Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri

Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri
Born (1965-01-05) January 5, 1965 (age 59)[1]
Mecca, Saudi Arabia
CitizenshipSaudi Arabian
Detained at CIA black sites
Stare Kiejkuty
Guantanamo Bay
Other name(s) Mullah Bilal[2][3]
ISN10015
Charge(s)Charges dropped in February 2009, reinstated in 2011
StatusStill held in Guantanamo Bay pending trial

Abd al-Rahim Hussein Muhammed Abdu al-Nashiri (/ɑːbɪd ælrɑːˈhiːm ælnɑːˈʃiːriː/ ⓘ; Arabic: عبد الرحيم حسين محمد عبده النشري; born January 5, 1965) is a Saudi Arabian citizen alleged to be the mastermind of the bombing of USS Cole and other maritime attacks.[4] He is alleged to have headed al-Qaeda operations in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf states prior to his capture in November 2002 by the CIA's Special Activities Division.[5][6]

Al-Nashiri was captured in Dubai in 2002 and held for four years in secret CIA prisons known as "black sites" in Afghanistan, Thailand, Poland, Morocco, Lithuania and Romania, before being transferred to the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. While being interrogated, al-Nashiri was waterboarded, a technique since classified as torture. In 2005 the CIA destroyed the tapes of Nashiri's waterboarding. In another incident he was stripped naked, hooded and threatened with a gun and a power drill to scare him into talking.[7][8][9][10] Al-Nashiri was granted victim status in 2010 by the Polish government and a Polish prosecutor began "investigating the possible abuse of power by Polish public officials with regard to a CIA black site" in the country in 2008.[11][12][13]

In December 2008, al-Nashiri was charged by the United States before a Guantanamo Military Commission.[14] The charges were dropped in February 2009 and reinstated in 2011.[15][16] As of 2011, al-Nashiri is on trial before a military tribunal in Guantanamo on charges of war crimes that carry the death penalty. As it is extremely unlikely he would be freed if found not guilty, his lawyers have called the proceeding a show trial.[17]

In April 2019, a three judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit vacated all orders issued by Air Force Colonel Vance Spath, the presiding military judge over al-Nashiri's case from November 2015,[18][19] on the grounds that Spath had failed to properly disclose his ongoing employment negotiations with the Department of Justice to al-Nashiri.

  1. ^ "JTF- GTMO Detainee Assessment" (PDF). Department of Defense. December 8, 2006.
  2. ^ "Читать онлайн "The Black Banners" автора Soufan Ali H. - RuLIT.Net - …". Archived from the original on March 17, 2014.
  3. ^ OARDEC (February 8, 2007). "Summary of Evidence for Combatant Status Review Tribunal - Al Nashiri, Abd Al Rahim Hussein Mohammed" (PDF). Department of Defense. Retrieved April 13, 2007.[dead link]
  4. ^ "Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri". Archived from the original on September 13, 2006.
  5. ^ "U.S.: Top al Qaeda operative arrested". CNN. Archived from the original on August 26, 2006. Retrieved May 16, 2013.
  6. ^ "Detainee Biographies" (PDF). Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 1, 2009.
  7. ^ Price, Caitlin. "CIA chief confirms use of waterboarding on 3 terror detainees". Jurist Legal News & Research. Archived from the original on October 4, 2008. Retrieved May 16, 2013.
  8. ^ "CIA finally admits to waterboarding". The Australian. February 7, 2008. Archived from the original on February 9, 2008. Retrieved February 18, 2008.
  9. ^ Shane, Scott (June 22, 2008). "Inside a 9/11 Mastermind's Interrogation". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 20, 2013. Retrieved June 23, 2008.
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference MiamiHerald2011-11-03 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Foster, Peter (July 17, 2012). "Court demands secret files on US 'black jails'". The Daily Telegraph. London.
  12. ^ Gera, Vanessa (October 27, 2010). "Terror suspect gets victim status in Polish probe". The Guardian. London.
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference MiamiHerald2013-02-08 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ Salon.com, "Goodbye to Guantanamo? Archived February 9, 2011, at the Wayback Machine", December 23, 2008
  15. ^ "U.S. drops Guantanamo charges per Obama order". Reuters. February 6, 2009. Archived from the original on February 9, 2009. Retrieved February 6, 2009.
  16. ^ "Executive Order -- Review and Disposition of Individuals Detained at the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base and Closure of Detention Facilities". whitehouse.gov. January 22, 2009. Retrieved February 6, 2009 – via National Archives.
  17. ^ "Guantanamo court can't free bomb suspect, U.S. says". Reuters. November 2, 2011. Archived from the original on May 30, 2015. Retrieved December 2, 2013.
  18. ^ Rosenberg, Carol (April 16, 2019). "Court Rejects 2 Years of Judge's Decisions in Cole Tribunal". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 20, 2019.
  19. ^ Jindia, Shilpa (May 14, 2019). "Collapse of USS Cole Bombing Case Marks Another Failure for Guantánamo's Military Courts". The Intercept.