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 | This article may contain misleading parts.(August 2012) |
The Combatant Status Review Tribunal the US Department of Defense commissioned, like the tribunals described in Army Regulation 190-8, which they were modeled after, were three member panels, led by a tribunal president. [1] [2]
Initially United States President George W. Bush asserted that captives taken during the "Global War on Terror":
This assertion was criticized by many legal scholars. And lawyers who volunteered to represent Guantanamo captives mounted legal challenges in the US Court system. The first legal challenge to be heard before the United States Supreme Court was Rasul v. Bush.
The Supreme Court addressed some aspects of the case. In particular, it ruled that the Guantanamo captives were entitled to an opportunity to hear, and challenge, the allegations the DoD felt justified their continued extrajudicial detention.
Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote that the Department of Defense should convene tribunals similar to those described in Army Regulation 190-8.
Army Regulation 190-8 sets out the procedure officers of the United States armed forces should follow to determine whether captives taken during a war where:
The tribunal president had to be a "field grade officer".
The most important difference between a CSRT Tribunal and an AR 190-8 Tribunal lay in their respective mandates.
The AR-190-8 Tribunals were intended to comply with the United States responsibilities, as a signatory to the Geneva Conventions, to establish a "competent tribunal" for any captive around whom there is doubt as to their combatant status. The Geneva Conventions state that all captives have to be accorded all the protections of Prisoner of War status, until a competent tribunal sat, and determined that the captive was not a "lawful combatant".
The AR-190-8 Tribunals have the authority to rule that:
The Combatant Status Review Tribunals, notably, did not have the authority to rule on whether the Guantanamo captives were, or weren't, entitled to the protections of Prisoner of War status. They were merely authorized to determine whether previous secret determinations that the captives met a new, very broad definition of "enemy combatant".
During testimony before her, US District Court Justice Joyce Hens Green asked one of the Government's senior lawyers whether a little old lady, from Switzerland, who sent a donation to a charity she believed was a legitimate charity, could be considered an enemy combatant, if, without her knowledge that charity had been subverted, and some of its resources had been diverted to support the Taliban or al Qaeda. She was told the little old lady could be considered an enemy combatant.
Mark P. Denbeaux, a professor of law at Seton Hall University, who defended two Guantanamo captives, was the leader of a team of legal scholars who published twelve methodical, systematic analyses of the Guantanamo documents, noted several times other officers had criticized the tribunal presidents. [3] The report entitled "No-hearing hearings" noted that tribunal presidents routinely disallowed witness requests for reasons that weren't authorized by the tribunal procedures. Tribunal presidents were authorized to disallow witness requests when they ruled they weren't "relevant", or "reasonably available". But tribunal presidents would disallow witness requests based on rulings that they were "redundant", or that their testimony would be "hearsay".
Andrew Cohen, writing in The Washington Post , wrote: [4]
If a regular trial court proceeding were this shoddy, this unwilling to perform a truth-seeking function, this unable to achieve a fair process, the judge presiding over it would be impeached.
Neil A. Lewis, after observing several Combatant Status Review Tribunals in November 2004, noted: "The hearings here have come under heavy criticism because they do not meet the traditional standards of court proceedings." [5] Lewis quoted an exchange between a Yemeni captive who asked for the proof that backed up the allegations against him, and the President's response: "We're not here to debate these points. This is what we're given and this is your opportunity to give us your story."
An unlawful combatant, illegal combatant or unprivileged combatant/belligerent is a person who directly engages in armed conflict in violation of the laws of war and therefore is claimed not to be protected by the Geneva Conventions. The International Committee of the Red Cross points out that the terms "unlawful combatant", "illegal combatant" or "unprivileged combatant/belligerent" are not defined in any international agreements. While the concept of an unlawful combatant is included in the Third Geneva Convention, the phrase itself does not appear in the document. Article 4 of the Third Geneva Convention does describe categories under which a person may be entitled to prisoner of war status. There are other international treaties that deny lawful combatant status for mercenaries and children.
