Samir Naji Al Hasan Moqbel Explained

Samir Naji al Hasan Moqbel
Date Of Birth:1 December 1977
Date Of Arrest:late 2001
Citizenship:Yemen
Id Number:43
Status:Transferred to Oman in 2016

Samir Naji al Hasan Moqbel is a citizen of Yemen who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States's Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.[1] [2] His Guantanamo Internee Security Number was 043.The Department of Defense reports Moqbel was born on December 1, 1977, in Taiz, Yemen.

On April 15, 2013, the New York Times published an Op-ed by Moqbel titled "Gitmo is killing me". In it he described that he would not eat "until they restore my dignity." He wrote that he had lost 30 pounds and described how it feels being force fed. "As it was thrust in, it made me feel like throwing up. I wanted to vomit, but I couldn't," Moqbel wrote. "There was agony in my chest, throat and stomach. I had never experienced such pain before. I would not wish this cruel punishment upon anyone."[3] His Op-Ed stirred wide commentary.[4] [5] [6]

In January 2016, Moqbel was among 10 Yemeni detainees that were transferred and resettled in Oman.[7]

Background

Moqbelarrived at Guantanamo on January 11, 2002, and was held at Guantanamo for 14 years.[8]

In the Op-Ed Moqbel described traveling to Afghanistan to look for work, as he only earned $50 USD per month in Yemen.[3] He said he was misled, could not find work in Afghanistan. He denied any association with terrorism.

Historian Andy Worthington noted that Moqbel mocked the extensive justifications offered for his detention, that he had been an Osama bin Laden bodyguard; that he had travelled all over Afghanistan – when he had only arrived in Afghanistan a month prior to his capture.[9]

In his April 2013 Op-ed Moqbel described what it was like to be force-fed at Guantánamo Bay.[3] Glen Greenwald, writing in The Guardian, praised the New York Times for publishing Moqbel's Op-Ed, which he described as one of the most powerful his readers would ever read.[10]

Official status reviews

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.[11] 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

Following the Supreme Court's ruling the Department of Defense set up the Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants.[11] Memos containing the allegations that the DoD thought justified his detention were prepared for formal administrative hearings in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008.These memos were all published under the Freedom of Information Act.The DoD also published a seven-page transcript from Moqbel's 2004 hearing and a memo Moqbel prepared for his 2006 hearing.

Scholars at the Brookings Institution, led by Benjamin Wittes, listed the captives still held in Guantanamo in December 2008, according to whether their detention was justified by certain common allegations:[12]

Formerly secret Joint Task Force Guantanamo assessment

On April 25, 2011, whistleblower organization WikiLeaks published formerly secret assessments drafted by Joint Task Force Guantanamo analysts.[13] [14] The Telegraph published Moqbel's 10 page assessment, which had been drafted in April 2008.[15] His assessment was signed by camp commandant Mark H. Buzby, and recommended Moqbel's continued detention.

The Telegraph quoted from his JTF-GTMO assessment, the claim that Moqbil had acknowledged participating in hostilities.[15] JTF-GTMO assessed him as having served in the 55th Arab Brigade, as well as Osama bin Laden's bodyguard team. JTF-GTMO assessed him as having participated at the Battle of Tora Bora. JTF-GTMO called him as a member of the dirty thirty. They claimed he had trained at the Al Farouq training camp, and that he had staffed al Qaeda guesthouses. They claimed his name was found on a suspicious list. They claimed "he acknowledged he was recruited by known al-Qaida member, Marwan Jawan, who also facilitated his travel to Afghanistan."

Habeas corpus petition

A writ of habeas corpus was filed on Samir Naji Al Hasan Moqbel's behalf.

