Omar Rajab Amin

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Omar Rajab Amin is a Kuwaiti who was captured and detained at the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in Cuba.^[1] Amin's Guantanamo detainee ID number is 65.^[2] The Department of Defense reports that Amin was born on June 14, 1967, in Kuwait City, Kuwait.

Amin graduated from the University of Nebraska in 1992.^[3]

1 Combatant Status Review Tribunal
2 Administrative Review Board hearing
3 Return to Kuwait
4 References
5 External links

[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.

Amin agreed to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.^[1]

[edit] allegations

The allegations, from the "Unclassified Summary of Evidence", that Amin faced during his Tribunal, were:^[1]

a The detainee is an al Qaida and/or Taliban supporter:

The detainee traveled from Kuwait, through the United Arab Emirates to Bahrain, to Iran, and finally to Kabul, Afghanistan on 2 October 01.
The detainee is a member of the non-governmental organization, (NGO) Kuwaiti Joint Relief Committee.
The Kuwaiti Joint Relief Committee is suspected of providing funding and travel document for mujahidin. Possible links to al-Qaida.
The detainee admits raising $10,000 (USD) and transporting it to Afghanistan.
The detainee admitted fleeing with others due to the “opposition”, (Northern Alliance) taking over the city.
The detainee was listed on a document recovered in safehouse raids associated with suspected al Qaida in Karachi Pakistan.
During the raid on the Karachi safehouses; armed gunmen fought with police; firearms and grenades were seized; and police and security forces were injured by gunfire.
The detainee was listed on a document as being a member of the Mujahidin Brigade in Bosnia.

[edit] opening statement

Amin asked: "Is it possible to see this evidence, in order to refute it?"

His Tribunal's President claimed "The classified information cannot be made available to you for reasons of national security. You may see the unclassified evidence."

Amin then said he was concerned about other information, which was not taken from his own interrogations. He was concerned about false denunciation of him because he was from a country other detainees were prejudiced against.

[edit] response to the "Summary of Evidence"

Amin completely denied that he was an al Qaeda and/or Taliban supporter. He said he had been opposed to the Taliban's actions, like implement Sharia law and destroying the Buddhist statues. He said he was very surprised to discover this was one of the allegation against him.

Amin asserted he was a charity worker. He asserted he had never traveled to Afghanistan, Iran or Pakistan. And he said: "I never transferred even one dollar into the accounts of any of these people."

Amin said his name was not on any American "black lists".

Amin specifically denied that he had traveled to Kabul on October 2, 2001. Iran had been his final destinations, and he had not traveled through Bahrain.

Amin said he was concerned by the 3 million Afghan refugees who were trying to flee, or who had succeeded in fleeing Afghanistan for Iran and Pakistan. He had worked with refugees for one and a half in Croatia and six years in Bosnia. His trip to Iran was a fact finding one to determine the best way his charity could help the refugees. He said they had learned it was better not to count on media reports, but rather to have someone trusted see for themselves.

Amin said he was carrying $10,000 that he planned to distribute on this particular trip. One third of these funds were his, and the remainder from other members of his family.

Amin said his interrogators had asked him why he had entered Afghanistan when he should have known that the Americans were about to invade. He said he had not realized that the American were about to invade, and that if he had realized this he certainly would not have crossed the border to continue his fact-finding trip. "Also, if I had known that they were not going to apply the Geneva Convention, ^[sic] especially to people working in charity organizations, I would not have gone in."

Amin said he always repeated to his interrogators a statement from the Secretary of Defense:

"He who thinks we will fire a couple of cruise missiles to Afghanistan is mistaken. This was is going to be a political war, an economical war, and information war and an intelligence war."

He pointed out that the Secretary of Defense's statement, which had been "repeated by all American officials" -- did not say it was going to be a military effort. The Secretary of Defense said this was going to be an unconventional war.

He said he thought: "The Americans were not stupid. They were not going to commit all their troops to go into Afghanistan to die, like the Russians and the British.

Amin confirmed that he was a member of the [[Kuwaiti Joint Relief Committee from 1993 to 1999 -- 1993-94 in Croatia, 1995-99 in Bosnia. But he didn't go to Afghanistan on behalf of the Kuwaiti Joint Relief Committee.

In response to the suspicion that the Kuwait Joint Relief Committee was suspected of providing funding and travel documents for Mujahidin, Amin pointed out that the Americans were also in Bosnia, from 1995, and:"No one ever gave this committee any trouble or said anything about their activities in Bosnia. On the contrary, the Americans would come and meet with us and with the head of the committee. We were given many thanks from the Bosnian government, the American government and the Croatian government, for the work this Joint Relief Committee was doing in Bosnia.

