Abdul Latif Nasir
Abdul Latif Nasir is a citizen of Morocco held in administrative detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.[1] His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number is 244. Joint Task Force Guantanamo counter-terrorism analysts report he was born on March 4, 1965 in Casablanca, Morocco.
Abdul Latif Nasir | |
---|---|
Detained at | Guantanamo |
ISN | 244 |
Charge(s) | None |
Status | Imprisoned |
Abdul Latif Nasir and Sufyian Barhoumi tried to file emergency requests to be transferred from Guantanamo in the final days of Barack Obama's Presidency.[2]
Inconsistent identification
Nasser was identified inconsistently on official Department of Defense documents:
- He was identified as Abdul Latif Nasir on the Summary of Evidence memo prepared for his Combatant Status Review Tribunal, on 29 November 2004, on the Summary of Evidence memo prepared for his first annual Administrative Review Board, on 21 November 2005, and on five official lists of captives' names.[1][3][4][5][6][7][8]
- He was identified as Abdulatif Nasser on the Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for his second annual Administrative Review Board, on 17 October 2006.[9]
Life in Guantanamo
Abdul Latif Nasir compiled a 2000 word Arabic to English, English to Arabic dictionary, while at Guantanamo.[10]
Official status reviews
Originally the Bush Presidency asserted that captives apprehended in the War on Terror were not covered by the Geneva Conventions, and could be held indefinitely, without charge, and without an open and transparent review of the justifications for their detention.[11] In 2004 the United States Supreme Court ruled, in Rasul v. Bush, that Guantanamo captives were entitled to being informed of the allegations justifying their detention, and were entitled to try to refute them.
Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants
Following the Supreme Court's ruling the Department of Defense set up the Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants.[11][14]
Scholars at the Brookings Institution, lead by Benjamin Wittes, listed the captives still held in Guantanamo in December 2008, according to whether their detention was justified by certain common allegations:[15]
- Abdul Latif Nasir was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges ... traveled to Afghanistan for jihad."[15]
- Abdul Latif Nasir was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges that the following detainees stayed in Al Qaeda, Taliban or other guest- or safehouses."[15]
- Abdul Latif Nasir was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges ... took military or terrorist training in Afghanistan."[15]
- Abdul Latif Nasir was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges ... fought for the Taliban."[15]
- Abdul Latif Nasir was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges ... were at Tora Bora."[15]
- Abdul Latif Nasir was listed as one of the captives whose "names or aliases were found on material seized in raids on Al Qaeda safehouses and facilities."[15]
- Abdul Latif Nasir was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges that the following detainees were captured under circumstances that strongly suggest belligerency."[15]
- Abdul Latif Nasir was listed as one of the captives who was a member of the "al Qaeda leadership cadre".[15]
- Abdul Latif Nasir was listed as one of the "82 detainees made no statement to CSRT or ARB tribunals or made statements that do not bear materially on the military’s allegations against them."[15]
Formerly secret Joint Task Force Guantanamo assessment
On April 25, 2011, whistleblower organization WikiLeaks published formerly secret assessments drafted by Joint Task Force Guantanamo analysts.[16][17] His 15-page Joint Task Force Guantanamo assessment was drafted on October 22, 2008.[18] It was signed by camp commandant Rear Admiral David M. Thomas Jr.. He recommended continued detention.
Guantanamo Joint Review Task Force
Carol Rosenberg, of the Miami Herald worked for years to get the Department of Defense to release its classification of the remaining captives.[19] In 2013 she was able to learn that Abdulatif Nasser was one of 48 captives for whom there was no evidence to justify filing charges, and who officials nevertheless regarded as too potentially dangerous to release -- "forever prisoners".
Status during the Donald Trump administration
Observers noted that President Barack Obama's administration made a push to transfer as many individuals from Guantanamo, as possible, during his last year.[20] The Washington Post reported that Abdul Latif Nasir was one of the five individuals who had been cleared for release, who remained in Guantanamo when Donald Trump was inaugurated. During the election campaign Trump had promised that, once he took power, no one would ever leave detention at Guantanamo, that he would bring more individuals to be detained there.
In 2020, Latif's case was covered by the Radiolab podcast in a series title "The Other Latif", attracting attention to it.[21]
References
- OARDEC (May 15, 2006). "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.
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"2 Guantanamo prisoners ask for release before Trump takes office". Business Standard. 2017-01-17. Retrieved 2017-01-17.
Lawyers for two lower-level detainees from the wartime prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, are urgently asking a court to send them home before Trump takes office, specially after 10 such prisoners were released, media reports said.
- OARDEC (21 November 2005). "Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the case of Nasir, Abdul Latif" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. pp. page 1–6. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 December 2007. Retrieved 2008-03-03.
