Ali Hamza al-Bahlul
Encyclopedia
Ali Hamza Ahmad Suliman al Bahlul (born September 11, 1969, Hudaydah, Yemen) has been held in the United States
Guantanamo Bay detention camp since 2002. He boycotted the Guantanamo Military Commissions, arguing that there was no legal basis for the military tribunals and was convicted in November 2008 of performing media relations
for Osama bin Laden
and sentenced to life imprisonment after a jury of 9 military officers deliberated for less than an hour.
counter-terrorism
analysts describe Bahlul as al Qaida's public relations
director. He is alleged to have created propaganda videos glorifying attacks against the United States, and to have set up a satellite receiver for Osama bin Laden
to listen to live radio coverage of the September 11th attacks.
He faced charges before the first Guantanamo military commissions, before they were over-turned by the United States Supreme Court. In 2004 he was held in solitary confinement
.
Bahlul faced charges before a Guantanamo military commission
, prior to the United States Supreme Court ruling in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld
that the Bush
Presidency lacked the constitutional authority
to create military commissions.
He was indicted along with Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi
.
Lieutenant Commander
Philip Sundel, his first military defense attorney, described difficulty getting a security clearance for a translator to talk to his client. Sundel told CBS News
: "There's virtually no chance he can get a fair trial."
Bahlul asked Peter Brownback
, the President of the commissions, if he could represent himself. Al Bahlul and the question of whether detainees should be able to represent themselves were featured in the October 2007 issue of the Yale Law Journal in an article by Matthew Bloom entitled: "'I Did Not Come Here To Defend Myself': Responding to War on Terror Detainees' Attempts To Dismiss Counsel and Boycott the Trial". His most recent military lawyer is Major
Thomas Fleener
. On February 9, 2008, Bahlul and Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud Al Qosi
were charged before the Congressionally authorized Guantanamo military commissions authorized by the Military Commissions Act of 2006
.
Carol Rosenberg
, reporting in the Miami Herald, reported that Bahlul would be allowed to represent himself before the commissions authorized by the United States Congress
's Military Commissions Act of 2006
, while he was not allowed to represent himself before the Presidentially authorized commissions.
David McFadden of the Associated Press
reported that only three reporters covered Bahlul's trial. one from the Miami Herald, one from the Associated Press, and one from Reuters
.
" testified at Bahlul's Guantanamo military commissions about being shown a two hour video that Bahlul produced.
. At his sentencing he admitted he was a member of Al-Qaeda, and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Through a translator Bahlul said "We will fight government that governs America, We are the only ones on Earth who stand against you."
, writing in the Miami Herald, reported that Bahlul's military defense attorneys filed a fifty page appeal of his sentence on free speech grounds. The appeal was the second filed with the Court for Military Commission Review. Bahlul had boycotted his military commission, so no defense was mounted. He also refused to participate in the appeal.
Rosenberg reported that the Obama
Presidency has proposed a change whereby appeals of the rulings and verdicts of military commissions would be heard. The proposed changes would have such appeals first heard by the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, which Rosenberg noted was a 58-year-old institution. In the current set-up there is no appeal to rulings of the Court of Military Commission Review. Under the proposed changes appeals could be taken to the United States Supreme Court.
reported that, following his conviction, Al Bahlul was separated from the other captives. She reported that the Department of Defense justified this isolation because the "Geneva Conventions ... forbids convicts from being held with war prisoners."
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Guantanamo Bay detention camp since 2002. He boycotted the Guantanamo Military Commissions, arguing that there was no legal basis for the military tribunals and was convicted in November 2008 of performing media relations
Media relations
Media relations involves working with various media for the purpose of informing the public of an organization's mission, policies and practices in a positive, consistent and credible manner. Typically, this means coordinating directly with the people responsible for producing the news and features...
for Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
and sentenced to life imprisonment after a jury of 9 military officers deliberated for less than an hour.
Background
Joint Task Force GuantanamoJoint Task Force Guantanamo
Joint Task Force Guantanamo is a U.S. military joint task force based at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Guantánamo Bay, Cuba on the southeastern end of the island. JTF-GTMO falls under US Southern Command...
counter-terrorism
Counter-terrorism
Counter-terrorism is the practices, tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, militaries, police departments and corporations adopt to prevent or in response to terrorist threats and/or acts, both real and imputed.The tactic of terrorism is available to insurgents and governments...
analysts describe Bahlul as al Qaida's public relations
Public relations
Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....
director. He is alleged to have created propaganda videos glorifying attacks against the United States, and to have set up a satellite receiver for Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
to listen to live radio coverage of the September 11th attacks.
He faced charges before the first Guantanamo military commissions, before they were over-turned by the United States Supreme Court. In 2004 he was held in solitary confinement
Solitary confinement
Solitary confinement is a special form of imprisonment in which a prisoner is isolated from any human contact, though often with the exception of members of prison staff. It is sometimes employed as a form of punishment beyond incarceration for a prisoner, and has been cited as an additional...
.
Charged before a military commission
Guantanamo military commission
The Guantanamo military commissions are military tribunals created by the Military Commissions Act of 2006 for prosecuting detainees held in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps.- History :...
, prior to the United States Supreme Court ruling in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld
Hamdan v. Rumsfeld
Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, 548 U.S. 557 , is a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that military commissions set up by the Bush administration to try detainees at Guantanamo Bay lack "the power to proceed because its structures and procedures violate both the Uniform Code of Military...
that the Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
Presidency lacked the constitutional authority
United States Constitution
The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It is the framework for the organization of the United States government and for the relationship of the federal government with the states, citizens, and all people within the United States.The first three...
to create military commissions.
