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{{Short description|Saudi former Guantanamo Bay detainee}}
{{Infobox War on Terror detainee
| name = Ghassan
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1974|12|28}}<ref>https://int.nyt.com/data/documenttools/82749-isn-682-ghassan-abdullah-al-sharbi-jtf-gtmo/2619fb700f302510/full.pdf {{Bare URL PDF|date=March 2022}}</ref><ref>https://www.prs.mil/Portals/60/Documents/ISN682/20160114_U_ISN_682_GOVERNMENTS_UNCLASSIFIED_SUMMARY_PUBLIC.pdf {{Bare URL PDF|date=March 2022}}</ref>
| birth_place = [[Jeddah]], [[Saudi Arabia]]
| date_of_arrest = 2002-03
| place_of_arrest= [[Faisalabad]], Pakistan
| arresting_authority= Joint force of Pakistani and American security officials
| citizenship =
| detained_at = [[Guantanamo Bay detention camp|Guantanamo]] | id_number = 682
| charge = War crimes charges against him have been dismissed
| status =
| csrt_summary = {{wikisource-inline|Summary of Evidence for Combatant Status Review Tribunal -- Al Shirbi, Ghassan Abdallah Ghazi|Summary of Evidence}}
}}
'''Ghassan
{{cite web
| url=http://www.dod.mil/news/May2006/d20060515%20List.pdf
| title=List of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from January 2002 through May 15, 2006
| author=
| publisher=[[United States Department of Defense]]
| date=May 15, 2006
|
Captured in [[Faisalabad]], [[Pakistan]] in March 2002, al-Sharbi was transferred to Guantanamo Bay later that year. In 2006, al-Sharbi told a military commission that he was a member of [[al-Qaeda]] and proud of his actions against the United States. Serious war crimes charges were dropped against him in October 2008, as it had been found they were based on evidence gained through [[torture]] of [[Abu Zubaydah]]
==Early life and education==
The [[US Department of Defense]] reports that Ghassan al-Sharbi was born on December 28, 1974, in [[Jeddah]], Saudi Arabia. He was sent to the United States for high school and later graduated from [[Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University]] in [[Prescott, Arizona]] with a degree in electrical engineering.<ref name="mackey" /><ref name="Reuters060427">[http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N27179388.htm "Saudi man admits enemy role at Guantanamo hearing"], ''[[Reuters]]'', April 27, 2006</ref>[[File:48-tentcity.standalone.prod affiliate.56.JPG|thumb|The Bush administration developed a $12 million tent city to hold up to 80 military commissions under a 2006 law.]]
==Afghanistan==
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He was captured in March 2002 by Pakistani forces during a raid at [[Faisalabad]], [[Pakistan]]. He was held in [[Islamabad]] for two months before being turned over the United States forces.
When he was taken to [[Bagram Air Base]] for interrogation in June 2002, he was designated as prisoner #237. According to Chris Mackey, a lead interrogator at the base who wrote a chapter about the Saudi's interrogation in his 2004 memoir, al-Sharbi was designated as prisoner #237 at Bagram. He spoke fluent English and was considered "dismissive and aloof" by the interrogators.<ref name="mackey">Mackey, Chris and Greg Miller, "Prisoner 237," ''The Interrogators: Inside the Secret War Against al Qaeda'', New York: Hachette Digital, 2004</ref> He offered the names, addresses and phone numbers of several American classmates, professors and landlords who he said would vouch for his having done nothing wrong.
Al-Sharbi asked the interrogations chief whether he had read anything by [[T. E. Lawrence]], or ''From Beirut to Jerusalem.'' When the interrogator said that he graduated from [[Fordham University]], al-Sharbi said it was a "third-tier school". The interrogator later remarked that al-Sharbi wanted to assert superiority and had a "seeming preoccupation with death".<ref name="mackey" /> When it was arranged to transfer al-Shirbi to Guantanamo, he calmly told his interrogators that "after a while, the truth would blur for him and that he would just say whatever we wanted to hear just to have the solitude that would come from the end of our questioning".<ref name="mackey" />
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In 2002, al-Sharbi was transferred to the United States [[Guantanamo Bay detention camp]] in Cuba.
In his testimony before his [[Combatant Status Review Tribunal]], held sometime during late
On November 7, 2005, the [[United States]] charged al-Sharbi and four other detainees with war crimes. They were expected to face a trial before a military commission. Al-Sharbi, [[Jabran Said bin al Qahtani]], [[Binyam Ahmed Muhammad]], and Sufyian Barhoumi faced conspiracy to murder charges for being part of an al-Qaeda bomb-making cell.<ref name="morgan"/> [[Omar Khadr]], 18 years old, faced both murder and conspiracy to murder charges.
