Mesh Arsad Al Rashid

Mesh Arsad Al Rashid
Mesh Arsad Al Rashid
Born 1980 (age 30–31) (estimate)
Sana'a, Yemen
Detained at Guantanamo
ISN 74
Charge(s) No charge (held in extrajudicial detention)
Status Repatriated

Mesh Arsad Al Rashid is a citizen of Saudi Arabia who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States's Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.[1] His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 74. American intelligence analysts estimate that Al Rashid was born in 1980, in Sana'a, Yemen.

He argued that he joined the Taliban army the year "before any problem happened in America", and that since he only there to fight the atheist warlords Abdul Rashid Dostum and Ahmad Shah Massoud, it didn't make sense to accuse him of wishing to harm Americans.[2]

Contents

Life

Present at the Battle of Qala-i-Jangi prison uprising, al-Rashid later characterised the incident stating that "We had given up our weapons, so how could we be part of an uprising? They were the ones that had the weapons, we tried to defend ourselves but we couldn't, because they had all the weapons."[2]

CSRT

The Bush administration asserted that:

the protections of the Geneva Conventions did not extend to captured prisoners who are not members of the regular Afghan armed force nor meet the criteria for prisoner of war for voluntary forces.[3]

Critics argued the Conventions obliged the U.S. to conduct competent tribunals to determine the status of prisoners. Subsequently, the U.S. Department of Defense instituted Combatant Status Review Tribunals (CSRTs), to determine whether detainees met the new definition of an "enemy combatant".

"Enemy combatant" was defined by the U.S. Department of Defense as:

an individual who was part of, or supporting, the Taliban, or al-Qaeda forces, or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners. This includes any person who commits a belligerent act or has directly supported hostilities in aid of enemy armed forces.[4]

The CSRTs are not bound by the rules of evidence that would normally apply in civilian court, and the government’s evidence is presumed to be “genuine and accurate.”[5] From July 2004 through March 2005, CSRTs were convened to determine whether each prisoner had been correctly classified as an "enemy combatant".

Mesh Arsad Al Rashid was among the 60% of prisoners who chose to participate in tribunal hearings.[6] A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for the tribunal of each detainee, listing the allegations that supported their detention as an "enemy combatant".

Mesh Arsad Al Rashid's memo accused him of the following: [7]

a. The detainee is a member of the Taliban:
  1. Detainee traveled to Afghanistan in response to a fatwa issued by Sheikh Hamoud Al Okla.
  2. Detainee trained for approximately 1 month with approximately 30 students at the Al Farouq training camp.
  3. Detainee received training on the Kalishnikov rifle, hand grenades , and PK machine gun while at the Al Farouq training camp.
b. The detainee participated in military operations against the coalition.
  1. Detainee was assigned to the Taliban front line in the Khawajagar region of Afghanistan.
  2. Detainee surrendered to Rashid Dostum's forces.
  3. Detainee was on the secondary line near Kabul, Afghanistan when the 11 September 2001, attacks occurred.
  4. Detainee was present at Mazar E Sharif Qalai prison during a prisoner uprising.
  5. Detainee stated he was a Taliban soldier who fought on the front lines against the Northern Alliance, and was bombed by American forces.

Transcript

On March 3, 2006, the Department of Defense released 5,000 pages of documents about the detainees, in partial compliance with a court order from US District Court Justice Jed Rakoff.[8] The Department of Defense published an eight page summarized transcripts from Al Rashid's Combatant Status Review Tribunal. For some reason the Department of Defense released Al Rashid's transcript twice. [9][10]

Press reports

When the Department of Defense first released its thousands of pages of transcripts most transcripts were only identified by a detainee ID number. A few transcripts contained the detainee's name in the body of the transcripts. Initial press reports focused on the cases of those detainees. Al Rashid was one of those detainees.

