CasesIbrahim Abu Muath al-Jeddawi (Ahmad Ibrahim Abu al-Hasana)Ibrahim Abu Muath al-Jeddawi is a Saudi who reportedly lived in Yemen. Human Rights Watch spoke to two former detainees held by the GID who said that they communicated with him while he was detained at the GID detention facility in late 2002; al-Tabuki wrote that he saw al-Jeddawi there, too. He was said to be approximately 32-38 years old. In early 2002, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) placed Abu Muaz al-Jeddawi (almost certainly the same person) on its Seeking Information War on Terrorism list, calling him a known associate of a Yemeni al Qaeda cell leader.36 A little more than a month later, however, al-Jeddawi was removed from the list, probably because the FBI learned that he was in CIA or Jordanian custody. Human Rights Watch has confirmed that he was transferred to GID custody sometime in the first half of 2002.37 Human Rights Watchs sources differ regarding where al-Jeddawi was arrested. Both al-Tabuki and another person claim that al-Jeddawi was arrested in Yemen. Al-Tabuki said that he was arrested less than a month after his wedding. A third source, however, who was also held in GID custody with al-Jeddawi, believes that al-Jeddawi was arrested in Kuwait, although he was not certain about this point. All of them agree, at any rate, that al-Jeddawi was in US custody prior to being handed over to Jordan. And according to one source, a US agent hit him in the head. A summary of evidence memo used in annual status review proceedings for Abdul Rahman Mohammed Khowlan, a Saudi citizen who was held at Guantanamo from 2002 to 2006, mentions Khowlans association with someone named Abu Muath.38 This may very well be the same person, and suggests that the US military may have relied on information obtained from al-Jeddawi while al-Jeddawi was in US or Jordanian custody. One person, who told Human Rights Watch that al-Jeddawi was famous in Afghanistan, said:
This same informant not only saw al-Jeddawi in custody in late 2002 but also communicated with al-Jeddawis family later. He said that the family told him that al-Jeddawi was held at the GID facility for more than a year, during which time he was kept hidden from the ICRC. Al-Jeddawi is believed to be currently incarcerated in Saudi Arabia. Khayr al-Din al-Jazaeri, Abu Yousef al-Jazaeri, Abu Hassan al-Suri, Abu Bakr Saddiqi, and possible unnamed ChechenKhayr al-Din al-Jazaeri, Abu Yousef al-Jazaeri, and Abu Bakr Saddiqi, all Algerians, and Abu Hassan al-Suri, a Syrian, were reportedly arrested in Georgia in 2002 and rendered by US agents to Jordan.39 All but Saddiqi were said to have been arrested together in April 2002; it is not clear when Saddiqi was picked up. Al-Tabuki mentioned Khayr al-Din al-Jazaeri in his account, saying that he was sent to Jordan in a private jet to be interrogated by Jordanian intelligence, who sought to extract from him information about Chechen fighters. And he was threatened to be falsely tied to a terrorist conspiracy against British interests, since he was originally a British resident. Khayr al-Din al-Jazaeri is also mentioned in the written judgment of a high-profile French terrorism prosecution, the so-called Chechen network case.40 The current whereabouts of all four men are unknown, although it is possible that they were at some point transferred to their home countriesi.e., Algeria and Syriafor continued detention. Several former prisoners said that one or more Chechens who had been brought to the GID detention facility by Americans were held there in 2002-2003. One such prisoner, who was held in GID custody in late 2002, told Human Rights Watch that at least one Chechen had originally been detained in Georgia. A different former GID prisoner, who was held in 2003, said that he had seen writing on his cell wall from a prisoner who wrote that he was from Chechnya. Abu Hamza al-TabukiAbu Hamza al-Tabuki, a Saudi national, was arrested in Karachi, Pakistan, in late 2001. Two prisoners whom Human Rights Watch interviewed said that they spoke to him while he was in detention, and one of them provided Human Rights Watch an account of his stay in GID detention that al-Tabuki wrote after his release. In his account, al-Tabuki explains that he was interrogated by US officials in Pakistan, and that the American told him that they were going to send him to a country where he could be interrogated more freely. He reported that US interrogators thought that detention in Jordan was more suitable for people like me because American laws tie their hands and they cannot apply the methods of the Jordanians. Here is his description of what happened to him in GID detention in Amman:
Al-Tabuki claimed that the point of the abuse was to obtain information, even false information:
