Ahcene Zemiri

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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."

Ahcene Zemiri (also known as Hassan Zumiri) is an Algerian citizen held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.^[1] The Department of Defense reports that Zemiri was born on September 8, 1967, in Algiers, Algeria.

Prior to April 20, 2006 the Department of Defense did not officially release the names of more than a handful of detainees. But US District Court Justice Jed Rakoff issued a court order that the DoD had to release the identities of the detainees. The Bush administration exhausted its legal appeals on March 3, 2006, and slowly started to comply. The two official lists, from April 20, 2006 and May 15, 2006, don't include Ahcene Zemiri.^[2]^[3] They do list an Algerian named Hassan Zumiri, born on September 8, 1967, in Algiers.

1 Arrival in Canada
2 Arrival in Afghanistan
3 Ressam 'clarifies' his allegations against Zemiri
4 Combatant Status Review Tribunal
5 Administrative Review Board hearing
- 5.1 The following primary factors favor continued detention:
- 5.2 The following primary factors favor release of transfer:
6 References

[edit] Arrival in Canada

Zemiri arrived in Canada in 1994, where he applied for refugee status. His application was rejected on National security grounds in 1996. Nevertheless, he married a Canadian woman, Karina Dereshteanu. After his refugee claim was turned down Zemiri should have been deported, but he and Dereshteanu lived in Canada until July 2001, when they moved to Afghanistan.

[edit] Arrival in Afghanistan

Dereshteanu, was able to flee Afghanistan in November 2001, around the time of invasion. Zemiri was captured.

Dereshteanu filed an affadavit with a US court where she attested that, to the best of her knowledge, her husband had no ties to terrorism. She reports that bounty hunters sold her husband to United States forces of $5,000 USD.

The Ottawa Citizen obtained a copy of Zemiri's Combatant Status Review Tribunal. Zemiri, like approximately half of the detainees held at Guantanamo Bay declined to agree to the conditions which would have permitted him to attend his review hearing. So it was held without him.

The tribunal cited his friendship with Ahmed Ressam, and said that Zemiri loaned Ressam $3,500 and some camera equipment, which Ressam used to help him conduct his foiled Millennium bomb plot. Ressam, like Zemiri, was an Algerian expatriate, who lived in Montreal.

[edit] Ressam 'clarifies' his allegations against Zemiri

Ressam wrote a letter in November 2006, to U.S. District Court Judge John C. Coughenour, in which he said he wanted to "clarify" his allegations against Zemiri.^[4] Coughenour was the Judge who sentenced Ressam.

Ressam wrote:^[5]

"Mr. Hassan Zemiry is innocent and has no relation or connection to the operation I was about to carry out. He also did not know anything about it and he did not assist me in anything, It is true that I have borrowed some money and a camera from him, but this was only a personal loan between me and him. It has nothing to do with my case..."
"It is not right or just to accuse somebody of something not true."

Ressam explained the incorrect information he had previously offered American intelligence analysts was because he "was in shock and had a severe psychological disorder^[4]^[5] Ressam was sentenced to 22 years imprisonment. He was believed to be about to receive a life sentence, which was reduced because he cooperated by naming other suspects, like Zemiri.

According to Jim Dorsey, Zemiri's lawyer, "This letter undercuts what is the most damning allegation against my client by far.^[4]" Dorsey forwarded a copy of Ressam's letter to "American military officials".

[edit] Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Combatant Status Review Tribunal notice read to a Guantanamo captive. During the period July 2004 through March 2005 a Combatant Status Review Tribunal was convened to make a determination whether they had been correctly classified as an "enemy combatant". Participation was optional. The Department of Defense reports that 317 of the 558 captives who remained in Guantanamo, in military custody, attended their Tribunals.

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.

There is no record that Zemiri chose to participate 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.

