Ghassan Abdallah Ghazi al-Sharbi is a

Saudi Saudi may refer to: * Saudi Arabia * Saudis, people from Saudi Arabia * Saudi culture, the culture of Saudi Arabia * House of Saud The House of Saud ( ar, آل سُعُود, ʾĀl Suʿūd ) is the ruling royal family of Saudi Arabia. It is c ...

currently held in

extrajudicial detention Administrative detention is arrest and detention of individuals by the state without trial. A number of jurisdictions claim that it is done for security reasons. Many countries claim to use administrative detention as a means to combat terrorism ...

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 territorie ...

Guantanamo Bay detention camp The Guantanamo Bay detention camp ( es, Centro de detención de la bahía de Guantánamo) is a United States military prison located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, also referred to as Guantánamo, GTMO, and Gitmo (), on the coast of Guant ...

s, 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 D ...

is 682. He graduated from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona with a degree in electrical engineering. The

US Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national secu ...

reports that he was born on December 28, 1974, in

Jeddah Jeddah ( ), also spelled Jedda, Jiddah or Jidda ( ; ar, , Jidda, ), is a city in the Hejaz region of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and the country's commercial center. Established in the 6th century BC as a fishing village, Jeddah's pro ...

, Saudi Arabia. Captured in Faisalabad,

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

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 Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremism, Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arab, Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military ta ...

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 Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts c ...

of Abu Zubaydah. Al-Sharbi had a

habeas corpus ''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...

petition which his father had initiated on his behalf; when it reached the court in March 2009, al-Sharbi requested that it be dismissed. He did not want to pursue it. As of June 17, 2018, Ghassan Abdallah Ghazi al-Sharbi has been held at Guantanamo for sixteen years.

Early life and education

Ghassan al-Sharbi was born in 1974 in

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

. He was sent to the United States for high school and he went on to study

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Arizona."Saudi man admits enemy role at Guantanamo hearing"
''

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was estab ...

'', April 27, 2006

Afghanistan

Al-Sharbi left the United States for Afghanistan in 2000,} David Morgan, "Saudi Man Admits Enemy Role at Guantanamo Hearing"
, ''Reuters'', 28 April 2006, hosted at Cageprisoners, accessed 12 February 2013 leaving his wife and daughter behind. He was captured in March 2002 by Pakistani forces during a raid at Faisalabad,

. He was held in

Islamabad Islamabad (; ur, , ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's ninth-most populous city, with a population of over 1.2 million people, and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital T ...

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.Mackey, Chris and Greg Miller, "Prisoner 237," ''The Interrogators: Inside the Secret War Against al Qaeda'', New York: Hachette Digital, 2004 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. But, he also said that he was glad to see the

Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state (polity), state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalist, m ...

ruling Afghanistan, quoting statistics that showed a dramatic decrease in crime rates and an increase in new schools built under their government. Al-Sharbi asked the interrogations chief whether he had read anything by

T. E. Lawrence Thomas Edward Lawrence (16 August 1888 – 19 May 1935) was a British archaeologist, army officer, diplomat, and writer who became renowned for his role in the Arab Revolt (1916–1918) and the Sinai and Palestine Campaign (1915–1918 ...

, or ''From Beirut to Jerusalem.'' When the interrogator said that he graduated from

Fordham University Fordham University () is a Private university, private Jesuit universities, Jesuit research university in New York City. Established in 1841 and named after the Fordham, Bronx, Fordham neighborhood of the The Bronx, Bronx in which its origina ...

, 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". 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".

Transfer to Guantanamo Bay

In 2002, al-Sharbi was transferred to the United States

in Cuba. In his testimony before his

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 esta ...

, held sometime during late 2004–2005, al-Sharbi accepted the classification as " enemy combatant," as well as all 15 allegations against him. When he was dismissed from the room, he chanted, "May God help me fight the infidels or the unfaithful ones." On November 7, 2005, the

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 Jabran Said Bin Wazir al-Qahtani is a Saudi who was held in extrajudicial detention for almost fifteen years in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. Joint Task Force Guantanamo analysts estimate he was born in 1977, in Tab ...

Binyam Ahmed Muhammad Binyam Ahmed Mohamed (, , born 24 July 1978), also referred to as Benjamin Mohammed, Benyam Mohammed or Benyam Mohammed al-Habashi, is an Ethiopian national and United Kingdom resident, who was detained as a suspected enemy combatant by the US Go ...

, and Sufyian Barhoumi faced conspiracy to murder charges for being part of an al-Qaeda bomb-making cell. 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 The Center for Constitutional RightsThe Center for Constitutional Rights
(CCR) is a Vermont lawyers represent Guantanamo detainees
'' Burlington Free Press'', April 13, 2006 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. On April 27, 2006, al Sharbi acknowledged membership in

al Qaeda Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military targets in various countr ...

before a

military commission Military justice (also military law) is the legal system (bodies of law and procedure) that governs the conduct of the active-duty personnel of the armed forces of a country. In some nation-states, civil law and military law are distinct bodie ...