The Military Commissions Act of 2006 mandated that Guantanamo captives were no longer entitled to access the US civil justice system, so all outstanding habeas corpus petitions were stayed.[16]

On June 12, 2008, the United States Supreme Court ruled, in Boumediene v. Bush, that the Military Commissions Act could not remove the right for Guantanamo captives to access the US Federal Court system. And all previous Guantanamo captives' habeas petitions were eligible to be re-instated.The judges considering the captives' habeas petitions would be considering whether the evidence used to compile the allegations the men and boys were enemy combatants justified a classification of "enemy combatant".[17]

On July 15, 2008, Kristine A. Huskey filed a "NOTICE OF PETITIONERS' REQUEST FOR 30-DAYS NOTICE OF TRANSFER" on behalf of several dozen captives including Samir Naji Al Hasan Moqbel.[18]

Moqbel's letters published

Brazilian newspaper Folha de S.Paulo acquired copies of letters Moqbel had written to his lawyers.[19] They quoted his confusion as to how he could have been cleared for release over five years ago, yet still remain in detention.

Further reading

References

  1. Web site: 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. 2006-05-15.
  2. News: Guantanamo Docket: Samir Naji al Hasan Moqbel. New York Times. Margot Williams. 2008-11-03.
  3. News: Gitmo Is Killing Me . New York Times . Samir Naji al Hasan Moqbel . 2013-04-14 . A19 . 2013-04-17 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130417180904/http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/15/opinion/hunger-striking-at-guantanamo-bay.html?_r=0 . dead . I could have been home years ago — no one seriously thinks I am a threat — but still I am here. Years ago the military said I was a "guard" for Osama bin Laden, but this was nonsense, like something out of the American movies I used to watch. They don't even seem to believe it anymore. But they don't seem to care how long I sit here, either..
  4. News: The Guantánamo Hunger Strike Gets a NYT Op-Ed . . Abby Ohlheiser . 2013-04-15 . 2013-04-16 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130416151537/http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2013/04/15/guantanamo_hunger_strike_op_ed_samir_naji_al_hasan_moqbel_describes_detainment.html . dead . While the reasons given for the hunger strike have ranged from mistreatment of the Quran to the camp's living conditions, Moqbel's motivation is a little more simple: He's still in Guantánamo. Here's a snippet from the op-ed, headlined by the Times "Gitmo Is Killing Me".
  5. News: What It's Like to Be Force-Fed at Guantánamo Bay . . Joe Coscarelli . 2013-04-15 . 2013-04-16 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130416174315/http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/04/guantanamo-hunger-strike-new-york-times-op-ed.html . dead . "There are so many of us on hunger strike now that there aren't enough qualified medical staff members to carry out the force-feedings." The rush to feed everyone, he says, results in a sloppy, more painful experience. "It was so painful that I begged them to stop feeding me," Moqbel writes of one particularly brutal experience..
  6. News: 'Guantanamo is killing me': inmate . . 2013-04-15 . 2024-05-26 . https://archive.today/20240526143952/https://www.webcitation.org/6Fu0rY4rh?url=http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iPsgrwAw4Tykiofdy9FtppFs-rKA%3FdocId=CNG.be9760fa9833114470f710c2bc1277d1.5a1 . dead . An inmate detained at Guantanamo for over a decade without charge on Monday gave a graphic account of his participation in a two-month-old hunger strike at the US-run military prison. In an op-ed published in the New York Times entitled "Gitmo Is Killing Me," Samir Naji al-Hasan Moqbel said he had lost over 30 pounds since going on hunger strike February 10 and that a fellow inmate weighed just 77 pounds..
  7. Web site: U.S. Sends 10 Yemeni Detainees From Guantanamo to Oman. Schwartz. Felicia. 2016-01-14. The Wall Street Journal. en-US. 2019-06-20.
  8. Web site: Measurements of Heights and Weights of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (ordered and consolidated version) . Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas, from DoD data . https://web.archive.org/web/20100613004352/http://humanrights.ucdavis.edu/resources/library/documents-and-reports/gtmo_heightsweights.pdf . 2010-06-13 . dead.
