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User:Geo Swan/Ahmed Ould Abd al-Aziz

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Ahmed Ould Abd al-Aziz
Ahmed Ould Abd al-Aziz, wearing the tan coverals of a compliant captive
Born1970 (1970) (age 54)
Atar, Mauritania
Arrested2002-06-25
Pakistan
Pakistani security officials
CitizenshipMauritania
Detained at Guantanamo
Other name(s) 
  • Ahmed Abdel Aziz
  • Ahmed Ould Abdel Aziz
  • Ahmed Ould Abdul Aziz
  • Ahmed Ould Abdal Aziz
  • Ahmed Ould Abd al-Aziz
  • Akhmed Aziz
  • Abu Jafar al-Mauritani
  • Abu Muhammad,
  • Abu Ubaydah al-Husni al-Shinqiti
  • Muhammad Amin
  • Muhammad Lemine Ould Bouchama
  • Nejib
  • Muhammad Mahmoud
ISN757
Charge(s)no charge, extrajudicial detention
Occupationteacher

Ahmed Ould Abdel Aziz is a citizen of Mauritanian, who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.[1] His Guantanamo Internee Security Number is 757. Joint Task Force Guantanamo analysts report that he was born on February 24, 1970, Atar, Mauritania.

Background

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Historian Andy Worthington, the author of The Guantanamo Files, described al-Aziz as a scholar, who was fluent in French and English as well as Arabic.[2]

The Guantanamo Review Joint Task Force instituted by President Barack Obama in January 2009 al-Aziz acknowledges that al-Aziz asserted he had been tortured.[3]

Inconsistent identification

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Aziz's name was spelled inconsistently on various official documents released by the United States Department of Defense.

Official status reviews

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Originally the Bush Presidency asserted that captives apprehended in the "war on terror" were not covered by the Geneva Conventions, and could be held indefinitely, without charge, and without an open and transparent review of the justifications for their detention.[14] In 2004 the United States Supreme Court ruled, in Rasul v. Bush, that Guantanamo captives were entitled to being informed of the allegations justifying their detention, and were entitled to try to refute them.

Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants

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Following the Supreme Court's ruling the Department of Defense set up the Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants.[14]

Combatant Status Review Tribunal

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Combatant Status Review Tribunal notice read to a Guantanamo captive. During the period July 2004 through March 2005 a Combatant Status Review Tribunal was convened to make a determination whether they had been correctly classified as an "enemy combatant". Participation was optional. The Department of Defense reports that 317 of the 558 captives who remained in Guantanamo, in military custody, attended their Tribunals.

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
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A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Ahmed Ould Abdel Aziz's Combatant Status Review Tribunal, on November 1, 2004.[5] There were 23 allegations listed on Ahmed Ould Abdel Aziz's Summary of Evidence memo, including:

Administrative Review Board hearing

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Hearing room where Guantanamo captive's annual Administrative Review Board hearings convened for captives whose Combatant Status Review Tribunal had already determined they were an "enemy combatant".[15]

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. XXX chose to participate in his Administrative Review Board hearing.

First annual Administrative Review Board
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A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Aziz's first annual Administrative Review Board, on 2005-11-08.[6]

Second annual Administrative Review Board
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A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Aziz's second annual Administrative Review Board, on September 20, 2006.[10] Aziz was named Akhmed Aziz on this memo. That memo was three pages long.

Third annual Administrative Review Board
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A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Aziz's third annual Administrative Review Board, on November 27, 2007.[11] That memo was four pages long.

Fourth annual Administrative Review Board
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A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Aziz's fourth annual Administrative Review Board, on July 30, 2008.[12] That memo was five pages long.

Brookings summary

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Scholars at the Brookings Institute, lead by Benjamin Wittes, listed the captives still held in Guantanamo in December 2008, according to whether their detention was justified by certain common allegations[16]:

  • Al-Aziz was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges ... are associated with both Al Qaeda and the Taliban."[16]
  • Al-Aziz was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges that the following detainees stayed in Al Qaeda, Taliban or other guest- or safehouses."[16]
  • Al-Aziz was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges ... took military or terrorist training in Afghanistan."[16]
  • Al-Aziz was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges ... fought for the Taliban."[16]
  • Al-Aziz was listed as one of the captives who was ab "al Qaeda operative".[16]
  • Al-Aziz was listed as one of the "82 detainees made no statement to CSRT or ARB tribunals or made statements that do not bear materially on the military’s allegations against them."[16]

