Abdul Rauf Omar Mohammed Abu Al Qusin

Abdul Rauf Omar Mohammed Abu Al Qusin is a citizen of Libya, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. Al Qusin's Guantanamo detainee ID number is 709. American intelligence analysts estimate that Al Qusin was born in 1965, in Tripoli, Libya.

Identity

Captive 709 has been named inconsistently on official US documents:

• He is named Abdul Rauf Omar Mohammed Abu Al Qusin on the two official lists.
• He is named Abu Abdul Rauf Zalita in the documents presented to the United States Supreme Court.

Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held in a trailer the size of a large RV. The captive sat on a plastic garden chair, with his hands and feet shackled to a bolt in the floor. Three chairs were reserved for members of the press, but only 37 of the 574 Tribunals were observed.

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 tribunal 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.

Al Qusin chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.

Allegations

The allegations Al Qusin faced during his Tribunal were:

a. -- The general summary of the allegations that establish an association with terrorism were missing from the transcript. --

1. The detainee served in the Libyan military from 1983 to 1990, where he received training with AK-47's, pistols and various machine guns.
2. The detainee traveled from Libya to Afghanistan via Tanzania, Algeria and France in 1990, to fight the jihad against the Soviet Union.
3. The detainee received weapons training (AD-47 [sic], sniper rifle, RPGs, and 82mm mortars) at two Libyan training camps located within Afghanistan (Torkhum and Samar Khaila).
4. The detainee stayed at a Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) guesthouse in Jalalabad City, AF.
5. The detainee was a member of the LIFG.
6. LIFG is a known terrorist organization.
7. Detainee traveled to Tora Bora in December 2001.
8. After the fall of the Taliban, the detainee fled to Pakistan where he was captured in a Libyan guesthouse.

Statement

Captive 709 did not choose to attend his Tribunal in person. But his Personal Representative read responses he had dictated to the allegations.

• Captive 709 confirmed that he had served in the Libyan military. He confirmed that, while in the Libyan military, he received military training. But he pointed out that he was an involuntary conscript.
• Captive 709 disputed the allegation that he traveled to Afghanistan, in 1990, to fight Afghanistan's Soviet occupiers. He confirmed traveling to Afghanistan in 1990. But he did not travel there to fight Soviet invaders. The Soviet invaders had already left. He traveled to Afghanistan to flee the repression in Libya. He planned to make Afghanistan his home.
• Captive 709 acknowledged receiving military training in Afghanistan. He said that when he undertook the training he "followed the crowd". The training was in 1993, before the Taliban took power.
• Captive 709 acknowledged staying in a Libyan Islamic Fighting Group guest house. He stayed there in 2000. He stayed there because he could not find anywhere else to stay.
• Captive 709 denied ever being a member of the LIFG.
• Captive 709 denied knowing that the LIFG had any ties to terrorism.
• Captive 709 denied being present in Tora Bora in December 2001. He claimed he was in Pakistan in December 2001.
• Captive 709 denied being captured in an LIFG guest house. He was captured in the private dwelling of a Pakistani man.

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.

Al Qusin chose to participate in his Administrative Review Board hearing.

Statement

Al Qusin chose not to attend his Administrative Review Board hearing. But the statement he prepared was read for him by his Assisting Military Officer. That statement was not recorded in the transcript. But comments his Assisting Military Officer made were recorded.

Assisting Military Officer's comments

• Afraid of returning to Libya.
• Reported that a visiting delegation of Libyan intelligence officials had told him they knew he was a member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group in name, and that his participation in the group was not voluntary.
• Acknowledged being trained on a variety of weapons during the eight years he spent in the Libyan military.
• Acknowledged attending two training camps in Afghanistan. Again, he felt obligated to do so, this time because he was a guest, and this was the place he found he could stay in Afghanistan.
• He did not believe in violence; he joined the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group out of desperation - - he was broke, had no place to go, was hungry, unemployed and had no way to support himself.
• He denied ever having any association with al Qaida or any other terrorist or extremist group - - he thought its leadership were “savages”. He expressed equally negative views of the Taliban, and thought these groups harmed all Muslims.

Board questions

• One board member asked the Assisting Military Officer if Al Qusin seemed “schizo-typical” [sic]. The Assisting Military Officer replied that “he was definitely anxious” during his interviews. “Nervous, agitated, but certainly not in a violent manner. You could tell he was under he was under a lot of stress.”

Legal Action

The Center for Constitutional Rights, a legal and educational organization devoted to the protection of human rights both in the United States and abroad, is currently working on two cases on behalf of Al Qusin.

Zalita v. Bush

On May 1 2007 the United States Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts stated. regarding Zalita v. Bush:

"The application for an injunction presented to The Chief Justice and by him referred to the Court is denied."

The Center for Constitutional Rights and pro bono counsel filed a habeas corpus petition June 22 2005 on behalf of Abu Abdul Rauf Zalita (aka Al Qusin) to assure him relief from unlawful imprisonment. President George Bush, the Secretary of Defense, and military commanders of the Joint Task Force – Guantanamo were listed as respondents.

This petition was dismissed by the D.C. District Court for lack of jurisdiction, and the government tried to end attorney access to Al Qusin. CCR responded by filing a motion for reconsideration of the district court’s dismissal, arguing that the Al Odah v. United States and Boumediene v. Bush cases being heard by the Supreme Court reopen the jurisdiction issue (as they both address the detainees’ right to fair trial), thus attorney access should continue until the Supreme Court has passed judgment on these cases. On October 5 2007 the motion for reconsideration was granted, dismissal was vacated, the case stayed pending the results of Al Odah and Boumediene, and counsel access restored.

Zalita v. Gates

On September 26 2007 the Center for Constitutional Rights filed a petition to appeal Al Qusin’s Combatant Status Review Tribunal under the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005. The petition was filed in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals and the respondent is Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.

Preventing Transfer

The Jurist reports that Abu Abdul Rauf Zalita faces torture, and possibly, summary execution, if he were returned to Libya.

Al Qusin is the first Guantánamo detainee to legally challenge intentions of the US government to transfer him to his native country. If transferred, he has reason to believe he will face human rights abuses.

A district court required the government to provide notice 30 days before any intended transfer of Al Qusin to the custody of a foreign government on July 25 2005. Such intentions were declared by the government in December of 2006 and then in February of 2007. Al Qusin has expressed well-founded fears that if transferred to Libya he will face torture and persecution.

The D.C. District Court granted a motion filed by CCR on February 15 2007 ordering the government to provide 60 days notice before Al Qusin is rendered to Libya. On February 20 2007 the government reaffirmed its intention to transfer Al Qusin to Libya. CCR filed a motion in the D.C. District Court in April for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to stop his transfer, arguing that it would violate constitutional and treaty-based rights. Included in the motion Al Qusin’s sworn declaration of his fear of abuse and expert declarations confirming the risk and the ineffectiveness of diplomatic assurances that the Libyan government would not mistreat him. This motion was denied citing the court of appeal’s decision in Boumediene. The appeal to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals was also denied for lack of jurisdiction. An emergency application for injunction was filed in the Supreme Court, but denied on May 1 2007.

Al Qusin has a petition for writ of certiorari that was filed on September 21 2007 and is pending in the Supreme Court to prevent his transfer to Libya prior to the Supreme Court’s judgment on Boumediene and Al Odah, two cases that will resolve some of the questions of rights for the detainees. The petition requests review to determine if he has rights under international human rights treaties and the Fifth Amendment.