But Shaker went through that plus 10 more years with the changes (?).
Maybe it became so good they had to beg him to leave in the end.
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Shaker Aamer released from Guantanamo
- Thread starter alfredmizen
- Start date
But Shaker went through that plus 10 more years with the changes (?).
Maybe it became so good they had to beg him to leave in the end.
Why, was he Shaker Aamer`s assistant ? I for one am concerned about his release.
pastafarian
Well-known member
The Henry Jackson Society posted a report on Shaker Aamer a few months ago
article and all footnote links
http://henryjacksonsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Britains-Last-Guantanamo-Detainee.pdf
BRITAIN’S LAST GUANTÁNAMO DETAINEE:
WHO IS SHAKER AAMER?
CRT BRIEFING, 9 FEBRUARY 2015
INTRODUCTION
It is UK government policy that Shaker Aamer, the last remaining British resident detained at Guantánamo Bay, be returned. In December 2014, newspaper stories emerged suggesting that this could soon be the case.1 At a meeting in Washington, DC, a month later, President Obama told Prime Minister David Cameron that the US would “prioritise” the case.2 Aamer, who was born in Saudi Arabia, was captured in Afghanistan in November 2001; he was sent to Guantánamo Bay in February 2002. The US government believes him to be a weapons-trained alQaeda fighter; Aamer’s supporters claim that he was in Afghanistan to carry out voluntary work for an Islamic charity. 3 Aamer is thought to have been cleared for transfer to Saudi Arabia in June 2007 (although, as late as November 2007, Department of Defense documentation recommended that he continue to be detained).4 5 In December 2007, Clive Stafford Smith, one of Aamer’s lawyers, said that his client was “fine” about the prospect of returning to Saudi Arabia; 6 however, Aamer now insists on returning only to the UK.7
WHO IS SHAKER AAMER?
The US government believes Shaker Aamer to be a military-trained al-Qaeda member who recruited for extremist causes and had close ties to Osama bin Laden.8 Aamer moved to Afghanistan, with his family, in the summer of 2001; however, the US believes he had visited the country on multiple occasions before:
On one occasion, he visited Khalden training camp, which hosted several jihadists connected to al-Qaeda.
In 2000, he accompanied the mujahideen on the front lines, carrying a gun as he did so.
In the summer of 2001, Aamer returned to Afghanistan, living under Taliban rule in Kabul. In October 2001
– the same month that the US began its bombing campaign in Afghanistan, in response to 9/11 – Aamer moved his family to Pakistan. However, rather than accompanying them, he returned to Afghanistan. 9 The US believes that Aamer then fought at Tora Bora, Afghanistan, as the US and its allies attacked alQaeda and Taliban forces there towards the end of 2001. At Tora Bora, Aamer is thought to have served as a sub-commander under Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi’s command; al-Libi was the emir of the Khalden training camp.10 Multiple detainees at Guantánamo Bay have identified Aamer as the commander of the Juhanya Centre in Tora Bora (Abu Juhanyah was one of Shaker Aamer’s aliases). 11 Aamer led a group at Tora Bora that included another Guantánamo detainee, Mohammed Mohammed Ahmed Said.12 Aamer claims that he was captured, by Afghan forces, in Jalalabad in December 2001. He was in possession of a false Belgian passport at the time.13
WHOM DID HE KNOW?
At Guantánamo Bay, seven separate sources have described Aamer’s connections to al-Qaeda or Osama bin Laden: Abu Zubaydah, Abdul Bukhary, Muhammad Basardah, Moazzam Begg, Abdallah Yahy Yusif al-Shibli, Tariq Mahmud Ahmad al-Sawah, and Humud Dakhil Humud Said al-Jadani. In addition, another detainee, Fahd Umar Abd al-Majid al-Umari al-Sharif, has outlined Aamer’s military expertise.14 Aamer is thought to have known several radical Islamists and terrorists, including the following senior al-Qaeda leaders
:
Abu Musab al-Suri, who has previously been described as the ideological “mastermind” behind the 7 July 2005 attacks on the London transport network. 15
Walid Bin Attash – a senior al-Qaeda operative currently standing trial in a US military commission, for his role in planning 9/11.
Abu Yasir al-Jazairi, an al-Qaeda facilitator.
Abu Hafs al-Mauritani, who was on the al-Qaeda shura council.