Formerly secret Joint Task Force Guantanamo assessment

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On April 25, 2011, whistleblower organization WikiLeaks published formerly secret assessments drafted by Joint Task Force Guantanamo analysts.[17][18] Aziz's assessment was 14 pages long.[13]

Interviewed by President Obama's review team

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United States President Barack Obama dispatched a team to report back to him about Guantanamo.[3] His team conducted close to one hundred interviews. Eleven interviews were conducted with captives. Their Internee Security Number were redacted from the field devoted to that purpose. But the comment field for two of the interviews contained Ahmed Ould's ID number. The notes said he was interviewed in "Papa tier" of Camp 3 by a legal member of the team. He said:

2009-02-05 757 made unsolicited claim he was tortured (showing a "bandage" on his thigh); followed up with DIMS reports, FCE record and medical reDorts
2009-02-09 Explained findings "unsubstantiated" during walk-through, when 757 made additional, unrelated claims.

Repatriation

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Historian and journalist Andy Worthington reported on June 1, 2013 that Aziz and his compatriot Mohamedou Ould Slahi were repatriated on May 31, 2013.[19][20][21][22] Worthington wrote that their release "...appears to be confirmation that President Obama’s promise to resume the release of prisoners from Guantánamo was not as hollow as many of his promises have turned out to be." Also repatriated was a Mauritanian who had been a long term captive in the Bagram Theater Internment Facility.

