using the controversial technique known as "waterboarding".

Williams quoted the men's attorneys, who anticipated the five men would be re-charged in thirty days. They told Williams that: "... prosecutors called the move procedural", and attributed it to the resignation of fellow Prosecutor Darrel Vandeveld, who resigned on ethical grounds. Williams reported that Clive Stafford Smith speculated that the Prosecution's dropping of the charges, and plans to subsequently re-file charges later was intended to counter and disarm the testimony Vandeveld was anticipated to offer, that the Prosecution had withheld exculpatory evidence.

References

External links

• Who Are the Remaining Prisoners in Guantánamo? Part Six: Captured in Pakistan (2 of 3) Andy Worthington, October 6, 2010
• Commissions Transcripts, Exhibits, and Allied Papers
• US military charges Omar Khadr with murder, CTV, November 7, 2005
• US charges five Guantanamo detainees with war crimes, China Daily, November 7, 2005
• Supreme Court to hear challenge to military commissions, San Francisco Mercury, November 7, 2005

Works related to Summary of Evidence for Combatant Status Review Tribunal - Al Qahtani, Jabran Said Wazar at Wikisource

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