According to an Associated Press story Al Rashid told his Combatant Status Review Tribunal he: "went to Afghanistan to help Muslims fight against Abdul Rashid Dostum, a former northern warlord now the Afghan army chief of staff, and Ahmed Shah Massoud, an anti-Taliban Afghan military commander slain September 9, 2001.[11]

Al Rashid told his Combatant Status Review Tribunal:

  • "I did not know my training would be considered al-Qaeda training. I was trying to help Muslims,"[12]
  • "I never had a weapon. I never carried a weapon with me and I've never been in any kind of armed fight ... I always knew America as a democratic country and always heard positive things about America. I believe that after 9/11 America became very aggressive and that's probably the only reason I'm here."[13]
  • "I am not from the Taliban. I'm just a person, a helper."[11]

Repatriated on December 29, 2007

A captive named "Mishaal Saad Al-Rasheed" was repatriated on December 29, 2007, with nine other men.[14][15]

On January 9, 2009 the Department of Defense published the records for the third set of Administrative Review Board hearings, conducted in 2007 and early 2008.[16] According to those records no review was scheduled for Rashid in 2007. According to the records of the 2005 and 2006 Board hearings, those boards had not recommended his repatriation.[17][18] Al Rashid was repatriated in spite of the Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants recommending his continued detention in US custody.

References

  1. ^ "List of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from January 2002 through May 15, 2006". United States Department of Defense. http://www.dod.mil/news/May2006/d20060515%20List.pdf. Retrieved 2006-05-15. 
  2. ^ a b Worthington, Andy, The Guantanamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America's Illegal Prison, Pluto Press. ISBN 0745326658 2007
  3. ^ "Q&A: What next for Guantanamo prisoners?". BBC News. 2002-01-21. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1773140.stm. Retrieved 2008-11-24.  mirror
  4. ^ "Guatanamo Detainee Processes," United States Department of Defense, updated October 2, 2007, accessed February 23, 2010
  5. ^ Elsea, Jennifer K. (July 20, 2005). "Detainees at Guantanamo Bay: Report for Congress" (PDF). Congressional Research Service. http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RS22173.pdf. Retrieved 2007-11-10. 
  6. ^ OARDEC, Index to Transcripts of Detainee Testimony and Documents Submitted by Detainees at Combatant Status Review Tribunals Held at Guantanamo Between July 2004 and March 2005, September 4, 2007
  7. ^ OARDEC (2004-09-21). "Summary of Evidence for Combatant Status Review Tribunal -- Al Rashid, Mesh Arsad". United States Department of Defense. p. page 91–92. http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt_arb/000001-000100.pdf#91-92. Retrieved 2009-02-11. 
  8. ^ Pentagon releases documents naming Guantanamo detainees, Lexur
  9. ^ OARDEC (date redacted). "Summarized Unsworn Detainee Statement". United States Department of Defense. pp. pages 1–8. http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt_arb/Set_11_1145-1178.pdf#1-8. Retrieved 2008-10-28. 
  10. ^ OARDEC (date redacted). "Summarized Unsworn Detainee Statement". United States Department of Defense. pp. pages 22–29. http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt_arb/Set_4_0320-0464.pdf#22-29. Retrieved 2008-10-28. 
  11. ^ a b Details of Some Guantanamo Hearings, Las Vegas Sun, March 4, 2006
  12. ^ Suit leads to disclosure of 5,000 pages of transcripts from secret hearings, The Scotsman, March 5, 2006
  13. ^ Guantanamo - Inmates' testimonies, The Independent, March 6, 2006
  14. ^ P.K. Abdul Ghafour (December 29, 2007). "10 More Return From Guantanamo". Arab News. http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1&section=0&article=105116&d=30&m=12&y=2007&pix=kingdom.jpg&category=Kingdom. Retrieved 2007-12-29. 
  15. ^ OARDEC (2008-10-09). "Consolidated chronological listing of GTMO detainees released, transferred or deceased". Department of Defense. http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/09-F-0031_doc1.pdf. Retrieved 2008-12-28. 
  16. ^ "Index to Summaries of Detention-Release Factors for Administrative Review Boards (Round 3) Held at Guantanamo". United States Department of Defense. 2009-01-09. http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt_arb/ARB3FactorIndex8Jan09.pdf. Retrieved 2009-01-22. 
  17. ^ OARDEC (July 17, 2007). "Index to Transfer and Release Decision for Guantanamo Detainees". United States Department of Defense. http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt_arb/index_transfer_release_decision_ARB_Round_1.pdf. Retrieved 2007-09-29. 
  18. ^ OARDEC (August 10, 2007). Index "Index of Transfer and Release Decision for Guantanamo Detainees from ARB Round Two". United States Department of Defense. http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt_arb/index_ARB_Round_2_Decision_Memos.pdf Index. Retrieved 2007-09-29. 

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