References

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  1. ^ a b "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 2006-05-15.
  2. ^ Andy Worthington (2010-10-13). "Who Are the Remaining Prisoners in Guantánamo? Part Seven: Captured in Pakistan (3 of 3)". Retrieved 2013-06-02. A Mauritanian seized in a house raid on June 25, 2002, Abdul Aziz is accused of being a member of al-Qaeda, even though the US government has failed to come up with a single piece of evidence to support the claim. Evidently an educated and articulate man (his first lawyers at Guantánamo noted that he studied literature and philosophy, and speaks French and English, in addition to Arabic), Abdul Aziz, according to the government's account, traveled to Afghanistan in September 1999 to support the Taliban against the Northern Alliance, and undertook training in 2000. At the time of his capture, however, he was working as an Arabic language teacher at an institute in Pakistan, far from the battlefields of Afghanistan, and there is no evidence that he ever took up arms against anyone, and certainly no evidence that he was ever involved in any activities against the United States. Instead, he is quoted in the government's documents as saying that he "believed his direct supervisor was more affiliated with the Taliban than with al-Qaeda," that he "visited [the] supervisor's house but never discussed things such as al-Qaeda," and that, although "a man he worked for told him that al-Qaeda needed a good administrator and approached him on al-Qaeda's behalf," he turned down the offer. Set against this are an array of unsubstantiated al-Qaeda allegations, which are in marked contrast to Abdul Aziz's own account, in which he admitted that he "spoke with Osama bin Laden about the Institute … for approximately five minutes in October 2000." The claim that he was a member of al-Qaeda came from an unidentified "source," who also claimed that he had sworn bayat (an oath of loyalty) to Osama bin Laden. It was also claimed that he had been recruited to join al-Qaeda by "a personal adviser of Osama bin Laden, who leads the Mauritanian al-Qaeda cell," and had attended the wedding of one of bin Laden's sons in 1999 or 2000. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  3. ^ a b "Interview". Department of Defense. 2009-02. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-06-01. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ list of prisoners (.pdf), US Department of Defense, 2006-04-20
  5. ^ a b OARDEC (2004-11-01). "Summary of Evidence for Combatant Status Review Tribunal -- Aziz, Ahmed Ould Abdel" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. pp. pages 100-101. Retrieved 2007-10-10. {{cite web}}: |pages= has extra text (help) Cite error: The named reference "CsrtSummaryOfEvidenceAhmedOuldAbdelAziz" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  6. ^ a b OARDEC (2005-11-08). "Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the case of Aziz, Ahmed Ould Abdel" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. pp. pages 60-61. Retrieved 2007-10-10. {{cite web}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  7. ^ OARDEC (2007-07-17). "Index for Combatant Status Review Board unclassified summaries of evidence" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. Retrieved 2007-09-29.
  8. ^ OARDEC (2007-08-09). "Index to Summaries of Detention-Release Factors for ARB Round One" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. Retrieved 2007-09-29.
  9. ^ OARDEC (2007-07-17). "Index of Summaries of Detention-Release Factors for ARB Round Two" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. Retrieved 2007-09-29.
  10. ^ a b OARDEC (2006-09-20). "Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the case of Aziz, Akhmed" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. pp. pages 6-9. Retrieved 2007-10-10. {{cite web}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  11. ^ a b OARDEC (2007-11-27). "Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the case of Aziz, Akhmed". United States Department of Defense. Retrieved 2013-06-01.
  12. ^ a b OARDEC (2008-07-30). "Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the case of Aziz, Akhmed". United States Department of Defense. Retrieved 2013-06-01.
  13. ^ a b "Guantanamo Bay detainee file on Ahmed Ould Abdel Aziz, US9MR-000757DP, passed to the Telegraph by Wikileaks". The Telegraph (UK). 2011-04-27. Archived from the original on 2011-20-10. Retrieved 2013-06-01. Recommendation: Continued detention under DoD control {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |archivedate= (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  14. ^ a b "U.S. military reviews 'enemy combatant' use". USA Today. 2007-10-11. Archived from the original on 2012-08-11. Critics called it an overdue acknowledgment that the so-called Combatant Status Review Tribunals are unfairly geared toward labeling detainees the enemy, even when they pose little danger. Simply redoing the tribunals won't fix the problem, they said, because the system still allows coerced evidence and denies detainees legal representation. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  15. ^ (Spc Timothy Book (2006-03-10). "Review process unprecedented" (PDF). The Wire (JTF-GTMO). p. 1. Retrieved 2007-10-12.
  16. ^ a b c d e f g Benjamin Wittes, Zaathira Wyne (2008-12-16). "The Current Detainee Population of Guantánamo: An Empirical Study" (PDF). The Brookings Institute. Retrieved 2010-02-16. Al Sani said he traveled to Afghanistan shortly before September 11 and trained on a Kalashnikov. "I felt it was important in coming of age," he said. "I went to Afghanistan for weapons training, not to fight anyone." mirror
  17. ^ Christopher Hope, Robert Winnett, Holly Watt, Heidi Blake (2011-04-27). "WikiLeaks: Guantanamo Bay terrorist secrets revealed -- Guantanamo Bay has been used to incarcerate dozens of terrorists who have admitted plotting terrifying attacks against the West – while imprisoning more than 150 totally innocent people, top-secret files disclose". The Telegraph (UK). Archived from the original on 2012-07-13. Retrieved 2012-07-13. The Daily Telegraph, along with other newspapers including The Washington Post, today exposes America's own analysis of almost ten years of controversial interrogations on the world's most dangerous terrorists. This newspaper has been shown thousands of pages of top-secret files obtained by the WikiLeaks website. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  18. ^ "WikiLeaks: The Guantánamo files database". The Telegraph (UK). 2011-04-27. Retrieved 2012-07-10. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  19. ^ Andy Worthington (2013-06-01). "EXCLUSIVE: Two Guantánamo Prisoners Released in Mauritania". Retrieved 2013-06-01. In news that has so far only been available in Arabic, and which I was informed about by a Mauritanian friend on Facebook, I can confirm that two prisoners from Guantánamo have been released, and returned to their home country of Mauritania. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  20. ^ "وصول ولد صلاحي و ولد عبد العزيز لنواكشوط" (in Arabic). 2013-05-31. Retrieved 2013-06-01. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
  21. ^ "عاجل: وصول ولد الصلاحي وولد عبد العزيز من غوانتنامو إلى نواكشوط" (in Arabic). 2013-05-31. Retrieved 2013-06-01. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
  22. ^ "Guantanamo'daki 2 Moritanyalı Serbest Bırakıldı: Guantanamo'da 10 yıldır tutuklu bulunan 2 Moritanya vatandaşı, ülkelerine gönderildi" (in Turkish). Sondakika. 2013-06-01. Archived from the original on 2013-06-01. Retrieved 2013-06-01. Baza americana din Guantanamo Bay de peste 10 ani de închisoare și a fost eliberat două țări au fost livrate la cetățenii din Mauritania spus. Conform informațiilor de la rudele de două Moritanyalının lansat, forțele de securitate americane, Makhdoom Ould Ahmed Ould Salahi și Abdulaziz'i, autoritățile Novakșot din Mauritania predat la aeroport. Familiile au spus că se întâlnesc la petreceri. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
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