Moath Hamza Ahmed al-Alwi | |
---|---|
Born | 1977 (age 47–48) [1] [2] Al Hudaydah, Yemen |
Arrested | 2001 Pakistani border Pakistani officials |
Citizenship | Yemen |
Other name(s) |
|
ISN | 28 |
Charge(s) | extrajudicial detention |
Status | Released |
Moath Hamza Ahmed al-Alwi is a citizen of Yemen who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. [3] His detainee ID number was 28. Guantanamo analysts estimated he was born in 1977, in Al Hudaydah, Yemen.
Al-Alwi arrived at Guantanamo on January 17, 2002, and was held at Guantanamo for 23 years. [4]
In January 2010, the Guantanamo Review Task Force recommended he should be classed as a "forever prisoner", one who has not committed a crime but is too dangerous to release. In his 2015 Periodic Review Board hearing, intelligence analysts no longer alleged that he was one of Osama bin Laden's bodyguards, now claiming that he "had spent time" with some of those bodyguards.
Al-Alwi's petitions for release have been rejected by the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and the Supreme Court of the United States.
Al-Alwi was a long-term Guantanamo hunger striker, who has described his force-feeding as "an endless horror story." [5] In March 2015, he weighed just 98 pounds.
In the week after the September 11 attacks, Congress enacted the Authorization for Use of Military Force of 2001, which empowered the President to wage war against those "he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks." [6] In November 2001, President George W. Bush issued the Detention, Treatment, and Trial of Certain Non-Citizens in the War Against Terrorism military order, which authorized the detention of al-Qaeda members and supporters of the Taliban. [6] Al-Alwi was captured in Pakistan during Operation Enduring Freedom and transferred to the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in January 2002. [7]
In Rasul v. Bush (2004), the Supreme Court of the United States found that Guantanamo detainees were entitled to being informed of the allegations justifying their detention, and were entitled to try to refute them. Following the Supreme Court's ruling, the Department of Defense set up the Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants. [10]
Scholars at the Brookings Institution, led by Benjamin Wittes, listed the captives still held in Guantanamo in December 2008, according to whether their detention was justified by certain common allegations, with al-Alwi listed as one of those: [11]
Al-Alwi first petitioned the United States District Court for the District of Columbia for a writ of habeas corpus in 2005, arguing he was not an enemy combatant. [6] The court did not consider the petition until after the Supreme Court of the United States in Boumediene v. Bush (2008) determined that Guantanamo prisoners had a constitutional right to bring such petitions. [6] On December 30, 2008, District Court Judge Richard J. Leon denied Al Alawi's petition. [12]
In a separate ruling, the court also found that Hisham Sliti, "were part of or supported the Taliban", and thus could continue to be held in US custody. [13] [14] [15] The New York Times called the two rulings: "the first clear-cut victories for the Bush administration", while Andy Worthington noted they represented a "disturbing development". [16] Glaberson reported that Leon stated he did not have to take a position on the Bush administration's claim Al Alawi was an Osama bin Laden bodyguard, that there was enough evidence he had supported the Taliban to confirm his designation as an "enemy combatant". [13]
In July 2011, a unanimous panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit affirmed, in an opinion by Circuit Judge Merrick Garland which concluded al-Alwi was in fact an enemy combatant lawfully detained under the 2001 AMUF. [17] [18]
In December 2014, President Barack Obama announced the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. [6] Al-Alwi then filed a new petition for habeas corpus, arguing that the government's authority to detain him “unraveled” when President Obama declared an end to hostilities. [6] In February 2017, District Judge Leon again denied al-Alwi's petition, finding that hostilities were nevertheless ongoing. [6] [19]
In August 2018, a unanimous panel of the D.C. Circuit again affirmed, in an opinion by Circuit Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson. [6] [20] She reasoned that the 2001 AUMF had not expired, that the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 had further authorized detentions, and that the international law of war permitted detention of enemy combatants as long as "active combat" continued. [6]
Al-Alwi then petitioned for a writ of certiorari from the Supreme Court. [7] In June 2019, the Court denied that petition, with Justice Stephen Breyer including a statement arguing that the Court should at some point consider the constitutionality of continued detentions in a later "appropriate case". [7] [21]
On April 25, 2011, whistleblower organization WikiLeaks published formerly secret assessments drafted by Joint Task Force Guantanamo analysts. [22] [23] A thirteen-page Joint Task Force Guantanamo detainee assessment was drafted for him on March 14, 2008. [24] It was signed by camp commandant Rear Admiral Mark H. Buzby, who recommended continued detention.
