Wikileaks: Sudanese Guantanamo detainee details released
By Toby Collins
April 25, 2011 (LONDON) – The details of the detention of Sami Al-Haj, a Sudanese journalist who was incarcerated in Guantanamo Bay for seven years on the suspicion that he was involved in terrorist activities, were released last week, in a major intelligence haemorrhage involving hundreds of documents.
The 800 files are being released by Wikileaks, a controversial organisation which releases sensitive information for free on the internet. Its founder, Julian Assange, came under pressure from the US government after releasing revealing diplomatic cables and from the Swedish government which issued an arrest warrant charging Assange with sex crimes last year.
On Sami Muheidine Mohamed Al-Haj’s file, the Sudanese cameraman is described as “member of al-Qaida and logistics expert with direct ties to al-Qaida, [and] al-Haramayn”.
Al-Haramayn, a Saudi-Arabian charitable foundation now disbanded, was banned worldwide by the UN Security Council Committee and was described by the US Department of Treasury in 2004 as having direct links with Osama Bin Laden, the founder of Al-Qaeda, an international terrorist group.
Al-Haj was arrested by Pakistani authorities in December 2001 and was handed over to US authorities in January 2002. He met high level al-Qaeda members in Pakistan in his work as a cameraman for the Al Jazeera news network. The report says he is of “high intelligence value” and recommends that he remains in detention.
He was released in 2008 without charge. His British lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith said in an interview with Al Jazeera in 2005, “The only reason he has been treated like he has is because he is an Al Jazeera journalist. The Americans have tried to make him an informant with the goal of getting him to say that Al Jazeera is linked to Al Qaida.”
In 2007, the Sudanese Minister of Justice, Mohammad Ali Al-Mardi, described Al-Haj’s detention as “an illegal act”.
In the same year Al-Haj went on hunger strike, demanding the following, as published by Al Jazeera:
The right for detainees to practice their religion freely and without duress.
Applying the Geneva Convention to the treatment of Guantanamo detainees.
Releasing a number of prisoners from isolation confinement, and in particular one Shakir Amer that has been in continued isolation since September 2005.
Conducting a full and fair investigation into the deaths of three prisoners who died in June 2006.
His release or trial by a federal US court.
The US’s file on Al-Haj states that he is “reportedly a leader in the Muslim Brotherhood’s Shura Council and was involved in plans and operations to distribute weapons, to include Stinger missiles, and financial support to extremists in Chechnya.”
“Detainee provided logistical support to Islamic militants in Chechnya through al-Haramayn in Baku, Azerbaijan (AZ), and acted as a money courier and propagandist for the al-Qaida network under the cover of his employment with the Union Beverage Company (UBC) and al-Jazeera Media. Detainee is on a DIA [Defence Intelligence Agency] list of potential terrorist recidivists”.
According to his own account, he carried in excess of US$15,000 to Azerbaijan on three occasions. He was stopped at Baku airport in 1999 carrying US$220,000.
The crux of the accusations against Al-Haj appear to be that he was responsible for carrying money through Azerbaijan to support Islamic fundamentalists in Chechnya.
Chechnya is a republic of Russia, in the east of the northern Caucuses. In recent years it has been through two civil wars and Russia still battles Islamic separatists in the Chechen mountains. In January of this year the Chechen leader, Kadyrov, issued a controversial decree telling public servants how to dress in an Islamically acceptable way at work.
As well as tracking Al-Haj’s movements and involvement with other suspects, the report assesses his conduct in detention as “compliant and rarely hostile” but recounts an incident in which he threw bodily fluids at staff.
Also included in the list of detainees are the following Sudanese nationals: Adel Hassan, Al-Rachid Hasan Ahmad Abdul Raheem, Amir Yakoub Mohammed Al Amir Mahmoud, Hammad Ali Amno Gadallah, Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud Al Qosi, Ibrahim Osman Ibrahim Idris, Mohammed Nur Osman, Mohammed Al Ghazali Babaker Mahjoub, Mustafa Ibrahim Mustafa Al Hassan, Salim Mahmoud Adem Mohammed Bani Amir, and Walid Mohammad Haj Mohammed Ali.
Controversy surrounds Guantanmo Bay; during his presidential election campaign, Obama told the electorate he would shut it down, a promise upon which he has reneged. Prisoners are held in Guantanamo Bay without proper trial and in contravention of basic human rights, including the use of torture techniques. It is the repository for the prisoners considered the highest value in terms of intelligence for the War on Terror.
The Obama administration used the potential removal of north Sudan from the State Sponsors of Terrorism List (SSTL) as an incentive to conduct the north-South Sudan plebiscite peacefully. In February 2011 Obama said “there is a path to greater prosperity and normal relations with the United States, including examining Sudan’s designations as a state sponsor of terrorism”. This was reinforced by Johnnie Carson, US Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Africa Affairs, in March 2011 when he described a roadmap which had been given to Khartoum to lead them off them list.
The Southern Sudanese successfully voted in favour of separation from the north in January 2011. The declaration of the independence of the Republic of South Sudan will take place in July 2011. The Khartoum regime is yet to contest the validity of the sovereignty of the South. If this does result in removal from the SSTL, it is likely to bring the classification into further disrepute. The links between the independence of South Sudan and terrorism are obscured. The US’s considerable aid to South Sudan belies its strategic significance; how the US will act upon this in the future is not known.
In 1993 Sudan was added to the list for, amongst other things, harbouring Osama bin Laden, head of al-Qaeda. Sudan shares the list with Cuba, Syria and Iran which wields the stick of sanctions. It was thought by some that sanctions could be used to maneuverer Khartoum with regards to the ever-present Darfur issue, where thousands have died, thousands more are displaced and conflict continues.
(ST)