Khalid al-Asmr

Infoxbox WoT detainees
subject_name = Khalid Mahomoud Abdul Wahab Al Asmr


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date_of_birth = Birth date and age|1963|12|16
place_of_birth = - Irbid, Jordan
date_of_death =
place_of_death =
id_number = 589
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penalty =
status = Reported to be classified as a NLEC and released as of 2007
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Khalid Mahomoud Abdul Wahab Al Asmr is a citizen of Jordan, 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] Al Asmr's Guantanamo detainee ID number is 589.
Joint Task Force Guantanamo counter-terrorism analysts reports that Al Asmr was born on December 16 1963, in Irbid, Jordan.

Press reports

"Mother Jones" magazine published an article based on interviews with the wife of a Jordanian captive named Khalid Alasmar.cite news
date=March/April 2005
url=http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2005/03/searching_gitmo.html?welcome=true
title=Searching for Khalid
publisher=Mother Jones (magazine)
accessdate=2007-06-13
author=Emily Bazelon] Al Asmr's wife Fatima Abdulbagi, said that her husband had traveled from Jordan to Afghanistan to fight Afghanistan's foreign invaders, during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. She described the flight of herself, Al Asmr, and their seven children, from the American bombing of Afghanistan, and their arrival in Pakistan. She reported that Al Asmr was picked up by Pakistani authorities they day before they were to return to Jordan.

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.

Al Asmr chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal. [http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt/Set_26_1848-1900.pdf#19 Summarized transcripts (.pdf)] , from Khalid Mahomoud Abdul Wahab Al Asmr's "Combatant Status Review Tribunal" - pages 19-29]

Allegations

The allegations Al Asmr faced during his Tribunal were::""'a. The detainee is associated with al Qaida::#"The detainee arrived in Afghanistan via Pakistan.:#"The detainee attended the Sheikh Sanif terrorist camp,:#"The detainee was trained to use the AK-47.:#"The detainee met Usama Bin Laden.:#"The detainee worked for the al-Haramayn Organization.:#"Al-Haramayn is associated with al Qaida.:#"The detainee attended the al Fand training camp,:#"The detainee worked for Maktab al Khidmat sic.:#"Maktab al Khidmat is on the terrorist exclusion list.:#"The detainee is associated with Jamat al Tabligh sic.:#"Jamat al Tabligh, a Pakistani-based Islamic missionary organization, is being used as a cover to mask travel and activities of terrorists including members of al Qaida.:#"

Response to the allegations

*Al Asmr said he had lived in Pakistan since 1985, had married to Afghani women, and traveled to Afghanistan to visit relatives.
*Al Asmr acknowledged attending the Sheikh Saiaf camp -- in 1986. He disputed that it was a terrorist camp. He said he was traveling through Afghanistan to transport blankets and medicine. He felt that he needed to be physically fit. He went to the camp for physical fitness training. Al Asmr said he stayed at the camp just one day. Further, he said that the camp was funded by the USA, and Sheikh Saiaf is not considered a terrorist -- he was currently living openly in Kabul, working for the Hamid Karzai government.
*Al Asmr denied going to the Shiekh Saiaf's camp weapons training. He acknowledged sitting in briefly on some AK-47 training -- but for no longer than ten minutes. Further, he disputed that AK-47 training represented terrorism, as practically every home in Afghanistan owned one.
*Al Asmr denied ever meeting Osama bin Laden. He acknowledged telling his interrogators that he had once seen Osama bin Laden from a distance. Al Asmr's Personal Representative reminded him that this was in 1987, when Osama bin Laden was an American ally.
*Al Asmr denied being an employee of al-Haramayn. He said that he was a businessman, who sold food, and that al Haramain was just another of his customers. They bought food from him, which they then distributed for free.
*Al Asmr asked what any American proof that Al Haramain was associated with al Qaida had to do with him.
*Al Asmr told his Tribunal that none of his interrogators had ever asked him about the Al Fand training camp. The allegation that he trained there was new to him.
*Al Asmr acknowledged working -- indirectly -- for Maktab al Khidmat.
*:"Yes, I did. I worked indirectly with them. I worked with the Sheik's wife. Sheik Abdalleh Azam, I worked with his wife for an organization called Laddens (ph) Organization. The only reason why I was going there was to get my money. When I was working for that Maktab al Khidmat, it was just a humanitarian effort on my part. I opened up hospitals in the north. We helped the poor and needy people. We delivered some food to them. I was finished with Maktab al Khidmat in January 1992. I was finished with them from point on I had nothing to do with them."
*In response to the allegation that Maktab al Khidmat is on the terrorist exclusion list Al Asmr told his Tribunal that the Pakistani government shut the organization down in 1996.
*Al Asmr acknowledged being a member of al Tabligh. But he disputed it was a terrorist organization. He said it merely sent volunteers to do good works -- missionary work. His last association with them was in 1996.

