Issam Hamid Al Bin Ali Al Jayfi

Infobox WoT detainees
subject_name = Issam Hamid Al Bin Ali Al Jayfi


image_size =
image_caption =
date_of_birth = Birth date|1979|9|1
place_of_birth = Sada, Yemen
date_of_death =
place_of_death =
detained_at = Guantanamo
id_number = 183
group =
alias = Issam Hamid Ali Bin Al Jayfi
charge = no charge, held in extrajudicial detention
penalty =
status = repatriated
occupation =
spouse =
parents =
children =

Issam Hamid Al Bin Ali Al Jayfi is a citizen of Yemen, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, 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] Al Jayfi's detainee ID number is 183.
Joint Task Force Guantanamo counter-terrorism analysts reports that Al Jayfi was born on September 1 1979, in Sada, Yemen.

Combatant Status Review Tribunal

] 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 date=December 2007

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.

Summary of Evidence memo

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Issam Hamid Ali Bin Al Jayfi'sCombatant Status Review Tribunal, on 12 January 2005.cite web
url=http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt_arb/000101-000200.pdf#89
title=Summary of Evidence for Combatant Status Review Tribunal -- Al Jayfi, Issam Hamid Ali Bin
date=12 January 2005
author=OARDEC
pages=pages 89-90
publisher=United States Department of Defense
accessdate=2007-12-07] The memo listed the following allegations against him:

:"'a The detainee is associated with al Qaida::#The detainee was told that the Saudi Arabian and Yemeni governments had issued Fatwahs to the jihad sic in Afghanistan.:#The detainee voluntarily traveled to Afghanistan from Yemen via Pakistan in August 2001.:#The detainee believes sic that a jihad recruiter and financier obtained his passport and paid for his travel to Afghanistan.:#The detainee stayed at a guesthouse in Kabul for seven weeks.:#The detainee stayed at a guesthouse in Jalalabad for one month.:#The detainee advised that he was provided his accommodation, food and necessities at no cost.:#The detainee has familial ties to an individual who was scheduled to travel to California/San Francisco with associates of the September 11 hijackers.:#The detainee’s telephone number was found in the pocket litter of another detainee along with the telephone number of a Mujahideen who trained at an al Qaida camp and extensive notes on electronic and radio theory.

:"'b The detainee participated in military operations against the coalition.:#The detainee most likely carried an AK-47 rifle in Afghanistan.:#The detainee joined the Taliban forces for approximately one month before Kabul fell to the Northern Alliance.:#The detainee surrendered to Dostum Forces at Mazar-E-Sharif sic without identification documents.

Transcript

Al Jayfi chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal. [http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt/Set_13_1240-1291.pdf#13 Summarized transcripts (.pdf)] , from Issam Hamid Al Bin Ali Al Jayfi's"Combatant Status Review Tribunal" - pages 13-22]

Testimony

The Tribunal officers read out the allegations against Al Jayfi, and he responded to each, in turn, as follows:
* Al Jayfi denied any association with al Qaeda; denied ever participating in jihad or training with weapons. He denied any knowledge of al Qaeda until he was interrogated.
* Al Jayfi denied any involvement in Fatwas, and said in his life, in Yemen, had nothing to do with Saudi scholars.
* Al Jayfi was confused by the third allegation, that an al Qaeda recruiter/financier paid for his travel. His friend Sammy paid for his travel expenses, but he had no reason to believe Sammy had anything to do with al Qaeda.
* Al Jayfi acknowledged spending some weeks, he couldn’t be sure how many, in a guesthouse in Kabul, and for a month in Jalalabad, in the company of his friend Sammy.
* Al Jayfi denied having any family ties, or any ties whatsoever, to anyone associated with the attacks of September 11, 2001.
* Al Jayfi denied giving his phone number to anyone.
* Al Jayfi denied participating in military operations in Afghanistan. He stated that the whole time he was there he never carried a weapon.
* Al Jayfi denied knowledge of the Taliban. He denied joining any forces.
* Al Jayfi stated that the first time he had ever heard of Mazari Sharif had been the previous day, when he first met with his Personal Representative.

Al Jayfi’s Personal Representative then asked Al Jayfi to tell his story from the beginning.

