Faris Muslim al Ansari is a citizen of

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

who was seventeen years old when captured and held in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

's Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

. His Guantanamo

Internment Serial Number An Internment Serial Number (ISN) is an identification number assigned to captives who come under control of the United States Department of Defense (DoD) during armed conflicts. History On March 3, 2006, in compliance with a court order from ...

was 253. American

intelligence analysts Intelligence analysis is the application of individual and collective cognitive methods to weigh data and test hypotheses within a secret socio-cultural context. The descriptions are drawn from what may only be available in the form of deliberate ...

estimate that Al Ansari was born in 1984 in Mukala, Yemen.

Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Initially the Bush administration asserted that they could withhold all the protections of the

Geneva Conventions upright=1.15, Original document in single pages, 1864 The Geneva Conventions are four treaties, and three additional protocols, that establish international legal standards for humanitarian treatment in war. The singular term ''Geneva Conve ...

to captives from

the war on terror The war on terror, officially the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), is an ongoing international counterterrorism military campaign initiated by the United States following the September 11 attacks. The main targets of the campaign are militant ...

. This policy was challenged before the Judicial branch. Critics argued that the USA could not evade its obligation to conduct

competent tribunal Competent Tribunal is a term used in Article 5 paragraph 2 of the Third Geneva Convention, which states: ICRC commentary on competent tribunals The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) commentary on Article 5 of the Third Geneva Con ...

s to determine whether captives are, or are not, entitled to the protections of

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of w ...

status. Subsequently the

Department of Defense Department of Defence or Department of Defense may refer to: Current departments of defence * Department of Defence (Australia) * Department of National Defence (Canada) * Department of Defence (Ireland) * Department of National Defense (Philipp ...

instituted the

Combatant Status Review Tribunal The Combatant Status Review Tribunals (CSRT) 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 estab ...

s. The Tribunals, however, were not authorized to determine whether the captives were ''lawful combatants''—rather they were merely empowered to make a recommendation as to whether the captive had previously been correctly determined to match the Bush administration's definition of an

enemy combatant Enemy combatant is a person who, either lawfully or unlawfully, engages in hostilities for the other side in an armed conflict. Usually enemy combatants are members of the armed forces of the state with which another state is at war. In the case ...

. Al Ansari chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.Summarized transcripts (.pdf)
, from Faris Muslim Al Ansari's ''

'' - pages 128-133

allegations

The allegations Al Ansari faced during his Tribunal were:

Administrative Review Board hearing

Detainees who were determined to have been properly classified as "enemy combatants" were scheduled to have their dossier reviewed at annual

Administrative Review Board The Administrative Review Board is a United States military body that conducts an annual review of the detainees held by the United States in Camp Delta in the United States Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The purpose of the Board is to re ...

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. The transcript from Al Ansari's Administrative Review Board hearing show he initially planned to participate in his hearing.Summarized transcript (.pdf)
, from Faris Muslim Al Ansari's ''

hearing'' - page 253 However, he changed his mind when he asked his Assisting Military Officer, who would be attending the hearing. His Assisting Military Officer said he didn't tell him how many officers would be attending, but he confirmed for him that there wouldn't be any lawyers present. The transcript records the Presiding Officer asking the Designated Military Officer about two individuals, named in the factors favoring Al Ansari's continued detention, who were both associated with guest houses in Kandahar, had similarly spelled names. One was named "Abu Kaloud" and the other was named "Abu Kalood Al Yemeni". The Designated Military Officer said he ''thought'' they were the same individual, but he would have to double-check. Al Ansari had tried to call for the testimony of an individual named Abu Jahad Al-Yemani during his Tribunal.

Medical records

On March 16, 2007 the

published height and weight records for all but ten of the captives held in Guantanamo. Faris Muslim Al Ansari is one of ten men whose height and weight records were withheld. The Department of Defense has not offered an explanation for why no records for those ten men were published.

Repatriation

The Department of Defense published the dates captives departed from Guantanamo on 26 November 2008. According to that list Faris al-Ansari was repatriated on December 28, 2007. On January 9, 2009 the Department of Defense published the records for the third set of Administrative Review Board hearings, conducted in 2007 and early 2008. According to those records no review was scheduled for Al-Ansari in 2007. According to the records of the 2005 and 2006 Board hearings, those boards had not recommended his repatriation. Like the nine other men Al-Ansari was repatriated in spite of the

Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants The Office for the Administrative Review of the Detention of Enemy Combatants, established in 2004 by the Bush administration's Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, is a United States military body responsible for organising Combatant St ...

recommending his continued detention in US custody.

References

External links

The Pentagon Can’t Count: 22 Juveniles Held at Guantánamo
Andy Worthington {{DEFAULTSORT:Ansari, Faris Muslim Living people Guantanamo detainees known to have been released Afghan extrajudicial prisoners of the United States Juveniles held at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp 1984 births