Response to Tribunal Officer's questioning

Determined not to have been an Enemy Combatant

The Washington Post reports that Al Asmr was one of 38 detainees who was determined not to have been an enemy combatant during his Combatant Status Review Tribunal. [http://projects.washingtonpost.com/guantanamo/nlec/ Guantanamo Bay Detainees Classifed as "No Longer Enemy Combatants"] , "Washington Post"] They report that Al Asmr has been released.The Department of Defense refers to these men as No Longer Enemy Combatants.

McClatchy interview

On June 15 2008 the McClatchy News Service published articles based on interviews with 66 former Guantanamo captives. McClatchy reporters interviewed Khaled al Asmr. cite news
url=http://services.mcclatchyinteractive.com/detainees?page=6
title=Guantanamo Inmate Database: Page 6
publisher=McClatchy News Service
author=Tom Lasseter
date=June 15 2008
accessdate=2008-06-16
quote= [http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fservices.mcclatchyinteractive.com%2Fdetainees%3Fpage%3D6&date=2008-06-18 mirror] ] cite news
url=http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/611/story/491372.html
title=U.S. hasn't apologized to or compensated ex-detainees
publisher=Myrtle Beach Sun
author=Tom Lasseter
date=Wednesday June 18, 2008
accessdate=2008-06-18
quote= [http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.myrtlebeachonline.com%2F611%2Fstory%2F491372.html&date=2008-06-18 mirror] ] cite news
url=http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/38771.html
title=Pentagon declined to answer questions about detainees
publisher=McClatchy News Service
author=Tom Lasseter
date=June 15 2008
accessdate=2008-06-20
quote= [http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mcclatchydc.com%2Fhomepage%2Fstory%2F38771.html&date=2008-06-20 mirror] ] cite news
url=http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/38776.html
title=Documents undercut Pentagon's denial of routine abuse
publisher=McClatchy News Service
author=Tom Lasseter
date=June 16 2008
accessdate=2008-06-20
quote= [http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mcclatchydc.com%2Fhomepage%2Fstory%2F38776.html&date=2008-06-20 mirror] ] cite news
url=http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/38887.html
title=Deck stacked against detainees in legal proceedings
publisher=McClatchy News Service
author=Tom Lasseter
date=June 19 2008
accessdate=2008-06-20
quote= [http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mcclatchydc.com%2Fhomepage%2Fstory%2F38887.html&date=2008-06-20 mirror] ] cite news
url=http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/38775.html
title=U.S. abuse of detainees was routine at Afghanistan bases
publisher=McClatchy News Service
author=Tom Lasseter
date=June 16 2008
accessdate=2008-06-20
quote= [http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mcclatchydc.com%2Fhomepage%2Fstory%2F38775.html&date=2008-06-20 mirror] ] cite news
url=http://detainees.mcclatchydc.com/detainees/62
title=Guantanamo Inmate Database: Khaled al Asmr
publisher=McClatchy News Service
author=Tom Lasseter
date=June 15 2008
accessdate=2008-06-15
quote= [http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fservices.mcclatchyinteractive.com%2Fdetainees%2F62&date=2008-08-08 mirror] ]

Khaled al Asmr described hearing his initial Pakistani captors negotiate a $5,000 bounty for him and six other captives, and that Americans immediately started beating him, while he was still hooded and bound, following his purchase.

Khaled al Asmr told McClatchy reporters American interrogators beat him in the Kandahar detention facility and Bagram Theater Internment Facility.

Khaled al Asmr told McClatchy reporters interrogators fondled his privates, which disturbed him more than the beatings.:

Khaled al Asmr told McClatchy reporters that he had met Osama bin Laden during the 1980s, and had conversations with him, but he had no contact with him following the ouster of Afghanistan's Soviet occupiers. He acknowledged that he had a closer relationship with Abdullah Azzam than he had acknowledged to his interrogators, but repeated he had no contact with Azzam's organization following 1992.

References