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Socotra or Soqotra is an island in the Indian Ocean belonging to Yemen, but under the control of the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council, a secessionist participant in Yemen’s ongoing civil war. Lying between the Guardafui Channel and the Arabian Sea, Socotra is the largest of the four islands in the Socotra Archipelago. The territory is near major shipping routes and is officially a part of Yemen, and had long been a subdivision of Aden Governorate. In 2004, it became attached to the Hadhramaut Governorate, which is much closer to the island than Aden. In 2013, the archipelago became its own governorate: Socotra Governorate.
The Khadr family is an Arab-Canadian family noted for their ties to Osama bin Laden and connections to al-Qaeda.
Omar Ahmed Said Khadr is a Canadian citizen who at the age of 15 was detained by the United States at Guantanamo Bay for ten years, during which he pleaded guilty to the murder of U.S. Army Sergeant 1st Class Christopher Speer and other charges. He later appealed his conviction, claiming that he falsely pleaded guilty so that he could return to Canada where he remained in custody for three additional years. Khadr sued the Canadian government for infringing his rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms; this lawsuit was settled in 2017 with a CA$10.5 million payment and an apology by the federal government.
Ahcene Zemiri, also known as Hassan Zumiri, is an Algerian citizen who was for seven years a legal resident of Canada, where he lived in Montreal. He and his Canadian wife moved to Afghanistan in July 2001. They were separated when trying to leave in November 2001 and Zemiri was arrested and turned over to United States forces. He was transferred to the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camp in 2002, where he was detained for eight years without charge.
Djamel Saiid Ali Ameziane is an Algerian citizen, and former resident of Canada, who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.
Mohamed Atiq Awayd Al Harbi is a citizen of Saudi Arabia formerly held in extrajudicial detention in the United States's Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internee Security Number was 333. The US Department of Defense reports that he was born on July 13, 1973, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Yussef Mohammed Mubarak al-Shihri (1985–2009) was a citizen of Saudi Arabia who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States's Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. He was born on September 8, 1985, in Riyadh Saudi Arabia.
Ghaleb Nassar al-Bihani is a citizen of Yemen formerly held in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. The Department of Defense estimate that he was born in 1979, in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.
Daniel Fried is an American diplomat, who served as assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs from 2005 to 2009 and United States ambassador to Poland from 1997 to 2000. He also served as special envoy for Guantanamo closure and co-ordinator for United States embargoes. Fried retired from the State Department in February 2017 after forty years of service.
Attorney Lawrence J. Morris is the chief of staff and counselor to the president at The Catholic University of America and a retired United States Army colonel.
Michelle Shephard is an independent investigative reporter, author and filmmaker. She has been awarded the Michener Award for public service journalism and won Canada's top newspaper prize, the National Newspaper Award, three times. In 2011, she was an associate producer on a documentary called Under Fire: Journalists in Combat. She produced the National Film Board documentary, Prisoners of the Absurd, which premiered at Amsterdam's film festival in 2014. Shephard also co-directed a film based on her book about Omar Khadr, Guantanamo's Child, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2015.
Sa'id Ali Jabir Al Khathim Al Shihri (1971–2013) was a Saudi Arabian deputy leader of the terrorist group Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), and possibly involved in the kidnappings and murders of foreigners in Yemen. Said Ali al-Shihri was captured at the Durand Line, in December 2001, and was one of the first detainees held at the Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba, arriving on 21 January 2002. He was held in extrajudicial detention in American custody for almost six years. Following his repatriation to Saudi custody he was enrolled in a rehabilitation and reintegration program. Following his release, he traveled to Yemen.
The Care Rehabilitation Center is a facility in Saudi Arabia intended to re-integrate former jihadists into the mainstream of Saudi culture. The center is located in a former resort complex, complete with swimming pools, and other recreational facilities.
Periodically Saudi Arabias Ministry of Interior publishes a most wanted list. According to Asharq Alawsat Saudi Arabia has published four lists of "most wanted" suspected terrorists, and those lists contained 19, 26, 36 and 85 individuals.
Nasser al-Bahri, also known by his kunya or nom de guerre as Abu Jandal – "father of death" or "the killer", was a member of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan from 1996 to 2000. According to his memoir, he gave his Bay'ah to Osama bin Laden in 1998. He was in al-Qaeda for six years as one of bin Laden's twelve bodyguards, A citizen of Yemen born in Saudi Arabia, al-Bahri was radicalized in his teens by dissident Saudi Ulemas and participated in clandestine political activities which were funded in part by people trafficking. Determined to become a jihadist, he went first to Bosnia and then, briefly, to Somalia before arriving in Afghanistan in 1996 in the hope of joining al-Qaeda, which he soon did. After four years, al-Bahri became "disillusioned", largely because bin Laden consolidated al-Qaeda's relationship with the Taliban by giving his Bayʿah to its leader, Mullah Omar, but also because he had married and become a father.
Hamoud Al-Hitar is a Yemeni judge. He is notable for leading a Yemeni jihadist rehabilitation program, called the "Committee for Religious Dialogue".
Batch 10 is a name journalists have given to the tenth batch of former Saudi captives to be repatriated to Saudi Arabian custody. Five of the fourteen captives in this group repatriated to Saudi captivity on November 9, 2007 were among the eleven former Guantanamo captives to be listed on the 85 men on the Saudi list of most wanted suspected terrorists, published on February 3, 2009. One of the cohort, Said Ali al-Shihri, became second in command of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
Andy Worthington is a British historian, investigative journalist, and film director. He has published three books, two on Stonehenge and one on the war on terror, been published in numerous publications and directed documentary films. Articles by Worthington have been published in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Huffington Post, AlterNet, ZNet, the Future of Freedom Foundation and Amnesty International, and Qatar-based Al Jazeera. He has appeared on television with Iran-based Press TV In 2008, he began writing articles for Cageprisoners, and became its Senior Researcher in June 2010.
References
- 1 2 3 Michelle Shephard (2009-09-19). "Where extremists come to play". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on 2009-09-23.
- ↑ "Could Guantánamo's biggest bunch of prisoners be sent to Socotra?". Hadibu, Socotra: Economist magazine. 2014-02-01. Archived from the original on 2014-01-31. Retrieved 2014-02-03.
In November a Yemeni newspaper, el-Ule, ran a story about a “new Guantánamo” to be set up on Socotra; a cartoon mixed the island’s dragon-blood tree (pictured above) with the Guantánamo inmates’ orange uniform.