Ayman Saeed Abdullah Batarfi
Encyclopedia
Ayman Saeed Abdullah Batarfi
is a Yemen
i doctor who was held in extrajudicial detention
in the United States
Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba
.
His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 627.
He is an orthopedic surgeon who graduated from medical school in Pakistan and pursued postdoctoral studies there.
On March 30, 2009, the Justice Department announced that the administration had decided to release Dr. Batarfi.
Batarfi was the second captive to be cleared for release by the Obama administration's review of captives' status.
, during which time he treated injured mujahideen
fighters inside the region's complex caves.
At one of his
Administrative Review Board
hearings, he confirmed that Osama bin Laden
was present during the battle
, claiming that he had met with him for ten minutes.
On May 25, 2008 the Yemen Times
reported that a number of the Yemeni captives in Guantanamo had gone certifiably insane under the conditions there.
The article quoted the recently released Sudanese journalists Sami Al Hajj, who reported that Yemeni captives had been driven insane through the administration of hallucinogenic drugs.
In his book The longest war, Peter Bergen
quoted Batarfi, "He did not prepare himself for Tora Bora and to be frank he didn't care about anyone but himself."
was prepared for
Ayman Saeed Abdullah Batarfi's
Combatant Status Review Tribunal,
on 2 November 2004.
The memo listed the following allegations against him:
.
In response, on 4 August 2005,
the Department of Defense released seventeen
pages of unclassified documents related to his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.
He is being represented by Baltimore
lawfirm Murphy & Shaffer.
On 12 November 2004 Tribunal panel 15
confirmed his "enemy combatant
" status.
According to the decision memo in his dossier:
On 6 January 2009 Sullivan admonished the Bush administration for improperly withholding exculpatory evidence.
He said that the Department of Justice
had withheld as many as ten documents from him.
Sullivan stated that, now that the documents had been made available to him, he would need at least until a hearing scheduled for 9 March to decide whether Batarfi should be released.
In early April 2009 Sullivan admonished the Justice Department for withholding that one of the witnesses against Batarfi was seriously mentally ill.
The Kansas City Star reported that a transcript of the hearing recorded Sullivan saying:
The Kansas City Star reported that the unredacted portions of the transcript suggested the unnamed witness suffered from "anti-social personality disorder" -- which would have prevented him from understanding the difference between right and wrong, and would make him likely to lie. Bill Murphy, one of Batarfi's lawyers, said:
was prepared for
Ayman Saeed Abdullah Batarfi's
first annual
Administrative Review Board,
on
31 October 2005.
The four page memo listed thirty-nine "primary factors favor[ing] continued detention" and two "primary factors favor[ing] release or transfer".
from Jed Rakoff the Department of Defense
published a twenty page summarized transcript from his Administrative Review Board.
Attached to the transcript were three letters from family members.
was prepared for
Ayman Batarfi's
second annual Administrative Review Board, on 28 November 2006.
The four page memo listed thirty-six "primary factors favor[ing] continued detention" and two "primary factors favor[ing] release or transfer".
.
The BBC quoted Dean Boyd, a US justice department spokesman, who indicated Batarfi would be transferred to a third country. Boyd indicated that Batarfi would be transferred: "to an appropriate destination country... in a manner that is consistent with the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States and the interests of justice."
Carol Rosenberg
, writing in the Miami Herald, reported that US District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan
had scheduled Batarfi's habeas corpus hearing for early April.
William Glaberson, writing in the New York Times, reported that, according to Justice department filings, Batarfi might face prosecution in the third country he was transferred to.
Glaberson reported that although Batarfi had agreed to a stay of his habeas petition, to give US diplomats a chance to find a third country to accept him, he reserved the right to re-open the case if he objected to the conditions of his transfer.
Carol Rosenberg
, writing in the Miami Herald reported that Ayman Batarfi was one of twelve men transferred from Guantanamo on December 19, 2009.
According to Rosenberg Justice Department officials said that Batarfi release had been approved in March 2009.
She reported that he was one of the Guantanamo captives who had described himself as a humanitarian aid worker.
The other eleven men were:
Jamal Alawi Mari,
Farouq Ali Ahmed,
Muhammaed Yasir Ahmed Taher,
Fayad Yahya Ahmed al Rami,
Riyad Atiq Ali Abdu al Haf,
Abdul Hafiz,
Sharifullah,
Mohamed Rahim
,
Mohammed Hashim,
Ismael Arale and
Mohamed Suleiman Barre.
