Shawki Awad Balzuhair Explained

Subject Name:Shawki Awad Balzuhair
Birth Date:24 July 1981[1] [2]
Birth Place:Hadhramaut, Yemen
Date Of Arrest:2002-9-11
Place Of Arrest:Karachi, Pakistan
Arresting Authority:Pakistani security officials
Date Of Release:2016-12-04
Place Of Release:Cape Verde
Citizenship:Yemen
Detained At:CIA black sites, Guantanamo
Id Number:838
Charge:extrajudicial detention
Status:A former "forever prisoner", transferred to Cape Verde on December 4, 2016

Shawki Awad Balzuhair (born July 24, 1981) is a citizen of Yemen, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.

His detainee ID number is 838. The Department of Defense reports that Balzuhair was born on July 24, 1981, in Hadhramaut, Yemen.

Prior to his transfer to Guantanamo, Balzuhair spent a month in the CIA's archipelago of black sites, where torture was routinely practiced.

Initially the United States claimed Balzuhair and five other men seized in Karachi formed an underground al-Qaeda cell they called the "Karachi Six". Eventually analysts would acknowledge that this cell had never existed.

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.[3]

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.[3] [4]

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:[5]

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.[6] [7] His 12-page Joint Task Force Guantanamo assessment was drafted on May 18, 2008.[8] It was signed by camp commandant Rear Admiral David M. Thomas Jr. He recommended continued detention.

Joint Review Task Force

When he assumed office in January 2009 President Barack Obama made a number of promises about the future of Guantanamo.[9] [10] [11] He promised the use of torture would cease at the camp. He promised to institute a new review system. That new review system was composed of officials from six departments, where the OARDEC reviews were conducted entirely by the Department of Defense. When it reported back, a year later, the Joint Review Task Force classified some individuals as too dangerous to be transferred from Guantanamo, even though there was no evidence to justify laying charges against them. On April 9, 2013, that document was made public after a Freedom of Information Act request.[12] Carol Rosenberg, of the Miami Herald was to call Balzuhair and 78 other men "forever prisoners".

Periodic Review

In 2016, Bulzhair had his long delayed Period Review Board hearing. The officials who made recommendations following that review were told that the Karachi Six cell had never existed, after all.

Transfer to Cape Verde

In 2009, following an attempted bombing by a Nigerian jihadist who had been trained and equipped in Yemen, the United States stopped repatriating Yemenis to Yemen. Bulzhair was transferred to Cape Verde on December 4, 2016.

According to Angela Viramontes, his lawyer, Bulzahair is a private person, who looks forward to anonymity upon his release. She said he wishes to get married, and raise a family, "He looks forward to having a wife, children, and a job, the experiences most young men hope for that Shawqi has yet to experience."

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Recommendation for Continued Detention Under DoD Control (CD) for Guantanamo Detainee, ISN US9YM-000838DP (S) . 29 June 2024.
  2. Web site: Guantanamo Detainee Profile . 29 June 2024 . 28 January 2016.
  3. 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..
  4. News: Q&A: What next for Guantanamo prisoners? . . 2002-01-21 . 2008-11-24 . https://web.archive.org/web/20081123204530/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1773140.stm . 23 November 2008 . live.
  5. Web site: The Current Detainee Population of Guantánamo: An Empirical Study. The Brookings Institution. 2008-12-16. Benjamin Wittes. Benjamin Wittes. Zaathira Wyne. 2010-02-16. https://web.archive.org/web/20170519100934/https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/1216_detainees_wittes.pdf. 2017-05-19. live.
  6. 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..
  7. News: WikiLeaks: The Guantánamo files database . . 2011-04-27 . dead . 2018-04-05 . 2011-04-29 . 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.
  8. News: Shawki Awad Balzuhair: Guantanamo Bay detainee file on Shawki Awad Balzuhair, US9YM-000838DP, passed to the Telegraph by Wikileaks. The Telegraph (UK). 2011-04-27. 2016-07-09. Recommendation: Continued detention under DoD control.
  9. News: Justice task force recommends about 50 Guantanamo detainees be held indefinitely . Peter Finn . Washington Post . January 22, 2010 . July 21, 2010 . 2015-05-04 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150504225142/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/21/AR2010012104936.html . live.
  10. News: Most Guantanamo detainees low-level fighters, task force report says . Peter Finn . Washington Post . May 29, 2010 . July 21, 2010 . 2015-05-10 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150510052105/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/28/AR2010052803873.html . live.
  11. Web site: Andy Worthington. Does Obama Really Know or Care About Who Is at Guantánamo?. June 11, 2010. July 21, 2010. 2010-06-16. https://web.archive.org/web/20100616161842/http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2010/06/11/does-obama-really-know-or-care-about-who-is-at-guantanamo. live.
  12. News: 71 Guantanamo Detainees Determined Eligible to Receive a Periodic Review Board as of April 19, 2013. Joint Review Task Force. 2013-04-09. https://web.archive.org/web/20150519230955/https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1020057-guantanamo-parole-list.html. 2015-05-19. 2015-05-18. live.

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