Fadil Husayn Salih Hintif

Fadil Husayn Salih Hintif
Citizenship	Yemen

Fadil Husayn Salih Hintif is a citizen of Yemen held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo detainee ID number is 259. American intelligence analysts estimate that Hintif was born in 1969, in Al Youf, Yemen.

Background

Hintif described himself as a charity worker, who decided spend time doing good works as a memorial for his recently deceased father. He asserted he worked for the Red Crescent, the Islamic sibling organization to the International Committee of the Red Cross. He asserted he “did not receive any training in Afghanistan” and “did not fight in Afghanistan because he was not convinced of the causes that were being fought for.”

He was cleared for release from Guantanamo in 2007.

Status reviews

Hintif's status was reviewed by multiple agencies.

Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants

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.

In 2004 the United States Supreme Court ruled that the President did not have the constitutional authority to hold individuals indefinitely without giving them an opportunity to learn and try to refute the allegations used to justify their detention. The Supreme Court recommended the Department of Defense set up Tribunals to review the combatant status of all the remaining Guantanamo captives, modeled after the tribunals described in army regulation 190-8.

Hintif had four of these reviews, in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007. The heavily redacted decision memos from his 2007 review recommended he should be released.

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.

Habeas Corpus petition

Hintif had a habeas corpus petition filed on his behalf. For various reasons the [[Guantanamo captives' habeas corpus petitions are taking many years to resolve. United States District Court {{Henry Kennedy]] turned down his petition in 2011.

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. Historian Andy Worthington, author of The Guantanamo Files, noted that he was cleared for release both by his annual status review from the Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants and in an assessment from Harry Harris, Guantanamo's camp commandant.

Obama administration Joint agency reviews

On January 22, 2009, shortly after he took office, President Barack Obama set up a new review process, to replace the earlier OARDEC reviews. The review task force had representatives from multiple agencies, including the Department of Defense, Department of Justice, State Department. It is known that this joint task force had recommended approximately one third of the captives should be released, but it is not known whether they echoed the 2007 recommendations that Hintif should be released.