The Periodic Review Boards administrate a US "administrative procedure" for recommending whether certain individuals held in the Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba are safe to release or transfer, or whether they should continue to be held without charge.[1][2][3] The boards are authorized by and overseen by the Periodic Review Secretariat, which President Barack Obama set up with Executive Order 13567 on March 7, 2011.

Senior Civil Service officials from six agencies sit on the Board: the United States Department of Defense, Homeland Security, Justice and State, and the offices of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Director of National Intelligence.[4] Each member has a veto over any recommendation.[4] Although Obama authorized the Secretariat to conduct periodic reviews in early 2011, the first review was not conducted until late 2013.

On July 21, 2013, Carol Rosenberg, writing in the Miami Herald, reported that the announcement that the Boards would finally be convened followed a "flurry of emails" to the captives attorneys—after years of delay.[5] Rosenberg noted that the announcement from Norton C. Joerg, a former officer and senior lawyer with the United States Navy, came at the height of the most widespread Guantanamo hunger strike.

Individuals who have faced charges, become eligible to have their status reviewed by a Periodic Review Board, if the charges they faced are dropped. In 2013, 24 new individuals who the Guantanamo Review Task Force had recommended should face charges, had those charges dropped, and became eligible for review, when appeals courts had overturned convictions for "providing material support for terrorism".

During the second review, on January 28, 2014, that of Abdel Malik al Rahabi, nine reporters and four human rights workers were allowed to observe a video-link to the 19 minute unclassified portion of the hearing.[6] 69 other individuals can expect to have their status reviewed.

Almost half of the individuals still at Guantanamo have already been cleared for release or transfer—some as long ago as 2005, so critics have questioned how meaningful it had been to clear Mahmud Abd Al Aziz Al Mujahid for release.

Under the Obama Administration, the Board examined 63 detainees, recommending 37 of those to be transferred.[4]

Of the 693 total former detainees transferred out of Guantanamo, 30% are suspected or confirmed to have reengaged in terrorist activity.[4] Of those detainees that were transferred out under President Obama, 5.6% are confirmed and 6.8% are suspected of reengaging in terrorist activity.[4]

The Board held its first hearing under President Donald Trump on February 9, 2017.[4] Warning of the danger of recidivism, that same day eleven Republican Senators wrote a letter encouraging the President to immediately suspend the Board and to prohibit the transfer of any detainees.[4]

On February 6, 2018, the first full review during the Trump administration took place.[7] Khalid Ahmed Qasim had had four file reviews since his first full review, on March 6, 2015.

Timeline

Periodic Review timeline
isndateevent
2011-03-07In Executive Order 13567 President Obama authorizes the Periodic Review Secretariat.[1][2][3]
2013-07-25Mahmud Abd Al Aziz Al Mujahid and Abdel Malik Ahmed Abdel Wahab Al Rahabi are the first two individuals to be advised they would have a PRB convened to review the Guantanamo Review Task Force determination that they were too dangerous to release—even though the evidence to charge them with a crime did not exist.[8]
2013-09-25Ali Ahmad al-Razihi and Ghaleb Nassar Al Bihani are advised they would have a PRB convened to review the Guantanamo Review Task Force determination that they were too dangerous to release.[8]
312013-11-20Mahmud Abd Al Aziz Al Mujahid's Board convenes.[8] No observers are allowed. The Board recommends that he is no longer too dangerous to release.
372014-01-28Abdel Malik Ahmed Abdel Wahab Al Rahabi's Board convenes.[8] His is the first Guantanamo review of any kind where human rights observers are allowed. Four human rights workers and nine journalists are allowed to watch the first 19 minutes of his review. The Board recommends continued detention at Guantanamo, with another review in six months.[9]
1312014-01-28Salem Ahmad Hadi Bin Kanad is advised he will have a PRB convened to review the Guantanamo Review Task Force determination that they were too dangerous to release.[8]
2014-02-11Muhammed Abd Al Rahman Awn Al-Shamrani and Faez Mohammed Ahmed Al-Kandari. are advised they would have a PRB convened to review the Guantanamo Review Task Force determination that they were too dangerous to release.[8]
2322014-02-12Fouzi Khalid Abdullah Al Awda is advised he will have a PRB convened to review the Guantanamo Review Task Force determination that they were too dangerous to release.[8]
7132014-02-26Muhammad Murdi Issa Al-Zahrani is advised he will have a PRB convened to review the Guantanamo Review Task Force determination that they were too dangerous to release.[8]
452014-03-20Ali Ahmad al-Razihi's Board convenes.[8][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]
1282014-04-08Ghaleb Nassar Al Bihani's Review is scheduled for this date.[17]
1282014-05-28Ghaleb Nassar Al Bihani's Review Board publishes its recommendation that he should be cleared for release.[18]
2322014-06-04Fouzi Khalid Abdullah Al Awda's Review is scheduled for this date.[8]
5522014-07-14Faez Mohammed Ahmed Al-Kandari
7132014-10-03Muhammad Murdi Issa Al-Zahrani
5352015-02-12Tariq Mahmoud Ahmed Al Sawah
2352015-03-18Saeed Ahmed Mohammed Abdullah Sarem JarabhThe PRB published the decision to recommend a clearance to release.[19]
324Mashur Abdullah Muqbil Ahmed Al-Sabri
2422015-03-18Khaled QuasimThe PRB recommended continued detention.[19]

