Musa Ali Said Al Said Al Umari

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Musa Ali Said Al Said Al Umari is held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.

The United States Department of Defense, under court order, released the identity of the Guantanamo detainees. On April 20, 2006 they released a list of the names of 558 detainees who were held in Guantanamo Bay in July 2004, when they started conducting Combatant Status Review Tribunals.^[1] On May 15, 2006 they released a list of all the names of all the detainees who had been held in Guantanamo.^[2]

Numerous detainee's names were spelled differently on the two lists -- some of them markedly so. Al Umari's name is not on either list. But the DoD released a memo summarizing the factors for and against his continued detention ^[3]

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

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.

Because of the DoD's confusion over Al Umari's name it is not clear whether he participated 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 Umari were among the 120 that the Department of Defense released on March 3, 2006.^[3]

[edit] The following primary factors favor continued detention:

a. Commitment

The detainee saw papers with fatwas issued by Sheiks on bulletin boards around the city and in the mosques. The fatwas called for Saudi Arabian citizens to travel to Afghanistan and help the Taliban.
A man who had fought with the Taliban in Afghanistan told detainee about fighting on the front and information about how to get to Afghanistan.
That man provided detainee approximately 8,000 [[Saudi Riyal}Riyals]] to take to Afghanistan. In addition, the detainee took approximately 4,000 Riyals of his own money.

b. Training

The detainee went with Mohammed Abdul Razzaq to a Taliban center called Umar al Saif, located on the outskirts of Kabul.
Abdul Razzaq ((Mohammed)), a Saudi Arabian national living in Pakistan, facilitated travel through Pakistan to Afghanistan.
Umar al Saif was identified as reserve camp. Activities at this camp included small arms training, medical care and guard duty.

c. Connection/Association

The detainee stayed at a Taliban house a few minutes from the Pakistan/Afghanistan border with five Afghans. One of the Afghans, Mohammed Abdul Razzaq, told the detainee that if he wanted to meet up with other Arabs, the detainee could either go to Kandahar or Kabul. The detainee had heard about the Kabul front, so he decided to go there.
The detainee stayed at a Taliban house in a small village outside of Kabul.
The detainee spent about two weeks at the Umar al Saif Center, then was moved to a supply center called Said. He spent about a month and a half, loading trucks and supplies.
One of detainee’s known aliases was on a list of captured al Qaida members that was discovered on a computer hard drive associated with suspected al Qaida.
One of detainee’s aliases was in another hard drive believed to belong to members of the suspected al Qaida cell involved with the October 2002 attack, on US Marines in Faylaka Island.
Detainee’s name was recovered on a hard drive belonging to a senior al Qaida operational planner, Khalid Sheik Mohammed.

d. Intent

During the detainee’s travel from Qatar to Afghanistan, he told another passenger that he was going to Afghanistan to fight with the Taliban.
Detainee states that he traveled to Afghanistan at the end of March 2001, was issued a Kalashnikov rifle, and was assigned to a position called Suhail about 700m from the frontlines.
While at the Suhail center, detainee dug trenches and laid barbed wire.
The detainee fought on the Bagram frontline.
The detainee retreated to Jalalabad with other Taliban fighters. They traveled through the mountains for about 20 days and eventually came to the Pakistan border where they turned in their weapons.

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

The detainee stated that while in Afghanistan, he never participated in any military actions or affiliations of any type with the Taliban. He knows no one who is or has claimed to be with al Qaida, nor has anyone ever asked him to join the Taliban or al Qaida.
The detainee stated that his only activities, while he was in Afghanistan, were to visit local mosques and teach the Koran.
The detainee had initially provided the story that he fought with the Taliban. He did this because Pakistani authorities informed him, that if he told the truth about performing missionary work with the Jamaat Tabligh, the Saudi delegation would not help him.
The detainee is willing to return to Saudi Arabia and forget about the bad times he had while confined. He would try not to have bad feelings against the United States.