Mubarak Hussain Bin Abul Hashem

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Mubarak Hussain Bin Abul Hashem is a citizen of Bangladesh who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 151. Joint Task Force Guantanamo counter-terrorism analysts estimate he was born in 1976, in Baria, Bangladesh.

He was transferred to Guantananmo on January 17, 2002. He was repatriated to Bangladeshi custody on December 15, 2006.

Study in Pakistan

Hashem's father, the Imam of the Graphics Art College Mosque in Mohammadpur in Dhaka, sent his son to Pakistan for further religious training in 1998, after he graduated from the Jamiya Rahmaniya Arabia Madrassah at Lalmatia in Dhaka. After two years of study at the Anwar-ul-Ulum Madrassah in Karachi, Abul Hashem's father said his son got a job teaching at the college where he had been studying, once he got his Mufti degree.

Capture

Hashem's father reports that his son was teaching at a madrassa in Karachi when he disappeared in 2001. The Miami Herald reports that Abul Hashem's family didn't know what had happened to him until 2004, when the Red Crescent informed him he was in Guantanamo. The Daily India reports his family learned he was in Guantanamo in 2002.

The Daily Star reports Abul Hashem was captured when he emerged from a Pakistani mosque and asked for directions to Karachi. According to the Daily India:

"A Pakistani intelligence officer captured him when he was again trying to enter Pakistan from the Afghan city of Jalalabad in 2001,"

Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Initially the Bush administration asserted that they could withhold all the protections of the Geneva Conventions to captives from the war on terror. This policy was challenged before the Judicial branch. Critics argued that the USA could not evade its obligation to conduct a competent tribunals to determine whether captives are, or are not, entitled to the protections of prisoner of war status.

Subsequently the Department of Defense instituted the Combatant Status Review Tribunals. 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.

Summary of Evidence memo

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Mubarak Hussain Bin Abul Hashem's Combatant Status Review Tribunal, on 1 December 2004. The memo listed the following allegations against him:

a. The detainee is associated with al Qaida and the Taliban:

1. The detainee traveled from Karachi, Pakistan to Kabul, Afghanistan via Quetta, Pakistan; Spin Buldak, Afghanistan; and Kandahar, Afghanistan on or about December 2001.
2. The detainee was arrested in Peshawar, Pakistan by Pakistani authorities for not having any identification.
3. The detainee provided a false identity to Pakistani authorities.

Administrative Review Board

Detainees whose Combatant Status Review Tribunal labeled them "enemy combatants" were scheduled for annual Administrative Review Board hearings. These hearings were designed to assess the threat a detainee may pose if released or transferred, and whether there are other factors that warrant his continued detention.

Summary of Evidence memo

A two page Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Mubarak Hussain Bin Abul Hashem's Administrative Review Board, on 23 June 2005. He faced 8 "primary factors favoring continued detention" and 3 "primary factors favoring transfer or release".

The following primary factors favor continued detention

a. Commitment

1. The detainee traveled from Karachi, Pakistan to Kabul, Afghanistan via Quetta, Pakistan; Spin Buldak, Afghanistan; and Kandahar, Afghanistan on or about December 2001.
2. The detainee visited Afghanistan with knowledge that the U.S. was conducting a war in that country.
3. The detainee provided a false identity to Pakistani authorities.
4. The detainee maintained his mistaken identity (Al Rauf) from approximately November 2001 until mid-December 2002 when he was visited by a representative from Bangladesh.

b. Connections/Associations

1. A senior al Qaida Lieutenant stated that the detainee looked familiar to him, but he was unable to recall his name, nationality, or other identifying information.

c. Other Relevant Data

1. The detainee was employed as an Imam at the Masjid-e-Madani Mosque in Karachi, Pakistan.
2. The detainee claims to have traveled to Kabul, Afghanistan to visit the Sahaba Karan, also known as the Mazar-e-Sharif Monument.
3. When the detainee was arrested in Peshawar, Pakistan by Pakistani authorities, he did not have any identification on him.

The following primary factors favor release or transfer

a. The detainee has no plans after possible release, but has considered returning to Bangladesh to seek the counsel of his parents to determine a future course.

b. When asked if he felt a duty to perform Jihad, the detainee replied that there are many other forms of Jihad besides violence, and that Jihad can mean internal struggle.

c. The detainee did not support the Taliban and to his knowledge never met any Taliban or al Qaida members during his travel to Kabul. He does not support the views of al Qaida.

Board recommendations

In early September 2007 the Department of Defense released two heavily redacted memos, from his Board, to Gordon England, the Designated Civilian Official.

His Board convened on 21 July 2005. His Board's recommendation was unanimous. His Board determined that he "continues to be a threat to the United States and its allies."

His Board relied on assessments from the FBI, from the CIA, and from an agency identified by the acronym DASD-DA.

His Designated Military Officer informed his Board:

During the classified portion of the hearing, the DMO informed the Board that he had received information concerning a renewed interest in this detainee from a Department of Defense investigative agency. Additionally, the ARB Presiding Officer requested that the list of captured mujahedin fighters turned over to U.S. forces from Pakistan be added to the Classified exhibits as DMO-20.

One of the unredacted paragraphs in the middle of the six pages of redacted explanation of the Board's reasoning stated:

(U) CITF was unable to complete a threat assessment on the detainee due to on going investigations. Agency checks remain outstanding; however, in the absence of further information, the CITF recommends the continued detention of the detainee in the custody of the Department of Defense pending further investigation.

Repatriation

The Miami Herald reported on December 17, 2006 that Hashem was repatriated to Bangla Deshi custody.

Bangladeshi detention

Qatari newspaper The Peninsula quotes an unnamed Bangladeshi Police official, stating:

• “A magistrate of a special court has given him one-month detention late Friday for suspected anti-state activities.”
• “During this time we will investigate whether he has any connection with international or local militant groups.”
• “He went to Pakistan in late 1998 with a three-month tourist visa but overstayed there for more than two years before he was arrested by American intelligence officers.”

References

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