Aamer was also tied to those who were well known within the British jihadist scene, including:
Babar Ahmad, who has pleaded guilty – in December 2013, in the US – to terrorism offences.
Abu Hamza al-Masri, the former imam at Finsbury Park Mosque, who was convicted in the UK – primarily for hate-speech offences – in February 2006 and has since been extradited to the US (where he has been jailed for life, as a result of terrorism-related charges).
Abu Qatada, the ideologue whom a Spanish judge described as “Osama bin Laden’s right-hand man in Europe”.16
Richard Reid, the al-Qaeda operative who attempted to detonate a shoe bomb on a flight between Paris and Miami, in December 2001.
Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person to be convicted for involvement in the attacks on 9/11.
THE MOAZZAM BEGG CONNECTION
Aamer and Moazzam Begg, a former Guantánamo Bay detainee from Britain, are close friends and both lived in Afghanistan in 2001 (one report even suggests that they lived in the same house). 17 Begg now vociferously lobbies for Aamer’s release, claiming that he is wrongly detained. However, part of the evidence that the US has used against Aamer is provided by Begg himself. While being detained by the US, Begg identified Aamer as a “recruiter for al-Qaida”.18 He said that Aamer had fought in Bosnia and was a member of the Zubayr Group, which was run by Abu Zubayr al-Haili (a senior al-Qaeda operative from Saudi Arabia). 19 Begg also said that Aamer “spent 30 days training on the AK-47 and rocket propelled grenades.”20 In the past, Begg has claimed to have provided information to the US under duress, implying that his past statements can therefore not be trusted. However, three separate Department of Defense investigations into Begg’s allegations of mistreatment have “found no evidence to substantiate his claims.” A Department of Justice review also concluded that Begg’s claims could not be supported.21
WASN’T AAMER ONLY IN AFGHANISTAN TO CARRY OUT CHARITY WORK?
Aamer’s supporters say that he was in Afghanistan for innocent reasons: carrying out charity work.22 This charity has not been named, but has been described as a “Muslim charity building schools for Afghan orphans”;23 a Saudi Arabian charity;24 and a “children’s charity”.25 Yet, the charities for which Aamer claims to have worked in the past are, in reality, groups providing support to al-Qaeda. Aamer claims to have worked for a “humanitarian” organisation in Bosnia in 1994, known as the Revival of Islamic Heritage Society (RIHS) –26 an outfit based in Kuwait. In January 2002, RIHS was placed on the United Nations Security Council Committee’s ‘Al-Qaida Sanctions List’. Its work in Pakistan and Afghanistan was affiliated with the Afghan Support Committee (which had funded both alQaeda and Osama bin Laden), and its Pakistan branch had funded al-Qaeda, using money “ostensibly earmarked for supporting orphans”. 27 In June 2008, RIHS was designated by the US Treasury, for providing “financial and material support” to al-Qaeda and its affiliates.28 Aamer has also said that, in 1995, he worked for a Kuwaiti NGO called al-Ahya al-Turath, which is an alias used by RIHS. 29
HASN’T HE BEEN CLEARED OF ANY WRONGDOING?
A common refrain from Aamer’s supporters is that he has been ‘cleared’, with the implication (and sometimes explicit claim) that this means that there is no evidence of any wrongdoing from Aamer. In reality, he has only been cleared for transfer (to Saudi Arabia, his country of birth); the US has not conceded that it was wrong to detain Aamer or accepted that he was only in Afghanistan carrying out charity work, teaching, or any other benign reason offered by his defenders. As the Brookings scholar Benjamin Wittes has pointed out, “It’s a grave mistake to confuse clearing somebody for release, which is a discretionary decision by the Pentagon, with clearing somebody of wrongdoing or being a member of enemy forces.”30
WHY CAN’T WE JUST CHARGE HIM?
There are multiple reasons why Aamer cannot be charged in court. The US has assessed Aamer to have been active in a combat zone in Afghanistan. As part of the international law of war, armies can remove unlawful combatants from the battlefield; yet, intelligence and military operatives’ primary focus is preventing the enemy combatant from continuing to fight – not conducting criminal investigations or finding evidence suitable for court. Evidence would have to have been collected from the potential crime scene (for example, a cave in Afghanistan), and, as former CIA Director Michael Hayden has said, it is not practical to “turn the American armed forces or the C.I.A. into C.S.I. Miami or C.S.I. Kandahar, or C.S.I. Jalalabad or C.S.I. Peshawar in order to build up that kind of evidence”. 31
William Lietzau, former US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Policy, has explained this in the following way: f you could graduate from a Taliban boot camp of course you can’t be prosecuted for anything, you haven’t done anything, you’re only a graduate. But if you were captured in war, of course you wouldn’t release that person, they’re still the enemy, they still want to fight you, they still want to kill you […] So, you wouldn’t release them but on the other hand you can’t criminally prosecute them.
