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Revision as of 06:24, 10 August 2006 by Geo Swan (talk | contribs) (testimony)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Mammar Ameur is a citizen of Algeria, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in Cuba. His detainee ID number is 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 a 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.
Ameur chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.
Seizure of Ameur's documents
Ameur's Personal Representative told his Tribunal that guards had seized his copies of some of the documents the Tribunal had produced for him, in preparetion for his Tribunal. Ameur's Tribunal's President explained that the seizure of his documents and notes would have been an internal camp matter, and he suggested Ameur contact the camp authorities to request their return.
Witness
Ameur had requested his landlord in Pakistan. His Tribunal President ruled that his witness was relevant. But when requests to the State Department to request the Pakistani embassy to locate the landlord did not result in a reply the Tribunal's President ruled that the witness was "not reasonably available".
Main article: Witnesses requested by Guantanamo detaineesDenial of a chance to respond to the Allegations
Ameur told his Tribunal that his Personal Representative had refused to let him have a copy of the allegations against him, so that he could re-read them, and make sure he was prepared to give the Tribunal complete answers. He told his Tribunal that he knew other detainees had been allowed copies of the allegations, and had been allowed to make notes to prepare for their Tribunals.
The President of Ameur's Tribunal explained that whether a detainee was allowed to keep a copy of the allegations against them would depend on where they were being held. Only the more privileged detainees were allowed copies of the allegations against them. and pencils and paper in order to make notes.
Ameur then pointed out that he was kept in Camp four, the camp for the most cooperative, privileged detainees.
The Tribunal's President suggested that Ameur take up this matter with the camp authorities, because the Tribunal was not authorized to issue pencils and paper. The Tribunal's President did not address Ameur's Personal Representative's refusal to allow Ameur to study a copy of the allegations.
Presumption of innocence
Ameur told his Tribunal that all the unclassified allegations were fabrications. He told them his Personal Representative had told him that the Tribunal would also be considering classified allegations, and he asked how he could be sure that they weren't fabrications too. The President of Ameur's Tribunal assured him that they would be able to tell whether the allegations were truthful.
Ameur responded:
- "So now you are at two points; to believe me or the allegations. According to the penal code, which most Europeans deal with, is a law most countries go by. According to this law, the accused is innocent until proven guilty. In the U.S., it is the opposite; I am guilty until proven innocent. I am here on this isolated island, how could I give you proof that will support my case? How can I defend myself without my family or media?"
allegations
The allegations Ameur faced during his Tribunal were:
- a. Association
- The detainee was captured in a suspect al Qaida safehouse.
- The detainee worked for the African Muslim Agency.
- The African Muslim Agency is linked to Al-Ittihad al Islami (AIAI).
- Al-Ittihad al Islami (AIAI) is listed as a terrorist organization on the President's Executive Order 13224.
- The detainee's computer contained a file from an Islamic website concerning biological weapons in the United States.
- The detainee was a member of an armed Algerian resistance group.
- The detainee lived in a guesthouse that sent fighters to Afghanistan.
- The detainee is associated with an organizer of Islamic fighters.
response to the allegations
Ameur denied being captured in a safehouse. He was captured in his family's home, a two room house, he shared wiht his wife and two children. He pointed out that even if he had known any members of al Qaida his home was too small for him to host visitors. He also informed his Tribunal that his home was near a Pakistani airbase, and several police stations - an absurd choice of location for a "safehouse".
Ameur acknowledged receiving training -- in how to conduct humanitarian work, from the African Muslim Agency. But he received this training in 1974, and he never worked for this agency.. Further, the Agency was a branch of the Kuwaiti government.
Ameur said that the literal translation of Al-Ittihad al Islami was "Islamic Union". He xplained that there were literally hundreds of organizations that included the term "Islamic Union" as part of their name. Further, he was not associated with any of them.
Ameur addressed the allegation that his computer contained a file on American biological weapons in detail. Ameur said that during his first interrogations, starting two days after his capture, his American interrogators had his computer in the interrogation room. But they never asked him about a file about biological weapons.
He said that he was regularly interrogated for the first year and a half of his detention. He was only asked once about an Islamic website, and he told his interrogator he had never heard of it. He said that his interrogators at Bagram and Guantanamo told him they didn't know where his computer was. He suspected that the Pakistanis had retained it. He doubted that they had preserved it as evidence, and strongly suspected his files had been erased so it could be used by someone else. He said he didn't consider this allegation a serious one, or he would have heard about the biological weapons allegation during his interrogation, not during his Tribunal.
Ameur said he knew that the Armed Islamic Group were fundamentalists and terrorists. He said this group formed two years after he left Algeria. Further he regularly visited the Algerian embassy, something no member of the GIA would ever do, because they felt all workers for the Algerian government were infidels who should be killed.
Ameur acknowledged that he lived in a guesthouse -- during the time the CIA was encouraging foreign volunteers to travel to Afghanistan to fight communists during the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan. However, the guesthouse did not only house fighters. It also housed humanitarian workers, like himself.
Regarding the last allegation, that he was associated with an organizer of Islamic fighters, Ameur expressed surprise. This allegation too was a new one for him. He had never been asked any questions about knowing organizers of Islamic fighters during his interrogation. His Personal Representative couldn't tell him the identity of this organizer, or which organization he organized for. He said he didn't know what it meant to be "associated" with someone.
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.
Ameur chose to participate in his Administrative Review Board hearing.
References
- list of prisoners (.pdf), US Department of Defense, April 20 2006
- list of prisoners (.pdf), US Department of Defense, May 15 2006
- Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Mammar Ameur's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 61-80
- Summarized transcript (.pdf), from Mammar Ameur's Administrative Review Board hearing - page 228
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