Abd Al Aziz Muhammad Ibrahim Al Nasir

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Abd Al Aziz Muhammad Ibrahim Al Nasir is a citizen of Saudi Arabia, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in Cuba.^[1] His detainee ID number is 273.

[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 his 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.

Al Nasir chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.^[2]

[edit] Allegations

Unlike most captives Al Nasir's transcript does not record him being offered an opportunity torespond to the unclassified allegations against them one at a time. His transcript does not record the allegations against him. It does record his responses to those allegations.

[edit] Response to the allegations

Al Nasir's Personal Representative read out the responses Al Nasir had given him to the allegations against him, during their pre-Tribunal interview:

• The detainee traveled to Kabul to provide assistance to the Afghanis.
• He paid for his own travel.
• The detainee was not asked by Al-Jabri, while in Saudi Arabia to fight for al-Qaida. The only thing discussed was going to help the Afghanis.
• The detainee only knew al-Wafa helped people and he agreed to go.
• The detainee did not flee Kabul.
• The work of loading trucks with food and supplies was very difficult. He was not physically prepared or experienced in such work. The war was going on, so he decided to leave with his brother, cousin and an unidentified Afghani man.
• He was in Kabul for 8 days.
• When his group crossed into Pakistan they asked the Pakistani police for assistance in getting to the Saudi embassy. Instead they were taken to jail and subsequently arrived in Cuba."

[edit] Response to Tribunal questions

[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.

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

[edit] The following primary factors favor continued detention:

a. -- missing from the transcript

1. The detainee voluntarily traveled from Saudi Arabia to Kabul, Afghanistan immediately following the September 11,2001 attacks.
2. Detainee traveled to Afghanistan through an indirect route from Saudi Arabia to Syria, Syria to Iran, and then walked across the border from Iran to Afghanistan then on to Kabul, Afghanistan.
3. Detainee arrived in Kabul, Afghanistan 55 days after September 11,2001.
4. Detainee stayed in Kabul, and then after it was attached by the Northern Alliance fled to Pakistan.
5. Detainee fought in Tora Bora.

b. -- missing from the transcript

1. Detainee admits to working with al Wafa while in Afghanistan.
2. Al Wafa is a known terrorist support organization.
3. Detainee's name was found on a hard drive file of a known al Qaida operative.

[edit] The following primary factors release or transfer:

Detainee's overall behavior has been non-aggressive.

Detainee has only one case of harassment of the guard force. His actions mostly involve failure to comply with the rules of the guard force or the cellblock by performing physical training in his cell and speaking with detainees in other cellblocks.

[edit] Repsonse to the factors

[edit] Response to Board questions

[edit] Transfer to Saudi Arabia

Al Nasir was one of 14 men transferred from Guantanamo to Saudi Arabia on June 25, 2006.^[4]

[edit] References

1. ^ list of prisoners (.pdf), US Department of Defense, April 20, 2006
2. ^ Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Abd Al Aziz Muhammad Ibrahim Al Nasir's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 1-6
3. ^ Summarized transcript (.pdf), from Abd Al Aziz Muhammad Ibrahim Al Nasir's Administrative Review Board hearing - page 22
4. ^ Thirteen Saudis and a Turkistani return to Saudi from Guantanamo, Middle East News, June 25, 2006