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<a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/worthington12182009.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.counterpunch.org/worthington12182009.html<br><br>
</a></font><font face="Verdana" size=2 color="#990000">December 18-20,
2009<br><br>
</font><h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4><b>Judge Orders
Release of Saeed Hatim <br><br>
<br>
</i></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=5 color="#990000">The
Case of the Unwilling Yemeni Recruit
</b></font></h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>By ANDY
WORTHINGTON <br><br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=6 color="#990000">O</font>
<font face="Verdana" size=2>n Monday, as
<a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/worthington12152009.html">I
explained in a previous article</a>, Judge Thomas Hogan refused the
habeas corpus petition of Musa’ab al-Madhwani, a Yemeni who had been
tortured in the CIA’s “Dark Prison” near Kabul, and who was described by
the judge as a “model prisoner” who was not dangerous. Judge Hogan made
his ruling partly on the basis that al-Madhwani had received military
training at the al-Farouq camp in Afghanistan, which was associated with
Osama bin Laden in the years before the 9/11 attacks, but just two days
later, Judge Ricardo Urbina (who
<a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/worthington10092008.html">ordered
the release of the Uighurs</a> last October) granted the habeas petition
of another Yemeni, Saeed Hatim, who had also trained at al-Farouq, but
who told his interrogators that he “did not like anything about the
training.”<br><br>
The reasons for Judge Urbina’s decision on Wednesday are not yet clear,
as an unclassified version of his ruling has not yet been made available,
but elements of Saeed Hatim’s story are available from the Unclassified
Summaries of Evidence for his Combatant Status Review Tribunal (CSRT) at
Guantánamo, part of a process conducted in 2004-05 to ascertain whether
the prisoners had been correctly designated as “enemy combatants,” who
could be held without charge or trial, and his Administrative Review
Boards (ARBs), held every year as part of a process to determine whether
prisoners could be approved for release.<br><br>
These were
<a href="http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2008/12/22/an-interview-with-guantanamo-whistleblower-stephen-abraham-part-one/">
shamefully one-sided affairs</a>, in which the authorities relied on
classified evidence that was not disclosed to the prisoners, who were
also prevented from having any legal representation. However, they often
provide the only insight available into the prisoners’ stories, and in
the case of Saeed Hatim, who was 25 years old at the time of his capture,
they provide what appears to be a relatively coherent narrative, although
it may, of course, be revealed as a tissue of lies, produced as a result
of threats and coercion, when Judge Urbina’s ruling is made
public.<br><br>
In statements made by Hatim during his CSRT, or attributed to him by
interrogators in submissions for his ARBs, which he did not attend, he
apparently explained that he had “never held a job for more than six
months” and “relied upon his father and older brother for financial
support,” and stated that he went to Afghanistan in spring 2001, because
he had “heard there was a lot of justice in that part of the world,” and
also because, like several others who ended up in Guantánamo, he thought
that he would find a way to fight in Chechnya. He “stated he became
interested in Russia’s war in Chechnya because he witnessed the
oppression on the television.” Explaining that he “was outraged about
what the Russians were doing to the Chechens,” he “decided to travel
there to fight jihad alongside his Muslim brothers.”<br><br>
Hatim admitted attending al-Farouq, but said that he soon left the camp
“because it was not what he expected.” He explained that he “faked a
fever telling the people he was ill and needed to seek medical care,” and
complained that “the trainers were always yelling at him, the food was
terrible, and he was forced to sleep on the ground.” He added that “he
did not like anything about the training and wanted to quit on the first
day.” <br><br>
Acknowledging that he was obliged to “put his decision to fight in
Chechnya on the back burner for a while,” but insisting that he “did not
want to partake in the war in Afghanistan because it was a civil war in
which Muslims were fighting other Muslims,” he nevertheless reportedly
ended up at “a place of re-supply for the front lines near Bagram,”
where, on at least one occasion, he apparently traveled to the front
lines to deliver food to the Taliban soldiers fighting the Northern
Alliance. He also apparently spent some time in a number of guest houses,
