Khalid al-Asmr

Khalid Mahomoud Abdul Wahab Al Asmr Arabic: خالد محمود عبدالوهاب الأسمر‎‎
Born	December 16, 1963 - Irbid, Jordan
Detained at	Guantanamo Bay camp
ISN	589
Alleged to be a member of	al-Qaeda
Charge(s)	No charge (extrajudicial detention)
Status	Released
Children	Al-asmr is a father of eight: Abdel rahman - November 6, 1988 Aisha - December 9, 1990 Abdullah - April 21, 1993 Mariam - November 16, 1995 Asia - June 24, 1997 Yousef - December 2, 1999 Yahia - August 2, 2001 Osamah

Khalid Mahomoud Abdul Wahab Al Asmr is a citizen of Jordan who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.^[1]

Khalid Mahomoud Abdul Wahab al Asmr was captured in Pakistan in January 2002 and transferred to Jordan on July 19, 2005.^[2]

Life

Born on December 16, 1963, in Irbid, al-Asmr moved to Pakistan in 1985, where he married two Afghan women.^[3] The following year he enrolled in Sheik Sanif camp for a single day, claiming he wanted to travel north for Humanitarian purposes and needed the survival training.^[3]

In 1987, he saw Osama bin Laden in passing, and claims to have not "met" him and only recognised him from a distance since he was a notable anti-Soviet financier.^[3]

A member of Jamat al-Tabligh, he later took a job working with Abdullah Azzam's widow, opening hospitals in Northern Afghanistan until January 1992.^[3]

Press reports

Mother Jones magazine published an article based on interviews with the wife of al-Asmr. Fatima Abdulbagi said that her husband had traveled from Jordan to Afghanistan to fight Afghanistan's foreign invaders, during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. She described the flight of herself, Al Asmr, and their seven children, from the American bombing of Afghanistan, and their arrival in Pakistan. She reported that Al Asmr was picked up by Pakistani authorities the day before they were to return to Jordan.^[4]

Determined not to have been an Enemy Combatant

The Washington Post reports that Al Asmr was one of 38 detainees who was determined not to have been an enemy combatant during his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.^[5] They report that Al Asmr has been released. The Department of Defense refers to these men as No Longer Enemy Combatants.

McClatchy interview

On June 15, 2008 the McClatchy News Service published articles based on interviews with 66 former Guantanamo captives. McClatchy reporters interviewed Khaled al Asmr.^{[6][7][8][9][10][11][12]}

Khaled al Asmr described hearing his initial Pakistani captors negotiate a $5,000 bounty for him and six other captives, and that Americans immediately started beating him, while he was still hooded and bound, following his purchase.^[12]

Khaled al Asmr told McClatchy reporters American interrogators beat him in the Kandahar detention facility and Bagram Theater Internment Facility.^[12]

Khaled al Asmr told McClatchy reporters interrogators fondled his privates, which disturbed him more than the beatings.^[12]

"Once they said, 'We will conduct a medical checkup.' They took me to a clinic, but instead of doing a checkup, a female soldier played with my sexual organs. When she was doing this, I prayed to God to help me, and my penis did not move."

Khaled al Asmr told McClatchy reporters that he had met Osama bin Laden during the 1980s, and had conversations with him, but he had no contact with him following the ouster of Afghanistan's Soviet occupiers.^[12] He acknowledged that he had a closer relationship with Abdullah Azzam than he had acknowledged to his interrogators, but repeated he had no contact with Azzam's organization since 1992.

References

1. OARDEC (2006-05-15). "List of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from January 2002 through May 15, 2006" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. Retrieved 2007-09-29.
2. "Khalid Mahomoud Abdul Wahab al Asmr - The Guantánamo Docket". The New York Times.
3. Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Khalid Mahomoud Abdul Wahab Al Asmr's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 19-29
4. Emily Bazelon (March–April 2005). "Searching for Khalid". Mother Jones (magazine). Retrieved 2007-06-13.
5. "Guantanamo Bay Detainees Classifed [sic] as 'No Longer Enemy Combatants'". Washington Post. Archived from the original on 11 August 2006.
6. Tom Lasseter (June 15, 2008). "Guantanamo Inmate Database: Page 6". McClatchy News Service. Retrieved 2008-06-16. mirror
7. Tom Lasseter (June 18, 2008). "U.S. hasn't apologized to or compensated ex-detainees". Myrtle Beach Sun. Retrieved 2008-06-18. mirror
8. Tom Lasseter (June 15, 2008). "Pentagon declined to answer questions about detainees". McClatchy News Service. Retrieved 2008-06-20. mirror
9. Tom Lasseter (June 16, 2008). "Documents undercut Pentagon's denial of routine abuse". McClatchy News Service. Retrieved 2008-06-20. mirror
10. Tom Lasseter (June 19, 2008). "Deck stacked against detainees in legal proceedings". McClatchy News Service. Retrieved 2008-06-20. mirror
11. Tom Lasseter (June 16, 2008). "U.S. abuse of detainees was routine at Afghanistan bases". McClatchy News Service. Retrieved 2008-06-20. mirror
12. Tom Lasseter (June 15, 2008). "Guantanamo Inmate Database: Khaled al Asmr". McClatchy News Service. Retrieved 2008-06-15. mirror

External links

• McClatchy News Service - video