Al-Sharbi initially wanted to decline legal representation; a ''pro bono'' attorney was arranged by the [[Center for Constitutional Rights]] and other organizations when the US had not provided any counsel to the detainees.<ref name=BurlFP>[http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060410/NEWS01/604100316/1009/NEWSWEEK Vermont lawyers represent Guantanamo detainees]{{Dead link|date=December 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, ''[[Burlington Free Press]]'', April 13, 2006 {{dead link|date=February 2011}}</ref> In 2006, his ''pro bono'' attorney, [[Bob Rachlin]], was trying to arrange for al-Sharbi to talk by phone with his parents, hoping they would persuade him to accept Rachlin's legal assistance, which his father had initiated.<ref name=BurlFP/>
On April 27, 2006, al Sharbi acknowledged membership in [[al Qaeda]] before a [[military justice|military commission]]. He was alleged to have been part of a bomb-making cell. According to [[David Morgan (journalist)|David Morgan]], a [[Reuters]] reporter, his comments included the following:<ref name="morgan"/>
* "I came here to tell you I did what I did and I'm willing to pay the price."
* "Even if I spend hundreds of years in jail, that would be a matter of honor to me."
* "I fought the United States, I'm going to make it short and easy for you guys: I'm proud of what I did." The hearing was covered by a limited number of reporters. Al-Sharbi said he wanted to represent himself; he "rejected his appointed military lawyer, Navy Lt. [[William C. Kuebler|William Kuebler]], and said he wanted neither a military replacement nor a civilian defender."<ref name="morgan"/>
In ''[[Hamdan v. Rumsfeld]]'' (2006), the [[United States Supreme Court]] held that the executive branch did not have the authority to set up a separate system of military trials outside the civil and military justice systems, and that the [[Combatant Status Review Tribunal]]s (CSRT) and military commissions were unconstitutional. That year, Congress passed the [[Military Commissions Act of 2006]], authorizing a separate system for prosecuting enemy combatants and responding to Court-identified issues. The act restricted the detainees from using ''[[habeas corpus]]'' and federal courts; all pending cases were stayed.
On May 29, 2008, Ghassan Abdullah Ghazi al-Sharbi, [[Sufyian Barhoumi]] and [[Jabran al-
{{cite news
|url=http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2008/05/pentagon-files-new-charges-against-3.php
|title=Pentagon files new charges against 3 Guantanamo detainees
|publisher=[[The Jurist]]
|author=
|author-link=Andrew Gilmore
|date=May 30, 2008
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▲ |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090508075052/http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2008/05/pentagon-files-new-charges-against-3.php
▲ |archivedate=2009-05-08
}}</ref><ref name=BarhoumiChargeSheet2008>
{{cite news
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| publisher=[[United States Department of Defense]]
| date=May 29, 2008
|
}}</ref>▼
On
<ref name=Reuters2008-10-21a>
{{cite news
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|title = U.S. drops charges against 5 Guantanamo captives
|publisher = Reuters
|author =
|author-link = Jane Sutton
|date = 2008-10-21
|
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|archive-date = 2009-02-17
▲ |archiveurl = https://www.webcitation.org/5bk7mfL46?url=http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE49K65120081021?sp=true
|archivedate = 2008-10-21▼
}}
</ref><ref name=LosAngelesTimes2008-10-21>
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|url = http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gitmo22-2008oct22,0,6309987.story
|title = War crimes charges dropped against 5 in Guantanamo
|
|author =
|author-link = Carol J. Williams
|date = 2008-10-21
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▲ |archiveurl = https://www.webcitation.org/5bk9vP6lp?url=http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gitmo22-2008oct22,0,6309987.story
}}
</ref> [[Carol J. Williams]], writing in the ''[[Los Angeles Times]],'' reported that all five men had been connected to [[Abu Zubaydah]] by his testimony. The [[CIA]] has acknowledged that Zubaydah is one of three [[high-value detainee]]s who were interrogated at length under the technique known as "[[waterboarding]]", generally considered a form of [[torture]], before the CIA transferred them to military custody in September 2006 at Guantanamo Bay. Evidence which Zubaydah gave under such coercive interrogation could not be used in court against other suspects.<ref name=LosAngelesTimes2008-10-21/>
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==Sleep deprivation==
On August 7, 2008, the ''[[Washington Post]]'' reported that the Guantanamo guards defied orders to discontinue the illegal practice of arbitrarily moving captives multiples times a day to deprive them of sleep, after it was banned in March 2004.<ref name=WashingtonPost20080807>
{{cite news
|url = https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/07/AR2008080703004_pf.html
|title = Tactic Used After It Was Banned: Detainees at Guantanamo Were Moved Often, Documents Say
|
|author = Josh White
|date = 2008-08-07
|
|quote = Defense Department investigations of abuse had previously revealed that the program was used in a limited manner and only on high-value detainees, but the documents indicate that the program was far more widespread and that the technique was still used months after it was banned at the facility in March 2004. Detainees were moved dozens of times in just days and sometimes more than a hundred times over a two-week period.