Zemiri chose to participate in his Administrative Review Board hearing.^[6]

[edit] The following primary factors favor continued detention:

a. Commitment

The Islamic Salvation Front Vice President lived very close to the detainee's home in Algiers.
An Islamic extremist group, the Armed Islamic Group, aims to overthrow the secular Algerian regime and replace it with an Islamic state. The Armed Islamic Group began its violent activity in 1992 after Algiers voided ^[sic] the victory of the Islamic Salvation Front in the first round of legislative elections in December 1991.
The detainee stated that he traveled to Spain several times in the early 1990's ^[sic]. At this time, the detainee was assisting his brother in the acquisition and sale of electronics.
"'The detainee traveled from Afghanistan to France via Italy.
The detainee traveled to Italy in the summer of 1991 and stayed for six months in Verona, Italy. The detainee then trave==Responce to the factors==led to Paris, Bordeaux and Marseilles in France.
The detainee left France with a forged passport, which cost 3,000 francs (approximately $550 U.S. dollars) and went to Canada.
The detainee entered Canada in October 1994 and left Canada in June.
The detainee was known to be an active member of a network supporting subversion in Algeria. The detainee held the status of political refugee in Canada since 1994.
The detainee's name was placed in appropriate U.S. Government agency watch lists at the Unclassified/For Official Use Only level on a non-attributable basis.
The detainee attended six mosques while living in Canada. One of the mosques was the al Sunnah Mosque, and ^[sic] extremist mosque that shows videos to members portraying the Jihad in Algeria.
The detainee traveled to Vancouver, Canada in 1996 in order to file his immigration papers. The detainee's reasoning was that the Vancouver immigration department expedited immigrant papers faster than any other Canadian province.
In the summer of 1998 the Canadian Police arrested the detainee with two friends in Niagara Falls.
The detainee claims he went to Afghanistan because of the mounted ^[sic] pressure put on him by the Canadian Secret Service ^[sic]. The detainee wanted to live in peace and be left alone.
The detainee traveled between 15 and 25 June 2001, from Montreal, Canada to Afghanistan via Zurich, Dubai, Karachi, Quetta, Kabul, and Jalalabad.
The detainee said he was in a group of approximately 60 people in the Tora Bora Mountains and that American bombers spotted his group. The detainee's group was bombed and hte majority died.
The detainee said that all the the Arabs in his group, including himself, were armed. The detainee said that his pistol was only for his protection.
The detainee said his purpose for going to Afghanistan was to immigrate and for Jihad. The detainee said that he simply wanted to immigrate, live and retire peacefully in Afghanistan.

b. Training

While the detainee stayed at the Toran Camp, he received instruction in the use of small firearms. The detainee claims that he learned how to use these firearms for fun.
Small arms training occurred near the Toran Camp to prepare for impending attack by Northern Alliance Forces. A cave system used for billeting was located above the Toran Camp.

c. Connections/Associations

The detainee admitted that he left Canada with a false Canadian passport that he stole from a friend of his, named Najib. When questions about the present whereabouts of this passport, the detainee said that it is now in the hands of the Afghans.
In 2001, a Canadian passport was in the possession of an al Qaida facilitator in Afghanistan used ^[sic] by the detainee. The last recorded use of this passport in Canada was by the detainee on 14 June 2001, when he left Canada with his wife.
A Canadian Algerian involved with document forgery networks and terrorists says the detainee may have prepared a passport for him.
A suspected al Qaida attack planner said the detainee was planning on doing Jihad in Algeria and wanted to fight with the Jama'ah in Algeria.
A suspected al Qaida attack planner confirmed that he received a $3,5000.00 Canadian dollar loan from the detainee just before he left for Vancouver. The detainee also gave him a video camera. The suspected al Qaida attack planner said that the detainee was a personal friend and that the detainee trusted him.
The detainee knows an Islamic extremist who is in Sudanese custody.
The detainee is a friend of a suspected Algerian operative ^[sic].

d. Other Relevant Data

The detainee confirmed that when he left Canada, he brought his portable cellular telephone with him, but it was never used.
The detainee was in the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan when the Northern Alliance Forces captured him in December 2001.
The detainee had three $100.00 U.S. dollar bills and tw0 1000 Rupee notes on him when he was captured.
The detainee claims to have no knowledge why his wie was arrested with $13,000 U.S. dollars. The detainee claims he left Canada with $7,000.00 or $8,000.00 U.S. dollars with him. The detainee does not know where his wife got the money.
The detainee was once arrested in Canada for attempting to steal a computer from a tourist. The detainee would steal and shoplift Template:Sice by him ^[sic] and with others ^[sic].