As Lietzau has outlined in reference to Afghanistan, detention is not “because [combatants] have committed some criminal offence that we want to punish them for, but because they are the enemy.”32
Even if evidence usable in court was gathered at the time, it would be impossible to use in Aamer’s case, for the following reasons:
UK courts do not have jurisdiction over offences committed in Afghanistan. The number of British fighters now travelling to Syria has led the government to consider changing this law; but it could not be applied retrospectively.
Evidence collected from interrogations at Guantánamo Bay would likely be deemed inadmissible because Aamer did not have immediate access to a lawyer.33
Eyewitnesses who are free to give evidence will be hard to find. As a lawyer speaking to the British media has commented, “[Y]ou would need evidence from witnesses who were actually there at the time who saw them bearing arms against the allies.” 34 Getting such people – who likely live thousands of miles away and may even still be detained at Guantánamo – to testify in a British court is almost impossible.
Aamer cannot be charged with treason. The Treason Act 1351 states that an individual or a group may not kill; conspire against; or declare war against the monarch, his/her family members, as well as several specific governmental offices. Aamer, by fighting against US and Northern Alliance forces in Afghanistan, appears not have committed any such offence, and treason charges are usually applied to wars between nation states – rather than against non-state actors such as al-Qaeda or the Taliban.35
EVEN IF AAMER IS A THREAT…ISN’T HE TOO UNWELL TO KEEP LOCKED UP?
In April 2014, Aamer’s lawyers filed a motion in a US court, arguing that Aamer should be released to the UK on the grounds of ill health. They cited a psychiatrist (whom other Guantánamo defence lawyers have also used to diagnose their detainees) who had diagnosed Aamer as suffering from depression, post-traumatic stress syndrome, and paranoia.36 They argued that these conditions would be worsened if Aamer was released to Saudi Arabia rather than the UK. The suggestion that Aamer is too ill to be detained is a long-held tactic used by Aamer’s supporters. In February 2005, Clive Stafford Smith, one of Aamer’s lawyers, said that his client was “floridly psychotic”.37 At the same time, Stafford Smith said that Aamer was “really losing it” and “mentally unwell”; 38 he repeated this claim in October 2007.39 In September 2006, another of Aamer’s lawyers, Zachary Katznelson, argued, in a US District Court, that Aamer was unquestionably “mentally unstable” and that his “only consistent contact with living beings beside his captors is with the ants in his cell. He feeds them and considers them his friends”. 40 Then, in April 2011, Moazzam Begg said that Aamer had “begun to lose a grip on reality, to begin to lose his mental faculties”. 41 Jane Ellison, the Conservative MP for Battersea (Aamer is her constituent), has also raised her concerns about Aamer’s “mental well-being”, in the House of Commons.42 Yet, according to Aamer’s November 2007 JTF-GTMO Detainee Assessment, he “often cit[es] imaginary, or assumed mistreatment of himself, or others […] in a classic example of al-Qaida counter interrogation techniques.”43 This is a possible reference to the Declaration of Jihad against the Country’s Tyrants manual, which was discovered on the computer of an al-Qaeda member in Manchester, England, in 2000. The manual, which likely emerged from Egypt in the early 1990s, encouraged jihadists who were detained or imprisoned to “insist on proving that torture was inflicted” and to “complain of mistreatment while in prison.”44 Furthermore, in the past two years alone, Aamer has been coherent enough to write op-eds for The Guardian (on two occasions);45 The Independent; 46 Al Jazeera; 47 and New Statesman, 48 and is a regular contributor to The Huffington Post. 49 He also detailed his supposed mistreatment in an article for CNN and gave an interview which was published by Al Arabiya. 50 51 In this interview, he outlined his plans as to what work he would like to undertake upon release: working with a university, to “document the history of Guantanamo and to do what I can to ensure justice for everyone there.” In these op-eds, Aamer makes various accusations of abuse to which he is subjected at Guantánamo Bay. These accusations are regularly regurgitated by his public supporters; however, it is unclear why – if Aamer is so mentally unstable that he talks to ants and is “floridly psychotic” – they are not treating these allegations with more scepticism.