"No one ever voiced any opposition against what we were doing until September 11th. Only after September 11th is this point being brought up.

"If you look at the wording of this statement it says "suspected" or "possible." Nothing concrete. It's all speculation. Only after September 11th did it become like this. It's not normal."

Amin acknowledged fleeing with others due to the Norther Alliance taking over the city. He did flee, but because residents of the city were killing Arabs. Amin said it was thanks to his local interpreter that he had a heads-up that the city was no longer safe for him.

Amin said that the allegation that his name was listed on a document recovered in safehouse raids was a new one to him. It had never been brought up during any of his interrogations. He said the allegation didn't make sense because: "I know the interrogators make it a point to talk about ever little or big thing that comes to their attention."

In response to the allegation that he was listed as being a member of Mujahadin Brigade in Bosnia Amin said that his interrogators kept asking him about this for three years.

"One time, the interrogator had a document in his hand and was reading from it and said that I was a member of Mujahadin Brigade in the Bosnian Army from either 1992 to 1993 or 1993 to 1994.

"I answered him by asking him if he knew where I was in the year 1992. I told him I was in Nebraska and I was graduating. From 1992 to 1993, I was in Kuwait, working for the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research.

Amin then offered the Tribunal the same explanation he offered his interrogator as to why a Bosnian document would state he was in Bosnia, when he wasn't. He suggested it was due to his marriage to a Bosnian woman he loved in 1994:

"When we got married it was a religious ceremony. It was a legitimate marriage but I didn't have a Bosnian citizenship at that time, so we weren't able to register the marriage with the Bosnian government. I was living in Kuwait, so I was not concerned with getting a Bosnian citizenship.

"The problem was that my wife got pregnant during the war. At that time, if your wife was pregnant and you did not have a Bosnian citizenship, the child would not be legitimate. They would register the child in the mother's name, not the father's. To me, this was important.

"At the same time, how could I go to Kuwait at that time to register my wife and son there? I did not have any documents or paperwork with me. The only way to register my son, legitimately with my last name, was for me to become a citizen. Now, I had to obtain a Bosnian citizenship, and I had the right to do this because I was living in Bosnia, married to a Bosnian citizen.

So, Amin started the process of becoming a Bosnian citizen, had a second, civil Bosnian marriage, so his child would be legitimate, and moved his wife and child to Kuwait. Then, in 1996, when he was working as an aid worker in Bosnia, the Police asked him to meet with them. The war was over. They told him he had the right to complete the process of becoming a Bosnian citizen. Amin said he didn't take it very seriously. He agreed. "I took the paper and registered, but unfortunately they gave me the citizenship through the Bosnian Army.

Amin said that this would be easy to verify. The American government and the Bosnian government formed a committee to investigate some Bosnian citizenship officials who had finalized the paperwork of new Bosnian citizens as if they were entitled to their citizenship for service in the Bosnian Army. These officials had charged citizenship applicants the normal 1500 Deutschmarks citizenship fee, and then pocketed it. Applicants for citizenship who had served in the Bosnian Army didn't have to pay the citizenship fee.

Concerning the allegation that there was a shootout during a raid on the Karachi safehouse Amin pointed out that he had never been to Pakistan. His capture was at the Pakistan border. He didn't actually enter Pakistan.

Amin asked about one of the unclassified documents the Recorder had gathered and submitted to the Tribunal -- a document from the White House that listed individuals and organizations that the US Treasury said were believed to be tied to terrorism. Amin's name wasn't on it. Neither was the name of the Kuwaiti Joint Relief Committee. A single individual's name was highlighted on the list, a Mr. Yasin Al Qadi. Amin said:

"I don't know him He never worked with us and he's not even the head of the department. I gave you the

names of the Kuwaiti government. When they came here, they brought a list of the names of the people working, and that's not one."

Amin was asked why he described the Northern Alliance as the "opposition". Amin explained it was natural, when living in a city ruled by one party to describe those attacking the city as the "opposition" -- it did not indicate that he had taken sides.

[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.

Amin chose to participate in his Administrative Review Board hearing.^[4]

[edit] Return to Kuwait

The Washington Post reported that Amin would be returned to Kuwait soon.^[5] The Emir of Kuwait personally requested Amin's release, and that of another Kuwaiti man named Abdullah Kamel Al Kandari.