  9. News: Who Are the Remaining Prisoners in Guantánamo? Part One: The "Dirty Thirty" . . 2010-09-15 . 2013-04-04 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130404145052/http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2010/09/15/who-are-the-remaining-prisoners-in-guantanamo-part-one-the-dirty-thirty/ . dead . "These accusations make you laugh. These accusations are like a movie. Me, a bodyguard for bin Laden, then do operations against Americans and Afghanis and make trips in Afghanistan? I don't believe any human being could do all these things … This is me? I have watched a lot of American movies like Rambo and Superman, but I believe that I am better than them. I went to Pakistan and Afghanistan a month before the Americans got there … How can a person do all these operations in only a month?".
  10. News: Obama, Guantánamo, and the enduring national shame: One of the most powerful Op-eds ever published in the NYT, by a Yemeni detainee, underscores the president's role in this travesty . The Guardian . Glenn Greenwald . 2013-04-15 . 2013-04-16 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130416184351/http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/15/obama-guantanamo-hunger-strike-moqbel . dead . The New York Times this morning deserves credit for publishing one of the most powerful Op-Eds you will ever read. I urge you to read it in its entire.
  11. News: U.S. military reviews 'enemy combatant' use . . 2007-10-11 . 2007-10-23 . https://web.archive.org/web/20071023220558/http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-10-11-guantanamo-combatants_N.htm . live . 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..
  12. News: The Current Detainee Population of Guantánamo: An Empirical Study . . 2008-12-16 . Benjamin Wittes, Zaathira Wyne . 2010-02-16 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20130601150504/http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/reports/2008/12/16%20detainees%20wittes/1216_detainees_wittes.pdf . 2013-06-01.
  13. News: 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 . . 2011-04-27 . 2012-07-13 . Christopher Hope . Robert Winnett . Holly Watt . Heidi Blake . 2012-07-15 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120715015806/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/wikileaks/8471907/WikiLeaks-Guantanamo-Bay-terrorist-secrets-revealed.html . live . 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. .
  14. News: WikiLeaks: The Guantánamo files database. https://web.archive.org/web/20110429040459/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wikileaks-files/guantanamo-bay-wikileaks-files/8476672/WikiLeaks-The-Guantanamo-files-database.html. dead. 2011-04-29. The Telegraph (UK). 2011-04-27. 2012-07-10.
  15. News: Samir Naji Al Hasan Moqbil: Guantanamo Bay detainee file on Samir Naji Al Hasan Moqbil, US9YM-000043DP, passed to the Telegraph by Wikileaks . . 2011-04-27 . 2013-04-15 . 2013-07-03 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130703014718/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wikileaks-files/guantanamo-bay-wikileaks-files/8477472/Guantanamo-Bay-detainee-file-on-Samir-Naji-Al-Hasan-Moqbil-US9YM-000043DP.html . live . Recommendation: Continued detention under DoD control..
  16. News: NOTICE OF MILITARY COMMISSIONS ACT OF 2006 . . . 2006-10-16 . 2008-09-30 . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20081002190428/http://natseclaw.typepad.com/natseclaw/files/Hamdan.28j.letter.pdf . 2008-10-02.
  17. News: Lawyers debate 'enemy combatant' . Boston Globe . . 2008-10-24 . 2008-10-24 . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20081027091934/http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2008/10/24/lawyers_debate_enemy_combatant/ . 2008-10-27.
  18. Web site: Guantanamo Bay Detainee Litigation: Doc 63 – NOTICE OF PETITIONERS' REQUEST FOR 30-DAYS NOTICE OF TRANSFER . . . 2008-07-15 . 2008-11-13 . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20120309211110/http://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/district-of-columbia/dcdce/1:2008mc00442/131990/63/0.pdf . 2012-03-09.
  19. News: Guantanamo Detainee Writes of Legal Limbo in Previously Unpublished Letters. Folha de S.Paulo. Patrícia Campos Mello. 2015-07-01. 2015-07-07. Folha had access to the letters Mukbel sent to his lawyers, the first time a Brazilian media outlet has obtained direct communication from a Guantanamo detainee. In some of the letters, he asks about his family; in others, he questions his legal status. .

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External links

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