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Ghassan Abdullah al Sharbi

Ghassan Abdullah al Sharbi

al-Qaeda

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US court halts Guantanamo military trial

2006-05-17

US military authorities have suspended a military trial of a Saudi "war on terror" detainee after a US court ordered a stay until the Supreme Court rules on whether the trials are legal. Hearings into the case of Ghassan Abdullah al Sharbi were scheduled to resume at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba, but were called off after a US judge granted his lawyers' request for a stay, a Pentagon spokeswoman said. Judge Emmet Sullivan ruled on Friday that the proceedings be halted until the Supreme Court issues a final decision in the case of another detainee, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, challenging the legality of the special military trials. Justice Sullivan reasoned that Sharbi would suffer "irreparable" harm if the commission proceedings went forward, while the Government failed to show the harm of waiting until the Supreme Court decision in the Hamdan case. "The Government also claims that this brief delay would imperil the war effort," he wrote. "The Government has not explained, however, why the Court must adhere to the laws of war now, rather than wait a few weeks so that it may follow the rule of law, as it will be determined by the Supreme Court." Cynthia Smith, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said the court ruling pertained only to the Sharbi case and had no impact on the cases of any other detainee facing trial by military commission. Sharbi is one of 10 detainees, including Australian David Hicks, who have been charged under rules that were specially created to try "war on terror" suspects outside the jurisdiction of US courts.

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Sharbi sez he done it during Gitmo tribunal

2006-04-28

GUANTANAMO BAY US NAVAL BASE, Cuba - An Al Qaeda suspect told a US military tribunal that he had fought against the United States and said on Thursday he was willing to spend the rest of his life in prison as a “matter of honor.” We can arrange that. “I came here to tell you I did what I did and I’m willing to pay the price, no matter how many years you sentence me,” said Ghassan Abdullah al Sharbi, a US-educated Saudi who allegedly met Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden at a training camp in Afghanistan months before the Sept. 11 attacks. “Even if I spend hundreds of years in jail, that would be a matter of honor to me,” he said. Sporting long dark hair and a beard, Sharbi appeared at a pretrial tribunal hearing near the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. “I fought the United States,” Sharbi told the hearing’s presiding officer, Navy Capt. Daniel O’Toole. “I’m going to make it short and easy for you guys: I’m proud of what I did and there isn’t any reason of hiding.” But Sharbi eschewed the notion that he was “guilty” of wrongdoing and politely said he wanted to represent himself at the tribunal. He firmly rejected his appointed military defense lawyer, Navy Lt. William Kuebler, and said he wanted neither a military replacement nor a civilian defender. “It’s the same circus, different clown,” said Sharbi, a fluent English speaker who earned an electrical engineering degree at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in Arizona before leaving the United States for Afghanistan in 2000. O’Toole tried to order Kuebler to remain Sharbi’s lawyer, citing the detainee’s ignorance of military judicial rules. But Kuebler told the presiding officer that state legal authorities in California had advised him it would be unethical to represent an unwilling client. O’Toole then cut short the proceedings and set a May 17 hearing to consider the ethics issues raised by Kuebler. What ethical issue? He says he did it. Case closed. Next! Sharbi appeared before O’Toole in the beige garb of a detainee classed as “compliant” and refused the presiding officer’s advice to wear civilian clothes to avoid prejudicing his case. “I want to wear the same suit I have been wearing for four years. In fact, I miss my orange suit,” said Sharbi, referring to the orange uniforms worn by “noncompliant” prisoners among the 490 detainees at Guantanamo. Military documents allege that Sharbi was introduced to bin Laden in July 2001 at Al Qaeda’s al Farouq training camp in Afghanistan, where he underwent basic training, stood guard and kept watch for US air strikes after the Sept. 11 attacks. He was moved by former Al Qaeda operations director Abu Zubaydah to a safe house in Faisalabad, Pakistan, for training in the construction of electronic detonators later used in car bomb attacks on US forces in Afghanistan, the military says. Sharbi, Barhoumi, Qahtani and Zubaydah were captured there together in March 2002, military documents say.

