User:Geo Swan/Ali Ahmad al-Razihi

Ali Ahmad Muhammad Al Rahizi
In this undated Guantanamo identity portrait Ali Ahmad Muhammad al-Razihi is wearing a white Guantanamo uniform, indicating he is considered compliant.
Born	(1979-10-13) October 13, 1979 Ta'iz, Yemen
Detained at	Guantanamo
ISN	45
Charge(s)	No charge
Status	Held in extrajudicial detention

Ali Ahmad Muhammad Al Rahizi is a citizen of Yemen currently held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number is 45. Joint Task Force Guantanamo counter-terrorism analysts reports he was born on October 13, 1979, in Ta'iz, Yemen.

Ali Ahmad Muhammad al Rahizi arrived at Guantanamo on January 11, 2002, and has been held there for 22 years, 9 months and 14 days.

Combatant Status Review

Main article: Combatant Status Review Tribunal

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for his tribunal. The memo accused him of the following:

a. The detainee is a member of al Qaida:

1. The detainee has been identified as a bodyguard for Usama Bin Laden.

b. The detainee supported military operations against the United States or its coalition partners.

1. Detainee was the Amir at the "small mudafah in Kandahar."
2. The mudafah in Kandahar billeted fighters pending further training or operational assignment.
3. The mudafah was operated by the Operations and Logistics elements of al Qaida.

Conclusion

Ali Ahmad Muhammad Al Rahizi's Tribunal based its conclusion on classified evidence. His Tribunal unanimously concluded that he had properly been deternmined to have been an "enemy combatant".

Ali Ahmed Mohammed Al Rezehi v. George W. Bush

A writ of habeas corpus, Ali Ahmed Mohammed Al Rezehi v. George W. Bush, was submitted on Ali Ahmed Mohammed Al Rezehi's behalf. In response, on 14 October 2004 the Department of Defense released 26 pages of unclassified documents related to his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.

Mentioned in the "No-hearing hearings" study

According to the study entitled, No-hearing hearings, there was an anomaly in Al Rahizi's record. Al Rahizi's Personal Representative met with him for twenty minutes on September 23, 2004. Al Rahizi's Tribunal convened on September 28, 2004, without Al Rahizi being present.

The study quoted from the Summary of the Basis for Tribunal Decision:

"The detainee understood the Tribunal Proceedings, but chose not to participate . . . The Tribunal questioned the personal representative closely on this matter and was satisfied that the personal representative had made every effort to ensure that the detainee had made an informed decision."

The study then commented:

"The Tribunal’s close questioning of the personal representative is problematic because the form the personal representative presented to the Tribunal stated that the he had neither read nor left a written copy of the procedures with the detainee."

Administrative Review Board

Detainees whose Combatant Status Review Tribunal labeled them "enemy combatants" were scheduled for annual Administrative Review Board hearings. These hearings were designed to assess the threat a detainee might pose if released or transferred, and whether there were other factors that warranted his continued detention.

The factors for and against continuing to detain Al Rahizi were among the 121 that the Department of Defense released on March 3, 2006.

First annual Administrative Review Board

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Ali Ahmad Muhammad Al Rahizi's second annual Administrative Review Board, on 31 January 2005. The memo listed factors for and against his continued detention.

The following primary factors favor continued detention

a. Commitment

1. The detainee was the Amir at the "small mudafah in Kandahar."
2. The mudafah in Kandahar billeted fighters pending further training or operational assignment.
3. The mudafah was operated by the Operations and Logistics elements of al Qaida.
4. The detainee met Ali al Adeni in a discussion group held at the Jama al Dawa mosque in Taaz, Yemen.
5. Ali al Adeni was known for spreading support for jihad.
6. The detainee gave his passport to Ali al Adeni, who returned his same passport to the detainee along with a Pakistani visa.
7. The detainee is a Sunni Muslim and agrees with the Taliban government where the Islamic law codes are enforced.
8. The detainee was captured on 15 December 2001, with thirty suspected al Qaida members.

b. Training

1. The detainee was identified at al Farouq in May 2000; he was in the Teknek group led by Hamza al Zubair.
2. Hamza al Zubair was the primary liaison between Khalid Shaykh Muhammad and Hasan ba Attash al-Dini.

c. Connections/Associations

1. The detainee has been identified as a bodyguard for Usama Bin Laden.

The following primary factors favor release or transfer

a. The detainee claims to have been in Afghanistan as a religious missionary.

b. The detainee stated he was unaware of any Taliban activity in the village of Showradab, Afghanistan where he taught the Koran to 18 people.

c. The detainee denied staying at a guesthouse in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

d. The detainee denied any knowledge of the attacks in the United States prior to their execution on September 11, 2001.

e. The detainee denied knowledge of any rumors or plans of future attacks on the United States or United States interests.

f. The detainee denied knowledge of the planning of internal uprisings at the Guantanamo detention facility.

g. The detainee stated he did not know Usama Bin Laden.

h. The detainee believes the investigators have him mixed up with someone else.

