Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri

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Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri
Arabic: عبد الرحيم النشيري‎
Nashiri.jpg
Detained at Guantanamo
Alternate name Bilal[1]
ISN 10015
Charge(s) organizing and directing the 2000 USS Cole bombing, held in extrajudicial detention
CSRT Summary * Wikisource logo Works related to CSRT Summary of Evidence memo for Abd Al Rahim Hussein Mohammed Al Nashiri at Wikisource

Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri (Arabic: عبد الرحيم النشيري‎) is one of the aliases of the suspected Saudi al-Qaeda member Abdul-Rahim Hussein Muhammad 'Abdu[2] (عبد الرحيم حسين محمد عبده). Other aliases include Mullah Bilal, Mohammed Omar al-Harazi, and Abdul Rahman Hussein al-Nashari.[3] He is alleged to be the mastermind of the USS Cole bombing and other terrorist attacks, who headed al-Qaeda operations in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf states prior to his capture in November 2002 by the CIA's Special Activities Division. [4]

On February 6, 2008, the CIA director General Michael Hayden confirmed that the CIA had used waterboarding on al-Nashiri, along with two other prisoners, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Abu Zubayda.[5][6][7]

According to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence he served as Al Qaeda's chief in the Arabian Peninsula until his capture in 2002.[2]

In December 2008, he was charged before a Guantanamo Military Commission.[8] The charges were dropped in February 2009 pending the Obama administration's review of all Guantánamo detentions, but may be refiled. [9][10]

Contents

[edit] Background

Born in Saudi Arabia, al-Nashiri travelled to Afghanistan to participate in attacks against the Russians in the region. In 1996 he travelled to Tajikistan and then Jalalabad, where he first met Osama bin Laden.[11] Bin Laden attempted to convince al-Nashiri to join al-Qaeda at this point, but he refused because he found the idea of swearing a loyalty oath to bin Laden to be distasteful. Still, after al-Nashiri travelled to Yemen, he began to consider committing terrorist actions against United States interests.[11]

When he returned to Afghanistan in 1997, he again met bin Laden, but again declined to join in the terrorist group. Instead, he fought with the Taliban against the Afghan Northern Alliance. Still, he assisted in the smuggling of four anti-tank missiles into Saudi Arabia, and helped arrange for a terrorist to get a Yemeni passport. His cousin, Jihad Mohammad Ali al-Makki, was one of the suicide bombers in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya.[11]

[edit] Joined al-Qaeda

Finally, probably in 1998, al-Nashiri joined al-Qaeda, reporting directly to bin Laden. In late 1998, he conceived of a plot to attack a U.S. vessel using a boat full of explosives. Bin Laden personally approved of the plan, and provided money for it. First, al-Nashiri attempted to attack the USS The Sullivans as a part of the 2000 millennium attack plots, but the boat he used was overloaded with explosives and began to sink.[11]

The next attempt, however, the USS Cole bombing, was successful. 17 U.S. sailors were killed, and many more were injured. This success brought him fame and respect within al-Qaeda, and al-Nashiri became the chief of operations for the Arabian Peninsula.[11] He organized the Limburg tanker bombing in 2002, and he may have planned other attacks as well.

[edit] Arrest

In November 2002, al-Nashiri was captured in the United Arab Emirates.[3] He is currently in American military custody in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp,[2] having previously been held at some secret location. On September 29, 2004, he was sentenced to death in absentia in a Yemeni court for his role in the USS Cole bombing.

The U.S. military put al-Rahim al-Nashiri in prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the Pentagon said March 14, 2008. He was held by the CIA for an undisclosed amount of time.[12]

edit standard intro
The George W. Bush administration asserted that the protections of the Geneva Conventions could be withheld from captives in the "War on Terror."[13] Critics argued the Conventions obliged the United States to conduct competent tribunals to determine the status of prisoners. Subsequently, the US Department of Defense instituted Combatant Status Review Tribunals, to determine whether the captives met the new definition of an "enemy combatant."

