Abdullah Ali Al Utaybi

Abdullah Ali Al Utaybi is held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. [http://www.dod.mil/news/May2006/d20060515%20List.pdf list of prisoners (.pdf)] , "US Department of Defense", May 15 2006] Al Utaybi's Guantanamo detainee ID number is 243.American intelligence analysts estimate that Al Utaybi was born in 1972, in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

Combatant Status Review Tribunal

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 Tribunal. 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.

To comply with a Freedom of Information Act request, during the winter and spring of 2005, the Department of Defense released 507 memoranda. Those 507 memoranda each contained the allegations against a single detainee, prepared for their Combatant Status Review Tribunals. The detainee's name and ID numbers were redacted from all but one of the memoranda. However 169 of the memoranda had the detainee's ID hand-written on the top right hand of the first page corner. When the Department of Defense complied with a court order, and released official lists of the detainee's names and ID numbers it was possible to identify who those 169 were written about. Abdullah Ali Al Utaybi was one of those 169 detainees. [http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt_mar05.pdf#237 Summary of Evidence memo (.pdf)] prepared for Abdullah Ali Al Utaybi's "Combatant Status Review Tribunal" - September 28 2004 - page 237]

Allegations

:a. The detainee is associated with al Qaida and the Taliban::#"###### ###### ###### ###### ####### ###### the detainee left in January 2001 for Afghanistan.:#"Detainee ###### ###### ######"' al Wafa office in Herat, Afghanistan.:#"The Herat Office of al Wafa was a key location in al Qaida's support network and ###### ###### ###### ###### al Wafa and al Qaida efforts to recruit, train, and infiltrate fighters into Afghanistan.:#"Detainee ###### ###### ###### ###### and transferred to ###### ###### ###### ###### after September 2001.:#"The nongovernmental organization 'al Wafa' reportedly is believed to possibly be a terrorist organization and may have had connections to Usama bin Ladin and Afghan Mujahedin.:#"The al Wafa organization has been identified as a terrorist organization.:#"One of the detainee's known aliases was on a list of captured al Qaida members that was discovered on a computer hard drive associated with a senior al Qaida member.:#"Detaine used the aliases ###### ###### ###### ###### ######:#"Detainee may have trained at the al Qaida Khaldan Camp sic.

Tribunal

There is no record thatAl Utaybi chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.

Witness request

A detainee known as Bessam Muhammed Saleh Al Dubaikey who was arrested with a recent traveling companion suspected of being a director of al Wafa, and of being an al Qaida facilitator. [http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt/Set_29_2001-2047.pdf#22 Summarized transcripts (.pdf)] , from Bessam Muhammed Saleh Al Dubaikey's "Combatant Status Review Tribunal" - pages 22-30]

Al Dubaikey requested the testimony of detainee 243, Abdullah Ali Al Utaybi.Al Utaybi declined to testify on Al Dubaikey's behalf.

References