Mohammed Mohammed Hassen

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Mohammed Mohammed Hassen (born 1983) is a Yemeni who was captured and detained in the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in Cuba.^[1]

Hassen's Guantanamo ISN is 681.^[2] The Department of Defense reports that Hassen was born on April 20, 1983 in Ta'iz, Yemen.

Main article: minors detained in the global war on terror

1 Identity
2 Combatant Status Review Tribunal
- 2.1 Allegations
- 2.2 Testimony
3 Administrative Review Board hearing
4 Release
5 References

[edit] Identity

The Yemen Times reported, on March 11, 2007, that a Yemeni named Mohammed Mohammed Al-Odaini, who was also born in Ta'iz, was on the list of Yemenis who had been cleared for release.^[3] The official list does not include a captive named Mohammed Mohammed Al-Oadaini.^[2] Mohammed Mohammed Hassen's name is the closest match.

[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 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.

Hassen chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.^[4]

[edit] Allegations

The allegations against Hassen were:^[5]

a The detainee is an al Qaida associate.

Detainee, a Yemen citizen who traveled to Pakistan in early 2001, was captured at the ‘Crescent Mill’ guesthouse in Faisalabad, Pakistan and was identified by a senior al Qaida lieutenant.
A senior al Qaida Lieutenant identified detainee in a photo as having possibly seen him in Afghanistan.

[edit] Testimony

Hassen said he had traveled to Pakistan to study the Koran at the Salafi University.^[6]

He said he knew almost nothing about the guesthouse he was visiting when he was arrested, it was his first visit there. He visited because he heard there were fellow Kuwaitees there. His friend Emad had invited him. He said he had never heard the name "Crescent Mill guesthouse" until his Tribunal.

He assured his Tribunal he had never traveled to Afghanistan, prior to his capture.

He assured his Tribunal he had never heard of Al Qaeda prior to his interrogations following his capture.

The raid where he and the 14 other residents of the guesthouse were captured, occurred at about 2am.

[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 record doesn't record Hassen personally participating in his Administrative Review Board hearing.^[7] The record contains a three page letter from Marc D. Falkoff, a lawyer who volunteered to present a writ of habeas corpus on his behalf. Falkoff's April 17, 2005 letter, to Hassen's Administrative Review Board, was released in a heavily redacted form.

"Dear Members of the Board:

"I am an attorney Mohammed Mohammed Hassen in habeas corpus proceedings in federal court in the District of Columbia. I respectfully submit this letter in support of Mohammed's release from detention at Guantanamo Bay. Over the past few months, I have met with Mohammed a number of times and have grown to know him quite well. I am convinced that he poses no danger to the United States or anyone else.

"I recognize that this hearing will not revist the CSRT panel's determination that Mohammed is an "enemy combatant." I believe, however, that any decision concerning Mohammed's future "dangerousness" should be reached only after the panel considers how slight and unreliable the evidence of this "enemy combatant" stat us. In addition, I note that the federal judge presiding over Mohammed's habeas petition has held that the CSRT proceedings in his case were unconstitutional and violated due process of law.

-- The remainder of the first page of the letter was redacted

"There is not a shred more evidence of Mohammed's enemy combatant status in the record presented to the CSRT panel. It is therefore no surprise to learn that Mohammed has been repeatedly recommended for release from Guantanamo by

-- The remainder of the first two-thirds of the second page was redacted.

"Under these circumstance, it should be clear that Mohammed poses no threat to anyone and that he can be released from Guantanamo without jeopardizing American safety.

The reamining paragraphs of the letter address the support and example Hassen would receive from his family, to complete his education, and be a peaceful, productive member of Yemeni Society.

[edit] Release

Mark Falkoff told the Yemeni Times that he had to threaten legal action to get the Pentagon to release a list of the Yemenis who had already been cleared for release.^[3] The Yemeni Times reported that the Pentagon had cleared some of the captives for rrelease as early as June 2004 — which precedes the first Combatant Status Review Tribunal by over a month.