AAMER’S INFLUENCE AT GUANTÁNAMO BAY
Suggestions of failing mental health do not tally with how others have portrayed Aamer and his role at Guantánamo. A former warden at the facility has described how Aamer was treated, by other detainees, “like a rock star […] I have never seen grown men – with beards, hardened men – crying at the sight of another man. […] It was like I was with Bon Jovi or something”. 52 Wardens there have also nicknamed Aamer “the Professor”, due to his eloquence and English skills, 53 and one officer at Guantánamo Bay has said that Aamer has “an almost hypnotic power over some people”, while others there have labelled him as a “Svengali” figure.54
Detainees at Guantánamo have backed this up. For example
Mohamedou Ould Slahi has claimed that Aamer “constantly” attempts to make other detainees swear loyalty to him as the emir of Guantánamo. 55
Muhammad Hamid al-Qarani has stated that Aamer is so influential that he can issue orders for other detainees to try and commit suicide; Aamer has previously stated that the death of a detainee at Guantánamo would “result in the closure of the base.”56
Abd al-Majid Muhammad has claimed that Aamer “runs all the other detainees” there.57
Abdullah al-Noaimi has said that Aamer “was born to be a leader” and became the de facto emir of a group of detainees in his Guantánamo cell block on the strength of his personal charisma.58 59
In the past, Aamer has attempted to spread civil unrest at Guantánamo, particularly regarding hunger strikes. As this unrest has spread, Aamer has presented himself to the Guantánamo authorities as an interlocutor who can help bring the situation back under control. At one stage, his influence over the camp was thought to be so significant that he was moved into solitary confinement.60 This is unlikely to be an unfounded fear; Department of Defense documentation from 2007 says that Aamer can “summon support from over one half of Camp Delta’s detainee population.”61 Camp Delta houses the majority of detainees at Guantánamo Bay.
CONCLUSION
There is little reason to dispute the US government’s assessment that Aamer is a trained mujahideen fighter who recruits for extremist causes and has wide-ranging connections to al-Qaeda, al-Qaeda-related charities, and known terrorists
Even if Aamer is released, there should be no illusions over the nature of his past activities and why he was detained at Guantánamo Bay in the first place
About the Author
Robin Simcox is a Research Fellow at the Henry Jackson Society. Simcox has spoken on a variety of platforms, including testifying to the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, and at the White House, National Counterterrorism Center, British Parliament, US Special Operations Command and the European Parliament. Simcox was previously a Research Fellow at the Centre for Social Cohesion, a think tank studying extremism and terrorism in the UK. He has an MSc in U.S. Foreign Policy from the Institute for the Study of Americas, University of London, and a BA in History (International) from the University of Leeds, which included a year at the University of Newcastle, Australia.
About the Centre for the Response to Radicalisation and Terrorism
The Centre for the Response to Radicalisation and Terrorism (CRT) at The Henry Jackson Society provides top-quality, indepth research and delivers targeted, tangible and impactful activities to combat the threats from radical ideologies and terrorism at home and abroad.
About The Henry Jackson Society
The Henry Jackson Society is a think tank and policy-shaping force that fights for the principles and alliances which keep societies free – working across borders and party lines to combat extremism, advance democracy and real human rights, and make a stand in an increasingly uncertain world
article and all footnote links
http://henryjacksonsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Britains-Last-Guantanamo-Detainee.pdf
BRITAIN’S LAST GUANTÁNAMO DETAINEE:
WHO IS SHAKER AAMER?
CRT BRIEFING, 9 FEBRUARY 2015
INTRODUCTION
It is UK government policy that Shaker Aamer, the last remaining British resident detained at Guantánamo Bay, be returned. In December 2014, newspaper stories emerged suggesting that this could soon be the case.1 At a meeting in Washington, DC, a month later, President Obama told Prime Minister David Cameron that the US would “prioritise” the case.2 Aamer, who was born in Saudi Arabia, was captured in Afghanistan in November 2001; he was sent to Guantánamo Bay in February 2002. The US government believes him to be a weapons-trained alQaeda fighter; Aamer’s supporters claim that he was in Afghanistan to carry out voluntary work for an Islamic charity. 3 Aamer is thought to have been cleared for transfer to Saudi Arabia in June 2007 (although, as late as November 2007, Department of Defense documentation recommended that he continue to be detained).4 5 In December 2007, Clive Stafford Smith, one of Aamer’s lawyers, said that his client was “fine” about the prospect of returning to Saudi Arabia; 6 however, Aamer now insists on returning only to the UK.7
WHO IS SHAKER AAMER?