A prisoner who was held with al-Tabuki in Jordan told Human Rights Watch that al-Tabuki was returned to Saudi Arabia in late 2002 or early 2003, and was released. Ramzi bin al-ShibhRamzi bin al-Shibh, a Yemeni citizen, was arrested in Karachi, Pakistan, on September 11, 2002, and was held in CIA custody for several years. Alleged to be one of the main conspirators in the September 11 attacks, he was rendered by the United States to Jordan for an unknown period. In early September 2006, he was transferred to US military detention at Guantanamo, where he remains. He has yet to see a lawyer or an independent monitor who could report on his experiences since his arrest. A former detainee in Jordan gave Human Rights Watch a detailed account of being held in a cell next to al-Shibhs in late 2002, on the third floor of the GID detention facility. The source said that he spoke with al-Shibh through the back window of his cell and sometimes through the small vent in the door of the cell. We could never talk for long, he said, maybe two minutes at most. According to this source, al-Shibh claimed that he had been arrested in Pakistan, then brought to the US air base at Bagram, in Afghanistan, then flown to Jordan via Qatar. Al-Shibh described the flight from Bagram, saying that US officials put him in a diaper and wrapped a giant bandage around his body. Al-Shibh reportedly said that he had been badly tortured in Jordanian custody. The forms of abuse included electric shocks, long periods of sleep deprivation, forced nakedness, and being made to sit on sticks and bottles (a form of sexual violence). The source did not recall al-Shibh saying anything about how the Americans treated him. Al-Shibh reportedly claimed that he had been brought to Jordan together with two or three other prisoners. Human Rights Watchs source said that al-Shibh was the most important of the group, but he did not know anything about the others, except that one or more of them may have been Egyptian. Ali al-Hajj al-SharqawiAli al-Hajj al-Sharqawi (also known as Riad al-Sharqawi or Shergawi) is a Yemeni citizen who was arrested in Karachi in mid-February 2002, and rendered by the US to Jordan soon after. He is now held at Guantanamo. Two former prisoners held by the GID spoke to Human Rights Watch about al-Sharqawi.43 In addition, while at the GID detention facility in late 2002, al-Sharqawi himself wrote a long note describing his ordeal, which another prisoner managed to smuggle out, and which was provided to Human Rights Watch. Human Rights Watch also obtained a statement that al-Sharqawi wrote in 2006, two years after he was moved to Guantanamo. In the 2006 statement, al-Sharqawi described his transfer to Jordan:
Like al-Tabuki, al-Sharqawi was surprised to find himself in Jordan:
A prisoner held with al-Sharqawi in GID detention told Human Rights Watch that al-Sharqawi was badly beaten by GID interrogators. Al-Sharqawi described the interrogations, saying:
Al-Sharqawi was held in GID detention for nearly two years. Flight records obtained by Human Rights Watch indicate that a Boeing 737, registration number N313P, linked to the CIA and other prisoner transports, traveled from Amman to Kabul on January 8, 2004, the date that al-Sharqawi claims that he was flown from Jordan to Kabul.45 Al-Sharqawi told his lawyers about what happened on that trip. Their notes of his account state:
Hassan bin AttashHassan bin Attash (whom Jordanian former detainees remember as Hassan ba Attash) is a Yemeni born in Saudi Arabia. He is the younger brother of Walid bin Attash, an alleged Al Qaeda operative who spent more than three years in secret CIA custody before being transferred to Guantanamo in 2006. The younger bin Attash was approximately 17 years old on September 11, 2002, when he was arrested in Karachi, Pakistan, in a raid that resulted in the arrest of Ramzi bin al-Shibh and several other Yemenis. Bin Attash has told his lawyers that during a four-day period after his arrest he was held in a Karachi jail, where he was hit and kicked repeatedly while being questioned by Pakistani and American interrogators. After three nights there, he was transferred to a US-run facility in Kabul, Afghanistan, which he and other prisoners know as the Dark Prison. Bin Attash claims that after three days in Afghanistan the US transferred him to Jordan. He has told his lawyers that while in GID custody in Jordan, he was subject to severe torture by Jordanian interrogators, including sleep deprivation; being slapped in the face and ears; being beaten on his feet with large sticks and being forced to run on his bare feet afterwards.48 He has described his torture in detail to his lawyers, who summarized it as follows:
A Jordanian who was detained with bin Attash remembered his mistreatment.50 He said that bin Attash, like al-Sharqawi, was beaten more severely than him or most other prisoners. Also, he recalled, the guards didnt allow ba Attash [bin Attash] to sleep. The guards would look in on him through the small window in his cell door. If they saw that his eyes were closed, theyd wake him up by slapping his face or spraying water on him. A habeas petition filed in US federal court summarizes the treatment bin Attash endured:
Bin Attash says that he was returned from Jordan to Afghanistan in January 2004, almost certainly on the same flight as Sharqawi. His lawyer has related his account of the trip:
In September 2004 he was flown from Afghanistan to Guantanamo, where he remains in custody. Khais (or Qais)One former prisoner told Human Rights Watch that in early 2003 he was briefly held in a GID cell near a Kurd named Khais. Khais was said to be in his twenties, and was from Halabja, in the Kurdish region of Iraq.53 The person said that Khais may have been arrested in Yemen and delivered to Jordan by US agents. Unnamed Libyan (probably Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi)Another former prisoner detained at the GID facility in 2004 and 2005 claims that a guard spoke of a Libyan prisoner who had been rendered by the Americans. The rendered prisoner was reportedly held on the very top floor of the GID facility, away from all the other prisoners. Human Rights Watchs source said that the guard said that:
The source said that the Libyan figured out where he was, however, after one of the Jordanian officers accidentally spoke in front of him. The source thought the prisoners name was Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi, but he was not certain. Human Rights Watch has learned through other sources that al-Libi (who the United States rendered to Egypt for a time as well) believes that he was held in Jordan for a couple of months.54 Unnamed TunisianAnother former detainee, who was held by the GID in 2004, told Human Rights Watch that he was held in a cell adjoining that of a Tunisian prisoner who had been delivered to Jordan by US authorities. The Tunisian was said to have been unhappy because he had been in custody for a long time: He complained that he had spent four months in GID, and before that three months in an American prison in Iraq. The Tunisian reportedly said that he had been detained in northern Iraq by the Peshmerga (Kurdish militants), who handed him over to US authorities.55 He said that he had been a mujahid (fighter) for five years. GID interrogators had reportedly showed him photos of other mujahideen whom he did not know. They said that if he didnt confess theyd send him to Guantanamo or Tunisia, the former detainee told Human Rights Watch. The former detainee said that he only saw the Tunisian once, through the vent in his cell door. He described the Tunisian as short, slim, balding, and in his early thirties. The Tunisian reportedly said that his father was dead, and that he was his mothers only source of support. Jamil Qasim Saeed MohammedJamil Qasim Saeed Mohammed, a Yemeni student who lived in Karachi, Pakistan, was reportedly flown to Jordan on a CIA-linked Gulfstream jet, registration number N379P, in the early morning hours of October 23, 2001.56 Someone who witnessed the scene at the Karachi airport reported that Mohammed was shackled and blindfolded. He said that the plane arrived from Amman and started flying back there at 2:40 a.m. A Pakistani journalist quoted a source at the Karachi airport saying: The entire operation was so mysterious that all persons involved in the operation, including US troops, were wearing masks.57 He also claimed that a masked person filmed the operation. Jamil Qasim Saeed Mohammed has not been seen or heard from since. Mohamedou Ould SlahiMohamedou Ould Slahi is a 37-year-old Mauritanian citizen who voluntarily submitted himself for questioning by the Mauritanian authorities in September 2001 and again in November 2001. In the report of the US National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (the 9/11 Commission), Slahi is described as a significant al Qaeda operative, but these allegations have never been tested in court. Although he has acknowledged fighting in Afghanistan in the early 1990s, he claims that he broke all relations with al Qaeda in 1992. Arrested and transferred to US custody in November 2001, Slahi has been detained without trial ever since. He has said that he was flown to Jordan on approximately November 28, 2001, and that he was held in custody there for eight months. He claims that during that time he was hit in the face and slammed against a concrete wall many times by Jordanian interrogators, and that he sometimes heard crying and moaning, presumably from other prisoners. What happened to him in Jordan, he later said, was beyond description.58 He has said that he confessed to involvement in the 2000 plot to blow up US airports, because in Jordan they made me crazy to admit I had something to do with it. Because there was so much pressure and mistreatment, I admitted to this.59 Slahi claims that he was flown from Jordan to Afghanistan on July 19, 2002. This is consistent with flight information from a known CIA detainee transport plane, registration number N379P, which flew from Amman to Kabul on that date. On the day he was transferred, he later explained, they stripped me naked like my mom bore me, and they put new clothes on me.60