When he assumed office in January 2009 President Barack Obama made a number of promises about the future of Guantanamo. [25] [26] [27] He promised the use of torture would cease at the camp. He promised to institute a new review system. That new review system was composed of officials from six departments, where the OARDEC reviews were conducted entirely by the Department of Defense. When it reported back, a year later, the Joint Review Task Force classified some individuals as too dangerous to be transferred from Guantanamo, even though there was no evidence to justify laying charges against them. On April 9, 2013, that document was made public after a Freedom of Information Act request. [28] Al-Alwi was one of the 71 individuals deemed too innocent to charge, but too dangerous to release. Obama promised that those deemed too innocent to charge, but too dangerous to release would start to receive reviews from a Periodic Review Board. Al-Alwi was approved for transfer on December 27, 2021. [29]
Analysts still continued to assert that he was one of the "dirty thirty", a group of thirty individuals, captured together while fleeing to Pakistan, who analysts maintained were all Osama bin Laden bodyguards. [30]
Al-Alwi's Guantanamo Review Task Force had concurred with earlier review boards, and recommended he be classed as too dangerous to release, although there was no evidence to justify charging him with a crime. [30] Carol Rosenberg, of the Miami Herald , wrote that the recommendation from his Periodic Review Board concluded that he was "probably not" one of Osama bin Laden's bodyguards, but that he seemed to have "spent time with" them. [30]
As of 2015, al-Alwi is recognized as one of the camp's long-term hunger strikers. [5] Camp authorities published the weight records from the first four years. [31] Those records show al-Alwi's weight being recorded 53 times. His weight was only recorded twice during the camp's first well-known hunger strikes, in 2005, where his weight dropped to 117 and 118 pounds. But a hunger-strike he began in 2013 has left him weighing less than 100 pounds.
Al-Alwi described his hunger strike as a form of peaceful protest. [5]
In 2013, a new warden was appointed to the camp, Colonel John Bogdan. Under his administration, guards fired upon the captives for the first time. Al-Alwi was one of the captives guards shot. [5] He described being shot with rubber coated steel bullets in April 2013. Robert Durand, a camp spokesman, asserted guards were provoked, and that they only fired "four less than lethal rounds". [32] Al-Alwi described being fired upon without warning when he and other men were preparing for communal prayers. [5] According to al-Alwi's account, he was hit by more than four munitions. According to al-Alwi, his wounds were either inadequately treated, or not treated at all.
In the late 2010s, al-Alwi began making artworks from materials available to him in the prison. [33] [34] [35] The sculptures that result, mainly in the form of model ships and boats, were made from scrap plastic, fabric and wood. [36] [37] In 2017 several of his sculptures were displayed as part of an exhibition at the City University of New York Law School School of Law. [33] [34]
Al-Alwi and 10 other detainees were transferred to Oman on January 6, 2025. [38]
Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi is a Sudanese militant and paymaster for al-Qaeda. Qosi was held from January 2002 in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number is 54.
Hisham Sliti, is a citizen of Tunisia who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number is 174. The list of the names of all the Guantanamo detainees states that his date of birth was February 12, 1966, in Hamam Lif, Tunisia. He was transferred to Guantanamo on May 1, 2002, and held there for twelve and a half years. On November 20, 2014, Sliti and Hussein Salem Mohammed were granted asylum in Slovakia.
Sadik Ahmad Turkistani is an ethnic Uyghur born and raised in Taif, Saudi Arabia and an opponent of the Taliban. Held by the Taliban in Kandahar prison in Afghanistan, he was briefly freed when they were overthrown in late 2001.
Mahmoud Abd Al Aziz Abd Al Mujahid is a Yemeni citizen who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camp, in Cuba, for over fourteen and a half years, from January 11, 2002, to August 15, 2016. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number is 31. Joint Task Force Guantanamo analysts report that he was born in August 1980, in Taiz, Yemen.
Saeed Ahmed Mohammed Abdullah Sarem Jarabh is a citizen of Yemen who was held in extrajudicial detention for over fourteen years in the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in Cuba. Joint Task Force Guantanamo analysts estimate he was born in 1976 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Khaled Ahmed Qasim is a Yemeni citizen who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba.
