Counter-terrorism

Counter-terrorism

Counter-terrorism is the practices, tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, militaries, police departments and corporations adopt to prevent or in response to terrorist threats and/or acts, both real and imputed.The tactic of terrorism is available to insurgents and governments...

 analysts prepared a Summary of Evidence memo for the Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Combatant Status Review Tribunal

The Combatant Status Review Tribunals were a set of tribunals for confirming whether detainees held by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp had been correctly designated as "enemy combatants". The CSRTs were established July 7, 2004 by order of U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense...

s of the 558 captives who remained in the 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...

 in the fall of 2004.

The 2005 release

507 of the 558 memos from the CSR Tribunals were released
in response to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests from the Associated Press

Associated Press

The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...

.
The DoD released five files. Four of those files have names suggesting they were released in January, February, March and April 2005. The fifth file's name says it is the final file. The DoD never explained why 51 of the memos were missing.

In this first release the captive's names were redacted from all but one of the memos. Their Internment Serial Numbers were redacted as well. And they contained hundreds of other small redactions. However, all of these memos contained handwritten notes, and
169 of the memos released in March had the captive's ISN handwritten back on the memos.

The memos were not in alphabetic order, they were not ordered on the ISN, or on the date when they were drafted.

The last 169 memos in the file released in March bore the captive's ISN in a hand-written notation.

The 2007 release

572 memos were released in nine pdf files on September 4, 2007.
All 558 memos prepared for the CSR Tribunals held in late 2004 and January 2005, and an additional 14 memos from CSR Tribunals held in February, March and April 2007 were included.
None of the names of ISNs were redacted. The memos were in order by ISN.
The memos have no hand-written marginal notations.

The memos format

The memos were all from the Recorder

Recorder (CSRT)

One of the officers present during the Combatant Status Review Tribunals convened at the Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba, was known as the Recorder....

 assigned to the captive's Tribunal to the Personal Representative

Personal Representative (CSRT)

The Personal Representative is an officer who serves before the Combatant Status Review Tribunals, convened for the captives the United States holds in extrajudicial detention in the Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.-History of the Tribunals:...

 assigned to the captive. Under the rules under which the tribunals were conducted the Recorder was responsible for collating and compiling the allegations against the captive. Under the rules under which the Tribunals were conducted the Personal Representative was supposed to learn the captive's account of himself, and present that story to the Tribunal, if the captive was unwilling or unable to attend.

The memos all contained the same four numbered paragraphs:

Under the provisions of the Department of the Navy Memorandum, dated 29 July 2004, Implementation of Combatant Status Review Tribunal Procedures for Enemy Combatants Detained at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base Cuba, a Tribunal has been appointed to review the detainee's designation as an 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... . An enemy combatant has been defined as "an individual who was part of or supporting the Taliban or al Qaida forces, or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners. This includes any person who committed a belligerent act or has directly supported hostilities in aid of enemy armed forces." The United States Government has previously determined that the detainee is an enemy combatant. This determination is based on information possessed by the United States that indicates that he was associated with Al-Qaida and the Taliban and engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners. The detainee has the opportunity to contest his determination as an enemy combatant. The Tribunal will endeavor to arrange for the presence of any reasonably available witnesses or evidence that the detainee desires to call or introduce to prove that he is not an enemy combatant. The Tribunal President Tribunal President (CSRT) The Combatant Status Review Tribunal the US Department of Defense commissioned, like the Tribunals described in Army Regulation 190-8, which they were modeled after, were three member panels, led by a Tribunal President.-History of the Tribunals:...  will determine the reasonable availability of evidence or witnesses.

A list of the allegations against the captive always followed the third paragraph

The format of the allegations

The allegations were always in the form of one, or two numbered lists.

The allegations in the second list, if present, were supposed to only contain allegations of hostile activity.

The allegations in first list were supposed to established to establish an association with al Qaida, the Taliban, or other organizations with an association with terrorism.

Frequent allegations

Frequent allegations

served on the Taliban's front lines	This allegation was included even if the period when the captive allegedly served on the front lines was long before the attacks of September 11, 2001.
described as an al Qaida or Taliban fighter
attended a training camp Afghan training camp An Afghan training camp is a camp or facility used for militant training located in pre-2002 Afghanistan. At the time of the September 11, 2001 attacks, Indian intelligence officials estimated that there were over 120 training camps operating in Afghanistan and Pakistan, run by a variety of...	One of the most common allegations was that the captive trained at an Afghan training camp Afghan training camp An Afghan training camp is a camp or facility used for militant training located in pre-2002 Afghanistan. At the time of the September 11, 2001 attacks, Indian intelligence officials estimated that there were over 120 training camps operating in Afghanistan and Pakistan, run by a variety of... . Those drafting the memos were inconsistent as to whether this training belonged in the list of allegations establishing an association with terrorism, or whether it belonged in the list of allegations establishing actual hostile activity.
named on a suspicious list	One of the most frequent allegations was that the captive's name, or known alias, was named on some kind of suspicious list.
associated with Jamaat Tablighi	Millions of Muslims have gone on pilgrimages organized by the Tablighi Jamaat Tablighi Jamaat Tablighi Jamaat is a religious movement which was founded in 1926 by Muhammad Ilyas al-Kandhlawi in India. The movement primarily aims at Tablighi spiritual reformation by working at the grass roots level, reaching out to Muslims across all social and economic spectra to bring them closer to...  movement.
owned a Casio F91W Casio F91W -External links:* , Casio website...	Eighteen captives had their continued detention justified, in part, because they owned a Casio Casio is a multinational electronic devices manufacturing company founded in 1946, with its headquarters in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. Casio is best known for its electronic products, such as calculators, audio equipment, PDAs, cameras, musical instruments, and watches...  digital watch.
traveled to Afghanistan to participate in jihad Jihad Jihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God ". A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is... , or in response to a fatwa Fatwa A fatwā in the Islamic faith is a juristic ruling concerning Islamic law issued by an Islamic scholar. In Sunni Islam any fatwā is non-binding, whereas in Shia Islam it could be considered by an individual as binding, depending on his or her relation to the scholar. The person who issues a fatwā...
traveled to Afghanistan prior to the attacks of September 11, 2001
traveled to Afghanistan after the attacks of September 11, 2001
allegedly associated with an organization listed on one of the USA's official lists of organizations designated as terrorist organizations
allegedly associated with an organization not listed on one of the USA's official lists of organizations designated as terrorist organizations