Mohammed Ali Abdullah Bwazir

Mohammed Ali Abdullah Bwazir is a citizen of Yemen, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in Cuba. His detainee ID number is 440.

Combatant Status Review Tribunal

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.

Allegations

A memorandum summarizing the evidence against Bwazir, prepared for his Combatan Status Reiew Tribunal, was among those released in March of 2005. The allegations Bwazir faced were:

a. The detainee is associated with the Taliban and al Qaida:

1. The detainee traveled to Afghanistan using counterfeit travel documents.
2. The detainee attended weapons training on the Kalashnikov, PK, M-16, and G-3 at the al Farouq training camp in Afghanistan.
3. The detainee was transferred with a group of Arabs from Kabil [sic] to Mazari Sharif on a Taliban owned aircraft.

b. The detainee engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners:

1. The detainee fought with the Taliban in Taloqan, Afghanistan after 11 September 2001, and was present in Taloqan after the U.S. air campaign began.
2. The detainee fired his weapon in battle at the United States or its coalition partners.
3. The detainee was captured in Mazari Sharif while fighting with the Taliban.

witness

The Tribunal's President ruled that Mamar Diann's testimony would be relevant. But a November 9 2004 request to the State Department to request the cooperation of the Yemen Government to did not generate a reply, so the Tribunal's President ruled Mamar Diann "not reasonably available".

Response to the allegations

Bwazir chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.

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.

Bwazir chose to participate in his Administrative Review Board hearing.

Hunger strike

The Washington Post reports that Bawazir's lawyers assert that Bawazir was one of the hunger strikers, and that the new harsher procedures camp authorities instituted to break te hunger strike violated last fall's proscription on torture.

Camp authorities have been force-feeding hunger strikers. In January 2006 camp authorities started using "restraint chairs" to feed detainees.

The Center for Constitutional Rights quoted from the emergency injunction Bawazir's lawyers filed on his behalf, in reaction to what they described as the unnecessary violence of his force-feeding in the restraint chair:

• Forcibly strapped Mr. Bawazir into a restraint chair, tying his legs, arms, head, and midsection to the chair.
• Inserted of a feeding tube that was larger than the tube that had previously been left in Mr. Bawazir's nose, increasing the pain of the insertion and extraction.
• Poured four bottles of water into his stomach through the nasal gastric tube every time he was fed even though Mr. Bawazir has never refused to drink water by mouth.
• Restrained Mr. Bawazir in the chair for extended periods at each feeding.
• Denied Mr. Bawazir access to a toilet while he was restrained and then for an additional hour or more after he was released from the chair.
• Placed Mr. Bawazir in solitary confinement.

Medical records show Bawazir's weight had dropped to 97 pounds, during the 140 days of his hunger strike. Medical records show Bawazir was restrained in the chair longer than the manufacturer's directions.

Lieutenant Colonel Jeremy Martin asserted that the force-feedings were conducted humanely. He explained the extraordinary duration of the detainees confinement to the restraint chair was due to the length of time the force-feeding took.

U.S. government lawyers argued that the bans on torture and cruel and unusual treatment didn't apply to captives in Guantánamo Bay. Justice Gladys Kessler called the allegations "extremely disturbing".