Abdul Hafiz, Sharifullah, Mohamed Rahim and Mohammed Hashim were Afghans
.
Asmael Arale and Mohamed Suleiman Barre were Somalis.
The other five men were fellow Yemenis
.
On January 5, 2010, Jay Solomon, writing in the Wall Street Journal reported that Batarfi, and the five other Yemeni men repatriated with him, faced indefinite detention in Yemen.
Solomon reported that the indefinite detention was part of the secret agreement negotiated between American and Yemeni officials, prior to the Americans agreeing to repatriate the men.
official John Brennan
was asked to justify the release of Batarfi, in light of the allegations he was associated with an al Qaeda Weapons of Mass Destruction plan.
A followup letter, from Brennan, to Nancy Pelosi
, was made public in 2011.
On April 25th 2011 the whistleblower organization WikiLeaks
published formerly secret documents signed by the Guantanamo camp commandants.
Batarfi's document was 15 pages long, signed by Admiral Mark H Buzby, and dated April 29, 2008.
During his appearance before Congress, Congressional Representative Frank Wolf, asked Brennan to explain why Batarfi had been cleared for release, when earlier military status reviews concluded there was reason to believe he had met Osama bin Laden, and that there was reason to believe he had played a role in an al Qaeda Weapons of Mass Destruction plan.
In his written reply Brennan stated that the joint task force the Obama administration had put in place had conducted their own more recent review, and concluded the suspicions held against Batarfi weren't substantial enough to justify his detention.
In commentary on Brennan's justification in The Weekly Standard
third-party counter-terrorism analyst Thomas Joscelyn challenged Brennan's defense of the Obama appointed 2009 review, by citing the allegations in the 2008 Joint Task Force Guantanamo
assessment.
Josceyln quoted several passages from the 2008 military assessment that asserted Batarfi had helped provide Yazid Sufaat
with medical laboratory equipment that was intended to be used to develop an anthrax
weapon.
Joscelyn quoted another passage from the documents, about Batarfi's ties to Dr Amin Aziz, a mentor Batarfi worked under, during his internship.
Aziz had a long history of making trips to Afghanistan to treat wounded mujahideen
, dating back to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, when the CIA supported them in their battle against the Soviet Union.
On October 21, 2002, Aziz was seized by American security officials, who held him, and interrogated him for a month. Following his release Aziz acknowledged his travels to Afghanistan to provide medical care, and acknowledged that those he treated had included senior members of al Qaeda, including Osama bin Laden
. He acknowledged he had treated bin Laden in 1999 and in November 2001. However, Aziz asserted he had no knowledge of any terrorist plans, and that he had not known he would be called upon to treat bin Laden when he travelled to Afghanistan.
Josceyln quoted the Guantanamo assessment, which said that during his interrogation, Aziz indicated he thought Batarfi was “quite keen” on fighting and “fully believed in al-Qaida.”
is a Yemen
Yemen
The Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....
i doctor who was held in extrajudicial detention
Extrajudicial detention
Arbitrary or extrajudicial detention is the detention of individuals by a state, without ever laying formal charges against them.Although it has a long history of legitimate use in wartime , detention without charge, sometimes in secret, has been one of the hallmarks of totalitarian states...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
.
His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 627.
He is an orthopedic surgeon who graduated from medical school in Pakistan and pursued postdoctoral studies there.
On March 30, 2009, the Justice Department announced that the administration had decided to release Dr. Batarfi.
Batarfi was the second captive to be cleared for release by the Obama administration's review of captives' status.
Press reports
He claimed that he was forced to work as a doctor at the 2001 Battle of Tora BoraBattle of Tora Bora
The Battle of Tora Bora was a military engagement that took place in Afghanistan in December 2001, during the opening stages of the war in that country launched following the 9/11 attacks on the United States. The U.S...
, during which time he treated injured mujahideen
Mujahideen
Mujahideen are Muslims who struggle in the path of God. The word is from the same Arabic triliteral as jihad .Mujahideen is also transliterated from Arabic as mujahedin, mujahedeen, mudžahedin, mudžahidin, mujahidīn, mujaheddīn and more.-Origin of the concept:The beginnings of Jihad are traced...
fighters inside the region's complex caves.