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Qahtani calls US God's foe

2006-04-26

Companion to the other article on Qahtani below. A Saudi charged with being part of an al Qaeda bomb-making cell branded the United States an enemy of God and rejected its right to try him in a military tribunal Tuesday. Jabran Said bin al Qahtani, an electrical engineer captured at an al Qaeda safe house in Pakistan in March 2002, appeared for a pretrial hearing near the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, wearing the beige prison garb given to detainees classed as "compliant." But when questioned by the hearing's presiding officer, Navy Capt. Daniel O'Toole, Qahtani said he wanted no part of the tribunal and refused to accept the military defense lawyer assigned to his case. "I don't want an attorney. I don't want a court," said Qahtani, a father of two in his late 20s, with bushy dark hair and a shaggy beard. "A nation that is an enemy of God is not a leader and cannot be a leader," added the detainee, who spoke through a court translator. "You judge me and you sentence me the way you want, if this is God's will." Hokay. Qahtani, who at times fidgeted in his seat next to the defense lawyer, Army Lt. Col. Bryan Broyles, said he would prefer to be killed than cooperate. He warned the court that perhaps "God would provide me with rescue, and then you will regret everything." After a recess, Qahtani did not reappear in court. His lawyer said Qahtani decided to boycott the proceedings because he denied the legitimacy of the tribunals and would not return unless physically forced to attend. Broyles then challenged O'Toole's right to hear the case, saying the presiding officer had shown himself an advocate of the prosecution in earlier rulings, including orders that have kept Qahtani from seeing evidence against him. "Those acts were acts inappropriate to an impartial officer," the defense lawyer told a visibly riled O'Toole, who later ruled himself fit to preside. Not being a lawyer, I can't hazard a guess on how it will play for the defense to attack and mock the tribunal leader. Qahtani is one of three detainees who face tribunal hearings this week. His alleged co-conspirators are Sufyian Barhoumi, an Algerian citizen, and another Saudi named Ghassan Abdullah al Sharbi. All three who face proceedings this week were captured by Pakistani forces at a house in Faisalabad. The U.S. military says former al Qaeda operations director Abu Zubaydah gave them the job of making hand-held remote-control bomb detonators of a kind later used against U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Qahtani's attorney has said he intends to challenge evidence against his client, which he believes was obtained through torture and cannot be used under a formal Defense Department directive issued last month. No evidence of that, but it will make the NYT. Rejection of the tribunal system is emerging as a common tactic among detainees. Barhoumi, who is charged with training Qahtani and Sharbi on electronic detonators, could also boycott his hearing Wednesday, his military attorney said. Hokay, boycott and be damned in your absence.

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Saudi Facing US Tribunal, Defense Charges Torture

2006-04-26

A Saudi charged with being part of an al Qaeda bomb-making cell was set to appear on Tuesday before a U.S. military tribunal in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on evidence that his military defense attorney says was obtained through torture. Jabran Said bin al Qahtani, an electrical engineer captured at an al Qaeda safe house in Pakistan in March 2002, was trained by the militant network to make small hand-held remote detonators of a kind later used in improvised devices against U.S. forces in Afghanistan, the U.S. military says. Tech support guy, was he? Let the Pakistanis Taliban do the heavy work. A military charge sheet says Qahtani wrote two instruction manuals on how to assemble circuit boards that could be used as timing devices for bombs and was preparing to join the fight against U.S. troops when Pakistani forces captured him and two alleged co-conspirators in the Pakistani city of Faisalabad. Long way from home, wasn't he? Musta been a pilgrim. The three men -- Qahtani, Algerian Sufyian Barhoumi and Saudi Ghassan Abdullah al Sharbi -- are scheduled to appear separately before the tribunal for pretrial hearings this week. They are among only 10 out of 490 detainees in the Guantanamo Bay prison camp who have been charged with war crimes before the tribunals, known formally as commissions. All of those charged so far face life in prison if convicted. Air Force Col. Moe Davis, chief prosecutor for the tribunals, said the military was developing charges in two dozen more cases against Guantanamo prisoners, including some that could draw the death penalty. Qahtani is to make his first appearance before the tribunal on Tuesday for what his military attorney, Army Lt. Col. Bryan Broyles, said would be an uneventful proceeding. But Broyles is preparing to challenge the case against his client under a Defense Department directive that formally instructs tribunals to prohibit the use of evidence found to result from torture. "I believe there's torture-related evidence in the prosecution's case against my client," he told reporters without elaborating. "I mean, he said he was tortured." "It'll be a pretrial motion," Broyles added. "I have to take a specific piece of evidence and say, 'This statement I challenge because I believe it's a result of torture."'

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Gitmo detainees charged with war crimes

