Abd al Malik Abd al Wahab

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Abd al Malik Abd al Wahab, or Abdul Malik Abdul Wahab is a Yemeni citizen currently held in the Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba after being classified as an enemy combatant by the United States government. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number is 037. He was born somewhere between 1983 and 1984. Abd al Wahab was arrested in the winter of 2001/2002, apparently by Pakistani officials, and is accused of being a member of Al-Qaeda.

According to him he was working as a Qur'an teacher in Afghanistan shortly before the U.S. invasion. He claims that he had no relations of note with the Taliban; though he was given housing by the Taliban government as a visiting Muslim scholar. When the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan began in 2001, he decided to leave the country and return home to Yemen. He sent his wife and young daughter home and planned to follow them home but was unable to do so because he was arrested by Pakistani forces while trying to collect his belongings. He was then sold by Pakistani forces to U.S. troops and sent to Guantanamo Bay detainment camp (WP).

Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held in a 3 x 6 meter trailer. The captive sat with his hands cuffed and feet shackled to a bolt in the floor. Three chairs were reserved for members of the press, but only 37 of the 574 Tribunals were observed.

His family only learned of his detention from newspaper accounts; it was nine months before they received a pair of censored, months-old letters from him.

The U.S. government neither confirms nor denies the details of his capture and claims that he was in Afghanistan for terrorist training.

As of October 7, 2010, Abd al Malik Abd al Wahab has been held at Guantanamo for eight years nine months.

Current status

Letter to Abd Al-Malek Ahmed Abd Al-Wahab Al-Rahbi (2002/12/17): Wikisource
Letter to Abd Al-Malek Ahmed Abd Al-Wahab Al-Rahbi (2002/12/31): Wikisource

In 2004, when the Department of Defense set up the Wikipedia:Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants,its mandate was both to run the Combatant Status Review Tribunals, and also to run annual Wikipedia:Administrative Review Board hearings. The Board hearings were authorized to determine whether captives, who remained classified as "enemy combatants", no longer represented a threat to the USA, and no longer held intelligence value. In that case the Boards were authorized to recommend "release or transfer".

The DoD released the transcripts and the Summary of Evidence memos from all Board hearings held in 2005 and 2006. There is no record that Board hearings were convened to consider whether Abd al Malik Abd al Wahab should be released or transferred.

On 27 August 2007 The Wikipedia:Yemen Observer published an article about Wikipedia:David Remes had made to Guantanamo. Remes is a lawyer for fifteen Yemeni captives in Guantanamo. The article reports that, on this visit, he met with two cousins from Ibb, Wikipedia:Yasin Qasem Muhammad Ismail and Abdul Malik Abdul Wahab Al Rahabi. According to the article Remes says that Abdul Malik is being held in solitary confinement in Camp Six. According to the article Remes says that the captives are issued plastic blankets.

“The blanket is plastic (something I cannot even visualize) to keep prisoners from using them to commit suicide, which they could do with cotton sheets and cloth blankets.”

Personal testimony

The Wikipedia:Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas gathered references from the unclassified notes from the Guantanamo Bay attorneys that concerned Abd al-Malik al-Wahab. They report that Wikipedia:Mark Falkoff's notes recorded:

"A group of soldiers sprayed Mr. al-Wahab with “disorienting gas,” burst in his cell, handcuffed him, pulled him out of his cell, and pushed and rubbed his head against concrete until he lost consciousness."

Amnesty International gathered notes from Wahab's hearing:

Abd Al Malik Abd Al Wahab alleges that he has been forced to endure many hours of cold under air conditioners, and subjected to sleep deprivation. He states that he was threatened that unless he confessed he would be taken "underground" and would never see daylight. He has said that he had his thumb broken during beatings by US soldiers in the US air base in Kandahar in Afghanistan.

We were tortured in Kandahar by beatings. Since we arrived in Cuba we have been mentally persuaded. We have been here for three years. We have nothing here, no rights, no trials, nothing.

I have never taken part in any act of hostility against America. I am not an enemy combatant, are you trying to force me to be an enemy combatant? That’s all I can say and I swear it is the truth.

I just hope this hearing is useful. It is a step forward to solve the situation on this island. If you have any evidence against me that shows I am an enemy of the United States or that I fought against the United States, I am willing to face that trial.

Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Initially the Bush Presidency 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 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.

Al Wahab chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal, though his attorneys were not allowed to participate.

Summary of Evidence memo

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Abd Al Malik Abd Al Wahab Al-Battar's Combatant Status Review Tribunal, on 21 September 2004. The memo listed the following allegations against him:

a. Detainee is a member of al Qaida and associated with the Taliban.

1. The detainee is a known member of al Qaida, operated as an al Qaida fighter, and worked at various guesthouses and offices.
2. The detainee admitted receiving help from the Taliban.
3. The detainee attended the Khalden Camp, in Kandahar, Afghanistan in 1995 where he received weapons, explosive, artillery, and machinegun training.
4. The detainee was very close to Usama Bin Laden, and had been with him a long time. He was a known Usama Bin Laden guard and errand boy and was frequently seen at Usama Bin Laden's side. Also the detainee attended various other training camps and resided at a Kandahar, Afghanistan guesthouse.
5. A martyr letter, will, and personal letter addressed to Usama Bin Laden were found in the possession of an admitted bodyguard of Usama Bin Laden. The detainee admits authoring these documents.

Abdulmalik Abdulwahhab Al-Rahabi v. George W. Bush

Abd al Malik Abd al Wahab was one of 179 sets of habeas corpus documents the Department of Defense released in September 2007. The set of documents was 133 pages long. The first 25 pages were OARDEC documents. The remaining pages were from a Wikipedia:writ of habeas corpus submitted on his behalf by Wikipedia:David H. Remes and Wikipedia:Kenneth L. Wainstein together with thirteen other men. He was named Abdulmalik Abdulwahhab Al-Rahabi in the documents. The other men's name were also spelled inconsistently with the spelling on the DoD's official lists.

The lawyer's provided biographical details about the fourteen men: Captive 37's description said:

Petitioner Abdulmalik Abdulwahhab A1-Rahabi

• Petitioner Abdulmalik Abdulwabahab A1-Rahabi ("Al-Rahabi’~ is twenty-two years old, married and the father of a four-year old daughter. See Ex. E (Affidavit of ############### pgs. 2-3.
• Around September 2000, A1-Rahabi traveled with his wife to Pakistan in order to study the Koran. Id. at pgs 5-6. Their daughter was born while they were together in Pakistan. Id. at pg 6.
• In November 2001, his wife returned to Yemen. Id. pg. 7. A1-Rahabi intended to return as well, but he was arrested while in Pakistan. Id. His family learned from newspaper accounts that he was being detained in Guantanamo Bay. Id. at pg. 7.
• The family has received very limited correspondence from Al-Rahabi and heard nothing from him for a nine-month period before receiving a pair of censored, months-old letters.Id. at pg. 8.

References

• Amnesty International
• Yemen Observer
• Google
• Google News
• Google Books

External links

• Who Are the Remaining Prisoners in Guantánamo? Part One: The “Dirty Thirty” Andy Worthington
• Covington & Burling Law firm representing Abd al Wahab
• Empty Evidence, National Journal, February 3, 2006 - Investigative Report which quotes Abd Al Wahab's attorney and references his case