Ghassan al-Shirbi

Infobox WoT detainees
subject_name = Ghassan Abdallah Ghazi Al Shirbi

---

image_size =
image_caption = | date_of_birth = Birth date|1974|12|28
place_of_birth = Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
date_of_arrest =
place_of_arrest= | arresting_authority=
date_of_release = | place_of_release=
date_of_death = | place_of_death =
citizenship = | detained_at = Guantanamo
id_number = 682
group =
alias =
charge = Faced charges in November 2005, before the Presidentially authoritized military commisssions.
Faced charges in May 2008, before the Congressionally authorized military commissions.
penalty =
status =
csrt_summary = wikisource-inline|Summary of Evidence for Combatant Status Review Tribunal -- Al Shirbi, Ghassan Abdallah Ghazi
csrt_transcript=
occupation = | spouse = | parents = | children =

Ghassan Abdallah Ghazi Al Shirbi is a Saudi who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.cite web
url=http://www.dod.mil/news/May2006/d20060515%20List.pdf
title=List of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from January 2002 through May 15, 2006
author=OARDEC
publisher=United States Department of Defense
date=May 15 2006
accessdate=2007-09-29
format=PDF] His Guantanamo Internee Security Number is 682.He has allegedly been named the "electronic builder" and referred to as a right hand man of Abu Zubaydah by fellow Guantanamo inmates. The US Department of Defense reports that Al Shirbi was born on December 28 1974, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Identity

Captive 682 was identified inconsistently on official Department of Defense documents:
*His name was spelled as Ghassan Abdallah Al Sharbi in November 2005, on his official charge sheet.cite web
url=http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Nov2005/d20051104sharbi.pdf
title=USA v. al Sharbi
date=November 7 2005
accessdate=February 27
accessyear=2007
publisher=United States Department of Defense
format=PDF]
*His name was spelled as Ghassan Abdallah Ghazi Al Shirbi on May 15 2006, when the DoD released it first official list of all the captives who had been held, in military custody, in Guantanamo. [http://www.dod.mil/news/May2006/d20060515%20List.pdf list of prisoners (.pdf)] , "US Department of Defense", May 15 2006]

Background

Ghassan was born in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia but attended high school in the United States, and went on to study aeronautical engineering at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Arizona. [http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N27179388.htm Saudi man admits enemy role at Guantanamo hearing] , "Reuters", April 27 2006]

He was captured by Pakistani forces during a raid at Faisalabad, Pakistan in March 2002. He wasn't brought to Bahrain Airbase, as prisoner #237, for interrogation until June when he was chiefly interrogated by two soldiers romantically linked to each other.Mackey, Chris. "The Interrogators", 2004]

Speaking fluent English, he appeared "dismissive and aloof", and said that he was glad to see the Taliban ruling Afghanistan, quoting statistics that showed a dramatic decrease in crime rates and new schools built under their government.

He asked the interrogations chief whether he had read anything by T. E. Lawrence, or "From Beirut to Jerusalem", and later dismissed the interrogator's statement that he was a graduate of Fordham University by retorting that it was a "third-tier school". He offered the names, addresses and phone numbers of several American classmates, professors and landlords he said would vouch for him having done nothing wrong. The interrogator later remarked that al-Shirbi had a "seeming preoccupation with death".

When it was arranged to transfer al-Shirbi to Guantanamo, he calmly told his interrogators that "after a while, the truth would blur for him and that he would just say whatever we wanted to hear just to have the solitude that would come from the end of our questioning".

In testimony before the Combatant Status Review Tribunal in Guantanamo, he accepted the title "enemy combatant" as well as all 15 charges against him. Upon dismissal from the room, Ghassan chanted "May God help me fight the infidels or the unfaithful ones."

On November 7, 2005, the United States charged Ghassan and four other detainees.They will face a trial before a military commission. Ghassan, Jabran Said bin al Qahtani, Binyam Ahmed Muhammad, and Sufyian Barhoumi face conspiracy to murder charges. Omar Khadr faces both murder and conspiracy to murder charges.

Al-Sharbi wants to decline legal representation. [http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060410/NEWS01/604100316/1009/NEWSWEEK Vermont lawyers represent Guantanamo detainees] , "Burlington Free Press", April 13 2006] His lawyer, Bob Rachlin, is trying to arrange for Al-Sharbi to talk, by phone, with his parents, hoping they will be able to convince him to accept Rachlin's legal assistance.

On April 27 2006 al Sharbi acknowledged membership in al Qaeda, and told his military commission: [http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N27179388.htm Saudi man admits enemy role at Guantanamo hearing] , "Reuters", April 27 2006]
*"I came here to tell you I did what I did and I'm willing to pay the price"
*"Even if I spend hundreds of years in jail, that would be a matter of honor to me,"
*"I fought the United States, I'm going to make it short and easy for you guys: I'm proud of what I did."

In Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, in July 2006, the Supreme Court of the United Statesruled that the Bush Presidency lacked the constitutional authority to set up the military commission. Only Congress had the authority to set up military commissions. Congress subsequently passed the Military Commissions Act of 2006.