2005-11-08

Five foreign terrorism suspects at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been charged with war crimes and will face military trials, bringing to nine the number charged at Guantanamo to date, the Pentagon announced on Monday. Two of the five "enemy combatants" facing charges are from Saudi Arabia, the Pentagon said. The other three are from Algeria, Ethiopia and Canada. Nearly 500 detainees are being held at the Navy prison in Cuba. The charges were announced just hours after the Supreme Court said it would decide whether President George W. Bush has the power to create military tribunals to put Guantanamo prisoners on trial for war crimes, an important test of the administration's policy in the war on terrorism. The five suspects face charges ranging from murder to attacking civilians, the Pentagon said. The Canadian, a teen-ager, is accused of killing a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan. No dates have been set for trials of the five by U.S. military commissions, which critics have said do not give detainees the same rights as civilian courts. Hundreds of other detainees held at Guantanamo, most of them arrested in Afghanistan and many held for more than three years, have not yet been charged. The Guantanamo facility opened in January 2002, just months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. The Bush administration has come under strong international criticism, including from the International Committee of the Red Cross, for holding prisoners for years without charging them. The administration counters that the terror suspects do not have rights guaranteed under the Geneva Conventions. The Pentagon on Monday identified the five charged as Ghassan Abdullah al Sharbi and Jabran Said bin al Qahtani of Saudi Arabia, Sufyian Barhoumi of Algeria, Binyam Ahmed Muhammad of Ethiopia and Omar Khadr of Canada. Khadr, a Canadian who recently turned 19 years old, was just 15 when he was sent to Guantanamo and is accused of killing a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan and with attempted murder. The other four are charged with conspiracy to commit murder, attacks on innocent civilians, destruction of property and terrorism. Barbara Olshansky, an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights who has represented Khadr and other Guantanamo prisoners, called it shocking that the charges were announced on the day the Supreme Court said it would review the legality of military tribunals. "The fact that they've seen fit to designate people for trial by military commission when the very constitutionality of the tribunal is up before the Supreme Court just evinces the most blatant disdain for the judicial branch and the separation of powers principle," Olshansky said. Khadr is the son of suspected al Qaeda financier Ahmed Said Khadr, who was born in Egypt and jailed in Pakistan in 1996 for alleged involvement in an Egyptian Embassy bombing before being freed at the request of Jean Chretien, Canadian prime minister at the time. The elder Khadr was killed in a 2003 shootout with Pakistani security forces at an al Qaeda compound. The four detainees charged earlier include Australian David Hicks, two Yemenis and a Sudanese. Hicks' trial, put on hold last year because of federal court rulings over Guantanamo, is set to resume on Nov. 18. Dates have not been set for trials of the other three men. Spurning a request by U.N. human rights investigators, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said last week that the United States would not allow them to meet with detainees at Guantanamo. Rumsfeld also told a Pentagon news conference that prisoners at the naval base were staging a hunger strike that began in early August as a successful ploy to attract media attention. The military said last week that 27 detainees were engaging in the hunger strike, including 24 receiving forced-feedings. But detainees' lawyers estimated that about 200 were taking part and that the strike was a protest of the prisoners' conditions and lack of legal rights.

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US charges five Guantanamo detainees with war crimes

2005-11-08

Five foreign terrorism suspects at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been charged with war crimes and will face military trials, bringing to nine the number charged at Guantanamo to date, the Pentagon announced on Monday. Two of the five "enemy combatants" facing charges are from Saudi Arabia, the Pentagon said. The other three are from Algeria, Ethiopia and Canada. The charges were announced just hours after the Supreme Court said it would decide whether President George W. Bush has the power to create military tribunals to put Guantanamo prisoners on trial for war crimes, an important test of the administration's policy in the war on terrorism. The five suspects face charges ranging from murder to attacking civilians, the Pentagon said. No dates have been set for trials of the five by U.S. military commissions, which critics have said do not give detainees the same rights as civilian courts. Hundreds of other detainees held at Guantanamo, most of them arrested in Afghanistan and many held for more than three years, have not yet been charged. The Guantanamo facility opened in January 2002, just months after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. The Bush administration has come under strong international criticism, including from the International Committee of the Red Cross, for holding prisoners for years without charging them. The administration counters that the terror suspects do not have rights guaranteed under the Geneva Conventions. The Pentagon on Monday identified the five charged as Ghassan Abdullah al Sharbi and Jabran Said bin al Qahtani of Saudi Arabia, Sufyian Barhoumi of Algeria, Binyam Ahmed Muhammad of Ethiopia and Omar Khadr of Canada. Khadr, a Canadian who recently turned 19 years old, was just 15 when he was sent to Guantanamo and is accused of killing a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan and with attempted murder. The other four are charged with conspiracy to commit murder, attacks on innocent civilians, destruction of property and terrorism. Barbara Olshansky, an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights who has represented Khadr and other Guantanamo prisoners, called it shocking that the charges were announced on the day the Supreme Court said it would review the legality of military tribunals. "The fact that they've seen fit to designate people for trial by military commission when the very constitutionality of the tribunal is up before the Supreme Court just evinces the most blatant disdain for the judicial branch and the separation of powers principle," Olshansky said. Khadr is the son of suspected al Qaeda financier Ahmed Said Khadr, who was born in Egypt and jailed in Pakistan in 1996 for alleged involvement in an Egyptian Embassy bombing before being freed at the request of Jean Chretien, Canadian prime minister at the time. The elder Khadr was killed in a 2003 shootout with Pakistani security forces at an al Qaeda compound. The four detainees charged earlier include Australian David Hicks, two Yemenis and a Sudanese. Hicks' trial, put on hold last year because of federal court rulings over Guantanamo, is set to resume on November 18. Dates have not been set for trials of the other three men. Spurning a request by U.N. human rights investigators, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said last week that the United States would not allow them to meet with detainees at Guantanamo. Rumsfeld also told a Pentagon news conference that prisoners at the naval base were staging a hunger strike that began in early August as a successful ploy to attract media attention. The military said last week that 27 detainees were engaging in the hunger strike, including 24 receiving forced-feedings. But detainees' lawyers estimated that about 200 were taking part and that the strike was a protest of the prisoners' conditions and lack of legal rights.

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