After spending three weeks in US military custody at Bagram air base, Slahi was transferred to Guantánamo on August 4, 2002. He is still there now. Jamal al-MariJamal al-Mari, a Yemeni who is currently being held at Guantanamo, was arrested at his home in Karachi, Pakistan, on September 23, 2001.62 The arrest was carried out by a joint Pakistani-US team of operatives. Upon his arrest, he was taken to a Pakistani jail where he was held for approximately a month. While held at this facility, al-Mari claims that he was interrogated two or three times during a single week by US personnel, who he believes were intelligence agents. In late October 2001, al-Mari was rendered to Jordan, where he was held in the custody of the GID. Al-Mari, like other rendered prisoners, has said that he was hidden from the ICRC during their regular visits to the facility, generally in the basement. During one of the ICRCs visits, however, al-Mari was not taken into the basement and was discovered by the ICRC. Unlike other rendered prisoners, al-Mari has not claimed that he was tortured while in GID custody. Al-Mari has told his lawyers that he was imprisoned for four months in Jordan. In mid-2002, he was taken to Guantanamo, where he remains. 36 The FBI posted the names of 17 suspected terrorists to the list on February 11, 2002. By late March 2002, his name had been removed from the list. See http://www.fbi.gov/terrorinfo/terrorismsi.htm. Arabic names can be transcribed into Latin script in several different ways, leading. 37 Abu Hamza al-Tabuki remembered that Abu Muath was mostly held in cell number 87, on the third floor of the GID detention facility. Al-Tabuki account, p. 3. He also said Abu Muaths real name was Ahmad Ibrahim Abu al-Hasana. 38 The memo states: The detainee was recruited in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia [sometime before August 2001], by Abu Muath, who gave the detainee an airline ticket to Karachi, Pakistan, 3000 Saudi Riyals ($799 USD) and a passport. Department of Defense, Office for the Administrative Review of the Detention of Enemy Combatants at US Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the Case of Khowlan, Abdul Rahman Mohammed Hussein, June 29, 2005. The summary of evidence memo used in Khowlans case the following year omits the name of Abu Muath, but identifies him as a Saudi in his early 30s, which corresponds to al-Jeddawis description. Department of Defense, Office for the Administrative Review of the Detention of Enemy Combatants at US Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the Case of Al Khawlan, Abd al Rahman Muhammad Husayn, May 2, 2006. 39 Human Rights Watch does not has any information about who arrested them. Another Algerian who was picked up in Georgia in April 2002, however, who is now held at Guantanamo, claims that he and two others were abducted by the Mafia and handed over to American officials for a brief case full of money. Transcript of Combatant Status Review Tribunal hearing, Soufian Abar Huwari, ISN 1016, Set 21, pp. 1663-64. 40 Verdict, Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris, case of Marbak Lebik Benhamed et autres, June 14, 2006, p. 88. 41 Al-Tabuki account. 42 Ibid. 43 He is also mentioned in al-Tabukis account. 44 Undated statement of Shergawi [Sharqawi] Ali Al-Haj, p. 1 (copy on file at Human Rights Watch). 45 Sharqawi told his lawyers that he was taken out of his cell at 11 p.m. on January 7, 2004, put in a car, and handed over to the Americans. He was placed on an airplane to Kabul later that same night. Sharqawi lawyers notes, p. 11. 46 Ibid. As discussed below, the other prisoner he was transferred with was Hassan bin Attash. 47 Shergawi statement, p. 10. 48 Memorandum from Brent Starks, June 14, 2006. 49 Ibid. 50 Abu Hamza al-Tabuki, who was also held with bin Attash, said that he was rendered to Jordan by the Americans for interrogation. He remembered that bin Attash was held in cell number 85, on the third floor of the GID detention facility. Al-Tabuki account, p. 4. 51 Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus, Attash v. Bush, Case No. 05-CV-1592, August 9, 2005, p. 4. 52 Memorandum from Brent Starks, June 14, 2006. 53 Al-Tabuki also claimed that there were Kurds in GID detention whom the Americans had handed over to the GID. 54 Human Rights Watch interview, London, March 18, 2007. 55 Human Rights Watch has also interviewed a Jordanian with a similar story. He claims that he was arrested in the Kurdish area of Iraq by Kurdish forces in January 2004, handed over to US forces, and held for 38 days in US custody in Baghdad. Then he was flown to Jordan on a small plane and transferred to GID custody. Human Rights Watch interview, Amman, October 23, 2007. 56 Stephen Grey, Ghost Plane: The True Story of the CIA Torture Program (New York: St. Martins Press, 2006), p. 272. 57 Masood Anwar, Mystery Man Handed over to U.S. Troops in Karachi, The News International (Pakistan), October 26, 2001. 58 Mohamedou Ould Slahi, Annual Review Board transcript, Set 8, undated, p. 203. 59 Mohamedou Ould Slahi, summarized transcript of Combatant Status Review Tribunal, undated, p. 32. 60 Mohamedou Ould Slahi, Annual Review Board transcript, Set 8, undated, p. 203. 61 Ibid. 62 Al-Maris registration number at Guantanamo is 577. According to weight records kept by the US military and made public as a result of Freedom of Information Act litigation, al-Mari entered Guantanamo on approximately May 1, 2002. |