Tornado Alley (PROG)

[F6]

Suicide at Guantanamo: the story of Abdul Rahman al-Amri

by Andy Worthington
posted on Thursday, May 31st, 2007 at 7:43 pm

According to the Associated Press [(updated) AP story below], the Saudi citizen who apparently committed suicide at Guantánamo on Wednesday 30 May has been identified by the Saudi authorities as Abdul Rahman al-Amri. Described by the Pentagon as a 34-year old from Ta’if, born on 17 April 1973, al-Amri had been held in the maximum security Camp V, reserved for the “least compliant and most ‘high-value’ inmates”, according to a US military spokesman.

Whether or not this is a valid description of al-Amri is debatable. He did not take part in any of the tribunals at Guantánamo – either the Combatant Status Review Tribunals (CSRT), convened to assess the status of the prisoners as “enemy combatants”, or the annual Administrative Review Boards (ARB), convened to assess whether the prisoners still constitute a threat to the US and its interests. He did, however, prepare a statement for his CSRT in which he “admitted it was his duty to fight jihad and that he continues to admit to that today. He says it is all Muslims’ responsibility to fight for jihad when called upon by a Muslim government (in this case, and at that time, it was the Taliban)”.

Having served in the Saudi army for nine years, al-Amri apparently travelled to Afghanistan in September 2001, undertook military training at a “school for jihad” in Kandahar and then moved on to the front lines. In December 2001, he passed through the Tora Bora region, crossed the border into Pakistan, and surrendered to the Pakistani police. He was one of approximately 180 Guantánamo prisoners handed over to the US authorities after being detained by the Pakistani authorities during a one-week period in mid-December 2001 [F6 note -- again, see http://www.investorshub.com/boards/read_msg.asp?message_id=6528497 ]. Dozens of these men were either humanitarian aid workers or religious teachers, and most of the rest were, like al-Amri, Taliban foot soldiers recruited to fight the Northern Alliance in an inter-Muslim civil war that began long before 9/11. In his statement, al-Amri pointed out that “Americans trained him during periods of his service” with the Saudi army, and insisted that, “had his desire been to fight and kill Americans, he could have done that while he was side by side with them in Saudi Arabia. His intent was to go and fight for a cause that he believed in as a Muslim toward jihad, not to go and fight against the Americans”.

He also refuted the most serious allegation against him: that he “was identified as the person responsible for providing a movie that provided all the details on how the USS Cole was attacked [in 2000] and the explosives that were used”. He admitted that he used the alias Abu Anas whilst in Afghanistan, but explained that he believed that another individual with the same name had been responsible for providing the film. This would not be surprising. Countless prisoners have refuted a variety of allegations based on claims relating to their supposed aliases, and it’s probable - given al-Amri’s stated role as nothing more than a foot soldier against the Northern Alliance - that he was no exception. Watch the press for the Pentagon’s response to his death, however. Whilst it’s probable that there’ll be more subtlety on display than last June, when the prison’s commander, Rear Admiral Harry Harris, described the suicides of three prisoners as “an act of asymmetric warfare”, it’s likely that someone in the administration will step forward to declare that the USS Cole allegation “proves” that al-Amri - held for nearly five and a half years without charge, without trial, and without access to a lawyer or to members of his family - was an al-Qaeda operative. What will probably not be mentioned is that, according to a report by the imprisoned al-Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Hajj [ http://www.cageprisoners.com/articles.php?id=19323 (F6 note -- my next post, a reply to this one)], al-Amri, like the three prisoners who apparently committed suicide last year, had been on hunger strike for several months.
Even in death, it seems, there is no escape from the vengeance of the Pentagon.

Copyright 2007 Andy Worthington

http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/?p=22


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Detainee in Gitmo Suicide was Saudi Vet

Associated Press | June 01, 2007

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - The detainee who died at Guantanamo Bay in an apparent suicide was identified as a Saudi military veteran and self-described Islamic holy warrior who denied he ever intended to kill Americans.

U.S. military records show the detainee admitted having a connection to al-Qaida but insisted he was little more than a Taliban foot soldier when the United States invaded Afghanistan following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The military and the Saudi government on Thursday identified the detainee as Abdul Rahman Maadha al-Amry. U.S. records show he was 34 and had been held without charges at the prison at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in southeastern Cuba since February 2002.

Al-Amry had no attorney of record, although the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights has filed a blanket legal challenge on behalf of all Guantanamo detainees. Lawyers say many detainees have little faith in the American legal system but others simply do not understand it.

"People just don't know where to turn so there are absolutely people in Guantanamo who want a lawyer but don't have one," said Zachary Katznelson, an attorney for the British human rights group Reprieve, which represents 37 detainees.

The U.S. military said al-Amry was not breathing when he was found Wednesday by guards in Camp 5, a modern, high-security section of Guantanamo generally reserved for detainees who are considered to have intelligence value or who do not follow prison rules.

Al-Amry was said by another detainee to have been on a hunger strike in March. Military records recently obtained by The Associated Press suggest he had also refused food in the past, with his weight dropping below 90 pounds (41 kilograms) at one point in 2005. He weighed 150 pounds (68 kilograms) when he entered Guantanamo.

A Guantanamo spokesman, Navy Cmdr. Rick Haupt, said al-Amry was not on a hunger strike at the time of his death, but he had been force-fed with a nasal tube in the past. He said he did not know if the prisoner had attempted suicide in the past.

Authorities have not revealed how they believe he killed himself in what would be the fourth suicide at the detention center, which holds about 380 men on suspicion of links to al-Qaida or the Taliban.

Haupt said al-Amry's cell was "regularly" monitored by guards, though he did not say how often. "We will seek to understand what happened and we will seek to prevent it from happening again," he said."

The military has also not disclosed any potential motive for suicide, although Guantanamo critics say indefinite confinement in the solid-wall, one-person cells for all but about two hours a day at Camps 5 and 6 has caused depression among detainees.

"Camp 5 is just utterly grim psychologically," said Sabin Willett, a lawyer for Guantanamo detainees. "There's no question that isolation destroys human beings."

The apparent suicide came nearly a year after two Saudis and one Yemeni hanged themselves with sheets at Guantanamo - a case that prompted the military to adopt new security measures aimed at preventing such deaths.

Al-Amry did not appear before the military panel that determined he was an "enemy combatant" who should be kept in custody. But he spoke to a personal representative appointed by the military and acknowledged some of the accusations against him, according to a transcript of the hearing obtained by AP last year through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.

He said he went to Afghanistan in 2000 and fought for the Taliban because he felt it was his duty as a Muslim to aid an Islamic government. He said he attended a "school for jihad" and saw Osama bin Laden "from a distance."

Al-Amry also said he served in the Saudi army for nine years and four months, at times receiving training from the U.S. military.

"Detainee said had his desire been to fight and kill Americans, he could have done that while he was side by side with them in Saudi Arabia," the transcript said. "His intent (in traveling to Afghanistan) was to go and fight for a cause that he believed in as a Muslim toward Jihad, not to go and fight against the Americans."

Al-Amry said that in Afghanistan he carried an AK-47 rifle but added such weapons were issued to any fighter who went to the front line. He said he fought in the rear during the battle at Tora Bora, a Taliban and al-Qaida stronghold. He was captured after surrendering in Pakistan and taken to Guantanamo in February 2002.

Copyright 2007 Associated Press

http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,137719,00.html [includes two additional paragraphs marked

found in the version of the same AP story under the headline "Gitmo detainee who died in apparent suicide was Saudi veteran, jihadist" at http://www.pr-inside.com/gitmo-detainee-who-died-in-apparent-r140464.htm ]