Ahmed Rashidi

Ahmed Rashidi is a citizen of Morocco who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. [http://www.defenselink.mil/news/May2006/d20060515%20List.pdf list of prisoners (.pdf)] , "US Department of Defense", May 15 2006] Rashidi's Guantanamo ID number is 590.The Department of Defense reports that he was born on March 16 1966, in Tangiers, Morocco.

Rashidi's lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, wrote an article in "The Guardian" on June 14 2006, commenting on the American reaction to the three Guantanamo detainees who committed suicide on June 10 2006. [http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/clive_stafford_smith/2006/06/cultural_sensitivity_guantanam.html Cultural sensitivity, Guantánamo Bay style] , "The Guardian", June 14 2006] Smith comments focussed on what he characterized as the camp authority's leaders plans to prevent future suicides by increasing their brutality.In particular he commented on Colonel Michael Bumgarner's announcement that he would send a five-man riot squad in to conduct a Forcible Cell Entry to forcibly strip Rashidi of his brown coveralls. [http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/news/14804763.htm Guards tighten security to prevent more deaths] , "Charlotte Observer", June 13 2006] Smith said that Rashidi had already had mental and emotional problems prior to being sent to the camp.

Rashidi did not attend either his Combatant Status Review Tribunal or his Administrative Review Board hearing.

Boston Globe investigations

On July 14 2006 the "Boston Globe" reported on investigations they made to test the credibility of the allegations against Guantanamo detainees. [http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2006/07/guantanamo-accusations-questioned.php Guantanamo accusations questioned after review turns up basic errors] , "The Jurist", July 14 2006] Rashidi was one of the detainees who they profiled. [http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/07/14/factual_errors_cited_in_cases_against_detainees/ Factual errors cited in cases against detainees: Lawyers demand new trial system at Guantanamo] , "Boston Globe", July 14 2006]

The Globe reported that Rashidi was alleged to have been attended the al Farouq training camp in Afghanistan. [http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/07/14/factual_errors_cited_in_cases_against_detainees/ Factual errors cited in cases against detainees: Lawyers demand new trial system at Guantanamo] , "Boston Globe", July 14 2006] According to the Globe::"the US military has accused Ahmed Errachidi... of 'receiving training at the Al Farooq training camp in July 2001, to include weapons training, war tactics, and bomb making.' according to a summary of evidence for his initial hearing provided to the Globe by his lawyers at Reprieve, a British legal-services organization.

:"But Chris Chang , an investigator for Reprieve, uncovered pay stubs showing that Errachidi had been a chef in two London restaurants, the Westbury and the Archduke, in July 2001. Chang's office provided copies of the pay stubs to the Globe."

Reported to have been cleared for release

Lieutenant-Colonel David Cooper, of the Office for the Administrative Review of the Detention of Enemy Combatants, wrote Rashidi's lawyers on February 22 2007.cite news
url=http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2007/03/19/2003352952
title=UK keeps Guantanamo detainees in limbo
publisher=The Observer
date=Monday, March 19 2007
accessdate=2007-03-21] He wrote that Rashidi and another man, Ahmed Belbacha, had: "...been approved to leave Guantanamo, after diplomatic arrangements for their departure had been made."

British officials continued to decline to make efforts on behalf of the Guantanamo captives who were British residents, but not British citizens.

A close friend back in the United Kingdom, Abderrazzak Sakim, and Clive Stafford Smith, told the Islington Gazette, his local paper, that they were concerned that if he were repatriated to Morocco, he would be promptly subjected to abusive detention in a Moroccan prison.cite news
url=http://www.islingtongazette.co.uk/content/islington/gazette/news/story.aspx?brand=ISLGOnline&category=news&tBrand=northlondon24&tCategory=newsislg&itemid=WeED18%20Apr%202007%2011%3A16%3A07%3A210
title='Innocent' Guantanamo prisoner could be freed
author=[e-mail]
date=Wednesday, April 18 2007
publisher=Islington Gazette
accessdate=2007-04-18] The paper reports that Rashidi spent three years in solitary confinement, and has been subjected to beatings and pepper spraying.

The paper quotes Emily Thornberry, his local Member of Parliament:

:"Guantanamo Bay is an affront to international law. While Ahmed Errachidi has been in Guantanamo he has been subject to appalling abuse and has suffered at least one severe mental breakdown. He should never have been in Guantanamo Bay and he certainly shouldn't be there for a moment longer.

:"It's completely unacceptable that Ahmed should be left in limbo like this, while the international community wrings its hands about the detainees the US no longer wants.

:"Surely he has more than sufficient compassionate grounds to be allowed to come back to Britain. Ahmed must be released immediately and I have written to George Bush to tell him so."

Repatriation and release

The Department of Defense reported, on April 26 2007, that two further captives had been repatriated, one to Morocco, one to Afghanistan.cite news
url=http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2007/04/two-more-guantanamo-detainees.php
date=Thursday, April 26, 2007
title=Two more Guantanamo detainees transferred: DOD
author=Mike Rosen-Molina
publisher=The Jurist
accessdate=2007-04-30] cite news
title=Detainee transfer announced
url=http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=10788
date=Monday, April 30, 2007
publisher=Department of Defense
accessdate=2007-04-30] Initially the DoD declined to release the two men's names. But it soon became known that Ahmed Rashidi was the Moroccan man, that he hadn't been released to a third country.cite news
url=http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2007/04/ex-guantanamo-detainee-held-in-morocco.php
title=Ex-Guantanamo detainee held in Morocco after transfer
date=Monday, April 30, 2007
publisher=The Jurist
author=Melissa C. Bancroft
accessdate=2007-04-30]

Rashidi was not charged, but he was detained by Moroccan authorities, when he was repatriated.cite news
title=Guantanamo inmate held on return to Morocco
url=http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=667892007
author=Mark Trevelyan
publisher=The Scotsman
date=Monday, April 30, 2007
accessdate=2007-04-30]

Rashidi was released on Thursday, May 3, 2007.cite news
url=http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2007/05/ex-guantanamo-detainee-released-from.php
title=Ex-Guantanamo detainee released from Morocco custody
author=Mike Rosen-Molina
publisher=The Jurist
accessdate=2007-06-03] "Reuters" reports that Rashidi had traveled to Pakistan, where he was captured in late 2001, to try to raise funds for a heart operation for his young son.cite news
url=http://www.reuters.com/article/email/idUSL0338635720070503
title=Former Guantanamo inmate walks free in Morocco
date=Thursday May 3, 2007
publisher=Reuters
accessdate=2007-06-03] Reuters reports that Rashidi described hearing his Pakistani captors negotatiate, with US officials, the size of the bounty they would received for turning him over.

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=For example, Moroccan detainee Ahmed Rashidi was scheduled for six-hour interrogations in the middle of the night and then moved to his cell for four hours, "then cycled through again repeatedly," according to one notation. [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 that Ahmed Rashidi was routinely having six hour interrogations in the middle of the night, followed by a series of cell relocations.Guards called this practice the "frequent flyer program".

References

External links

*Michael Pye, [http://living.scotsman.com/books.cfm?id=860402007 Worst of the worst?] , "The Scotsman", June 2 2007