References

  1. 1 2 Carol Rosenberg (2013-11-15). "Guantánamo's forever captives to make pitch for freedom in secret". Miami Herald. Archived from the original on 2013-11-16. Retrieved 2014-02-02. President Barack Obama ordered his administration to set up the so-called Periodic Review Boards March 7, 2011. In July, Defense Department officials said the boards would review the files of 71 Guantánamo prisoners' cases — 46 so-called "indefinite detainees" and 25 men once considered candidates for war crimes trials.
  2. 1 2 Jason Leopold (2013-07-24). "Panel to review Guantanamo detainees: A new governmental process will review whether specific detainees should be freed". Al Jazeera. Archived from the original on 2013-07-21. Two years after President Obama signed an executive order establishing a parole board of sorts to review whether any of Guantanamo's 48 "indefinite detainees" can be released, the panel is finally getting to work, with an eye towards reducing the population, Al Jazeera has learned.
  3. 1 2 Ben Fox (2014-01-25). "New Guantanamo Hearings Limit Media, NGO Access". Miami: Abc News. Archived from the original on 2014-02-06. Some prisoners at Guantanamo are getting an opportunity to plead for their release, but journalists and observers from human rights groups won't get to hear them in what critics say is a break from past practice at the U.S. base in Cuba.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Charlie Savage (18 February 2017). "The Fight Over Guantánamo's Parole Board, Explained". The New York Times. pp. A10. Retrieved 20 February 2017.
  5. ↑ Carol Rosenberg (2013-07-21). "Pentagon prepares review panels for 71 Guantánamo detainees". Miami Herald. Archived from the original on 2013-08-22. Retrieved 2014-02-03. The disclosure followed a flurry of emails sent after 10 p.m. Friday by Pentagon bureaucrats notifying attorneys for some of the 71 captives that preparations were underway to hold the so-called Periodic Review Boards ordered by President Barack Obama years ago.
  6. ↑ Andrea Prasow (2014-01-28). "Dispatches: Opaque As Ever at Guantanamo". Human Rights Watch. Archived from the original on 2014-02-02. Nineteen minutes. That's how long the review hearing for a Guantanamo detainee lasted this morning. Or, to be more exact, that's as much of the proceeding as nine reporters and four representatives from nongovernmental organizations were permitted to observe, via video feed, from a secure conference room in Arlington, Virginia.
  7. ↑ Katherine Cosgrove (2018-02-05). "The First Periodic Review Board Initiated by the Trump Administration". Human Rights First. Retrieved 2018-02-06.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "Periodic Review Secretariat: Review Information". Periodic Review Secretariat. Archived from the original on 2013-12-30.
  9. ↑ Charlie Savage (2014-03-12). "Panel Says Yemeni Man Should Stay in Detention". New York Times. Washington DC. p. A18. Archived from the original on 2014-03-27. Retrieved 2014-02-13. A parole-style panel at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, has decided to recommend that the military continue to hold a Yemeni man in indefinite wartime detention without trial, according to a military document. The decision is the first of its kind for the Obama administration's new Periodic Review Board system.