. He was alleged to have been part of a bomb-making cell. According to David Morgan, a

reporter, his comments included the following: * "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 Kuebler, and said he wanted neither a military replacement nor a civilian defender." In '' Hamdan v. Rumsfeld'' (2006), the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

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

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 ''

'' and federal courts; all pending cases were stayed. On May 29, 2008, Ghassan Abdullah Ghazi al-Sharbi, Sufyian Barhoumi and Jabran al-Qahtani were charged separately before military commissions authorized under the 2006 act. On October 21, 2008,

Susan J. Crawford Susan Jean Crawford (born April 22, 1947) is an American lawyer, who was appointed the Convening Authority for the Guantanamo military commissions, on February 7, 2007. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates appointed Crawford to replace John D. Al ...

, the official in charge of the

Office of Military Commissions ThGuantanamo military commissionswere established by President George W. Bush – through a Military Order – on November 13, 2001, to try certain non-citizen terrorism suspects at the Guantanamo Bay prison. To date, there have been a total of e ...

, announced that charges were dropped against al-Sharbi and four other detainees: Jabran al Qahtani, Sufyian Barhoumi, Binyam Mohamed, and Noor Uthman Muhammed. Carol J. Williams, writing in the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

,'' reported that all five men had been connected to Abu Zubaydah by his testimony. The

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

has acknowledged that Zubaydah is one of three

high-value detainee Extrajudicial prisoners of the United States, in the context of the early twenty-first century War on Terrorism, refers to foreign nationals the United States detains outside of the legal process required within United States legal jurisdiction. ...

s who were interrogated at length under the technique known as "

waterboarding Waterboarding is a form of torture in which water torture, water is poured over a cloth covering the face and breathing passages of an immobilized captive, causing the person to experience the sensation of drowning. In the most common method ...

", generally considered a form of

, 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. The men's attorneys expected that the five men would be re-charged within thirty days. They told Williams that: "... prosecutors called the move procedural," and attributed it to the resignation of fellow Prosecutor Darrel Vandeveld. He publicly announced his resignation on ethical grounds. Williams reported comments by

Clive Stafford Smith Clive Adrian Stafford Smith (born 9 July 1959) is a British attorney who specialises in the areas of civil rights and working against the death penalty in the United States of America. He worked to overturn death sentences for convicts, and h ...

, legal director of Reprieve, who represents several Guantanamo detainees. He speculated that the Prosecution's dropping of the charges, and plans to subsequently re-file charges was intended to counter and disarm the testimony Vandeveld was expected to offer, that the Prosecution had withheld

exculpatory evidence Exculpatory evidence is evidence favorable to the defendant in a criminal trial that exonerates or tends to exonerate the defendant of guilt. It is the opposite of inculpatory evidence, which tends to present guilt. In many countries, including ...

in relation to each of the men.

Sleep deprivation

On August 7, 2008, the ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' 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. The report stated al-Sharbi was subjected to the "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. Robert Rachlin, one of his lawyers, stated: The

decision in ''

Boumediene v. Bush ''Boumediene v. Bush'', 553 U.S. 723 (2008), was a writ of ''habeas corpus'' submission made in a civilian court of the United States on behalf of Lakhdar Boumediene, a naturalized citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina, held in military detention by ...

'' (2008) overturned the Military Commissions Act of 2006, reaffirming detainee rights to use the ''

'' 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 The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district, which each cover one U.S. state or, in some cases, a portion of a state. Each district cou ...

Emmet Sullivan Emmet Sullivan, (May 27, 1887 – November 3, 1970) was an American sculptor. He was born in Powder River (Wyoming and Montana), Powder River, Montana, and claimed to have worked on Mount Rushmore. He created the five dinosaurs in Dinosaur Pa ...

dismissed a

petition filed on Al Sharbi's behalf. 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".

Joint Review Task Force

When he assumed office in January 2009,

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

made a number of promises about the future of Guantanamo. 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 Freedom of Information Act may refer to the following legislations in different jurisdictions which mandate the national government to disclose certain data to the general public upon request: * Freedom of Information Act 1982, the Australian act * ...

request. Abdullah al-Sharbi was one of the 71 individuals deemed too innocent to charge, but too dangerous to release. 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.https://www.prs.mil/Portals/60/Documents/ISN682/SubsequentHearing2/220204_UPR_ISN682_SH2_FINAL_DETERMINATION.pdf

References

External links

Commissions Transcripts, Exhibits, and Allied Papers

Who Are the Remaining Prisoners in Guantánamo? Part Six: Captured in Pakistan (2 of 3)
Andy Worthington, October 6, 2010 {{DEFAULTSORT:Sharbi, Ghassan Abdullah Al- Living people 1974 births Saudi Arabian extrajudicial prisoners of the United States Detainees of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp Saudi Arabian al-Qaeda members People from Jeddah Embry–Riddle Aeronautical University alumni Saudi Arabian expatriates in Pakistan