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</ref> The report stated al-Sharbi was subjected to the [[Frequent flyer program (Guantanamo)|"frequent flyer"]] program from November 2003 to February 2004. It also said that such sleep deprivation was applied widely against numerous detainees, and guards had continued to use it for months after it was banned.<ref name=WashingtonPost20080807/>
[[Robert Rachlin]], one of his lawyers, stated:<blockquote>"We have to assume that the frequent flyer program, what its details were, was not designed to strengthen the comfort and resolve of the prisoner. Sleep deprivation is coercive. Of course it troubles me."
The [[United States Supreme Court]] decision in ''[[Boumediene v. Bush]]'' (2008) overturned the Military Commissions Act of 2006, reaffirming detainee rights to use the ''[[habeas corpus]]'' process and to petition directly in the US courts. Many habeas corpus cases were reinstated, including that for
▲"We have to assume that the frequent flyer program, what its details were, was not designed to strengthen the comfort and resolve of the prisoner. Sleep deprivation is coercive. Of course it troubles me."}}<ref name=WashingtonPost20080807/>
▲The [[United States Supreme Court]] decision in ''[[Boumediene v. Bush]]'' (2008) overturned the Military Commissions Act of 2006, reaffirming detainee rights to use the ''[[habeas corpus]]'' process and to petition directly in the US courts. Many habeas corpus cases were reinstated, including that for Al Sharbi, which his father had initiated on his behalf.
==Dropped habeas petition==
On March 10, 2009, [[US District Court Judge]] [[Emmet G. Sullivan]] dismissed a [[habeas corpus]] petition filed on Al Sharbi's behalf.<ref name=WashingtonPost2009-03-10>
{{cite news
| url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/10/AR2009031001380.html?hpid=moreheadlines
| title=Judge Dismisses Lawsuit of Guantanamo Detainee
|
| author=Del Quentin Wilber, Peter Finn
| date=2009-03-10
|
}}
</ref> Sullivan dismissed the petition at Al Sharbi's request. The petition had been initiated by his father, who had worked with the Center for Constitutional Rights to gain legal assistance in the United States prior to the appointment of military defense counsels. Al Sharbi's lawyer [[Robert Rachlin]] confirmed that Al Sharbi had consistently declined all legal assistance. He said the detainee had often expressed disdain for the United States process and was "an aspiring martyr".<ref name=WashingtonPost2009-03-10/>
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==Joint Review Task Force==
When he assumed office in January 2009, [[United States President|President]] [[Barack Obama]] made a number of promises about the future of Guantanamo.<ref name=finn1>
{{cite news
|title = Justice task force recommends about 50 Guantanamo detainees be held indefinitely
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|newspaper = Washington Post
|date = January 22, 2010
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</ref><ref name=finn2>
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|newspaper = Washington Post
|date = May 29, 2010
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</ref><ref name=AndyWorthington2010-06-11>{{cite web
| author = Andy Worthington
| url = http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2010/06/11/does-obama-really-know-or-care-about-who-is-at-guantanamo/
| title = Does Obama Really Know or Care About Who Is at Guantánamo?
| date = June 11, 2010
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}}</ref>
▲</ref>
He promised the use of torture would cease at the camp. He promised to institute a new review system. That new review system was composed of officials from six departments, where the OARDEC reviews were conducted entirely by the Department of Defense. When it reported back, a year later, the [[Joint Review Task Force]] classified some individuals as too dangerous to be transferred from Guantanamo, even though there was no evidence to justify laying charges against them. On April 9, 2013, that document was made public after a [[Freedom of Information Act (United States)|Freedom of Information Act]] request.<ref name=Unchargeable71>
{{cite news
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| title = 71 Guantanamo Detainees Determined Eligible to Receive a Periodic Review Board as of April 19, 2013
| publisher = [[Joint Review Task Force]]
▲| author =
| date = 2013-04-09
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▲| archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20150519230955/https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1020057-guantanamo-parole-list.html
▲| archivedate = 2015-05-19
▲| accessdate = 2015-05-18
▲| deadurl = No
}}
</ref>
Although Obama promised that those deemed too innocent to charge, but too dangerous to release would start to receive reviews from a [[Periodic Review Board]], less than a quarter of men have received a review. Al-Sharbi was approved for transfer on February 4, 2022.<ref>https://www.prs.mil/Portals/60/Documents/ISN682/SubsequentHearing2/220204_UPR_ISN682_SH2_FINAL_DETERMINATION.pdf {{Bare URL PDF|date=March 2022}}</ref>
==Release==
Al-Sharbi was transferred to Saudi Arabia on March 8, 2023.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Rosenberg |first=Carol |date=2023-03-08 |title=U.S. Military Repatriates Saudi Engineer Who From Guantánamo Bay |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/08/us/politics/saudi-guantanamo-bay-al-sharbi-transfer.html |access-date=2023-03-31 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>
== See also ==
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==References==
{{
== External links ==
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[[Category:1974 births]]
[[Category:Saudi Arabian extrajudicial prisoners of the United States]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Saudi Arabian al-Qaeda members]]
[[Category:People from Jeddah]]
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