At one of his
Administrative Review Board
Administrative Review Board
The Administrative Review Board is a United States military body that conducts an annual review of the suspects held by the United States in Camp Delta in the United States Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba....
hearings, he confirmed that Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
was present during the battle
Location of Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden, the former leader of al-Qaeda, went into hiding following the start of the War in Afghanistan in order to avoid capture by the United States and its allies for his role in the September 11, 2001 attacks, and having been on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list since 1999...
, claiming that he had met with him for ten minutes.
On May 25, 2008 the Yemen Times
Yemen Times
The Yemen Times is unified Yemen's first and most widely-read independent English-language newspaper. The paper is published twice-weekly and has its own printing press, advertising associates and news service....
reported that a number of the Yemeni captives in Guantanamo had gone certifiably insane under the conditions there.
The article quoted the recently released Sudanese journalists Sami Al Hajj, who reported that Yemeni captives had been driven insane through the administration of hallucinogenic drugs.
In his book The longest war, Peter Bergen
Peter Bergen
Peter Bergen is a print and television journalist, author, and CNN's national security analyst. Bergen produced the first television interview with Osama Bin Laden in 1997. The interview, which aired on CNN, marked the first time that bin Laden declared war against the United States to a Western...
quoted Batarfi, "He did not prepare himself for Tora Bora and to be frank he didn't care about anyone but himself."
Summary of Evidence memo
A Summary of Evidence memoSummary of Evidence (CSRT)
Counter-terrorism analysts prepared a Summary of Evidence memo for the Combatant Status Review Tribunals of the 558 captives who remained in the Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba in the fall of 2004.-The 2005 release:...
was prepared for
Ayman Saeed Abdullah Batarfi's
Combatant Status Review Tribunal,
on 2 November 2004.
The memo listed the following allegations against him:
Ayman Saeed Abdullah Batarfi v. George W. Bush
A writ of habeas corpus, Ayman Saeed Abdullah Batarfi v. George W. Bush, was submitted on Ayman Saeed Abdullah Batarfi's behalf before US District Court Judge Emmet G. SullivanEmmet G. Sullivan
Emmet G. Sullivan is a US District Court Judge in Washington, D.C.Judge Emmet G. Sullivan was born in Washington, D.C. and attended public schools in the District of Columbia until his graduation from McKinley High School in 1964...
.
In response, on 4 August 2005,
the Department of Defense released seventeen
pages of unclassified documents related to his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.
He is being represented by Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
lawfirm Murphy & Shaffer.
On 12 November 2004 Tribunal panel 15
confirmed his "enemy combatant
Enemy combatant
Enemy combatant is a term historically referring to members of the armed forces of the state with which another state is at war. Prior to 2008, the definition was: "Any person in an armed conflict who could be properly detained under the laws and customs of war." In the case of a civil war or an...
" status.
According to the decision memo in his dossier:
|
On 6 January 2009 Sullivan admonished the Bush administration for improperly withholding exculpatory evidence.
He said that the Department of Justice
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
had withheld as many as ten documents from him.
Sullivan stated that, now that the documents had been made available to him, he would need at least until a hearing scheduled for 9 March to decide whether Batarfi should be released.
In early April 2009 Sullivan admonished the Justice Department for withholding that one of the witnesses against Batarfi was seriously mentally ill.
The Kansas City Star reported that a transcript of the hearing recorded Sullivan saying:
The Kansas City Star reported that the unredacted portions of the transcript suggested the unnamed witness suffered from "anti-social personality disorder" -- which would have prevented him from understanding the difference between right and wrong, and would make him likely to lie. Bill Murphy, one of Batarfi's lawyers, said:
First annual Administrative Review Board
A Summary of Evidence memoSummary of Evidence (ARB)
Counter-terrorism analysts prepared a Summary of Evidence memo for the Administrative Review Board hearings of approximately 460 captives in the Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba from December 2004 to December 2005.-Release of the memos:...
was prepared for
Ayman Saeed Abdullah Batarfi's
first annual
Administrative Review Board,
on
31 October 2005.
The four page memo listed thirty-nine "primary factors favor[ing] continued detention" and two "primary factors favor[ing] release or transfer".