On May 29 2008Ghassan Abdullah al-Sharbi,Sufyian Barhoumi andJabran al-Qathani were charged before the Congressionally authorized military commissions.cite news
url=http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2008/05/pentagon-files-new-charges-against-3.php
title=Pentagon files new charges against 3 Guantanamo detainees
publisher=The Jurist
author=Andrew Gilmore
date= May 30, 2008
accessdate=2008-06-01
quote=] cite news
url=http://www.defenselink.mil/news/d20080529Sharbi.pdf
title=Charge sheet (2008)
publisher=United States Department of Defense
date=May 29 2008
accessdate=2008-06-01
quote=
format=PDF]

Combatant Status Review Tribunal allegations

] Three chairs were reserved for members of the press, but only 37 of the 574 Tribunals were observed.cite web
url=http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=3902
title=Annual Administrative Review Boards for Enemy Combatants Held at Guantanamo Attributable to Senior Defense Officials
publisher=United States Department of Defense
date=March 6 2007
accessdate=2007-09-22] ]

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 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.

Al Shirbi chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal. [http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt/Set_30_2048-2144.pdf#26 Summarized transcripts (.pdf)] , from Ghassan Abdallah Ghazi Al Shirbi's "Combatant Status Review Tribunal" - pages 26-30]

ummary of Evidence memo

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Ghassan Abdallah Ghazi Al Shirbi'sCombatant Status Review Tribunal, on
4 November 2004.cite web
url=http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt_arb/000500-000599.pdf#44
title=Summary of Evidence for Combatant Status Review Tribunal -- Al Shirbi, Ghassan Abdallah Ghazi
date=4 November 2004
pages=pages 44-45
author=OARDEC
publisher=United States Department of Defense
accessdate=2008-06-01] The memo listed the following allegations against him:

:

Al Sharbi's statement to his Combatant Status Review Tribunal

During the portion of his Tribunal where he was permitted to give a statement he first indicated that he was honored to be classified as an enemy combatant. He then offered a couple of hundred words of criticism of the United States, homosexuality and Capitalism. Although he speaks fluent English he chose to give his statement in Arabic, and his translator had to ask him to pause several times, so they could catch up.

He ended his statement saying: :"“Your culture chose to review the enemy combatant status. Your status as enemy combatants does not need a court. For your culture, the enemy combatant is Muslims, Islam. Enemies yes, combatants no, you only wear the uniform of what you call a coalition forces what I call traitors. I do not have anything to add and I do not want to say anything more than this and I do not want to hear more than this.”

When he finished his Tribunal's President told him she presumed he was finished, and tried to tell him what the next steps in the process would be. Al Sharbi started to chant at the same time. He chanted through her concluding remarks.

The Tribunal reconvened, in open session, shortly after al Sharbi had been removed, so the translator's translation of his chant could be recorded in the unclassified portion of his dossier. He chanted: "“May god help me fight the infidels or the unfaithful ones”

Experienced the "frequent flyer" program

On August 7 2008 the "Washington Post" reported that the Guantanamo guards defied their orders to discontinue the illegal practice of arbitrarily moving captives multiples times a day to deprive them of sleep.cite news
url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/07/AR2008080703004_pf.html
title=Tactic Used After It Was Banned: Detainees at Guantanamo Were Moved Often, Documents Say
publisher=Washington Post
author=Josh White
date=2008-08-07
accessdate=2008-08-07
quote=Defense Department investigations of abuse had previously revealed that the program was used in a limited manner and only on high-value detainees, but the documents indicate that the program was far more widespread and that the technique was still used months after it was banned at the facility in March 2004. Detainees were moved dozens of times in just days and sometimes more than a hundred times over a two-week period. [http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fwp-dyn%2Fcontent%2Farticle%2F2008%2F08%2F07%2FAR2008080703004_pf.html&date=2008-08-07 mirror] ] The report stated Ghassan Abdullah al-Sharbi was subjected to the frequent flyer program from November 2003 to February 2004.

Robert Rachlin, one of his lawyers, stated:quotation
"We have to assume that the frequent flyer program, what its details were, was not designed to strengthen the comfort and resolve of the prisoner. Sleep deprivation is coercive. Of course it troubles me."

References

External links

* [http://www.defenselink.mil/news/commissions_exhibits_sharbi.html Commissions Transcripts, Exhibits, and Allied Papers]
* [http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20051107/omar_khadr_051107/20051107%3Fhub%3DTopStories&cid=1102222795 US military charges Omar Khadr with murder] , "CTV", November 7, 2005
* [http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-11/08/content_492384.htm&cid=1102222795 US charges five Guantanamo detainees with war crimes] , "China Daily", November 7, 2005
* [http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/11/07/omarkhadr051107.html&cid=1102222795 Canadian held at Guantanamo charged with murder] , "CBC", November 7, 2005
* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0%2C1280%2C-5399561%2C00.html&cid=1102222795 Five More Guantanamo Detainees Charged] , "The Guardian", November 7, 2005
* [http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/13106909.htm&cid=1102236034 Supreme Court to hear challenge to military commissions] , "San Francisco Mercury", November 7, 2005