Sa ad Ibraham Sa ad Al Bidna

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Sa ad Ibraham Sa ad Al Bidna
Born 1978 (age 45–46)
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Citizenship Saudi Arabia

Sa ad Ibraham Sa ad Al Bidna is a citizen of Saudi Arabia, who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.[1] Al Bidna's Guantanamo detainee ID number was 337. The Department of Defense reports that Al Bidna was born in 1978, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Al Bidna was repatriated on June 25, 2006.[2]

Background

During his Guantanamo stay al Bidna described his family as wealthy enough to employ multiple servants.[3] He said his father was a retired teacher. In an interview following his release from Guantanamo al Bidna said that he only went as far as primary school.[4]

Status reviews

Multiple US agencies reviewed al Bidna's status.

Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held in a trailer the size of a large RV. The captive sat on a plastic garden chair, with his hands and feet shackled to a bolt in the floor.[5][6] Three chairs were reserved for members of the press, but only 37 of the 574 Tribunals were observed.[7]

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 set up the Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants (OARDEC), an independent agency. In late 2004 and January 2005 Combatant Status Review Tribunals organized by OARDEC reviewed the status of the 558 remaining captives. Al Bidna's review took place in late October or early November of 2004.[8] A Summary of Evidence memo drafted for his CSR Tribunal listed 7 unclassified allegations offered to justify his continued detention.

Transcript

Al Bidna chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.[9] The Department of Defense published a fifteen page transcript. Al Bidna's Tribunal confirmed he had properly been determined to be an enemy combatant.

2005 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.

A two page Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for his 2005 hearing.[10] The 2005 memo offered 8 "primary factors [that] favor continued detention" and 3 "primary factors [that] favor release or transfer".

Transcript

Al Bidna chose to participate in his Administrative Review Board hearing.[11] The Department of Defense publsihed a nine page transcript.

2006 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.

A three page Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for his 2005 hearing.[10] The 2006 memo offered 13 "primary factors [that] favor continued detention" and 6 "primary factors [that] favor release or transfer".

There is no record al Bidna chose to attend his 2006 review.

Formerly secret JTF-GTMO assessment

In April 2011 whistleblower organization WikiLeaks published formerly secret assessments, signed by Guantanamo camp commandants, for almost all the Guantanamo captives.[3] A "Recommendation for Continued Detention under DoD Control" was leaked, dated January 26, 2006, signed by camp commandant Jay W. Hood.[12] The recommendation was eight pages long, and recommended his continued detention. He was, however, repatriated to Saudi custody just five months later, where he was enrolled in a Saudi jihadist rehabilitation program. In November 2011, historian Andy Worthington, author of The Guantanamo Files, published his analysis of what the formerly secret JTF-GTNO analysis added to the public knowledge of al Bidna's case.[3] Worthington noted that the JTF_GTMO assessment characterized al Bidna's account of himself as "inconsistent". He noted that JTF-GTMO analysts suspected his passport may have been forged

Repatriation

Al Bidna was repatriated with thirteen other men, on June 25, 2006.[2]

Upon his return to Suadi Arabia al Bidna was enrolled in the Saudi rehabilitation program.[4][13]

In October 2006, four months after his repatriation, Al Bidna offered an account of his activities in the months leading up to his capture that was at odds with the account he offered while in Guantanamo.[4] In Guantanamo he described living in Mashad, Iran, in September, October and November of 2001, indulging in a three month sex, drug and alcohol binge, where he enjoyed a series of brief term marraiges with approximately a dozen Iranian women. In Guantanamo he denied entering Afghanistan, and explained his December 2, 2001 capture in Quetta to travel to Pakistan for medical treatment after ruining his digestion through his long binge.

In an October 2006 interview with al Riyadh magazine he acknowledged traveling to Afghanistan after being influenced by a fatwa to defend muslims there.[4] However, he described quidkly being disillusioned when he arrived and realized that the conflict was a muslim on muslim conflict.