The US government believes Shaker Aamer to be a military-trained al-Qaeda member who recruited for extremist causes and had close ties to Osama bin Laden.8 Aamer moved to Afghanistan, with his family, in the summer of 2001; however, the US believes he had visited the country on multiple occasions before:
On one occasion, he visited Khalden training camp, which hosted several jihadists connected to al-Qaeda.
In 2000, he accompanied the mujahideen on the front lines, carrying a gun as he did so.
In the summer of 2001, Aamer returned to Afghanistan, living under Taliban rule in Kabul. In October 2001
– the same month that the US began its bombing campaign in Afghanistan, in response to 9/11 – Aamer moved his family to Pakistan. However, rather than accompanying them, he returned to Afghanistan. 9 The US believes that Aamer then fought at Tora Bora, Afghanistan, as the US and its allies attacked alQaeda and Taliban forces there towards the end of 2001. At Tora Bora, Aamer is thought to have served as a sub-commander under Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi’s command; al-Libi was the emir of the Khalden training camp.10 Multiple detainees at Guantánamo Bay have identified Aamer as the commander of the Juhanya Centre in Tora Bora (Abu Juhanyah was one of Shaker Aamer’s aliases). 11 Aamer led a group at Tora Bora that included another Guantánamo detainee, Mohammed Mohammed Ahmed Said.12 Aamer claims that he was captured, by Afghan forces, in Jalalabad in December 2001. He was in possession of a false Belgian passport at the time.13
WHOM DID HE KNOW?
At Guantánamo Bay, seven separate sources have described Aamer’s connections to al-Qaeda or Osama bin Laden: Abu Zubaydah, Abdul Bukhary, Muhammad Basardah, Moazzam Begg, Abdallah Yahy Yusif al-Shibli, Tariq Mahmud Ahmad al-Sawah, and Humud Dakhil Humud Said al-Jadani. In addition, another detainee, Fahd Umar Abd al-Majid al-Umari al-Sharif, has outlined Aamer’s military expertise.14 Aamer is thought to have known several radical Islamists and terrorists, including the following senior al-Qaeda leaders
:
Abu Musab al-Suri, who has previously been described as the ideological “mastermind” behind the 7 July 2005 attacks on the London transport network. 15
Walid Bin Attash – a senior al-Qaeda operative currently standing trial in a US military commission, for his role in planning 9/11.
Abu Yasir al-Jazairi, an al-Qaeda facilitator.
Abu Hafs al-Mauritani, who was on the al-Qaeda shura council.
Aamer was also tied to those who were well known within the British jihadist scene, including:
Babar Ahmad, who has pleaded guilty – in December 2013, in the US – to terrorism offences.
Abu Hamza al-Masri, the former imam at Finsbury Park Mosque, who was convicted in the UK – primarily for hate-speech offences – in February 2006 and has since been extradited to the US (where he has been jailed for life, as a result of terrorism-related charges).
Abu Qatada, the ideologue whom a Spanish judge described as “Osama bin Laden’s right-hand man in Europe”.16
Richard Reid, the al-Qaeda operative who attempted to detonate a shoe bomb on a flight between Paris and Miami, in December 2001.
Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person to be convicted for involvement in the attacks on 9/11.
THE MOAZZAM BEGG CONNECTION
Aamer and Moazzam Begg, a former Guantánamo Bay detainee from Britain, are close friends and both lived in Afghanistan in 2001 (one report even suggests that they lived in the same house). 17 Begg now vociferously lobbies for Aamer’s release, claiming that he is wrongly detained. However, part of the evidence that the US has used against Aamer is provided by Begg himself. While being detained by the US, Begg identified Aamer as a “recruiter for al-Qaida”.18 He said that Aamer had fought in Bosnia and was a member of the Zubayr Group, which was run by Abu Zubayr al-Haili (a senior al-Qaeda operative from Saudi Arabia). 19 Begg also said that Aamer “spent 30 days training on the AK-47 and rocket propelled grenades.”20 In the past, Begg has claimed to have provided information to the US under duress, implying that his past statements can therefore not be trusted. However, three separate Department of Defense investigations into Begg’s allegations of mistreatment have “found no evidence to substantiate his claims.” A Department of Justice review also concluded that Begg’s claims could not be supported.21
WASN’T AAMER ONLY IN AFGHANISTAN TO CARRY OUT CHARITY WORK?
