Abu Bakker Qassim

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Abu Bakker Qassim is a Uyghur from China's western frontier, Uyghur Xinjiang Autonomous Region (also known as East Turkistan) who was held in "Camp Iguana" the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba after being classified as "no longer enemy combatant" (NLEC) by the Combatant Status Review Tribunal (CSRT). He has been transferred to Albania.^[1]. He recently published an op-ed on The New York Times [1]to ask the American lawmakers and people not to eliminate habeas corpus.

[edit] Background

The caption to this poster, distributed by the CIA in Afghanistan, reads: “You can receive millions of dollars for helping the Anti-Taliban Force catch Al-Qaida and Taliban murderers. This enough money to take care of your family, your village, your tribe for the rest of your life. Pay for livestock and doctors and school books and housing for all your people."

In late 2001, Qassim was captured along with his compatriot A'Del Abdu al-Hakim during the "War on Terror" by Pakistani bounty hunters.^[2] Qassim and al-Hakim were transferred to U.S. custody by the Pakistani forces and held in Afghanistan for approximately six months, and were transferred to "Camp Delta," on the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, where they were detained as an "enemy combatants." President Bush had ruled that the detainees were "illegal combatants" by administrative fiat. Following legal challenges, the Bush administration was forced to provide a mechanism to review the Guantanamo detainees status.

[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.

Qassim chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.

[edit] allegations

Some of the allegations against Qassim were:^[3]

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

1. In 2001, the detainee traveled from Kyrgyzstan, through Pakistan, then on to Jalalabad, Afghanistan to attend a training camp.
2. --missing from the record---
3. The Detainee was at the camp for three months and spent two months learning the Koran and one month shooting an AK-47.
4. After the U.S. bombing started, the Detainee and the other Uighurs went to the caves and stayed there until the Northern Alliance came to the camps.
5. An afghani man sent the Detainee with approximately one hundred Arabs and twenty Uighurs to Pakistan, where they were captured.

[edit] reclassification

In March 2005, the CSRT finalized its determination that they were NLECs. Qassim and Hakim were not informed of this determination until May 2005. The United States did not release the men, but did not return them to China because to do so would be a violation of US law prohibiting the deportation of individuals to countries where they would likely be tortured. The U.S. refused to admit them to the United States. Qassim, Hakim and other non-enemy combattants who could not be repatriated were transferred from the general prison population to Camp Iguana in August 2005.

Qassim was one of the 38 detainees whose Combatant Status Review Tribunal concluded he had not been an "illegal combatants". Some of those detainees were repatriated, once they were determined NLECs. Others, like, Qassim, and Sami Al Laithi, face possible torture if they are returned.

[edit] Seeking asylum

In March 2005, attorneys for Qassim challenged his continued detention by filing a Petition for a Writ of Habeas Corpus in federal district court in Washington DC. In December Judge James Robertson reviewed the detention of Qassim and A'Del Abdu al-Hakim.^[4] Robertson declaraed that their "indefinite imprisonment at Guantanamo Bay is unlawful," but also ruled on separation of powers grounds that he did not have the power to order their release into the United States.^[5] Qassim and Hakim immediately appealed.

A February 18, 2006 article in the Washington Times reported that Abu Bakker Qassim and A'Del Abdu al-Hakim had received military training in Afghanistan.^[6] It said they were not classified as "illegal combatants" because they intended to go home and employ their training against the Chinese government. Some earlier reports had described them as economic refugees, who were slowly working their way to Turkey.

On April 17, 2006 the US Supreme Court rejected Qassim's request to hear his appeal.^[7] His appeal was scheduled to be heard by the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on May 8, 2006.

[edit] Asylum in Albania

On May 5, 2006 the Department of Defense announced that it had transferred five Uighurs who had been determined not to have been enemy combatants, to Albania.^[1][8] Seventeen other Uighurs continue to be held at Guantanamo, because their CSRTs determined they were enemy combatants.

Two of the five men had a lawsuit scheduled for argument on May 8, 2006 before the US District Court where their lawyers would argue for their release.^[9]

The Department of Justice filed an "Emergency Motion to Dismiss as Moot" on May 5, 2006.^[10][11] Barbara Olshansky, one of the Uighur's lawyers, characterized the sudden transfer as an attempt to: "...avoid having to answer in court for keeping innocent men in jail,^[12]"

Main article: Uyghur detainees in Guantanamo

[edit] References

1. ^ ^{a b} detainee release announced, Department of Defense, May 5, 2006
2. ^ United States District Court for the District of Columbia - Memorandum Order: Qassim , et al. v. Bush, et al. Civil Action #05-0497 (JR). August 19, 2005
3. ^ summarized transcript (.pdf), from Abu Bakker Qassim's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 21-23
4. ^ Judge Weighs Order to Release Two at Gitmo, Forbes, December 13, 2005
5. ^ Two Guantanamo Detainees to Stay in Custody, New York Post, December 22, 2005
6. ^ U.S. hit on human rights, Washington Times, February 18, 2006
7. ^ Supreme Court Rejects Appeal of Guantanamo Bay Detainees: Detainees' Biggest Obstacle Was the Timing of Their Appeal, ABC News, April 17, 2006
8. ^ Albania accepts Chinese Guantanamo detainees, Washington Post, May 5, 2006
9. ^ Albania Takes 5 Ethnic Chinese From Gitmo, Houston Chronicle, May 5, 2006
10. ^ Emergency Motion to Dismiss as Moot, Department of Justice, May 5, 2006
11. ^ Making Justice Moot, Alternet, May 6, 2006
12. ^ Albania takes Guantanamo Uighurs, BBC, May 6, 2006