Turki Mash Awi Zayid Al Asiri

Turki Mash Awi Zayid Al Asiri (March 8, 1975 – November 7, 2014) was a citizen of Saudi Arabia who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States's Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.[1] His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 185. Joint Task Force Guantanamo counter-terrorism analysts reports that Al Asiri was born on March 8, 1975, in Yaboq, Saudi Arabia.

Turki Mash Awi Zayid Al Asiri
Born(1975-03-08)March 8, 1975
Yaboq, Saudi Arabia
DiedNovember 7, 2014(2014-11-07) (aged 39)
Tuban District, Yemen
Detained at Guantanamo
Other name(s) Turki Mish'awi Za'id Alj-Amri
ISN185
Charge(s)No charge (held in extrajudicial detention)
StatusNamed on the Saudi Arabian most wanted list, after his release.

He was named on Saudi Arabian most wanted list on February 3, 2009.[2] Asiri was the Emir of Al-Qaeda for Lahij Governorate.[3] He was killed in Yemen by security forces on November 7, 2014.[4]

Combatant Status Review
Main article: Combatant Status Review Tribunal

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for his tribunal. The memo listed the following allegations against him:[5][6]

a. The detainee is associated with al Qaida or Taliban forces:
  1. The detainee is a Saudi Arabian citizen[7] who volunteered to travel to Afghanistan via a flight from the United Arab Emirates to Karachi, Pakistan; to Hyderabad, Pakistan; to Safa, Pakistan; to Baker, Pakistan, and finally to a guesthouse in Kandahar, Afghanistan prior to 11 September 2001.
  2. The detainee trained at the al Farouq camp for about one month.
  3. The detainee received physical exercise and weapons training while at the al Farouq camp.
  4. The detainee was in Jalalabad, Afghanistan on 11 September 2001 when the attacks occurred in the United States.
  5. The detainee stated that due to the bombing by the United States, he and others retreated from Jalalabad, Afghanistan to the mountains, approximately three weeks after the 11 September 2001 attacks.
  6. The detainee stated he traveled throughout Pakistan and Afghanistan for approximately six or seven months prior to his capture by Pakistani forces in December 2001.
  7. An alias that may be associated with this detainee was listed on a document recovered during raids against al Qaida associates.

Administrative Review Board hearing
Hearing room where Guantanamo captive's annual Administrative Review Board hearings convened for captives whose Combatant Status Review Tribunal had already determined they were an "enemy combatant"[8]

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 were not authorized to review whether a detainee qualified for POW status, and they were not 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

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Turki Mash Awi Zayid Al Asiri's first annual Administrative Review Board, on 9 September 2005.[9] The memo listed factors for and against his continued detention. The four page memo listed twenty-six "primary factors favor[ing] continued detention" and two "primary factors favor[ing] release or transfer".

The allegations he faced included:

  • He was alleged to have sold his car to raise funds to travel to Afghanistan after hearing a fatwa from Sheikh Hamoud Alaugla.
  • He was alleged to have been employed by the Al Rajhi Foundation to pass out Korans and work at an orphanage.
  • He was alleged to have traveled to Afghanistan for jihadist training with Abu Bakr Al Jazairi.
  • He was alleged to have traveled with three Tablighi Jamaat pilgrims he met in Pakistan.
  • He was alleged to have been captured with an address book that contained names and phone numbers in Arabic.
  • A satellite phone captured on October 7, 2001 had phoned one of the numbers also found in Turki's address book.
  • A booklet found in a crate of ammunition contained phone numbers, including one also found in Turki's address book.
  • A phone number found in his address book, may have been one of Amanullah Zadran, the younger brother of Pacha Khan Zadran, a local militia leader who did not always comply with direction from Hamid Karzai's government.[10]
  • His name was alleged to have been found on "a document listing 324 Arabic names, aliases, and nationalities". This list was during a safe house raid in Karachi. His entry on this list was alleged to have contained his name, alias, passport, and ATM card.