The CSRTs are not bound by the rules of evidence that would apply in civilian court, and the government’s evidence is presumed to be “genuine and accurate.”[14] From July 2004 through March 2005, a CSRT was convened to make a determination whether each captive had been correctly classified as an "enemy combatant". Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri was among the two-thirds of prisoners who chose to participate in tribunal hearings.[15]

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for the tribunal, listing the alleged facts that led to his detention. His memo accused him of the following:

[16]

  • That he had been a bomb-maker.
  • That he traveled on a forged passport.
  • That he arranged to have a small boat rented just prior to the USS Cole bombing.[16]

The full verbatim transcript from his Tribunal ended up bin thirty-six pages long, after extensive redactions were made from the portions when he responded to questions about his claims that his confessions were the result of torture.[17]

[edit] Torture

Abd al-Rahim attributed his confessions of involvement in the USS Cole bombing to torture.[18] All the details Abd al-Rahim offered of his claims of torture were redacted from his transcript.[17][19]

In his opening statement, al-Nashiri listed seven false confessions he had been induced to make while being waterboarded.[17]

  1. The French Merchant Vessel Limburg incident.
  2. The USS Cole bombing.
  3. The rockets in Saudi Arabia.
  4. The plan to bomb American ships in the gulf.
  5. Relationship with people committing bombings in Saudi Arabia.
  6. Osama Bin Laden having a nuclear bomb.
  7. A plan to hijack a plane and crash it into a ship.

During the course of his tribunal he claimed additional confessions he had made, while being tortured. He was ostensibly the last of the al-Qaeda suspects to be videotaped, as he was waterboarded in Thailand by CIA officers who questioned him. Shortly after, when a prisoner died in CIA custody in Iraq, it was decided that all such interrogations would not be videotaped, as it provided criminal "evidence".[20] All the tapes showing detainee's being waterboarded were destroyed in 2005.

It was reported on August 22, 2009, that al-Nashiri was the subject of what is described as a mock execution during his torture by the CIA. A power drill and a handgun were used.[21]

The Department of Defense announced on August 9, 2007 that all fourteen of the "high-value detainees" who had been transferred to Guantanamo from the CIA's black sites, had been officially classified as "enemy combatants".[22] Although judges Peter Brownback and Keith J. Allred had ruled two months earlier that only "illegal enemy combatants" could face military commissions, the Department of Defense waived the qualifier and said that all fourteen men could now face charges before Guantanamo military commissions.[23][24]

[edit] Order overruled

On January 29, 2009, an order from Obama's new White House administration to suspend all Guantanamo military commission hearings for 120 days was overruled by military judge Army Colonel James Pohl in al-Nashiri's case.[25]

[edit] Charges dropped

On February 5, 2009, al-Nashiri's charges were withdrawn without prejudice.[26]