Transcript

There is no record that Ali Ahmed Mohammed Al Razehi participated in his first annual Review. An affidavit his brother sent to Guantanamo was included with the ARB transcripts. According to his brother their 65 year old father supports their family by selling vegetables from a cart. Ali Ahmed Mohmmed Al Razehi finished high school. He then went and fulfilled his obligatory national military service. He disappeared soon afterwards.

According to his brother:

Everyone in our area loved him because he had such a good sense of humor. He used to make fun of the accents of Aden people in a particularly amusing way. He also had a very beautiful and polite manner. I do not believe that my brother would have done anything criminal or violent. He was not gone for very long, and would not have changed that much. He could never harm anyone. His religion forbids him ot harm or kill anyone and he took that very seriously.

Second annual Administrative Review Board

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Ali Ahmad Muhammad Al Rahizi's second annual Administrative Review Board, on 19 July 2006. The memo listed factors for and against his continued detention.

The following primary factors favor continued detention

a. Commitment

1. The detainee has stated that he did not go to Afghanistan to fight. The detainee stated that he went to Afghanistan to teach the Koran because the Imam at his mosque told him that the Afghans were using magic and were not following the teachings of Islam.
2. The detainee met a Yemeni in 1997 who spread support for jihad. In 1999, the detainee was approached again by the Yemeni and told that he should go to Afghanistan to teach the Koran.
3. The Yemeni provided the detainee with a Pakistani visa, 450 United States Dollars, round-trip airline tickets and an address to a hotel near Karachi, Pakistan.
4. The detainee left Yemen and proceeded to Karachi, Pakistan. After several days in Karachi, the detainee traveled to Quetta, Pakistan and eventually met a man who brought him to Shurandam, Afghanistan.

b. Training

The detainee has been identified as someone who trained at al Farouq at the end of May 2000.

c. Connections/Associations

1. The detainee taught the Koran to Afghan children at the Abu Bakur al Sadiq mosque in Shurandam, Afghanistan. The detainee worked directly for the mosque Imam.
2. The detainee was informed of the war in Afghanistan from the Imam of Shoorandab, Afghanistan, in late 2001. The Imam suggested that the detainee return to Yemen for his own safety.
3. The detainee decided to leave Afghanistan when the war with America got too close. The detainee traveled from Shurandam, Afghanistan to Ghazni, Afghanistan. From Ghazni, the detainee then traveled to Khowst, Afghanistan and then traveled by foot for two days to a small town.
4. At the small town, the detainee joined approximately 30 other Arabs who had assembled to flee into Pakistan. The group of Arabs traveled for eight days and was finally arrested on the Pakistan border by Pakistan authorities.
5. The detainee has been identified as an Usama bin Laden bodyguard and also that he was seen at the Kandahar, Afghanistan guest house.

d. Other Relevant Data

1. The detainee was identified as someone who was in custody in the Kandahar, Afghanistan facility.
2. The detainee was transferred into United States custody on 26 December 2001.

The following primary factors favor release or transfer

a. The detainee stated that he has never received any type of military training and the only weapon he knows how to use is the Kalashnikov rifle that he learned about when he was young.

b. The detainee denied having any knowledge of the attacks in the United States prior to their execution on 11 September 2001.

c. The detainee denied knowledge of any rumors of plans of future attacks on the United States or United States interests.

d. The detainee denied any knowledge of planning of internal uprisings at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.

Third annual Administrative Review Board

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Ali Ahmad Muhammad Al Rahizi's third annual Administrative Review Board, on 19 July 2006. The three page memo listed fourteen "primary factors favor[ing] continued detention" and five "primary factors favor[ing] release or transfer".

Board recommendations

One January 9, 2009, the Department of Defense published two heavily redacted memos, from his Board, to Gordon England, the Designated Civilian Official. The Board's recommendation was unanimous The Board's recommendation was redacted. England authorized his continued detention on November 13, 2007.

References

External links

• Who Are the Remaining Prisoners in Guantánamo? Part One: The “Dirty Thirty” Andy Worthington, September 15, 2010