Transcript
In the Spring of 2006, in response to a court orderCourt order
A court order is an official proclamation by a judge that defines the legal relationships between the parties to a hearing, a trial, an appeal or other court proceedings. Such ruling requires or authorizes the carrying out of certain steps by one or more parties to a case...
from Jed Rakoff the Department of Defense
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...
published a twenty page summarized transcript from his Administrative Review Board.
Attached to the transcript were three letters from family members.
Second annual Administrative Review Board
A Summary of Evidence memoSummary of Evidence (ARB)
Counter-terrorism analysts prepared a Summary of Evidence memo for the Administrative Review Board hearings of approximately 460 captives in the Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba from December 2004 to December 2005.-Release of the memos:...
was prepared for
Ayman Batarfi's
second annual Administrative Review Board, on 28 November 2006.
The four page memo listed thirty-six "primary factors favor[ing] continued detention" and two "primary factors favor[ing] release or transfer".
Transcript
In September 2007 the Department of Defense released the transcripts from the 2006 Board hearings which captives attended.Repatriation
On March 30, 2009, it was widely reported that Batarfi was the second captive to be cleared through the new review procedures put in place by United States President Barack ObamaBarack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
.
The BBC quoted Dean Boyd, a US justice department spokesman, who indicated Batarfi would be transferred to a third country. Boyd indicated that Batarfi would be transferred: "to an appropriate destination country... in a manner that is consistent with the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States and the interests of justice."
Carol Rosenberg
Carol Rosenberg
Carol Rosenberg is a senior journalist, currently with the McClatchy News Service.Rosenberg works at the Miami Herald, which has provided extensive coverage of the operation of the Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.-Biography:...
, writing in the Miami Herald, reported that US District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan
Emmet G. Sullivan
Emmet G. Sullivan is a US District Court Judge in Washington, D.C.Judge Emmet G. Sullivan was born in Washington, D.C. and attended public schools in the District of Columbia until his graduation from McKinley High School in 1964...
had scheduled Batarfi's habeas corpus hearing for early April.
William Glaberson, writing in the New York Times, reported that, according to Justice department filings, Batarfi might face prosecution in the third country he was transferred to.
Glaberson reported that although Batarfi had agreed to a stay of his habeas petition, to give US diplomats a chance to find a third country to accept him, he reserved the right to re-open the case if he objected to the conditions of his transfer.
Carol Rosenberg
Carol Rosenberg
Carol Rosenberg is a senior journalist, currently with the McClatchy News Service.Rosenberg works at the Miami Herald, which has provided extensive coverage of the operation of the Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.-Biography:...
, writing in the Miami Herald reported that Ayman Batarfi was one of twelve men transferred from Guantanamo on December 19, 2009.
According to Rosenberg Justice Department officials said that Batarfi release had been approved in March 2009.
She reported that he was one of the Guantanamo captives who had described himself as a humanitarian aid worker.
The other eleven men were:
Jamal Alawi Mari,
Farouq Ali Ahmed,
Muhammaed Yasir Ahmed Taher,
Fayad Yahya Ahmed al Rami,
Riyad Atiq Ali Abdu al Haf,
Abdul Hafiz,
Sharifullah,
Mohamed Rahim
Mohamed Rahim
Mohamed Naeem Rahim is a citizen of Afghanistan who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camp, in Cuba.His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 1104.The Department of Defense reports he was born in Ghazni....
,
Mohammed Hashim,
Ismael Arale and
Mohamed Suleiman Barre.
Abdul Hafiz, Sharifullah, Mohamed Rahim and Mohammed Hashim were Afghans
Afghan captives in Guantanamo
According to the United States Department of Defense, there were over two hundred Afghan detainees in Guantanamo prior to May 15, 2006.The Guantanamo Bay detention camp was opened on January 11, 2002....
.
Asmael Arale and Mohamed Suleiman Barre were Somalis.
The other five men were fellow Yemenis
Yemeni captives in Guantanamo
The United States were holding a total of 112 Yemeni citizen at Guantanamo Bay.By January 2008 the Yemenis in Guantanamo represented the largest group of detainees....
.
On January 5, 2010, Jay Solomon, writing in the Wall Street Journal reported that Batarfi, and the five other Yemeni men repatriated with him, faced indefinite detention in Yemen.
