Akhdar Qasem Basit

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Akhdar Qasem Basit is a citizen of China, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internee Security Number is 276. Joint Task Force Guantanamo counter-terrorism analysts report Basit was born on November 14 1973, in Ghulja, China.

Basit is one of approximately two dozen detainees from the Uyghur ethnic group.

Identity

Captive 276 was identified inconsistently on official Department of Defense documents:

• Captive 276 was identified as Akhadar Qasem in the Information paper: Uighur Detainee Population at JTF-GTMO.
• Captive 276 was identified as Akhdar Qasem Basit on the Summary of Evidence memo prepared for his Combatant Status Review Tribunal, on 12 November 2004.

Information paper: Uighur Detainee Population at JTF-GTMO

• wikisource:Information paper: Uighur Detainee Population at JTF-GTMO
• wikisource:Allegations against the East Turkistan Islamic Movement, from Nag Mohammed, captive 102's Tribunal
• wikisource:Excerpt from the Terrorist Organization Guide, devoted to the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM)

Documents released in response to the writ of habeas corpus Hassan Anvar v. George W. Bush contained a memo entitled: "Information paper: Uighur Detainee Population at JTF-GTMO". This memo, dated 30 October 2004, provides one paragraph biographies of 22 Uighur captives. The memo asserts that all 22 captives are suspected of membership in the "East Turkistan Islamic Movement". The memo describes the Uighur camp as an "ETIM training camp".

The portion of the document devoted to Akhdar Qasem Basit states:

Akhdar Qasem Basit is a 31-year-old Chinese citizen who is an ethnic Uighur from the Ghulja province of China. Basit was last interviewed at the end of 2002. He has no reported incidents of violence in his discipline history. Basit is suspected as being a probable member of the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM). He is suspected of having received training in an ETIM training camp in Afghanistan.

The information paper also identified him as "Akhadar Qasem".

Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held in small trailer, the same width, but shorter, than a mobile home. The Tribunal's President sat in the big chair. The detainee sat with their hands and feet shackled to a bolt in the floor in the white, plastic garden chair. A one way mirror behind the Tribunal President allowed observers to observe clandestinely. In theory the open sessions of the Tribunals were open to the press; three chairs were reserved for members of the press. In practice, most Tribunals went unobserved; the Tribunal only intermittently told the press that Tribunals were being held, and when they did they kept the detainee's identities secret. Only 37 of the 574 Tribunals were observed Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate 1st Class Christopher Mobley

Originally the Bush (WP) Presidency asserted that captives apprehended in the wars for capitalism and oil, known as 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. They were not offered the protections afforded by criminal law either, leaving them in a legal limbo through years of detention. Critics argued that the USA could not evade its obligations, and to keep the Geneva Conventions at arms' length, the concept of competent tribunals was invented, tribunals to determine whether captives are, or are not, entitled to the protections of prisoner of war status.

The Department of Defense instituted the Combatant Status Review Tribunals (WP). The Tribunals, however, were not authorized to determine whether the captives were lawful combatants, again to avoid the Geneva Conventions standards -- 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, further attempting to institutionalize a standard that stood against the consensus of international law.

Critics mounted legal challenges to this policy. Justice James Robertson ruled that the United States was obliged under article 5 of the Wikipedia:third Geneva Conventionthird Geneva Convention to treat all prisoners as lawful combatants, who would be entitled to prisoner of war status, unless a "competent tribunal" had determined that they were not lawful combatants.

The policies of the tribunals themselves were also challenged by the Judicial branch. 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.

The released prisoners are arrogantly, even absurdly called "No longer enemy combatants" (WP); an attempt to make numerous issues, including illegal arrest and holding without trial, disappear in plain sight.

Basit was among the 60% of prisoners who participated in the tribunal hearings. A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for the tribunal of each detainee. The memo for his hearing lists the following allegations: The memo listed the following allegations against him:

a. The detainee is associated with the Al Qaida and the Taliban:

1. The detainee, in August 2001, departed China for Kyrgyzstan, to Islamabad, Pakistan, continued to Jalalabad, Afghanistan and to Tora Bora, Afghanistan.
2. The detainee was at the Uighur training camp in Tora Bora, Afghanistan.
3. The detainee received training on the AK-47 assault rifle at Uigher training camp in Tora Bora, Afghanistan.
4. The detainee received training on the PK machine gun and military tactics at a Uigher training camp.
5. The training camp was provided to the Uighers by the Taliban.
6. The ETIM operated facilities in the Tora Bora region Afghanistan in which Uigher expatriates underwent small arms training. These camps were funded by Bin Laden and the Taliban.

b. The detainee participated in military operations against the United States and its coalition partners.

1. The detainee fled, along with others, when the United States forces bombed their camp.
2. The detainee was captured in Pakistan, along with other Uigher fighters.

Transcript

Basit chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal. On March 3 2006, in response to a court order from Jed Rakoff the Department of Defense published a six page summarized transcript from his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.

Testimony

• Basit confirmed he received training on the AK-47, during which he fired three or four bullets.
• Basit stated that there wasn't much time for marksmanship lessons, because they were so busy doing construction work.
• Basit stated the [[American aerial bombardment followed shortly after his arrival.
• Basit stated that he was directed to the camp by a Uyghur he met in Kyryzstan.
• Basit stated he didn't meet any Arabs in Afghanistan.

Determined not to have been an Enemy Combatant

The Washington Post reports that Basit was one of 38 detainees who was determined not to have been an enemy combatant during his Combatant Status Review Tribunal. The Department of Defense refers to these men as No Longer Enemy Combatants.

Asylum in Albania

On May 5 2006 the Department of Defense announced that they had transferred five Uyghurs who had been determined not to have been enemy combatants, to Albania. Seventeen other Uyghurs continue to be held at Guantanamo, because their CSRTs determined they were enemy combatants.

The five men had a lawsuit scheduled for argument on May 8 2006 before the US District Court where their lawyers would argue for their release.

The Department of Justice filed an "Emergency Motion to Dismiss as Moot" on May 5 2006. Barbara Olshansky, one of the Uyghur's lawyers, characterized the sudden transfer as an attempt to: "...avoid having to answer in court for keeping innocent men in jail,"

On June 8 2007, in an interview in the Dallas Star-Telegram Basit described his health deteriorating in his Albanian refugee camp.

Interviews

Dallas Star-Telegram

On June 8 2007, in an interview in the Dallas Star-Telegram Basit described his health deteriorating in his Albanian refugee camp.

McClatchy News Service

On June 15 2008 the McClatchy News Service published articles based on interviews with 66 former Guantanamo captives. McClatchy reporters interviewed Ahmed Adil. The McClatchy interviews confirms the reports his health is failing:

"Even in Guantanamo, I was strong. Look up the records: I did not need doctors. But now, everything has changed. I am sick every day; I am in pain every day. It is no secret why. I have lost hope." "I have not seen my daughter since she was 4 months old. When I arrived, I had hope, but it is clear I will never see her again. I will never again see my wife. I have no dreams for the future." "It's sad, isn't it? We grow up believing America is the land of hope. And yet, that is who killed hope for me."