[Ppnews] Cleared But Still Held in Guantánamo

[Political Prisoner News]

http://www.counterpunch.org/worthington04032008.html

Apri1 3, 2008


Cleared But Still Held in Guantánamo


The Ordeal of Moroccan Prisoner Said al-Boujaadia

By ANDY WORTHINGTON

There are, at conservative estimates, at least 50 
prisoners in Guantánamo who have been cleared for 
release by military review boards from 2005 to 
the present day, but who are still held in 
appalling isolation. The majority are held in 
Camp VI, a maximum-security cell block, completed 
in December 2006, where they remain for 22 to 23 
hours a day in solitary confinement, in metal 
cells without windows. They have no opportunity 
to socialize with other cleared prisoners, have 
extremely limited opportunities for education or 
entertainment (no TV, no radio, and limited 
access to books), and their ability to 
communicate with their families by letter is 
subject to the whims of the authorities, who 
frequently delay the delivery of letters or misplace them altogether.

In the cases of dozens of these prisoners -- from 
countries including Algeria, China, Libya, 
Tunisia and Uzbekistan -- they continue to be 
held because the Bush administration (which is 
usually more than willing to shred its 
international obligations) has, for the most 
part, agreed to be bound by international 
treaties preventing the return of foreign 
nationals to countries where they face the risk 
of torture, although there are notable exceptions.

Last year, in an attempt to bypass its 
obligations, the US administration signed a 
"memorandum of understanding" with the government 
of Tunisia, which purported to guarantee the 
humane treatment of cleared prisoners released 
from Guantánamo, even though Tunisia is regularly 
condemned for endemic human rights abuses by the 
US State Department. When two men -- Lotfi Lagha 
and Abdullah bin Omar (aka Abdullah al-Hajji) -- 
were returned to Tunisia from Guantánamo, they 
were reportedly subjected to ill-treatment in 
Tunisian custody, and were then convicted and 
imprisoned in trials that were regarded by 
observers as woefully inadequate. A US District 
judge then intervened to prevent the return of a 
third cleared Tunisian, Mohammed Abdul Rahman, 
and another court recently intervened to prevent 
the return of another cleared prisoner, Ahmed 
Belbacha, to Algeria, another country with which 
the administration has been pursuing dubious 
"diplomatic assurances" of humane treatment.

While these cases account for the majority of the 
cleared prisoners who are still held in 
Guantánamo, others have been overlooked for other 
reasons, and one of these men is Moroccan national Said al-Boujaadia.

A father of three, al-Boujaadia, who is 39 years 
old, is from Casablanca. In 2001, he traveled to 
Afghanistan with his Afghan wife, whom he had met 
and married on a previous visit, and their three 
children. In the chaos that followed the US-led 
invasion in October 2001, he managed to secure 
the safe escape of his family, but was himself 
captured, as he attempted to help another family 
cross the Pakistani border to safety.

Hundreds of prisoners in Guantánamo Bay were 
seized at this time in a similar manner, and it 
has since become apparent that many were then 
sold by their Afghan captors to US forces, who 
were offering bounty rewards, averaging $5,000 a 
head, for al-Qaeda or Taliban suspects. When 
offered these rewards, many of the Americans' 
allies seized stray foreigners, in the knowledge 
that they could be packaged as "terror suspects" and sold.

Al-Boujaadia was cleared for release from 
Guantánamo in late 2006, when a military review 
board decided that he did not pose a threat to 
the United States or its allies -- including 
Morocco. He was reportedly scheduled to leave 
Guantánamo in April 2007, with another cleared 
prisoner, Ahmed Errachidi. At the last minute, 
however, while Errachidi was flown to Morocco to 
be reunited with his family, the US military 
decided to keep al-Boujaadia at the prison, not 
because of anything he had done, but because he 
had been requested as a witness at the trial by 
military commission of another prisoner, Salim 
Hamdan, a Yemeni who had been a driver for Osama bin Laden.