Aamer’s supporters say that he was in Afghanistan for innocent reasons: carrying out charity work.22 This charity has not been named, but has been described as a “Muslim charity building schools for Afghan orphans”;23 a Saudi Arabian charity;24 and a “children’s charity”.25 Yet, the charities for which Aamer claims to have worked in the past are, in reality, groups providing support to al-Qaeda. Aamer claims to have worked for a “humanitarian” organisation in Bosnia in 1994, known as the Revival of Islamic Heritage Society (RIHS) –26 an outfit based in Kuwait. In January 2002, RIHS was placed on the United Nations Security Council Committee’s ‘Al-Qaida Sanctions List’. Its work in Pakistan and Afghanistan was affiliated with the Afghan Support Committee (which had funded both alQaeda and Osama bin Laden), and its Pakistan branch had funded al-Qaeda, using money “ostensibly earmarked for supporting orphans”. 27 In June 2008, RIHS was designated by the US Treasury, for providing “financial and material support” to al-Qaeda and its affiliates.28 Aamer has also said that, in 1995, he worked for a Kuwaiti NGO called al-Ahya al-Turath, which is an alias used by RIHS. 29
HASN’T HE BEEN CLEARED OF ANY WRONGDOING?
A common refrain from Aamer’s supporters is that he has been ‘cleared’, with the implication (and sometimes explicit claim) that this means that there is no evidence of any wrongdoing from Aamer. In reality, he has only been cleared for transfer (to Saudi Arabia, his country of birth); the US has not conceded that it was wrong to detain Aamer or accepted that he was only in Afghanistan carrying out charity work, teaching, or any other benign reason offered by his defenders. As the Brookings scholar Benjamin Wittes has pointed out, “It’s a grave mistake to confuse clearing somebody for release, which is a discretionary decision by the Pentagon, with clearing somebody of wrongdoing or being a member of enemy forces.”30
WHY CAN’T WE JUST CHARGE HIM?
There are multiple reasons why Aamer cannot be charged in court. The US has assessed Aamer to have been active in a combat zone in Afghanistan. As part of the international law of war, armies can remove unlawful combatants from the battlefield; yet, intelligence and military operatives’ primary focus is preventing the enemy combatant from continuing to fight – not conducting criminal investigations or finding evidence suitable for court. Evidence would have to have been collected from the potential crime scene (for example, a cave in Afghanistan), and, as former CIA Director Michael Hayden has said, it is not practical to “turn the American armed forces or the C.I.A. into C.S.I. Miami or C.S.I. Kandahar, or C.S.I. Jalalabad or C.S.I. Peshawar in order to build up that kind of evidence”. 31
William Lietzau, former US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Policy, has explained this in the following way: f you could graduate from a Taliban boot camp of course you can’t be prosecuted for anything, you haven’t done anything, you’re only a graduate. But if you were captured in war, of course you wouldn’t release that person, they’re still the enemy, they still want to fight you, they still want to kill you […] So, you wouldn’t release them but on the other hand you can’t criminally prosecute them.
As Lietzau has outlined in reference to Afghanistan, detention is not “because [combatants] have committed some criminal offence that we want to punish them for, but because they are the enemy.”32
Even if evidence usable in court was gathered at the time, it would be impossible to use in Aamer’s case, for the following reasons:
UK courts do not have jurisdiction over offences committed in Afghanistan. The number of British fighters now travelling to Syria has led the government to consider changing this law; but it could not be applied retrospectively.
Evidence collected from interrogations at Guantánamo Bay would likely be deemed inadmissible because Aamer did not have immediate access to a lawyer.33
Eyewitnesses who are free to give evidence will be hard to find. As a lawyer speaking to the British media has commented, “[Y]ou would need evidence from witnesses who were actually there at the time who saw them bearing arms against the allies.” 34 Getting such people – who likely live thousands of miles away and may even still be detained at Guantánamo – to testify in a British court is almost impossible.
