Mohammed al Qahtani

Mohammed al Qahtani (محمد مانع أحمد القحطاني) (also transliterated as al Kahtani) is currently detained in Camp Four of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. He allegedly intended to come to the United States to take part in the September 11, 2001 attacks as a "muscle hijacker". Mustafa al-Hawsawi, one of the organizers of the September 11 attacks, referred to al Qahtani in intercepted telephone calls as "the last one" to "complete the group". Mohammad al Qahtani was refused entry due to suspicions that he was attempting to immigrate. Since January 2002, al Qahtani has been extrajudicially detained in the Guantanamo Bay detention camps.

Early life
Mohammed al Qahtani was born in 1979 in Dalam, Saudi Arabia. He is a Saudi national from a large Bedouin family. His father served as a police officer for 28 years. His mother remained at home to raise her thirteen children. He has eight brother and four sisters, who range in age from 42 – 14 years of age. According to family members, his favorite class in school was art. He has no criminal record and no record of any violence.

Arrest and deportation by US immigration
On August 3, 2001, al Qahtani flew into Orlando, Florida, from Dubai. He was questioned by officials dubious he could support himself with only $2,800 cash to his name, and suspicious that he intended to become an illegal immigrant as he was using a one-way ticket. He was sent back to Dubai, and subsequently returned to Pakistan.

Second capture, transfer to Guantanamo
Captured in the Battle of Tora Bora, al Qahtani was sent to the United States Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He continued giving a false name, and insisting he had been in the area solely pursuing an interest in falconry.

After ten months, U.S. authorities took a fingerprint sample and discovered that he was the same person who had tried to enter the United States just before the September 11th attacks. Seizing the airport surveillance tapes, the FBI claimed they were able to identify the car of Mohamed Atta at the airport, ostensibly waiting to pick up al Qahtani.

He was interrogated. After details of his status were leaked, the US Department of Defense issued a press release stating that Qahtani had admitted:
 * He had been sent to the US by Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the lead architect of the 9/11 attack;
 * That he had met Osama Bin Laden on several occasions;
 * That he had received terrorist training at two al-Qaeda camps;
 * That he had been in contact with many senior al-Qaeda leaders.

Another military account stated that al Qahtani was identified as someone who had previously been turned away due to visa problems -— by fingerprints, "taken in Southwest Asia".

Shortly after September 26, 2002, a Gulfstream jet carrying David Addington, Alberto Gonzales, John Rizzo, William Haynes II, two Justice Department lawyers, Alice S. Fisher and Patrick F. Philbin, and the Office of Legal Counsel's Jack Goldsmith flew to Camp Delta to view al Qahtani, then to Charleston, South Carolina to view Jose Padilla, and finally to Norfolk, Virginia to view Yaser Esam Hamdi.

Documented abuses while in Guantanamo
At Guantánamo, al Qahtani was subjected to a regime of aggressive interrogation techniques, known as the “First Special Interrogation Plan” that were authorized by US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and implemented under the supervision and guidance of Secretary Rumsfeld and the commander of Guantánamo, Major General Geoffrey Miller.

In November 2006, senior investigators with the Defense Department's Criminal Investigation Task Force (CITF) told msnbc.com that military prosecutors said al Qahtani would be "unprosecutable" because he was tortured during interrogation.

Susan Crawford, a senior Pentagon official, stated on January 14, 2009 that "his treatment met the legal definition of torture...The techniques they used were all authorized, but the manner in which they applied them was overly aggressive". As convening authority of military commissions, Crawford is responsible for overseeing Guantanamo practices.

Interrogation log
On March 3, 2006, Time magazine published the secret log of 49 days of 20-hour-per-day interrogation. The log described how al Qahtani was forcibly administered intravenous fluids, and drugs, and was forcibly given enemas, in order to keep his body functioning well enough for the interrogations to go on.

The log, titled SECRET ORCON INTERROGATION LOG DETAINEE 063, offers a daily, detailed view of the interrogation techniques used to obtain confession from him from November 23, 2002, to January 11, 2003. These include the following:


 * Restraint on a swivel chair for long periods
 * Deprivation of sleep for long periods
 * Loud music and white noise played to prevent the detainee from sleeping
 * Various humiliations, such as training the detainee to act as a dog and forcing him to watch puppet shows depicting sexual acts between him and Osama bin Laden at his mock birthday party
 * Lowering the temperature in the room, then throwing water to the detainee's face
 * Forcing the detainee to pray to Osama Bin Laden
 * Various interrogation techniques described as "pride & ego down", "circumstantial evidence", "fear-up", or "Al Qaeda falling apart"
 * Threats of extraordinary rendition to countries that torture
 * Threats made against his family, including female members
 * Strip searches
 * Body searches
 * Forced nudity, including in the presence of female personnel
 * Forced to submit to an enema
 * Prohibiting detainee from praying for prolonged times and during Ramadan
 * Threatening to desecrate the Koran in front of him
 * Forced to pick up trash with his hands cuffed while being called "a pig"
 * Placed in prolonged stress positions
 * Placed in tight restraints for many months or days and nights
 * Beatings
 * Exposure to low temperatures for prolonged times
 * Forcible administration of IVs by medical staff during interrogation, which were described by al Qahtani as "repetitive stabs" each day