Hamdan's defense counsel offered alternatives 
that would have allowed al-Boujaadia to be 
released. These included videotaping a statement 
from him, or allowing him to testify from 
Morocco, but these options were all refused. The 
authorities continued to hold al-Boujaadia and 
failed even to explain to his lawyers, or to 
al-Boujaadia himself, that he was being held 
because he was required as a witness.

On December 6, 2007, al-Boujaadia finally 
testified on Hamdan's behalf. Despite an 
eight-month wait, it was clear that he had little 
to offer, and that Hamdan's defense counsel had 
acted correctly in trying to find ways to allow 
him to make a statement without having to remain 
in Guantánamo. Although he was seized on the same 
day as Hamdan, al-Boujaadia recalled only that 
the first time he saw Hamdan was when he was 
taken to a makeshift Afghan prison and found 
Hamdan lying face down on the floor. In response 
to further questioning, he explained that he had 
no idea whether Hamdan was an al-Qaeda member, 
and that he had not seen his car, which allegedly 
contained a number of rockets.

Since he has already given his testimony, there 
has been no reason for the US authorities to 
continue holding Said al-Boujaadia, but four 
months later he remains in Guantánamo, still 
separated from his family, and with no indication 
of when, if ever, he will finally be released.

In an attempt to address this oversight, lawyers 
from Reprieve, the London-based legal action 
charity that represents prisoners in Guantánamo, 
recently traveled to Morocco to raise his plight 
with the Moroccan government. In meetings with 
government representatives, and at a 
well-attended press conference in Rabat, 
Reprieve's Director, Clive Stafford Smith urged 
the government and the media to take action on 
Said al-Boujaadia's behalf. He noted that ten 
Moroccan prisoners had already returned home from 
Guantánamo Bay, and that each had been dealt with 
in a just and appropriate manner.

The lawyers also asked the government to assist 
the US authorities in their stated aim of closing 
the prison at Guantánamo Bay by making 
representations on behalf of two other Moroccan 
prisoners, Younis Chekkouri and Abdullatif 
Nasser, who have not yet been cleared for release.

Younis Chekkouri, who is 39 years old, traveled 
to Afghanistan in 2001, with his Algerian wife, 
after many years in Pakistan, where he had first 
traveled in search of work and education. The 
couple lived on the outskirts of Kabul, working 
for a charity that ran a guest house and helped 
young Moroccan immigrants, and had no involvement 
whatsoever in the country's conflicts. Chekkouri 
has repeatedly explained that he was profoundly 
disillusioned by the fighting amongst Muslims 
that has plagued Afghanistan's recent history, 
and has also expressed his implacable opposition 
to the havoc wreaked on the country by Osama bin 
Laden. In his military tribunal in Guantánamo, he 
described bin Laden as "a crazy person," adding 
that "what he does is bad for Islam."

Abdullatif Nasser, who is 43 years old, had 
worked as a small-scale businessman in Libya and 
Sudan, and had also spent time in Yemen and 
Pakistan. He was captured in Afghanistan in late 
2001, and has explained that he was attracted to 
the country because of its Islamic scholars and 
its piety. In Guantánamo, he has experienced 
particularly harsh treatment, because he stands 
up for the rights of his fellow prisoners, and 
refuses to keep silent in the face of injustice.

All three men are represented by Reprieve, and 
Clive Stafford Smith made it clear, both in 
public, and in representations to the King and 
the government, that they are all happy to submit 
to any investigations that the Moroccan 
government thinks appropriate. "The men are 
perfectly willing to stand trial to face any 
charges your government feels are warranted," he 
explained to Moroccan officials. "They have been 
asking for a trial, after all, for six years. 
These men merely seek justice -- justice denied 
them for far too long by the American government."

Andy Worthington 
(<http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/>www.andyworthington.co.uk) 
is a British historian, and the author of 
'<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0745326641/counterpunchmaga>The 
Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 
Detainees in America's Illegal Prison'. He can be 
reached at: <mailto:andy at andyworthington.co.uk>andy at andyworthington.co.uk






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