He was indicted along with Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi
Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi
-Habeas petition:A petition of habeas corpus was filed on Al Qosi's behalf.Over two hundred captives had habeas corpus petitions filed on their behalf before the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 and the Military Commissions Act of 2006 closed off the captives' access to the US civilian justice...
.
Lieutenant Commander
Lieutenant Commander
Lieutenant Commander is a commissioned officer rank in many navies. The rank is superior to a lieutenant and subordinate to a commander...
Philip Sundel, his first military defense attorney, described difficulty getting a security clearance for a translator to talk to his client. Sundel told CBS News
CBS News
CBS News is the news division of American television and radio network CBS. The current chairman is Jeff Fager who is also the executive producer of 60 Minutes, while the current president of CBS News is David Rhodes. CBS News' flagship program is the CBS Evening News, hosted by the network's main...
: "There's virtually no chance he can get a fair trial."
Bahlul asked Peter Brownback
Peter Brownback
Peter E. Brownback III is a retired military officer and lawyer.He was appointed to be a Presiding Officer on the Guantanamo military commissions, by retired general John D. Altenburg....
, the President of the commissions, if he could represent himself. Al Bahlul and the question of whether detainees should be able to represent themselves were featured in the October 2007 issue of the Yale Law Journal in an article by Matthew Bloom entitled: "'I Did Not Come Here To Defend Myself': Responding to War on Terror Detainees' Attempts To Dismiss Counsel and Boycott the Trial". His most recent military lawyer is Major
Major
Major is a rank of commissioned officer, with corresponding ranks existing in almost every military in the world.When used unhyphenated, in conjunction with no other indicator of rank, the term refers to the rank just senior to that of an Army captain and just below the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...
Thomas Fleener
Thomas Fleener
Thomas Fleener is a military officer and lawyer. Fleener, a major in the United States Army Reserve, has been appointed to serve as a defense lawyer in the Guantanamo military commissions. He has been appointed to serve as the defense lawyer for Ali Hamza Ahmed Sulayman al Bahlul.In his civilian...
. On February 9, 2008, Bahlul and Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud Al Qosi
Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi
-Habeas petition:A petition of habeas corpus was filed on Al Qosi's behalf.Over two hundred captives had habeas corpus petitions filed on their behalf before the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 and the Military Commissions Act of 2006 closed off the captives' access to the US civilian justice...
were charged before the Congressionally authorized Guantanamo military commissions authorized by the Military Commissions Act of 2006
Military Commissions Act of 2006
The United States Military Commissions Act of 2006, also known as HR-6166, was an Act of Congress signed by President George W. Bush on October 17, 2006. Drafted in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision on Hamdan v...
.
Carol Rosenberg
Carol Rosenberg
Carol Rosenberg is a senior journalist, currently with the McClatchy News Service.Rosenberg works at the Miami Herald, which has provided extensive coverage of the operation of the Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.-Biography:...
, reporting in the Miami Herald, reported that Bahlul would be allowed to represent himself before the commissions authorized by the United States Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
's Military Commissions Act of 2006
Military Commissions Act of 2006
The United States Military Commissions Act of 2006, also known as HR-6166, was an Act of Congress signed by President George W. Bush on October 17, 2006. Drafted in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision on Hamdan v...
, while he was not allowed to represent himself before the Presidentially authorized commissions.
David McFadden of the Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
reported that only three reporters covered Bahlul's trial. one from the Miami Herald, one from the Associated Press, and one from Reuters
Reuters
Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...
.
Testimony of members of the "Buffalo Six"
In late October 2008 three of the men called the "Buffalo SixBuffalo Six
The Buffalo Six is a group of six Yemeni-American childhood friends who were convicted of providing material support to al-Qaeda, based on the fact they had attended an Al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan together in the Spring of 2001.They are:*Mukhtar Al-Bakri,*Sahim Alwan,*Faysal...
" testified at Bahlul's Guantanamo military commissions about being shown a two hour video that Bahlul produced.
Conviction
On November 3, 2008, Bahlul was convicted of conspiring with al Qaeda, soliciting murder and providing material support for terrorismProviding material support for terrorism
Providing material support for terrorism is a provision of the USA PATRIOT Act which prohibits material support to groups designated as terrorists. The four types of support described are “training,” “expert advice or assistance,” “service,” and “personnel.” In June 2010 the United States Supreme...
. At his sentencing he admitted he was a member of Al-Qaeda, and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Through a translator Bahlul said "We will fight government that governs America, We are the only ones on Earth who stand against you."
Appeal
Carol RosenbergCarol Rosenberg
Carol Rosenberg is a senior journalist, currently with the McClatchy News Service.Rosenberg works at the Miami Herald, which has provided extensive coverage of the operation of the Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.-Biography:...
, writing in the Miami Herald, reported that Bahlul's military defense attorneys filed a fifty page appeal of his sentence on free speech grounds. The appeal was the second filed with the Court for Military Commission Review. Bahlul had boycotted his military commission, so no defense was mounted. He also refused to participate in the appeal.
Rosenberg reported that the Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
Presidency has proposed a change whereby appeals of the rulings and verdicts of military commissions would be heard. The proposed changes would have such appeals first heard by the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, which Rosenberg noted was a 58-year-old institution. In the current set-up there is no appeal to rulings of the Court of Military Commission Review. Under the proposed changes appeals could be taken to the United States Supreme Court.
Isolation from the other captives
Carol RosenbergCarol Rosenberg
Carol Rosenberg is a senior journalist, currently with the McClatchy News Service.Rosenberg works at the Miami Herald, which has provided extensive coverage of the operation of the Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.-Biography:...
reported that, following his conviction, Al Bahlul was separated from the other captives. She reported that the Department of Defense justified this isolation because the "Geneva Conventions ... forbids convicts from being held with war prisoners."