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Mammar Ameur is a citizen of Algeria who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 939. The Department of Defense reports that Ameur was born on December 1, 1958, in L'aghouat, Algeria.

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 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 administration's definition of an enemy combatant.

Summary of Evidence memo

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Mammar Ameur's Combatant Status Review Tribunal, on 26 October 2004. The memo listed the following allegations against him: Template:Quotatiion

Transcript

Ameur chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal. On March 3, 2006, in response to a court order from Jed Rakoff the Department of Defense published a twenty page summarized transcript from his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.

Ameur Mammar v. George W. Bush

A writ of habeas corpus, Ameur Mammar v. George W. Bush, was submitted on Ameur Mammar's behalf. The Department of Defense published the unclassified documents related to the Combatant Status Review Tribunal of 179 captives who had writs of habeas corpus published on their behalf. But they didn't publish the documents from Mammar Ameur's Tribunal.

On April 17, 2007 The Department of Justice filed a motion to dismiss the habeas petitions of captives who had been repatriated, or who had died in custody. Mammar Ameur's petition was not on this list.

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.

Summary of Evidence memo

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Mammar Ameur's Administrative Review Board, on 25 July 2005. The memo listed factors for and against his continued detention.

The following primary factors favor continued detention

a. Training

1. The detainee was conscripted into the Algerian army for a mandatory term of two years. He received training on the Kalashnikov, grenades and a small pistol.

b. Connections and Associations

1. The detainee stayed at the Algerian guesthouse, located in the Hayatabad portion of Peshawar, Pakistan.
2. The guesthouse may have been funded by the Maktab al-Khidmat office in Peshawar, Pakistan.
3. The detainee worked in Peshawar for a Non-governmental Organization (NGO) name Afghan Reconstruction or ARCON.
4. In 1993, the Detainee worked for the Egyptian Human Relief Organization (ERHO).
5. In May 1994, the detainee left Afghanistan and traveled to Kenya to work for the African Msulim Agency NGO.
6. The African Muslim Agency (AMA) is an Islamic NGO with ties to extremist activities.
7. In 1994, the detainee traveled to Afghanistan to work as the office manager of an NGO hospital.
8. In 1996, the detainee resigned from the EHRO and remained unemployed afterward.
9. The detainee was arrested with an individual, who worked for several years for a Saudi organization called WAMY.
10. The World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY) is an NGO operating in Afghanistan and may be associated with Usama bin Laden and/or al Qaida.
11. The detainee is associated with Abu Qua'il, a former leader of the International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO) and the information section within the NGO Muslim World League.
12. The IIRO is am Islamic NGO with ties to extremist activities.
13. The detainee is associated with Abu el Abbes, the former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood.

c. Other relevant data

1. On September 23, 1996, he applied for and was granted status as a United Nations Refugee.
2. The detainee was arrested by Pakistani authorities at his residence on 18 July 2002 because his house was a suspected al Qaida safe house.
3. The detainee had four hundred United States dollars when he was arrested.
4. According to a foreign government, the detainee is a fugitive from Algeria, where he has been wanted since 1993 for belonging to an armed group. The detainee left Algeria for Pakistan in July 1990 where he worked for the NGO Muslim Aid for Afghan Refugees.

The following primary factors favor release or transfer

a. The detainee stated that as a Muslim, he felt that he should go out and do good deeds for other people and found he could best do this by joining a NGO.

b. The detainee stated he has nothing against Americans and he has no reason to fight against Americans if he is released, because it is against his religion to kill innocents.

Ameur chose to participate in his Administrative Review Board hearing. In the Spring of 2006, in response to a court order from Jed Rakoff the Department of Defense published a sixteen page summarized transcript from his Administrative Review Board.

Testimony

Board recommendations

In early September 2007 the Department of Defense released two heavily redacted memos, from his Board, to Gordon England, the Designated Civilian Official. The Board's recommendation was unanimous The Board's recommendation was redacted. England authorized his transfer on November 4, 2005.