Second annual Administrative Review Board

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Turki Mish'awi Za'id Alj-Amri's second annual Administrative Review Board, on 9 May 2006.[11] The memo listed factors for and against his continued detention.

Repatriation

On November 25, 2008, the Department of Defense published a list of when captives left Guantanamo.[12] According to that list he was repatriated to Saudi custody on November 9, 2007, with thirteen other men. The records published from the captives' annual Administrative Reviews show his repatriation was not the outcome of the formal internal review procedures.[13][14][15] The records show his detention was not reviewed in 2007.

At least ten other men in his release group were not repatriated through the formal review procedure.[13][14][15]

Peter Taylor writing for the BBC News called the Saudis repatriated on November 9, 2007, with Al Assiri, "batch 10".[16] He wrote that the BBC's research had found this batch to be a problematic cohort, and that four other men from this batch were named on the Saudi most wanted list.

Named on a Saudi "most wanted" list

On February 3, 2009, the Saudi government published a list of 85 "most wanted" suspected terrorists, that included an individual identified as "Turki Mashawi Al Aseery".[2] This list contained ten other former Guantanamo captives. Half of the eleven former captives listed on most wanted list were also from among the eleven men repatriated on November 9, 2007—in spite of their annual reviews recommending continued detention.

References
  1. "List of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from January 2002 through May 15, 2006" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. Retrieved May 15, 2006.
  2. Mansour Al-Shihri, Khaled A-Shalahi (February 7, 2009). "Names keep climbing on infamous terror list". Saudi Gazette. Archived from the original on February 10, 2009. Retrieved February 7, 2009.
  3. "Top Al-Qaeda leader killed by Yemen forces: Report". The Daily Star. Archived from the original on February 8, 2017. Retrieved February 7, 2017.
  4. "AQAP eulogizes emir of Lahj province killed in Aden, Yemen | FDD's Long War Journal". November 10, 2014.
  5. OARDEC (October 5, 2004). "Summary of Evidence for Combatant Status Review Tribunal -- name redacted" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. pp. 203–204. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 31, 2006. Retrieved December 7, 2007.
  6. OARDEC (October 5, 2004). "Summary of Evidence for Combatant Status Review Tribunal -- Turki Mash Awi Zayid Al Asiri" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. pp. 92–93. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 7, 2008. Retrieved December 7, 2007.
  7. The phrase "a Saudi Arabian citizen" was redacted from the version released in March 2005.
  8. Spc Timothy Book (March 10, 2006). "Review process unprecedented" (PDF). JTF-GTMO Public Affairs Office. p. 1. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 25, 2007. Retrieved October 10, 2007.
  9. OARDEC (September 9, 2005). "Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the case of Turki Mash Awi Zayid Al Asiri" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. pp. 16–19. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 16, 2008. Retrieved December 7, 2007.
  10. Pacha Khan Zadran was elected to Afghanistan's National Assembly in 2004. Hamid Karzai appointed Amanullah Zadran his Minister of the Interior in 2002.
  11. OARDEC (May 9, 2006). "Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the case of Alj-Amri, Turki Mish'awi Za'id" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. pp. 68–72. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 7, 2008. Retrieved December 7, 2007.
  12. OARDEC (October 9, 2008). "Consolidated chronological listing of GTMO detainees released, transferred or deceased" (PDF). Department of Defense. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 20, 2008. Retrieved December 28, 2008.
  13. OARDEC (July 17, 2007). "Index to Transfer and Release Decision for Guantanamo Detainees" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 3, 2007. Retrieved September 29, 2007.
  14. OARDEC (August 10, 2007). "Index of Transfer and Release Decision for Guantanamo Detainees from ARB Round Two" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 27, 2008. Retrieved September 29, 2007.
  15. "Index to Summaries of Detention-Release Factors for Administrative Review Boards (Round 3) Held at Guantanamo" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. January 9, 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 25, 2009. Retrieved January 22, 2009.
  16. Peter Taylor (January 13, 2010). "Yemen al-Qaeda link to Guantanamo Bay prison". BBC News. Archived from the original on January 16, 2010.
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