Abdullah Yahia Yousf Al Shabli

Abdullah Yahia Yousf Al Shabli
File:ISN 240.jpg
Born	1977 (age 46–47) Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Other names	Abdallah Yahya Yusif Al-Shibli Abdullah Yahia Yosuf al Shabli
Citizenship	Yemeni

Abdullah Yahia Yousf Al Shabli (عبدالله يحيى يوسف الشبلي) was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba, from February 7, 2002, to January 5, 2017. The Department of Defense reports that he was born on September 10, 1977, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number is 240. The Department of Defense was inconsistent as to his nationality, stating both Yemeni and Saudi Arabian.

Background

Reprieve reports he was captured by Afghan Military Forces sometime between December 2001 and February 2002. They reported he described his Afghan captors torturing him. Historian Andy Worthington, author of The Guantanamo Files, described the official DoD documents as contradicting themselves. Those documents describe him seeing Osama bin Laden in Tora Bora, the high mountain pass where American forces described engaging a large number of al Qaeda fighters, guarding bin Laden. They also describe him being part of a convoy of refugees fleeing down one of Afghanistan's few highways, the road connecting Kabul, Jalalabad, with the Pakistani city of Peshawar. He noted that, "At no point in this story, therefore, was there any suggestion that he engaged in combat, or had even been in a position where he might have engaged in combat, and it is surprising that he was not released in 2006 or 2007, when dozens of Saudi prisoners were released."

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. 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

Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held in a 3x5 meter trailer where the captive sat with his hands and feet shackled to a bolt in the floor.

Following the Supreme Court's ruling the Department of Defense set up the Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants.

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:

• Abdullah Yahia Yousf Al Shabli was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges ... are associated with Al Qaeda."
• Abdullah Yahia Yousf Al Shabli was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges ... traveled to Afghanistan for jihad."
• Abdullah Yahia Yousf Al Shabli 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."
• Abdullah Yahia Yousf Al Shabli was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges ... took military or terrorist training in Afghanistan."
• Abdullah Yahia Yousf Al Shabli was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges ... were at Tora Bora."
• Abdullah Yahia Yousf Al Shabli was listed as one of the captives whose "names or aliases were found on material seized in raids on Al Qaeda safehouses and facilities."
• Abdullah Yahia Yousf Al Shabli was listed as one of the captives who was a foreign fighter.
• Abdullah Yahia Yousf Al Shabli 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."

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. His Joint Task Force Guantanamo assessment was drafted on It was signed by camp commandant He recommended

Joint Review Task Force

Joint Review Task Force

Transfer to Saudi Arabia

Although al-Shabli, and dozens of other captives from Yemen, were cleared for release by the Joint Review Task Force, in 2009, a would-be suicide bomber from Kenya, who tried and failed to bring down a US airliner, had been trained and equipped in Yemen, making transfers to Yemen politically unacceptable. Charlie Savage, of the New York Times, reported that, in 2014, the Obama Presidency gave up on Yemen, concluding it would not have improved its security before the end of his term, and strted transferring Yemenis who had been cleared for release to other countries.

In the months before his term ended observes speculated that the Obam Presidency, while falling short of his goal of emptying Guantanamo, semed to be aiming to at least transfer all the men who had been cleared for release. Al-Shabli, and three other Yemenis, were tranferred to Saudi Arabia, on January 5, 2017, where they would be held in the Saudi rehabilitation centre, situated in a former resort.

His transfer took place fifteen days prior to Donald Trump's inauguration, and Trump tweeted: “There should be no further releases from Gitmo. These are extremely dangerous people and should not be allowed back onto the battlefield.”

At the time of his transfer The Hill repeated the assessment of DoD analysts that al-Shibli had tried to mislead interrogators, about the length of time he had been in Afghanistan, prior to al Qaeda's attacks on September 11, 2001.