Aamer cannot be charged with treason. The Treason Act 1351 states that an individual or a group may not kill; conspire against; or declare war against the monarch, his/her family members, as well as several specific governmental offices. Aamer, by fighting against US and Northern Alliance forces in Afghanistan, appears not have committed any such offence, and treason charges are usually applied to wars between nation states – rather than against non-state actors such as al-Qaeda or the Taliban.35
EVEN IF AAMER IS A THREAT…ISN’T HE TOO UNWELL TO KEEP LOCKED UP?
In April 2014, Aamer’s lawyers filed a motion in a US court, arguing that Aamer should be released to the UK on the grounds of ill health. They cited a psychiatrist (whom other Guantánamo defence lawyers have also used to diagnose their detainees) who had diagnosed Aamer as suffering from depression, post-traumatic stress syndrome, and paranoia.36 They argued that these conditions would be worsened if Aamer was released to Saudi Arabia rather than the UK. The suggestion that Aamer is too ill to be detained is a long-held tactic used by Aamer’s supporters. In February 2005, Clive Stafford Smith, one of Aamer’s lawyers, said that his client was “floridly psychotic”.37 At the same time, Stafford Smith said that Aamer was “really losing it” and “mentally unwell”; 38 he repeated this claim in October 2007.39 In September 2006, another of Aamer’s lawyers, Zachary Katznelson, argued, in a US District Court, that Aamer was unquestionably “mentally unstable” and that his “only consistent contact with living beings beside his captors is with the ants in his cell. He feeds them and considers them his friends”. 40 Then, in April 2011, Moazzam Begg said that Aamer had “begun to lose a grip on reality, to begin to lose his mental faculties”. 41 Jane Ellison, the Conservative MP for Battersea (Aamer is her constituent), has also raised her concerns about Aamer’s “mental well-being”, in the House of Commons.42 Yet, according to Aamer’s November 2007 JTF-GTMO Detainee Assessment, he “often cit[es] imaginary, or assumed mistreatment of himself, or others […] in a classic example of al-Qaida counter interrogation techniques.”43 This is a possible reference to the Declaration of Jihad against the Country’s Tyrants manual, which was discovered on the computer of an al-Qaeda member in Manchester, England, in 2000. The manual, which likely emerged from Egypt in the early 1990s, encouraged jihadists who were detained or imprisoned to “insist on proving that torture was inflicted” and to “complain of mistreatment while in prison.”44 Furthermore, in the past two years alone, Aamer has been coherent enough to write op-eds for The Guardian (on two occasions);45 The Independent; 46 Al Jazeera; 47 and New Statesman, 48 and is a regular contributor to The Huffington Post. 49 He also detailed his supposed mistreatment in an article for CNN and gave an interview which was published by Al Arabiya. 50 51 In this interview, he outlined his plans as to what work he would like to undertake upon release: working with a university, to “document the history of Guantanamo and to do what I can to ensure justice for everyone there.” In these op-eds, Aamer makes various accusations of abuse to which he is subjected at Guantánamo Bay. These accusations are regularly regurgitated by his public supporters; however, it is unclear why – if Aamer is so mentally unstable that he talks to ants and is “floridly psychotic” – they are not treating these allegations with more scepticism.
AAMER’S INFLUENCE AT GUANTÁNAMO BAY
Suggestions of failing mental health do not tally with how others have portrayed Aamer and his role at Guantánamo. A former warden at the facility has described how Aamer was treated, by other detainees, “like a rock star […] I have never seen grown men – with beards, hardened men – crying at the sight of another man. […] It was like I was with Bon Jovi or something”. 52 Wardens there have also nicknamed Aamer “the Professor”, due to his eloquence and English skills, 53 and one officer at Guantánamo Bay has said that Aamer has “an almost hypnotic power over some people”, while others there have labelled him as a “Svengali” figure.54
Detainees at Guantánamo have backed this up. For example
Mohamedou Ould Slahi has claimed that Aamer “constantly” attempts to make other detainees swear loyalty to him as the emir of Guantánamo. 55
Muhammad Hamid al-Qarani has stated that Aamer is so influential that he can issue orders for other detainees to try and commit suicide; Aamer has previously stated that the death of a detainee at Guantánamo would “result in the closure of the base.”56
Abd al-Majid Muhammad has claimed that Aamer “runs all the other detainees” there.57
Abdullah al-Noaimi has said that Aamer “was born to be a leader” and became the de facto emir of a group of detainees in his Guantánamo cell block on the strength of his personal charisma.58 59
In the past, Aamer has attempted to spread civil unrest at Guantánamo, particularly regarding hunger strikes. As this unrest has spread, Aamer has presented himself to the Guantánamo authorities as an interlocutor who can help bring the situation back under control. At one stage, his influence over the camp was thought to be so significant that he was moved into solitary confinement.60 This is unlikely to be an unfounded fear; Department of Defense documentation from 2007 says that Aamer can “summon support from over one half of Camp Delta’s detainee population.”61 Camp Delta houses the majority of detainees at Guantánamo Bay.