[edit] Torture

Through Freedom of Information Act requests the American Civil Liberties Union was able to acquire less redacted versions of the transcripts from Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri's Combatant Status Review Tribunal, and those of three other captives.[27][28]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ OARDEC (February 8, 2007). "Summary of Evidence for Combatant Status Review Tribunal - Al Nashiri, Abd Al Rahim Hussein Mohammed". Department of Defense. http://www.defenselink.mil/news/ISN10015.pdf#1. Retrieved April 13, 2007. 
  2. ^ a b c Biographies of 14 detainees, Office of the Director of National Intelligence
  3. ^ a b "U.S.: Top al Qaeda operative arrested". CNN. 2002-11-22. http://archives.cnn.com/2002/US/11/21/alqaeda.capture/index.html. 
  4. ^ Top al Qaeda operative arrested, CNN, 2002-11-22 (http://archives.cnn.com/2002/US/11/21/alqaeda.capture/index.html)
  5. ^ Price, Caitlin. "CIA chief confirms use of waterboarding on 3 terror detainees". University of Pittsburgh School of Law. http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2008/02/cia-chief-confirms-use-of-waterboarding.php. Retrieved 2008-05-13. 
  6. ^ "CIA finally admits to waterboarding". The Australian. 2008-02-07. http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23170732-2703,00.html. Retrieved 2008-02-18. 
  7. ^ Shane, Scott (June 22, 2008). "Inside a 9/11 Mastermind’s Interrogation". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/22/washington/22ksm.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss. Retrieved 2008-06-23. 
  8. ^ Salon.com, Goodbye to Guantanamo?, December 23, 2008
  9. ^ "U.S. drops Guantanamo charges per Obama order". Reuters. http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN25491168. Retrieved 2009-02-06. 
  10. ^ "Executive Order -- Review and Disposition of Individuals Detained at the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base and Closure of Detention Facilities". whitehouse.gov. http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Closure_Of_Guantanamo_Detention_Facilities. Retrieved 2009-02-06. 
  11. ^ a b c d e National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (2004). "Chapter 5". 9/11 Commission Report. http://www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report_Ch5.htm. 
  12. ^ "Bin Laden associate transferred from CIA to Gitmo". CNN. 2008-03-14. http://edition.cnn.com/2008/US/03/14/al.qaida.gitmo/index.html. Retrieved 2008-03-14. 
  13. ^ "Q&A: What next for Guantanamo prisoners?". BBC News. 2002-01-21. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1773140.stm. Retrieved 2008-11-24.  mirror
  14. ^ Elsea, Jennifer K. (July 20, 2005). "Detainees at Guantanamo Bay: Report for Congress" (PDF). Congressional Research Service. http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RS22173.pdf. Retrieved 2007-11-10. 
  15. ^ OARDEC, Index to Transcripts of Detainee Testimony and Documents Submitted by Detainees at Combatant Status Review Tribunals Held at Guantanamo Between July 2004 and March 2005, September 4, 2007
  16. ^ a b OARDEC (February 8, 2007). "Summary of Evidence for Combatant Status Review Tribunal -- Al Nashiri, Abd Al Rahim Hussein Mohammed". United States Department of Defense. pp. pages 1-2. http://www.defenselink.mil/news/ISN10015.pdf#1. Retrieved 2007-12-25. 
  17. ^ a b c OARDEC (March 14, 2007). "Verbatim Transcript of Open Session Combatant Status Review Tribunal Hearing for ISN 10015". United States Department of Defense. pp. pages 1-36. http://www.defenselink.mil/news/transcriptISN10015.pdf#1. Retrieved 2007-12-25. 
  18. ^ Gabriel Haboubi (March 30, 2007). "Guantanamo detainee says torture prompted confession to USS Cole bombing". The Jurist. http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2007/03/guantanamo-detainee-says-torture.php. Retrieved 2007-06-19. 
  19. ^ Lolita C. Baldor (March 30, 2007). "Suspect at Guantanamo Claims Torture". Associated Press. http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070330/D8O6IK0G3.html. Retrieved 2007-06-19. 
  20. ^ Mayer, Jane, "The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals", 2008. p. 225
  21. ^ Bombshell report on CIA interrogations is leaked, The Guardian, August 22, 2009
  22. ^ Lolita C. Baldur (Thursday, August 9, 2007). "Pentagon: 14 Guantanamo Suspects Are Now Combatants". Time magazine. http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1651680,00.html.  mirror
  23. ^ Sergeant Sara Wood (June 4, 2007). "Charges Dismissed Against Canadian at Guantanamo". Department of Defense. http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=46281. Retrieved 2007-06-07. 
  24. ^ Sergeant Sara Wood (June 4, 2007). "Judge Dismisses Charges Against Second Guantanamo Detainee". Department of Defense. http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=46288. Retrieved 2007-06-07. 
  25. ^ "Judge rejects Obama bid to stall trial". NZ Herald - AP. 2009-01-29. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10554318. Retrieved 2009-02-07. 
  26. ^ http://www.reuters.com/article/newsMaps/idUSTRE5150IL20090206
  27. ^ "CSRT censorship". American Civil Liberties Union. 2009-06-15. http://www.aclu.org/safefree/torture/csrtfoia.html. Retrieved 2009-06-15. 
  28. ^ OARDEC (2007-03-14). "Verbatim Transcript of Combatant Status Review Tribnnal Hearing for ISN 10015". United States Department of Defense. pp. pages 1-39. http://www.aclu.org/pdfs/safefree/csrt_ksm.pdf. Retrieved 2009-06-15. 

[edit] External links

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