Sulaiman Awath Sulaiman Bin Ageel Al Nahdi is a citizen of Yemen, who held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba, from May 5, 2002, until November 16, 2015. Al Nahdi's Guantanamo Internment Serial Number is 511. The Department of Defense reports that al Nahdi was born on December 1, 1974, in Mukalla, Yemen.
Muhammad Ahmad Abdallah al-Ansi is a citizen of Yemen, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internee Security Number is 029. American intelligence analysts estimate he was born in 1975, in Sanaa, Yemen. He was cleared for release on December 9, 2016, a recommendation made public on December 22. He was transferred to Oman with nine other men on January 16, 2017.
Samir Naji al Hasan Moqbel is a citizen of Yemen who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States's Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internee Security Number was 043. The Department of Defense reports Moqbel was born on December 1, 1977, in Taiz, Yemen.
Adel Ben Mabrouk is a citizen of Tunisia who was held in extrajudicial detention at the United States' Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba, from March 2002 to November 2009. Mabrouk had outstanding warrants in Italy, and shortly after his arrival in November 2009, Italian prosecutors laid charges against him.
Ha'il Aziz Ahmad Al Maythal is a citizen of Yemen, who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camp, in Cuba. American intelligence analysts estimate that he was born in 1977, in Zemar, Yemen.
Ali Ahmad Muhammad Al Rahizi is a citizen of Yemen who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number is 45. Joint Task Force Guantanamo counter-terrorism analysts reports he was born on October 13, 1979, in Taiz, Yemen.
Ridah Bin Saleh Bin Mabrouk Al Yazidi is a citizen of Tunisia who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba since the day it opened, on January 11, 2002.
Idris Ahmed ʽAbd al Qader Idris is a citizen of Yemen, who was held in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. His detainee ID number was 035. American intelligence analysts estimate he was born in 1979, in Rada, Yemen. Idris was transferred to Oman on June 13, 2015, where the Government of Oman agreed to what the Department of Defense called "appropriate security measures". He arrived on June 8, 2002, he was held in extrajudicial detention, and never faced criminal charges. The Department of Defense never fully released its justification for holding Idris, but on April 25, 2011, the Guantanamo Bay files leak was published.
Zahar Omar Hamis Bin Hamdoun is a citizen of Yemen, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number is 576. The Department of Defense reports that he was born on November 13, 1979, in Ash-Shihr, Yemen.
Ali Hamza Ahmad Suliman al-Bahlul is a Yemeni citizen who has been held as an enemy combatant since 2002 in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camp. He boycotted the Guantanamo Military Commissions, arguing that there was no legal basis for the military tribunals to judge him.
Mohammed Rajab Sadiq Abu Ghanim was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba, for almost fifteen years. His Guantanamo Internee Security Number is 44. He was eventually transferred to Saudi Arabia
Abdul Rahman Shalabi is a citizen of Saudi Arabia held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internee Security Number is 42.
Muhammaed Yasir Ahmed Taher was a citizen of Yemen, who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States's Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 679. American intelligence analysts estimate he was born in 1980, in Ibb, Yemen.
Abdel Malik Ahmed Abdel Wahab Al Rahabi is a citizen of Yemen who was held in extrajudicial detention by the United States from December 2001 to June 22, 2016. He was one of the first twenty captives transferred to the Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba, on January 11, 2002, and was held there until he was transferred to Montenegro, which granted him political asylum.
A federal judge in Washington ruled Tuesday that the government was properly holding two Guantánamo detainees as enemy combatants, the first clear-cut victories for the Bush administration in what are expected to be more than 200 similar cases.
The Daily Telegraph, along with other newspapers including The Washington Post, today exposes America's own analysis of almost ten years of controversial interrogations on the world's most dangerous terrorists. This newspaper has been shown thousands of pages of top-secret files obtained by the WikiLeaks website.
Yemeni Moath al Alwi got to Guantánamo the week Camp X-Ray opened and was profiled seven years later as a veteran jihadist, combatant in the battle for Tora Bora and former Osama bin Laden bodyguard — a member of the "Dirty 30." A July 2015 intelligence profile prepared for that file review said that, before his capture by Pakistani forces in December 2001, Alwi was "probably not" one of bin Laden's bodyguards but concluded he was "an al-Qaida-affiliated fighter who spent time with" bin Laden's security detail.
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