At no point during the interrogation log does al Qahtani explicitly admit to being a member of Al Qaeda, although his stated reasons for travelling to the United States and Afghanistan - what the US interrogators refer to as his cover story - appear inconsistent. Furthermore, the entry for January 1, 2003 relates how al Qahtani blames Osama bin Laden for deceiving the 19 9/11 hijackers ("his friends"):
 * 2A0780 asked how one man, Bin Laden, convince [sic] 19 young men to kill themselves, (detainee was starting to fade he was going in and out of sleep.) The question was repeated, detainee stated that they were tricked, that he distorted the picture if [sic] front of them, 2A0780 asked detainee if this made him mad, detainee stated yes, (detainee did not realize that 2A780 [sic] had not started putting detainee into the picture) 2A0780 asked detainee if he was mad that his friends had been tricked, detainee said yes. 2A0780 asked detainee if his friends knew about the plan, detainee said no, 2A0780 asked if detainee knew about the plan, detainee stated that he didn't know. 2A0780 asked detainee if it made him mad that he killed his friends, detainee stated yes. 2A0780 asked detainee if he was glad that he didn’t die on the plane, detainee stated yes. 2A0780 asked detainee if his parents were happy that he didn’t die detainee stated yes. 2A0780 stated "he killed your friends" detainee stated yes.

When asked about his greatest sins in his life, al Qahtani responded that he had not taken care of his parents properly, had not finished school and had not been able to repay $20,000 he had borrowed from his aunt.

Recantation
On March 3, 2006, al Qahtani's lawyer was allowed to reveal that her client had recanted the accusations he had levelled against his fellow detainees. He had told his lawyer that he was forced to falsely confess, and name names, in order to get his "extended interrogation" to end. He had accused 30 other detainees of being former bodyguards of Osama bin Laden.

Post interrogation conditions of incarceration
On September 6, 2006, President Bush announced that 14 detainees who had been held in previously secret overseas CIA interrogation centres, and subjected to interrogation techniques, like waterboarding and mock executions, had been sent to Guantanamo. The Washington Post reports that the new inmates will be held in conditions similar to those imposed on al Qahtani, including isolation and 24 hours of continuous light.



Publication of captives' CSR Tribunal documents
Mohammed Al Qahtani had a writ of habeas corpus filed on his behalf. In September 2007 the Department of Justice published dossiers of unclassified documents arising from the Combatant Status Review Tribunals of 179 captives. The unclassified documents arising from Mohammed al Qahtani's CSR Tribunal were withheld. The US Government has not offered an explanation as to why Al Qahtani's unclassified documents have been withheld.

Administrative Review Board hearings


Detainees who were determined to have been properly classified as "enemy combatants" were scheduled to have their dossier reviewed at annual Administrative Review Board hearings. The Administrative Review Boards weren't authorized to review whether a detainee qualified for POW status, and they weren't authorized to review whether a detainee should have been classified as an "enemy combatant".

They were authorized to consider whether a detainee should continue to be detained by the United States, because they continued to pose a threat—or whether they could safely be repatriated to the custody of their home country, or whether they could be set free.

First annual Administrative Review Board hearing
The factors for and against his continued detention were

Primary factors in favor of continued detention

Primary factors in favor of release or transfer

There is no record that al Qahtani participated in his first annual Administrative Review Board hearing.

Second annual Administrative Review Board hearing
He did attend his second annual Administrative Review Board hearing.

Enemy Combatant election form
Mohammed al Qahtani's Assisting Military Officer report that they met for a pre-hearing interviews on October 12, 2006 and October 13, 2006. His Assisting Military Officer described him as "cooperative and attentive".

Primary factors in favor of continued detention

Primary factors in favor of release or transfer

Third annual Administrative Review Board hearing
A four page Summary of Evidence memo was prepared on January 17, 2008 for Al Qahtani's third annual review.

Charged before a military commission
The New York Times reported on February 9, 2008 that the Office of Military Commissions was close to laying charges against six of the more high value detainees, including Al Qahtani.

He was charged on February 11, 2008 with war crimes and murder, and faced the death penalty if convicted.

Gitanjali Gutierrez, an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), will be representing al Qahtani against the war crime and murder charges. Attorneys at CCR denounce the systematic use of torture as well as challenge the validity of the military commission and the use of evidence obtained via torture in his death penalty case. In a recent press release, CCR claimed that “the military commissions at Guantanamo allow secret evidence, hearsay evidence, and evidence obtained through torture. They are unlawful, unconstitutional, and a perversion of justice.”

Charges dropped
On May 11, 2008 the charges against Mohamed were dropped. Commander Jeffrey Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters that it was possible for the charges to be re-instated, at a later date, because they had been dropped "without prejudice". The reasons for the dismissal were not made public.

New charges announced
On November 18, 2008, Chief Prosecutor Lawrence Morris announced that he was filing new charges against al Qahtani. When announcing the new charges Morris stated that the new charges were based on “independent and reliable evidence”. He stated:
 * {| class="wikitable" border="1"


 * ''“His conduct is significant enough that he falls into the category of people who ought to be held accountable by being brought to trial.”
 * ''“His conduct is significant enough that he falls into the category of people who ought to be held accountable by being brought to trial.”


 * }

Crawford orders charges dropped due to torture
Susan Crawford, the senior official in charge of the Office of Military Commissions has the final authority over whether charges were laid. On January 14, 2009 Crawford ruled that charges could not be laid against Al Qahtani because the interrogation techniques he was subjected to in Guantanamo rose to the level of torture. Bryan Whitman, a DoD spokesman, claimed the techniques were legal, at the time they were applied.

al Qahtani's habeas case reinstated
Mr. al Qahtani's habeas corpus case was reinstated in July 2008 after the Supreme Court ruled on Boumediene v. Bush and Al Odah v. United States, stating that Guantanamo detainees have a constitutional right to habeas corpus.