which, in the US authorities’ opinion, were associated with al-Qaeda and
the Taliban. <br><br>
He added, however, that once the US-led invasion began, and Kabul was
being bombed, he made his way to the eastern city of Jalalabad, where he
took a cab to the Pakistani border, meeting up with an Afghan who
escorted him to a Pakistani police station. From there, soon after, his
long ordeal in US custody began.<br><br>
I await Judge Urbina’s ruling with some interest, primarily, as I
mentioned above, to discover whether this account bears any resemblance
to the story uncovered by the judge in what, despite the persistent fog
of classified evidence that clouds so many of the Guantánamo cases, will
undoubtedly be the first time that something close to an objective
analysis of his case has been undertaken, after eight years in US
custody.<br><br>
At present, however, Judge Urbina’s ruling means little to Saeed Hatim,
as the Obama administration has demonstrated that it is extremely
unwilling to release any of the Yemenis who now make up nearly half of
Guantánamo’s population of 210 prisoners -- even those who have won their
habeas petitions in the US courts. Just one Yemeni has been released
since Barack Obama became President, even though, by my reckoning,
Yemenis account for somewhere between 50 and 60 of
<a href="http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2009/12/07/116-guantanamo-prisoners-cleared-for-release-171-still-in-limbo/">
the 115 prisoners who have been cleared for release</a> by the
inter-agency Task Force
<a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/worthington01232009.html">
established by President Obama</a> on his second day in office.<br><br>
The administration’s reluctance to release Yemenis was explained by
officials in September, around the time that the only Yemeni to secure
his release under Obama -- Alla Ali Bin Ali Ahmed, who
<a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/worthington05142009.html">won his
habeas petition in May</a>, after a devastating dissection of the
government’s supposed evidence by Judge Gladys Kessler -- was
<a href="http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2009/09/26/three-prisoners-released-from-guantanamo-two-to-ireland-one-to-yemen/">
finally released</a>. On that occasion, the officials stated that “Even
if Mr. Ahmed was not dangerous in 2002 … Guantánamo itself might have
radicalized him, exposing him to militants and embittering him against
the United States.”<br><br>
As
<a href="http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2009/10/05/75-guantanamo-prisoners-cleared-for-release-31-could-leave-today/">
I explained at the time</a>:<br><br>
</font>
<dl>
<dd>The officials have valid fears about political instability in Yemen,
and the existence of terrorist groups, even though the Yemeni authorities
have stated that none of the 16 Yemenis returned from Guantánamo “have
joined terrorist groups,” but whatever their fears, they do not seem to
have reflected that, if their rationale for not releasing any of the
Yemenis from Guantánamo was extended to the US prison system, it would
mean that no prisoner would ever be released at the end of their
sentence, because prison “might have radicalized” them, and also, of
course, that it would lead to no prisoner ever being released from
Guantánamo.<br><br>
</dl>On that note, it is, I hope, time for this nonsense to end, and for
Saeed Hatim, a demonstrably insignificant figure in the “War on Terror,”
to be returned to his homeland, along with all the other cleared
prisoners. It’s not difficult. Just find a large enough plane, fly them
home, and drop them off. At the time of writing, I’m pleased to note that
the
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/18/AR2009121800898.html">
Washington Post</a></i> is reporting that, “according to sources with
independent knowledge of the matter,” six Yemenis, along with four
Afghans, “will be transferred out of Guantánamo Bay in the near future,”
and that this transfer “could be a prelude to the release of dozens more
detainees to Yemen.” I certainly hope that this is the case; otherwise,
we may as well all stop pretending that being cleared by a court, or by
the administration’s own Task Force, means anything at all. <br><br>
Andy Worthington</b> is a British journalist and historian, and the
author of
'<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0745326641/counterpunchmaga">
The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America's
Illegal Prison'</a> (published by Pluto Press). Visit his website at:
<a href="http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/">www.andyworthington.co.uk</a>
<br>
He can be reached at:
<a href="mailto:andy@andyworthington.co.uk">andy@andyworthington.co.uk</a>
<br><br>
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