User:Geo Swan/Guantanamo/transcripts/1463

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Transcript
Al Hilal 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 an eight page summarized transcript from his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.

Opening dialogue
Al Hilal expressed confusion and distress that he was not going to be allowed the assistance of a civilian lawyer and that his case would depend on secret allegations and secret evidence, that would be withheld from him. He concluded: "I respect the Tribunal but the way it is formed is unjust."

The Tribunal's President said they would note his concerns for the record.

Testimony
In response to the allegations presented to his Tribunal:
 * Al Hilal denied being a member of al Qaida. He assured his Tribunal that everyone in Guantanamo knew he was not a member of al Qaida.
 * Al Hilal denied ever assisting any members of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, or any members of Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya. He asked to see the evidence that he had done so, so he could refute it.
 * Al Hilal denied providing passports to associates of Osama bin Laden. He denied knowing any associates of Osama bin Laden.
 * Al Hilal denied visiting anyone in prison. He denied knowing anyone in prison.
 * Al Hilal denied any knowledge of the Al Haramain organization.
 * Al Hilal repeated that he didn't know anybody who was a member of al Qaeda. And he questioned how he would have been able to arrange anyone's release from prison, since he was just a private individual, not a sovereign government.
 * Al Hilal denied any participation in military operations.
 * Al Hilal asked whether his brother was involved in attacking the USS Cole that should then become his responsibility. Al Hilal said:
 * "If my brother knew these USS Cole bombers when he was a young person, he went to fight in Bosnia; without any of my family’s approval when he was a very young man. Maybe he knew these guys in Bosnia.  Then he came back to Yemen and stayed there for a while.  Then went back to Bosnia to live there.  That again was without our approval as well.  We don’t what happened  [sic] until he got arrested and was jailed.  He was in six years  [sic].  He was in prison from 1997 up until the time I got jailed in the year 2002, my brother was still in jail.  The meaning of that is that all connections between him and all the people was broken.  How can he have any knowledge of all these acts, and the attacks took place  [sic] in 2001?"


 * Al Hilal denied any knowledge on plans to attack any U.S. embassy or any western oil company.

Following the completion of the portion of the session where Al Hilal was asked to respond to the allegations against him, he asked if he could go on.

Al Hilal referred to the definition of "enemy combatant" that had been in the documents he was given prior to his Tribunal—where it said an enemy combatant was anyone who had aided al Qaida. He repeated he didn't know anyone in Al Qaeda. He said he was a businessman. He denied any prior animosity to America. He said he hated fighting. He said his religion forbid terrorism. He said his country did not support terrorism.

Al Hilal said that, as a businessman 80% of his business depended on International contracts. He asked how many of his foreign business associates would be interested in doing business with him if his country was tied to terrorism?

Al Hilal said that he suspected his capture was due to the CIA's practice of paying excessive amounts for information. Informants had an incentive to make up the kind of information they knew the CIA was searching for, with the result that innocent men, like himself, ended up being captured.

Al Hilal spoke of his family, how much they needed him, and he needed them.

Following the completion of his statement his Personal Representative asked Al Hilal: "I would just like to remind you that you had made a statement earlier when discussing with me, that you were a facilitator for the Yemeni Government?"

This question seemed to trigger distress and confusion in Al Hilal. He said he thought his Personal Representative was supposed to be on his side, so why was he asking him questions like he was an interrogator. Although the Tribunal's President said while she didn't know how the question sounded once translated, in English it didn't sound negative. While Al Hilal said he was still willing to answer specific questions, the Tribunal didn't ask him any, and merely dismissed him and went straight to the closed session.