Waqas Mohammed Ali Awad

Waqas Mohammed Ali Awad 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] His Guantanamo Internee Security Number is 88.
Joint Task Force Guantanamo counter-terrorism analysts estimate he was born in 1982, in Aden, Yemen.

Press accounts

The "San Francisco Chronicle" published a profile of Mike Trinh, Awad's lawyer.cite news
url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/06/10/CMGHHPSVC91.DTL
title=The Ultimate Legal Challenge
page=
pages=CM - 19
publisher=San Francisco Chronicle
author=Kim Zetter
date=June 10 2007
accessdate=2008-01-08 [http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sfgate.com%2Fcgi-bin%2Farticle.cgi%3Ffile%3D%2Fc%2Fa%2F2007%2F06%2F10%2FCMGHHPSVC91.DTL&date=2008-08-18 mirror] ] According to Trinh:
*Awad's real name is "Adham Mohammed Ali Awad".
*The injury that cost Awad his leg occurred when a bazaar where he was shopping was bombarded.
*Trinh said Awad was of slight build, and only five feet tall.
*Trinh said Awad had been issued a prosthetic leg, but it was too large, so he has to use a walker.
*Trinh said Awad acknowledged traveling to Afghanistan, to attend a madrassa, but Trinh attributed this to an attempt to leave his family behind.
*Trinh believes "Awad wasn't in battle or caught carrying a weapon."

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 Presidency 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 Presidency's definition of an enemy combatant.

ummary of Evidence memo

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Waqas Mohammed Ali Awad'sCombatant Status Review Tribunal, on 13 October 2004.cite web
url=http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt_arb/000101-000200.pdf#5
title=Summary of Evidence for Combatant Status Review Tribunal - Awad, Waqas Mohammed Ali
date=13 October 2004
author=OARDEC
pages=page 5
publisher=United States Department of Defense
accessdate=2007-12-03] The memo listed the following allegations against him:

:"'a. The detainee is associated with al Qaida and the Taliban::#The detainee stated he went to Afghanistan to become a fighter.:#The detainee was identified as a suspected al Qaida member.:#A senior al Qaida leader said he possibily saw the detainee at the al-Zubayr guesthouse.

:"'b. The detainee participated in military operations against the coalition.:#The detainee stated he lost his leg during an air raid in Kandahar, Afghanistan.:#The detainee's leg was amputated most likely from injury sustained in a two-car collision, involving ten individuals, while trying to avoid coalition air strikes.:#The detainee, along with seven other Arabs suspected of being al Qaida, were reportedly armed with weapons and used a hospital as a safe haven to elud coalition forces.:#A senior al Qaida leader identified the detainee as possibly being on the front lines in Kabul Afghanistan.

Transcript

There is no record thatWaqas Mohammed Ali Awad chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.

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.

First annual Administrative Review Board

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Waqas Mohammed Ali Awad'sfirst annualAdministrative Review Board, on 14 June 2005.cite web
url=http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt_arb/ARB_Round_1_Factors_000099-000196.pdf#21
title=Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the case of Awad, Waqas Mohammed Ali
date=14 June 2005
author=OARDEC
pages=pages 21-23
publisher=United States Department of Defense
accessdate=2007-12-03] The memo listed factors for and against his continued detention.

The following primary factors favor continued detention:

:"'a. Commitment:#The detainee stated he went to Afghanistan to become a fighter.:#One of the aliases used by the detainee was identified as being a suspected al Qaida member.:#A senior al Qaida lieutenant identified the detainee as possibily being at the Al-Zubayr guesthouse, and also perhaps at the front line in Kabul.:#Zubayr Al Halli was responsible for most of al Qaida's guesthouses in Qandahar, Afghanistan.:#The detainee along with seven other individuals were involved in an automobile accident while attempting to elude U.S. and coalition bombings. Surviving members including the detainee were evacuated to a Kandahar hospital.:#The detainee, along with seven other Arabs suspected of being al Qaida were reportedly armed with weapons and used a hospital as a safe haven to elude coalition forces.

:"'b. Training:#One of the detainee's aliases appeared twice on a list of names found among papers retrieved from Tarnak Farms, an al Qaida training facility.:#Tarnak Farms provided the al Qaida with poison and explosive training and it was also an advanced operational training camp. No one was allowed to train at Tarnak without first passing through basic training at al Faruq camp.:#Students who graduated from Tarnak Farms were assigned missions by Usama Bin Laden based on their willingness to become martyrs.

:"'c. Intent::The detainee has incited four disturbances while at Guantanamo Bay and assaulted personnel on multiple occasions.

:"'d. Other Relevant Data:#The detainee has expertise with the Kalashnikov (AK-47). He advises that the AK-47 was learned at home, as everyone has one in Yemen.:#The detainee stated he lost his leg during an air raid in Kandahar, Afghanistan.:#The detainee stated that when he first heard about the events of 9/11, he felt it was wrong. However, the longer he is held captive the more he feels it was justified.

The following primary factors favor release or transfer:

:

econd annual Administrative Review Board

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Waqas Mohammed Ali Awad'ssecond annualAdministrative Review Board, on 20 April 2006.cite web
url=http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt_arb/ARB_Round_2_Factors_100-199.pdf#64
title=Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the case of Awad, Waqas Mohammed Ali
date=20 April 2006
author=OARDEC
pages=pages 64-66
publisher=United States Department of Defense
accessdate=2007-11-23] The memo listed factors for and against his continued detention.

References