Yasin Qasem Muhammad Ismail

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Yasin Qasem Muhammad Ismail is a Yemeni in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in Cuba.^[1] His Guantanamo detainee ID number is 522. Intelligence officials estimate he was born in 1979, in Ibb, Yemen.

1 Identity
2 Combatant Status Review Tribunal
- 2.1 allegations
- 2.2 testimony
3 Administrative Review Board hearing
4 References

[edit] Identity

The Yemen Times reported, on March 11, 2007, that a Yemeni named Sadeq Mohammed Ismail, who was also born in Ibb, was on the list of Yemenis who had been cleared for release.^[2] The official list does not include a captive named Sadeq Mohammed Ismail.^[1] It does include two detainees whose names are near matches:

Sadeq Muhammad Sa'id Ismail's name might be a closer match, but he is from Jabal Haimain, not Ibb.
Yasin Qasem Muhammad Ismail is from Ibb, but his name is not as close a 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.

Ismail chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.^[3]

[edit] allegations

The allegations against Ismail were:

a. The detainee is associated with al Qaida:

The detainee stated that he observed Usama Bin Laden on three separate occasions.
The detainee stated that he lived in the “Azam Afwan” guest house in the Wazir Akbar Khan area of Kabul during 11 September 2001 and that the cooks were all al Qaida.
Detainee lived at “Najm (Ejm) al Jihad” guest house in Jalalabad, AF when Usama Bin Laden visited the guest house during the 1st week of the U.S. bombing campaign in AF.
The detainee attended the Camp Farouq and the Malek training camp were ^[sic] he received training on the kalashnikov rifle, rocket propelled grenades, PK machine gun, mountain fighting and tactics, anti-aircraft weapons, heavy artillery, surface-to-air missiles, topography, and explosives during late spring 2000.
The detainee was captured in Tora Bora.

[edit] testimony

Ismail’s first statement to his Tribunal was “I will talk with you as long as you guarantee me there will be no torture.” Ismail said his prior confessions were lies - just to get the torture to stop.

He denied all the allegations against him.

He said he traveled to Afghanistan because it was the only place he could travel where he didn’t need a visa first, and staying there would be cheap. He said he had wanted to get married, but his marriage was not approved, and he wanted to get away to get over the emotional impact of his disappointment – hence Afghanistan.

[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 factors for and against continuing to detain Ismail were among the 121 that the Department of Defense released on March 3, 2006.^[4]

[edit] The following primary factors favor continued detention:

a Training

Detainee stated he traveled to Afghanistan for the purpose of receiving training.
The detainee recalled that on more than one occasion he attended the al Farouq training camp.
The detainee stated he attended the Malek training camp north of Kabul.
The detainee stated he went back to the Malek camp for additional training.

b. Connection

The detainee stayed at a guest house staffed by al Qaida while in Afghanistan.
The detainee saw Usama Bin Laden (UBL) at a guest house the first week of the U.S. bombing campaign in Afghanistan, approximately 1 November 2001.

c Intent

The detainee stated he went to Afghanistan to train so he could fight in Chechnya.

d Other relevant data

The detainee stated he traveled to Afghanistan, via Yemen Airlines from Sana, Yemen, by taking a plane to Dubai, then staying on the plane for connection to Karachi, Pakistan. In Karachi he sat in a hotel for four of five days, waiting for someone to pick him up and take him to Afghanistan.
The detainee was captured in Tora Bora.

[edit] The following primary factors favor release or transfer:

The detainee stated that even though he observed UBL he did not talk with him and did not agree with his religion or politics.
The detainee stated that he was not al Qaida because his thoughts were free.
The detainee stated he did not know about the plans to attack the World Trade Center prior to 11 September 2001.

[edit] Transcript

Instead of the transcript of his Administrative Review Board hearing there is a two page letter submitted on his behalf by Marc D. Falkoff, the lawyer who volunteered to handle his writ of habeas corpus, and a four page letter from his older brother.^[5]