Al Jayfi said that the reason why his friend Sammy suggested he go to Afghanistan, and paid his expenses was that Al Jayfi had acquired dissolute habit - including drinking alcohol and other illicit drugs. Sammy convinced Al Jayfi to go with him to Afghanistan to wean him away from his bad habits, which were against their religion.

Al Jayfi said he was shocked when they arrived in Afghanistan. He said he didn’t have a great knowledge of geography, and thought Afghanistan was a European country.

Upon their arrival his friend Sammy started to talk to him about jihad. Al Jayfi said Sammy spent a long time trying to convince him to engage in jihad. But he was totally unmoved. Finally, approximately a week before “the problems started”, Sammy announced that he was going north to fight. Al Jayfi could come with him. Or, he would give Al Jayfi $250, so he could return home. He told Al Jayfi that the manager of the guesthouse would arrange transportation for him.

Al Jayfi chose not to follow Sammy. He asked the manager to arrange transportation for him. The manager asked him to wait. Then “the problems started”, and the manager said it would no longer be possible for him to arrange travel for Al Jayfi to return home. When “fighters” entered Kabul, he fled to Jalalabad. He kept asking for help to return to Yemen. But no one could help him. When Jalalabad fell he fled to a small mountain village, with ten other men. After a while this group proceeded, on foot, across the mountains to Pakistan. The villagers who billeted them, upon their arrival in Pakistan, promised to help him go the Yemen Embassy. But, instead, they turned him over to the Pakistani police in the middle of the night.

In answer to questions from the Tribunal’s officers:
* Al Jayfi said he didn’t know who the fighters who entered Kabul were. The people in the guest house referred to them either as “the opposition” or “the hypocrites”.
* When asked if the fighters were from the Northern Alliance Al Jayfi said he didn’t know what the Northern Alliance was.
* Prior to leaving Yemen Al Jayfi said he worked in a ministry, for the Council for the Protection of the Environment. He did administrative work.
* Al Jayfi didn’t tell his family he was going to Afghanistan.
* When asked if Sammy went by other names, he said when they arrived in Afghanistan Sammy told him to call him Musab. He told Al Jayfi he should use the name Sirha for himself.
* Sammy was a long-time neighbor in Yemen.
* Al Jayfi confirmed that he saw armed men using the guesthouse, but repeated he never had a weapon.
* Al Jayfi confirmed that he had fired a weapon - in Yemen. He said it was customary to fire weapons if there was a wedding, or other celebration. In addition, his father had given him some marksmanship lessons when he was about eight years old.
* Al Jayfi was asked why he didn’t leave as soon as he decided he didn’t want to participate in jihad. He described the difficulty of being in a new place. He had never traveled outside of Yemen. He was disoriented, and the manager kept promising to help him. He told the Tribunal he was bugging the manager for help to return all the time.
* Al Jayfi said he didn’t know about Jihad until Sammy explained it to him, after they arrived in Afghanistan.
* Al Jayfi assured his Tribunal he had no family members in the USA, and none of his relatives had ever visited the United States.
* Al Jayfi told his Tribunal he did not participate in Yemen’s civil war.
* Al Jayfi said he was currently about 25 years old. He didn’t know how old Sammy was, but Sammy was older than him.
* The other people he traveled through the mountains with were all Arabs. He thought some of them may have been carrying weapons.
* Al Jayfi said he had never had any problems with the Yemeni government, but there had been “little disputes within the tribes”.

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.

Summary of Evidence memo

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Issam Hamid Ali Bin Al Jayfi'sAdministrative Review Board, on 11 July 2005.cite web
url=http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt_arb/ARB_Round_1_Factors_000197-000294.pdf#11
title=Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the case of Al Jayfi, Issam Hamid Ali Bin
date=11 July 2005
author=OARDEC
pages=pages 11-12
publisher=United States Department of Defense
accessdate=2007-12-07] The memo listed factors for and against his continued detention.

The following primary factors favor continued detention:

:"'a. Commitment:#The detainee's travel to Afghanistan was facilitated and paid for by Sami Ahmed, also known as Ahmad Al-Sharjib, who suggested they travel to Afghanistan.:#The detainee joined the Taliban Forces for a month prior to the Northern Alliance seizing Kabul.