Solomon reported that the indefinite detention was part of the secret agreement negotiated between American and Yemeni officials, prior to the Americans agreeing to repatriate the men.
2008 and 2009 assessments of risks posed by Batarfi
In testimony before Congress, on January 13, 2010, White HouseWhite House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
official John Brennan
John Brennan
John Brennan may refer to:People*John Brennan * John Brennan * John Calder Brennan , historian* John Brennan , American football player...
was asked to justify the release of Batarfi, in light of the allegations he was associated with an al Qaeda Weapons of Mass Destruction plan.
A followup letter, from Brennan, to Nancy Pelosi
Nancy Pelosi
Nancy Patricia D'Alesandro Pelosi is the Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives and served as the 60th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 2007 to 2011...
, was made public in 2011.
On April 25th 2011 the whistleblower organization WikiLeaks
Wikileaks
WikiLeaks is an international self-described not-for-profit organisation that publishes submissions of private, secret, and classified media from anonymous news sources, news leaks, and whistleblowers. Its website, launched in 2006 under The Sunshine Press organisation, claimed a database of more...
published formerly secret documents signed by the Guantanamo camp commandants.
Batarfi's document was 15 pages long, signed by Admiral Mark H Buzby, and dated April 29, 2008.
During his appearance before Congress, Congressional Representative Frank Wolf, asked Brennan to explain why Batarfi had been cleared for release, when earlier military status reviews concluded there was reason to believe he had met Osama bin Laden, and that there was reason to believe he had played a role in an al Qaeda Weapons of Mass Destruction plan.
In his written reply Brennan stated that the joint task force the Obama administration had put in place had conducted their own more recent review, and concluded the suspicions held against Batarfi weren't substantial enough to justify his detention.
In commentary on Brennan's justification in The Weekly Standard
The Weekly Standard
The Weekly Standard is an American neoconservative opinion magazine published 48 times per year. Its founding publisher, News Corporation, debuted the title September 18, 1995. Currently edited by founder William Kristol and Fred Barnes, the Standard has been described as a "redoubt of...
third-party counter-terrorism analyst Thomas Joscelyn challenged Brennan's defense of the Obama appointed 2009 review, by citing the allegations in the 2008 Joint Task Force Guantanamo
Joint Task Force Guantanamo
Joint Task Force Guantanamo is a U.S. military joint task force based at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Guantánamo Bay, Cuba on the southeastern end of the island. JTF-GTMO falls under US Southern Command...
assessment.
Josceyln quoted several passages from the 2008 military assessment that asserted Batarfi had helped provide Yazid Sufaat
Yazid Sufaat
The Malaysian Yazid Sufaat was a member of the Islamist terrorist organization Jemaah Islamiyah from shortly after its foundation in 1993 until his arrest by Malaysian authorities on 9 December 2001....
with medical laboratory equipment that was intended to be used to develop an anthrax
Anthrax
Anthrax is an acute disease caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis. Most forms of the disease are lethal, and it affects both humans and other animals...
weapon.
Joscelyn quoted another passage from the documents, about Batarfi's ties to Dr Amin Aziz, a mentor Batarfi worked under, during his internship.
Aziz had a long history of making trips to Afghanistan to treat wounded mujahideen
Mujahideen
Mujahideen are Muslims who struggle in the path of God. The word is from the same Arabic triliteral as jihad .Mujahideen is also transliterated from Arabic as mujahedin, mujahedeen, mudžahedin, mudžahidin, mujahidīn, mujaheddīn and more.-Origin of the concept:The beginnings of Jihad are traced...
, dating back to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, when the CIA supported them in their battle against the Soviet Union.
On October 21, 2002, Aziz was seized by American security officials, who held him, and interrogated him for a month. Following his release Aziz acknowledged his travels to Afghanistan to provide medical care, and acknowledged that those he treated had included senior members of al Qaeda, including Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
. He acknowledged he had treated bin Laden in 1999 and in November 2001. However, Aziz asserted he had no knowledge of any terrorist plans, and that he had not known he would be called upon to treat bin Laden when he travelled to Afghanistan.
Josceyln quoted the Guantanamo assessment, which said that during his interrogation, Aziz indicated he thought Batarfi was “quite keen” on fighting and “fully believed in al-Qaida.”
External links
- The Story of Ayman Batarfi, a Doctor in Guantánamo Andy Worthington