The Combatant Status Review Tribunals (CSRT) were a set of tribunals for confirming whether detainees held by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp had been correctly designated as "enemy combatants". The CSRTs were established July 7, 2004 by order of U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz after U.S. Supreme Court rulings in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld and Rasul v. Bush and were coordinated through the Office for the Administrative Review of the Detention of Enemy Combatants.
Competent Tribunal is a term used in Article 5 paragraph 2 of the Third Geneva Convention, which states:
Should any doubt arise as to whether persons, having committed a belligerent act and having fallen into the hands of the enemy, belong to any of the categories enumerated in Article 4, such persons shall enjoy the protection of the present Convention until such time as their status has been determined by a competent tribunal.
Abdullah Mujahid is a citizen of Afghanistan who is still held in extrajudicial detention after being transferred from United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba — to an Afghan prison.
Ahmed Adil is a citizen of China who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps in Cuba.
Hammdidullah, a.k.a.Janat Gul, is a citizen of Afghanistan who was held in extrajudicial detention in the Guantanamo Bay detention camps as part of the War on Terror. American counter-terror analysts estimate he was born in 1973, in Sarpolad, Afghanistan.
Faris Muslim al Ansari is a citizen of Afghanistan who was seventeen years old when captured and held in the United States's Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 253. American intelligence analysts estimate that Al Ansari was born in 1984 in Mukala, Yemen.
Jawad Jabber Sadkhan is a citizen of Iraq who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. Sadkhan's Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 433.
Mohammed Ahmed Said Haidel is a citizen of Yemen, who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number is 498. Joint Task Force Guantanamo counter-terrorism analysts estimate that he was born in 1978, in Ta'iz, 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.
No-Hearing Hearings (2006) is the title of a study published by Professor Mark P. Denbeaux of the Center for Policy and Research at Seton Hall University School of Law, his son Joshua Denbeaux, and prepared under his supervision by research fellows at the center. It was released on October 17, 2006. It is one of a series of studies on the Guantanamo Bay detention center, the detainees, and government operations that the Center for Policy and Research has prepared based on Department of Defense data.
Counter-terrorism analysts prepared a Summary of Evidence memo for the Administrative Review Board hearings of approximately 460 captives in the Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba from December 2004 to December 2005.
The Personal Representative is an officer who serves before the Combatant Status Review Tribunals, convened for the captives the United States holds in extrajudicial detention in the Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.
Anwar Hassan is an Uyghur refugee who was wrongly imprisoned for more than seven years in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps.
Military Police: Enemy Prisoners of War, Retained Personnel, Civilian Internees and Other Detainees is the full title of a United States Army regulation usually referred to as AR 190-8, that lays out how the United States Army should treat captives.
A Legal Advisor and an Assistant Legal Advisor were part of the Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants team tasked to conduct Combatant Status Review Tribunals of captives held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps in Cuba.
Every Administrative Review Board, run under the authority of the Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants, was commanded by a Presiding Officer.
Initially the Bush Presidency asserted that they did not have to release any of the Guantanamo captive's documents. They asserted that no captive apprehended in Afghanistan was entitled to the protections of the Geneva Convention, and that those held in the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base were not protected by US law either, because it was not on US territory.
Frank Sweigart is a former officer in the United States Navy. He was later appointed the deputy director of the Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants (OARDEC), having the responsibility to oversee the operation of the Guantanamo Bay detention camps' the annual Administrative Review Board and Combatant Status Review Tribunals.
Omar Said Salim Al Dayi, also known as Omar Said Salem Adayn and Omer Saeed Salem Al Daini, is held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internee Security Number is 549.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)There is more in the Seton Hall report that ought to leave flushed and breathless every single Senator (Republican and Democrat alike) who just voted for the White House's "Military Commissions Act of 2006." If the actual trials of the detainees are as empty and shallow and pre-ordained as were the Status Review Tribunals there is every reason to be mortified at the prospect – made real by the legislation – that the federal courts will be frozen out of vital oversight functions. If a regular trial court proceeding were this shoddy, this unwilling to perform a truth-seeking function, this unable to achieve a fair process, the judge presiding over it would be impeached.