:"'b. Connectons/Associations:#The detainee stayed at a guesthouse in Kabul for approximately seven weeks. The guesthouse was operated by Abdul Rahman.:#Abdul Rahman is a Harakat Al-Mujahadin Operative based in Islamabad. He is responsible for transporting foreign sic Arabs to and from Kashmir.:#The radical Islamic group, Harakat Al-Mujahadin is based in Jalalabad and has extensive ties to the al Qaida terrorist organization as is know to help Arabs escape Afghanistan.:#The detainee stayed at the Tunisian guesthouse in Jalalabd, Afghanistan.:#The Tunisian guesthouse is a meeting place, supply storage area, and hospital facility for Afghan and Arab fighters.:#The detainee has family ties to an individual who was scheduled to travel to San Francisco, California with associates of the 11 September hijackers Khalid Al-Midhar and Nawaf Al-Hazmi.

:"'c. Other Relevant Data:#The detainee passed through the Pakistani cities of Karachi and Quetta, and proceeded through Kandahar, Afghanistan, before ultimately arriving in Kabul, Afghanistan.:#Sharjabi recommended that the detainee go to Afghanistan in order to experience a truly Islamic and beautiful country. The promise of beautiful women and adventure were other incentives.:#Sharjabi did not mention jihad to the detainee until after they were in Afghanistan.:#The detainee may have carried an AK-47 for protection while fleeing Afghanistan.

The following primary factors favor release or transfer:

:

Board recommendations

In early September 2007 the Department of Defense released two heavily redacted memos, from his Board, to Gordon England, the Designated Civilian Official.cite web
url=http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt_arb/ARB_Round_1_Decision_memos_000096-000195.pdf#59
title=Administrative Review Board assessment and recommendation ICO ISN 183
date=17 August 2005
author=OARDEC
publisher=United States Department of Defense
accessdate=2007-12-07
pages=page 59] cite web
url=http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt_arb/ARB_Round_1_Decision_memos_000096-000195.pdf#60
title=Classified Record of Proceedings and basis of Administrative Review Board recommendation for ISN 183
date=October 22 2005
author=OARDEC
publisher=United States Department of Defense
accessdate=2007-12-07
pages=pages 60-66] The Board's recommendation was unanimousThe Board's recommendation was redacted.England authorized his transfer on October 22 2005.

Repatriation

Yemen's President, Ali Abdullah Saleh, demanded the release of the remaining Yemenis held in Guantanamo on December 23 2006.cite news
url=http://www.yobserver.com/article-11423.php
title=Saleh demands release of Guantanamo detainees
author=Nasser Arrabyee
date=December 23 2006
publisher=Yemen Observer
accessdate=2006-12-29] The "Yemen Observer" identified Mohammed Ahmed al-Asadi, Esam Hamid al-Jaefi and Ali Hussain al-Tais as three of the six Yemeni who had been repatriated the previous week.Al Asadi, the first of the six men to be released, on December 29 2006, was asked to sign an undertaking promising to refrain from armed activity.cite news
url=http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/06/12/29/10092755.html
title=Guantanamo detainee released
publisher=Gulf News
date=December 29 2006
accessdate=2006-12-29
author=Nasser Arrabyee] On January 7 2007 the "Yemen Times" identified two of the three remaining men as
Tawfiq Al-Murwai and Muhassen Al-Asskari.cite news
url=http://yementimes.com/article.shtml?i=1014&p=local&a=1
title=Ex-Guantanamo detainees in detention
date=January 7 2007
accessdate=2007-01-08
publisher=Yemen Times] Yemen's President, Ali Abdullah Saleh, said the men would be released as soon as Yemeni authorities had cleared them.

Habeas corpus submissions

Al Jayfi is one of the sixteen Guantanamo captives whose amalgamated habeas corpus submissions were heard by
US District Court Judge Reggie B. Walton on January 31 2007.cite web
url=http://www.pegc.us/archive/In_re_Gitmo/order_RBW_20070131.pdf
title=Gherebi, et al. v. Bush
date=January 31 2007
publisher=United States Department of Justice
author=Reggie B. Walton
accessdate=May 19
accessyear=2007
format=PDF]

References