- OARDEC (29 November 2004). "Summary of Evidence for Combatant Status Review Tribunal - Nasir, Abdul Latif" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. pp. pages 74–75. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 December 2007. Retrieved 2008-02-01.
- OARDEC (April 20, 2006). "List of detainee who went through complete CSRT process" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 30, 2007. Retrieved 2007-09-29.
- OARDEC (July 17, 2007). "Index for Combatant Status Review Board unclassified summaries of evidence" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 3, 2007. Retrieved 2007-09-29.
- OARDEC (August 9, 2007). "Index to Summaries of Detention-Release Factors for ARB Round One" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 26, 2007. Retrieved 2007-09-29.
- OARDEC (July 17, 2007). "Index of Summaries of Detention-Release Factors for ARB Round Two" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 26, 2007. Retrieved 2007-09-29.
- OARDEC (17 October 2006). "Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the case of Nasser, Abdulatif" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. pp. pages 93–96. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 December 2007. Retrieved 2008-03-01.
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"Cleared Guantánamo Prisoner Files Last-Ditch Lawsuit Seeking Immediate Release". Reprieve. 2017-01-19.
Abdul Latif Nasser, 51, was unanimously cleared by the Periodic Review Board for transfer home to Morocco on July 11, but remains imprisoned because the government's transfer process has been too slow. He now faces indefinite detention at the mercy of the Trump Administration.
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"U.S. military reviews 'enemy combatant' use". USA Today. 2007-10-11. Archived from the original on 2012-08-11.
Critics called it an overdue acknowledgment that the so-called Combatant Status Review Tribunals are unfairly geared toward labeling detainees the enemy, even when they pose little danger. Simply redoing the tribunals won't fix the problem, they said, because the system still allows coerced evidence and denies detainees legal representation.
- Guantánamo Prisoners Getting Their Day, but Hardly in Court, The New York Times, November 11, 2004 - mirror Archived 2007-09-30 at the Wayback Machine
- Inside the Guantánamo Bay hearings: Barbarian "Justice" dispensed by KGB-style "military tribunals", Financial Times, December 11, 2004
- "Q&A: What next for Guantanamo prisoners?". BBC News. 2002-01-21. Archived from the original on 24 November 2008. Retrieved 2008-11-24.
- Benjamin Wittes; Zaathira Wyne (2008-12-16). "The Current Detainee Population of Guantánamo: An Empirical Study" (PDF). The Brookings Institution. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2017-05-19. Retrieved 2010-02-16.
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Christopher Hope; Robert Winnett; Holly Watt; Heidi Blake (2011-04-27). "WikiLeaks: Guantanamo Bay terrorist secrets revealed -- Guantanamo Bay has been used to incarcerate dozens of terrorists who have admitted plotting terrifying attacks against the West – while imprisoning more than 150 totally innocent people, top-secret files disclose". The Telegraph (UK). Archived from the original on 2012-07-13. Retrieved 2012-07-13.
The Daily Telegraph, along with other newspapers including The Washington Post, today exposes America’s own analysis of almost ten years of controversial interrogations on the world’s most dangerous terrorists. This newspaper has been shown thousands of pages of top-secret files obtained by the WikiLeaks website.
- "WikiLeaks: The Guantánamo files database". The Telegraph (UK). 2011-04-27. Archived from the original on 2015-06-26. Retrieved 2012-07-10.
- "Abdul Latif Nasir: Guantanamo Bay detainee file on Abdul Latif Nasir, US9MO-000244DP, passed to the Telegraph by Wikileaks". The Telegraph (UK). 2011-04-27. Retrieved 2017-01-17.
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Carol Rosenberg (2013-06-17). "FOAI suit reveals Guantanamo's 'indefinite detainees'". Miami Herald. Archived from the original on 2014-11-21. Retrieved 2016-08-18.
The Miami Herald’s Carol Rosenberg, with the assistance of the Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic at the Yale Law School, filed suit in federal court in Washington D.C., in March for the list under the Freedom of Information Act. The students, in collaboration with Washington attorney Jay Brown, represented Rosenberg in a lawsuit that specifically sought the names of the 46 surviving prisoners.
- Julie Tate, Missy Ryan (2017-01-22). "The Trump era has stranded these five men at Guantanamo Bay". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 2017-01-22.
- Messman, Lauren (2020-02-03). "'Radiolab' Covers Guantánamo Bay Detainee in First Serialized Story". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-03-10.
External Links
- Abdul Latif Nasir JTF-GTMO Detainee Assessment (PDF) - The New York Times (The Guantanamo Docket)
- The Other Latif podcast series from Radiolab (WNYC Studios)