CONCLUSION
There is little reason to dispute the US government’s assessment that Aamer is a trained mujahideen fighter who recruits for extremist causes and has wide-ranging connections to al-Qaeda, al-Qaeda-related charities, and known terrorists
Even if Aamer is released, there should be no illusions over the nature of his past activities and why he was detained at Guantánamo Bay in the first place
About the Author
Robin Simcox is a Research Fellow at the Henry Jackson Society. Simcox has spoken on a variety of platforms, including testifying to the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, and at the White House, National Counterterrorism Center, British Parliament, US Special Operations Command and the European Parliament. Simcox was previously a Research Fellow at the Centre for Social Cohesion, a think tank studying extremism and terrorism in the UK. He has an MSc in U.S. Foreign Policy from the Institute for the Study of Americas, University of London, and a BA in History (International) from the University of Leeds, which included a year at the University of Newcastle, Australia.
About the Centre for the Response to Radicalisation and Terrorism
The Centre for the Response to Radicalisation and Terrorism (CRT) at The Henry Jackson Society provides top-quality, indepth research and delivers targeted, tangible and impactful activities to combat the threats from radical ideologies and terrorism at home and abroad.
About The Henry Jackson Society
The Henry Jackson Society is a think tank and policy-shaping force that fights for the principles and alliances which keep societies free – working across borders and party lines to combat extremism, advance democracy and real human rights, and make a stand in an increasingly uncertain world
Lord Bracknell
On fire
They do and it didn't.
I`m more worried about his release now.....Almost guarantee he`ll be up to no good sooner rather than later
daveinprague
New member
All that 'evidence', and in 13 years, the Americans were unable to lay a charge against him.
Having just looked up this society, and especially their statement of principles, I could have guessed quite easily they would have this Aamer chap down as a terrorist. They certainly have an agenda to drive.
pastafarian
Well-known member
blow me you are a quick reader
You no doubt have him down as a fine English Gentleman....I see him as a terrorist who we will now have to spend a fortune on keeping..don`t see him as being employable in any legitimate business.
6 minutes between your post and mine. I can read a fair bit in this time.
I haven't seen any evidence to judge him either way to be honest. And being an English gent myself he's innocent until proven guilty.
Kaiser_Soze
Who is Kaiser Soze??
- Apr 14, 2008
- 1,355
Seems the US conveniently forgot to adhere to the standards about not torturing prisoners of war........and potentially the UK were complicit in it. I don't understand how you can defend the actions of the Americans at Guantanamo.
mikeyjh
Well-known member
That's the long and short of it, it's okay though if they've got brown skin and a funny name, if it was the white children of someone from Haywards Heath though??
pastafarian
Well-known member
wasnt aimed at youSo am I.
Henry Jackson Society attacks Muslims verbally and has an anti immigration agenda.
pastafarian
Well-known member
And there lies the problem with Guantánamo
The refusal to grant inmates prisoner of war status and also unwilling to charge inmates with crimes.
Basically fighting terrorism with more terrorism
The yanks lost any moral highground they had after 9/11 when they decided to run that place in the manner they did.
@Bushy ?
pastafarian
Well-known member
you have dismissed everything in their report on Shaker Aamer as untrue.
good for you!
AlbionPics&SouthCoastTwit
New member
Could we please have someone post another copy of pastafarian's Henry Jackson Society post so this thread can have a whole lot more unnecessary words on the page?
It's not relevant. Just decide which side of the argument you're on and shout at those that disagree.