Hussein Salem Mohammed

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Hussein Salem Mohammed is a citizen of Yemen, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in Cuba.^[1] Mohammed's Guantanamo detainee ID number is 1015. American intelligence analysts estimate that Mohammed was born in 1977, in Aden, Yemen.

1 Combatant Status Review Tribunal
2 Administrative Review Board hearing
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 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 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 Tribunal. 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.

To comply with a Freedom of Information Act request, during the winter and spring of 2005, the Department of Defense released 507 memoranda. Those 507 memoranda each contained the allegations against a single detainee, prepared for their Combatant Status Review Tribunals. The detainee's name and ID numbers were redacted from all but one of the memoranda. However 169 of the memoranda had the detainee's ID hand-written on the top right hand of the first page corner. When the Department of Defense complied with a court order, and released official lists of the detainee's names and ID numbers it was possible to identify who those 169 were written about. Hussein Salem Mohammed was one of those 169 detainees.^[2]

[edit] Allegations

a. The detainee is a member of al Qaida:

The detainee stated that he traveled from Yemen to Pakistan in September of 2001.
The detainee visited the Tablighi headquarters in Lahore, Pakistan.
Jama'at Al Tablighi [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 stayed at the Tablighi center for two and a half months.
The detainee stayed at al Qaida guest houses in Afghanistan.
The detainee has been confirmed as being an old "JUNIOR" al Qaida member.
The detainee was arrested in Tehran, Iran for illegally entering Iran.

[edit] testimony in response to the allegations

Mohammed acknowledged traveling from Yemen to Pakistan. He denied any association with al Qaida.

Mohammed said he stayed at the Tablighi hostel just because it was a cheap place for a traveler to stay. He asked how he could be held responsible for terrorists using Tablighi as a cover for travel to conduct terrorist projects.

Mohammed said he didn't understand the allegation that he stayed at al Qaida guest houses in Afghanistan when he had never been to Afghanistan before the Americans imprisoned him there.

Mohammed repeated his denial that he was a member of al Qaida. He pointed out that his trip to Pakistan was the first time he had ever left Yemen.

Mohammed acknowledged trying to illegally enter Iran. But he questioned how that made him an enemy combatant.

[edit] Mohammed's opening statement

Mohammed said he was only interrogated three times during the year and a half he was detained in Afghanistan. He had two interrogations in the beginning, and one final interrogation. During his final interrogation in Afghanistan his interrogator told him: "...the interrogator told me explicitly that there is nothing against you, you are innocent, you are going to go, you are going to go."

Mohammed said the same interrogators who gave him the polygraph that convinced them he was telling the truth, and told him he was going to be released, then came back and told him he had to go to Cuba first. They told him he could expect to be there only a month or two, then he would be released.

But, in Guantanamo, they keep changing interrogators on him. They all conclude that he is innocent.

One interrogator told him he wouldn't have to have a Tribunal, because he was obviously innocent, and he would be released before the Tribunals started.

[edit] Mohammed's testimony in reply to Tribunal officer's questions

When he was asked about his travel plans Mohammed said "My intention was to go and surrender myself or give up myself to any European country that I could get to. My intention was to go to the government and give myself up to them.

Mohammed said he couldn't imagine why anyone would accuse him of being a member of al Qaida.

Mohammed said he wanted to leave Yemen because of political strife and corruption there.

Mohammed said he had worked in construction, selling thing in the market, working in a metal shop.

Mohammed confirmed that his name was a common on in Yemen.

When asked if, when he went to the Tablighi Headquarters, he was aware of its ties to al Qaida, Mohammed said he had never heard of al Qaida at that point.

Mohammed said that he hoped that if he traveled with the missionaries he could travel somewhere that would be close to a European country where he could claim refugee status.

Mohammed confirmed that when traveled from Yemen to Afghanistan he paid for his own ticket, and had arranged a visa. He confirmed he traveled alone.

Mohammed tried to enter Iran illegally when he was told that the Tabligh organization was suspending its traveling missionary program.

[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.

Mohammed chose to participate in his Administrative Review Board hearing.^[3]