User:Geo Swan/Bismullah (Guantanamo detainee 968)

Haji Bismullah is a citizen of Afghanistan who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States's Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 968. American intelligence analysts estimate Bismullah was born in 1979 and was from Musa Qala, Afghanistan.

Unusual release
Bismullah's release was unusual. Every Guantanamo captive was supposed to be able to call upon witnesses during the Combatant Status Review Tribunal the United States Supreme Court forced the DoD to convene for the 588 individuals remaining in Guantanamo in 2004, in Rasul v. Bush. When witnesses were not also being held in Guantanamo US officials were supposed to contact them, and help them draft a witness statement. However, during every single Tribunal where an off-Island witness was requested, and their Tribunal President ruled their witness was relevant, they were also informed that US officials could not locate the witness, so their Tribunal President had ruled them unavailable. Several individuals, including Bismullah, had testified that they were loyal officials of the Hamid Karzai government, and had requested a witness statement from Abdulrahim Wardak, who was, at the time the Deputy Minister of Defense. Tribunal Presidents would claim that US officials could not locate witnesses, even when they were members of Hamid Karzai's cabinet. In March 2005, a few months after the CSR Tribunals had concluded, the DoD published a list of 38 individuals who had been determined to have been incorrectly classified as "enemy combatants", and these men were scheduled for release. Bismullah was the 39th individual whose release was due to his CSR Tribunal. In early January of 2009, in the dying days of the Bush administration, the DoD announced that they were going to credit the witness statements of his brothers -- after one of his brothers was elected to sit in the Wolesi Jirga, the lower house of Afghanistan's national assembly. He was repatriated on January 17, 2009.

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 Bismullah's Combatant Status Review Tribunal, on 26 October 2004. The memo listed the following allegations against him:

Transcript
Bismullah 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 seven page summarized transcript from his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.

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.

First annual Administrative Review Board
A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Bismullah's first annual Administrative Review Board, on 12 October 2005. The memo listed eighteen factors favoring continued detention. The memo listed three factors favoring release or transfer.

The following primary factors favor continued detention

The following primary factors favor release or transfer

Transcript
Bismullah chose to participate in his Administrative Review Board hearing. Bismullah’s Board convened on November 3, 2005.

Second annual Administrative Review Board
A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Bismullah's second annual Administrative Review Board, on 11 October 2006. The memo listed six factors favoring continued detention. The memo listed six factors favoring release or transfer.

The following primary factors favor continued detention

The following primary factors favor release or transfer

Transcript
Bismullah chose to participate in his Administrative Review Board hearing. Bismullah’s Board convened on November 3, 2005.

Affidavit from Haji Mohammed Wali
Attached to his transcript was a covering letter and an affidavit from his brother Haji Mohammed Wali.

Third annual Administrative Review Board
A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Bismullah's third annual Administrative Review Board.

The following primary factors favor continued detention

The following primary factors favor release or transfer

Board recommendations
On January 9, 2009, the Department of Defense released two heavily redacted memos, from his Board, to Gordon England, the Designated Civilian Official. The review board convened on December 14, 2007. The Board's recommendation was unanimous. The Board's recommendation was redacted. The Board's recommendation was forwarded to England on January 27, 2008. England authorized continued detention on February 2, 2008.

Bismullah v. Gates
Bismullah had a writ of habeas corpus submitted on his behalf -- Bismullah v. Gates.

On July 20, 2007 a DC Court of Appeals ruled that Bismullah's lawyers, and by extension, all the captive's lawyers, were entitled to access all the classified evidence in their captive's dossiers.

Determined not to have been an enemy combatant after all
On January 17, 2009, Carol Rosenberg, writing in the Miami Herald, quoted Guantanamo spokesman Jeffrey Gordon, that a panel of officers had recently reviewed Bismullah's "enemy combatant" status, and determined, "based on new evidence", that he was not an enemy combatant after all. Bismullah was released to Afghanistan on January 17. Five other men, an Algerian and four Iraqis, were repatriated to custody of their home countries.

William Glaberson, writing in the New York Times, reported that the recent review relied on affidavits from Sher Mohammed Akhundzada, a member of the Meshrano Jirga, the upper house of Afghanistan's national legislature, and from his brother, Haji Mohammad Wali. Glaberson reported that a statement from Bismullah's brother's was ruled ''"not reasonably available, even though he was a Karzai government spokesmen.