The [brief] period I spent there did not enable me see the full picture, and I did not have the knowledge to distinguish real jihad from other actions that are [only] called jihad. But I did see that there were devout people there. Some of them were young men who came [to Afghanistan] out of youthful enthusiasm and [due to their] scant religious knowledge, or were influenced by certain fatwas published by various religious scholars, or [were influenced by] by false images, which were not free of exaggeration, of the situation in Afghanistan. This was the kind of thing that prompted me to set out without informing or asking my family, and without considering the concept of legitimate jihad, its conditions and its rules.[4]

References

  1. "List of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from January 2002 through May 15, 2006". United States Department of Defense. http://www.dod.mil/news/May2006/d20060515%20List.pdf. Retrieved 2006-05-15.  16x16px Works related to List of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from January 2002 through May 15, 2006 at Wikisource
  2. 2.0 2.1 "Fourteen Guantanamo detainees returned to the Kingdom". Royal Saudi Embassy, Washington, D.C.. June 25, 2006. Archived from the original on 2009-09-07. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.saudiembassy.net%2Farchive%2F2006%2Fnews%2Fpage453.aspx&date=2009-09-07. Retrieved 2007-03-10. 
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 Andy Worthington (2011-11-02). "Saad Al Bidna (ISN 337)". Cageprisoners. http://www.cageprisoners.com/cases/guantanamo-bay/item/2565-saad-al-bidna-isn-337. Retrieved 2012-06-21. "Noting that it was stated that he had “admitted to being a terrorist,” he said that he made that statement when he was “frustrated and extremely mad and being sarcastic,” when he “threw his hands up, and said, ‘all right, you got me, I’m a terrorist.’”" 
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 "Online Fatwas Incite Young Muslims to Jihad". American Islamic Forum for Democracy. 2006-10-26. http://www.aifdemocracy.org/policy-issues.php?id=2625. Retrieved 2012-06-20. 
  5. Guantánamo Prisoners Getting Their Day, but Hardly in Court, New York Times, November 11, 2004 - mirror
  6. Inside the Guantánamo Bay hearings: Barbarian "Justice" dispensed by KGB-style "military tribunals", Financial Times, December 11, 2004
  7. "Annual Administrative Review Boards for Enemy Combatants Held at Guantanamo Attributable to Senior Defense Officials". United States Department of Defense. March 6, 2007. http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=3902. Retrieved 2007-09-22. 
  8. "Summary of Evidence for Combatant Status Review Tribunal - AL BIDNA, Sa'ad Ad Ibraham Sa'ad". OARDEC. 2004-10-21. http://projects.nytimes.com/guantanamo/detainees/337-saad-ibraham-saad-al-bidna/documents/5. Retrieved 2012-06-20. 
  9. [[[:Template:DoD detainee ARB]] "CSR Tribunal transcript"]. OARDEC. 2004. Template:DoD detainee ARB. Retrieved 2012-06-20.  mirror
  10. 10.0 10.1 [[[:Template:DoD detainee ARB]] "Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the case of Al Bidna, Sa ad Ibrahim Sa ad"]. OARDED. 2005-05-02. Template:DoD detainee ARB. Retrieved 2012-06-20.  mirror
  11. [[[:Template:DoD detainee ARB]] "Summarized detainee statement"]. OARDEC. 2005. Template:DoD detainee ARB. Retrieved 2012-06-20.  mirror
  12. Jay W. Hood (2006-01-26). "Recommendation for Continued Detention under DoD Control". Joint Task Force Guantanamo. http://wikileaks.ch/gitmo/pdf/sa/us9sa-000337dp.pdf. Retrieved 2012-06-20.  16x16px Media related to File:ISN 00337, Saad Al Bedna's Guantanamo detainee assessment.pdf at Wikimedia Commons
  13. Andy Worthington (2007-04-08). "Saudi who suffered brain damage in Guantánamo gets married in Medina". http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2007/08/03/saudi-who-suffered-brain-damage-in-guantanamo-gets-married-in-medina/. Retrieved 2012-06-20. "al-Saheil’s article, like a previous article about released detainee Sa’ad al-Bidna, is rather vague about the constraints imposed on the released detainees in terms of surveillance and restrictions on their liberty, although there seems little doubt that the rehabilitation programs are principally designed to reintegrate the former detainees into society, through a form of “reprogramming,” in the case of the former jihadis, and then through more direct means –- including returning them to their former jobs –- in the cases of both the ex-Taliban recruits and the many men who were in Afghanistan as humanitarian aid workers or missionaries." 



References