Khaled Qasim
Khaled Ahmed Qasim | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 21, 1977 Yemen |
| Occupation | Detainee |
| Known for | Detention at Guantanamo Bay without formal charges |
Khaled Ahmed Qasim (born January 21, 1977) is a Yemeni national who was detained without formal charges at the United States' Guantanamo Bay detention facility located in Cuba.
Official status evaluations
Under President George W. Bush's administration, individuals captured during the "war on terror" were classified as beyond the Geneva Conventions' protections and could be held indefinitely without formal accusations or transparent hearings. Critics contended that the Combatant Status Review Tribunals were predisposed to designate detainees as enemy combatants, often relying on coerced testimony and lacking legal counsel.
In 2004, the U.S. Supreme Court decided in Rasul v. Bush that detainees at Guantanamo must be notified of the reasons for their detention and given an opportunity to contest it.
Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants
In response to the Supreme Court ruling, the Department of Defense created the Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants to conduct reviews of detainee classifications.
A December 2008 analysis by researchers at the Brookings Institution, led by Benjamin Wittes, classified Guantanamo detainees according to military allegations:Cite error: Closing </ref> missing for <ref> tag
Previously classified Joint Task Force Guantanamo evaluation
On April 25, 2011, the whistleblower group WikiLeaks disclosed formerly confidential assessments prepared by analysts from Joint Task Force Guantanamo. The 13-page report, authored on April 7, 2008, was signed by camp commander Rear Admiral Mark H. Buzby, who advocated for continued detention.
Discussion with Arun Rath
In January 2017, National Public Radio correspondent Arun Rath produced a PBS Frontline episode centered on Mansur al-Dayfi, who was transferred to Serbia in July 2016. During a subsequent visit to Guantanamo, Rath permitted Khaled Qasim to speak with him despite contravening JTF-GTMO regulations. Although recording had to be halted, Rath later recounted details for his documentary. When informing al-Dayfi about this conversation, al-Dayfi recognized Qasim as his closest friend and became too emotional to proceed.
Qasim revealed that he had undergone four review hearings and expressed concern over indefinite confinement at Guantanamo.[1]
Op-ed published in the Guardian, on October 13, 2017
On October 13, 2017, an op-ed authored by Qasim and conveyed through his attorney appeared in The Guardian, drawing attention to a modification in Guantanamo’s medical approach.[2][3] Prior to September 20, 2017, the routine response to hunger strikers reaching dangerously low weight was force-feeding. Qasim reported that on that date, the camp’s chief medical officer notified the remaining hunger strikers that force-feeding would cease.
Representatives from the military refuted claims of a policy shift,[3] stating that force-feeding remains a formal practice aimed at preventing fatalities, though the criteria for initiating it had been revised.
Art
During his detention at Guantanamo Bay in 2017, Qasim produced a painting titled Titanic. This piece was among seven artworks created by detainees and displayed at John Jay College in New York during the fall of 2017.[4]
Release
On January 6, 2025, Qasim, along with ten other detainees, was relocated to Oman.[5]
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
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<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedTheGuardian2017-10-13A - ↑ 3.0 3.1 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedTheGuardian2017-10-13B - ↑ https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/tx57KZf30w9sSz0jfvKTYv/seven-works-of-art-created-in-guantanamo
- ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/06/us/politics/guantanamo-prisoners-oman.html