Ameur's refugee status

According to Carol Rosenberg, writing in the Kansas City Star, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees wrote the Pentagon, on December 20, 2006, seeking information on why Ameur, and another man were being detained in Guantanamo. The UNHCR had not known until December 2006 that the Americans were holding internationally recognized refugees in Guantanamo. Ameur was granted UN refugee status in Pakistan in 1996. Mohammed Sulaymon Barre was granted UN refugee status in Pakistan in 1994. A third captive, Fethi Boucetta, was one of the 38 captives who was determined not have been an "enemy combatant" after all. The Americans transferred him to Albania.

Repatriation

The Department of Defense reported on 8 October 2008 that an Algerian and a Sudanese had just been repatriated. Andy Worthington, the author of The Guantanamo Files, reported that Mammar Ameur was the Algerian captive.

References

1. OARDEC (May 15, 2006). "List of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from January 2002 through May 15, 2006" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. Retrieved 2007-09-29.
2. Inside the Guantánamo Bay hearings: Barbarian "Justice" dispensed by KGB-style "military tribunals", Financial Times, December 11, 2004
3. "Annual Administrative Review Boards for Enemy Combatants Held at Guantanamo Attributable to Senior Defense Officials". United States Department of Defense. March 6, 2007. Retrieved 2007-09-22.
4. OARDEC (26 October 2004). "Summary of Evidence for Combatant Status Review Tribunal -- Ameur, Mammar" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. pp. pages 68. Retrieved 2008-03-07. {{cite web}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
5. OARDEC (date redacted). "Summarized Statement" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. pp. pages 61–80. Retrieved 2008-06-02. {{cite web}}: |pages= has extra text (help); Check date values in: |date= (help)
6. ^ "US releases Guantanamo files". The Age. April 4, 2006. Retrieved 2008-03-15.
7. "Ameur Mammar v. George W. Bush -- 05-573 (RJL)". United States Department of Justice. May 2, 2005. Retrieved 2008-06-03.
8. Spc Timothy Book (Friday March 10, 2006). "Review process unprecedented" (PDF). JTF-GTMO Public Affairs Office. p. 1. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-08-26. Retrieved 2007-10-10. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
9. Army Sgt. Sarah Stannard (October 29, 2007). "OARDEC provides recommendations to Deputy Secretary of Defense". JTF Guantanamo Public Affairs. Archived from the original on 2009-09-16. Retrieved 2008-03-26.
10. OARDEC (25 July 2005). "Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the case of Ameur, Mammar" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. pp. pages 53–55. Retrieved 2008-03-01. {{cite web}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
11. OARDEC (date redacted). "Summary of Administrative Review Board Proceedings of ISN 939" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. pp. pages 228–243. Retrieved 2008-06-02. {{cite web}}: |pages= has extra text (help); Check date values in: |date= (help)
12. OARDEC (November 4, 2005). "Administrative Review Board assessment and recommendation ICO ISN 939" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. pp. page 37. Retrieved 2008-03-07. {{cite web}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
13. OARDEC (18 August 2005). "Classified Record of Proceedings and basis of Administrative Review Board recommendation for ISN 939" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. pp. pages 38–42. Retrieved 2008-03-07. {{cite web}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
14. Carol Rosenberg (January 29, 2007). "U.N. refugee agency seeking information on 2 detainees". Kansas City Star. Retrieved 2007-02-07.
15. "Two Guantanamo detainees transferred: Pentagon". Agence France Presse. 2008-10-08. Retrieved 2008-10-08. mirror
16. "Pentagon: Two Guantanamo Detainees Transferred". Voice of America. 2008-10-08. Retrieved 2008-10-08. mirror
17. "The US hands over Algeria a fifth Guantanamo prisoner". El Khabar. 2008-10-10. Retrieved 2008-10-10. mirror
18. Andy Worthington (2008-10-08). "Two 50 Year Olds Are Released From Guantanamo". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2008-10-09. mirror

External links

• Seized In Pakistan, Two 50 Year Olds Are Released From Guantánamo Andy Worthington

Template:Persondata

• Misplaced Pages neutral point of view disputes from April 2010
• 1958 births
• Living people
• Guantanamo detainees known to have been released
• Algerian people