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Abdel Ghalib Ahmad Hakim (عبدالغالب أحمد حاكم) is a citizen of Yemen, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.^[1] Hakim's Guantanamo Internment Serial Number is 686. American intelligence analysts estimate Hakim was born 1979, in Ta'iz, Yemen.

As of December 3, 2009, Abdel Ghalib Ahmad Hakim has been held at Guantanamo for seven years six months.^[2]

[edit] Identity

Captive 686's name is spelled inconsistently on official Department of Defense documents:

• Captive 686 was named Abdel Ghalib Ahmad Hakim on the Summary of Evidence memo prepared for his Combatant Status Review Tribunal on 22 October 2004, the Summary of Evidence memo prepared for his first annual Administrative Review Board, on 1 August 2005. and various official lists of names.^{[3][4][5][6][7][8][9]}
• Captive 686 was named Abdul Hakim on the Summary of Evidence memo prepared for his second annual Administrative Review Board.^[10]

[edit] 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.^[11][12] Three chairs were reserved for members of the press, but only 37 of the 574 Tribunals were observed.^[13]

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 a competent tribunal 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.

[edit] Summary of Evidence

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Abdel Ghalib Ahmad Hakim's Combatant Status Review Tribunal on 26 October 2004.^[3] The memo listed the following unclassified allegations against him:

The detainee is associated with al Qaida:

1. The detainee trained at al Farouq.
2. The detainee stayed at a guesthouse in Pakistan.
3. The detainee was captured with ammunition.
4. The detainee was captured with other individuals.
5. At least one of the individuals the detainee was captured with is associated with al Qaida.
6. The detainee is associated with Jamat al Tambligh.
7. The Jamat al Tabligh, a Pakistani-based Islamic missionary organization, is being used as a cover to mask travel and activities of terrorists including members of al Qaida.

[edit] Transcript

Hakim chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.^[14] 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.^[15]

[edit] Evidence request

The Tribunal's President stated, for the record, that Hakim had not requested the testimony of any witnesses. But he did request exculpatory documents—his passport and plane ticket. But they could not be located.

Hakim replied that he hadn't requested his passport, just his plane ticket.

[edit] Testimony

Hakim said he was a student, who had gone to Pakistan to study the Koran.

The transcript of Hakim’s Tribunal contained ten instances where he answered questions by saying the information was in his file, or expressing confusion, because the information was in his file, without understanding the explanation that the Tribunals never read any of the file, or anything beyond the unclassified summary of evidence, until after the detainee had a chance to present their testimony, or evidence they had.

Hakim said he was a student, who had gone to Pakistan to study the Koran.

Hakim confirmed that he was captured by Pakistani officials.

Hakim confirmed that he was he was captured with other people.

One of the Tribunal members expressed skepticism that the Pakistani security officials would have arrested him, without telling him why. Hakim replied that he still didn’t know why he was arrested. He said every new interrogator he was interrogated by had a brand new set of false allegations.

Hakim said he spent months in detention in Pakistani custody, and then in American custody, in Kandahar and Bagram, prior to being transferred to Cuba. He said none of his interrogators had asked him questions that implied they thought he was affiliated with Al Qaida until after he came to Cuba.

Hakim confirmed that he had never traveled to Afghanistan.

The President of Hakim’s Tribunal expressed regret that Hakim did not take the opportunity to be more forthcoming about the details of his story.

[edit] Responses Hakim had offered to his Personal Representative

• Hakim denied being associated with Al Qaida.
• Hakim denied training at Al Farouq. He had studied the Koran for five months in Lahore, and then went to Salafia University.
• Hakim confirmed he was captured with other individuals.
• Hakim responded to the allegations that one of his fellow captives was associated with al Qaida by stating he did not want the other detainees he was captured with as witnesses.
• Hakim confirmed he was familiar with Jama’at al-Tabligh. He said: “...he came to know them in Pakistan, that he did not join them, and that they showed him how to go from Yemen to Pakistan.”
• Hakim said he was unaware that Jama’at al-Tabligh had been used as a cover for Al Qaida.

[edit] Administrative Review Board hearing

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".^[16]

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.

[edit] First annual Administrative Review Board hearing

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the case of Hakim, Abdel Ghalib Ahmad (2005-08-01)

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Abdel Ghalib Ahmad Hakim's first annual Administrative Review Board, on 1 August 2005.^[4]

[edit] Factors for and against continued detention

The factors for and against Abdel Ghalib Ahmad Hakim's continued detention included:

• That he visited Raywan Religious Center in Lahore Pakistan.
• That the director of the Raywan Center Abdul Wahab encouraged him to visit Salafia University [sic] in Faisalabad.
• That he was captured while staying at the "Issa guest house owned by Issa" while visiting Salafi University.
• That: "A senior al Qaida operational planner recalled seeing the detainee at al-Faruq when Zawahiri [sic] and Jama'at al-jihad joined with al Qaida in summer [sic] 2001."

[edit] Transcript

There is no record that Abdel Ghalib Ahmad Hakim chose to participate in his first annual Administrative Review Board hearing.

[edit] Second annual Administrative Review Board hearing

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the case of Hakim, Abdul (2006-08-22)

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Abdul Hakim's second annual Administrative Review Board.^[10] The three page memo listed sixteen "primary factors favor[ing] continued detention" and seven "primary factors favor[ing] release or transfer". Among the factors were two not mentioned in the previous documents:

• Abdul Hakim was described as "...a scholar and was very well respected by all the fighters." who used to travel with Usama bin Laden "...to various places in Afghanistan, to give speeches and have people swear bayat."
• Abdul Hakim spent the time since he arrived from Yemen as a Koran student in Pakistan.
• Abdul Hakin "...could not identify the five pillars of Islam or discuss the phrase 'People of the Book'."

[edit] See also

• 2003 Lejay firefight

[edit] References