  10. ↑ Ian Simpson (2014-03-20). "U.S. Guantanamo board to review case of 'Dirty 30' bin Laden bodyguard". Washington DC: Reuters. Archived from the original on 2014-03-20. A suspected Osama bin Laden bodyguard held at Guantanamo Bay military prison for 12 years is due to face a U.S. national security board on Thursday that will weigh whether he should remain jailed there.
  11. ↑ Wells Bennett (2014-03-20). "Periodic Review Board Hearing Today". Lawfare. Archived from the original on 2014-03-20. Today an interagency review panel will hear, by video hookup, the case of Guantanamo detainee Ali Ahmad al-Razihi. The issue is whether the Yemeni's further detention is necessary to protect a continuing, significant security threat to the United States.
  12. ↑ "U.S. Guantanamo board reviews case of 'Dirty 30' bin Laden bodyguard". Firstpost. 2014-03-20. Archived from the original on 2014-03-20. Razihi's hearing before the Periodic Review Board was to re-examine whether he should continue to be held without charge at Guantanamo Bay, the U.S. military prison in Cuba, or be transferred, possibly home to Yemen.
  13. ↑ "Guantanamo prisoner asks to go home to Yemen". Iron Mountain Daily News. 2014-03-20. Archived from the original on 2014-03-20. The review board, with offices near the Pentagon, is part of President Barack Obama's effort to close the prison. Made up of representatives from six U.S. government agencies, the board now must decide if al-Razihi poses any lingering threat to the United States, a process that could take weeks.
  14. ↑ "Guantanamo detainee from Yemen pleads to be sent home". Yahoo News. 2014-03-20. Archived from the original on 2014-03-20. With a thick beard and gray prison garb, 34-year-old Ali Ahmed Mohammed al-Rahizi was presented to the panel reviewing his case as "possibly having served as a guard" for Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.
  15. ↑ John Knefel (2014-03-20). "Freedom by PowerPoint: A Guantanamo 'Forever Prisoner' Seeks Transfer". Rolling Stone magazine. Archived from the original on 2014-03-20. The personal representatives submitted a PowerPoint business plan to show that Razihi intended to live a peaceful civilian life in Yemen.
  16. ↑ "U.S. Guantanamo board to review case of 'Dirty 30' bin Laden bodyguard". AM NY. 2014-03-20. Archived from the original on 2014-03-20. Retrieved 2014-03-20. The hearing is the third by the review board, designed to ease the eventual closing of the prison. About 70 of the 154 prisoners at Guantanamo Bay cannot be prosecuted for various reasons but are considered too dangerous to release.
  17. ↑ Andy Worthington (2014-04-05). "Please Read "Guantánamo Forever," My Latest Article for Al-Jazeera English". Archived from the original on 2014-04-06. The review boards began in November, and have, to date, reviewed just three of the 71 cases they were set up to review. The fourth, reviewing the case of Ghaleb al-Bihani, a Yemeni, takes place on April 8.
  18. ↑ Carol Rosenberg (2014-05-28). "Board OKs release of sickly 'forever prisoner' who learned yoga at Guantánamo: Ghaleb Nassar al Bihani, 35, of Yemen is cleared for release 'when practicable' and says he would prefer going to a third country rather than his homeland". Guantanamo Bay Naval Base: Miami Herald. Archived from the original on 2014-06-02. Retrieved 2014-06-02. The Yemeni's new designation as eligible for release means that of Guantánamo prison's 154 captives, 43 are now considered indefinite detainees and 78 could leave once the State Department negotiates transfer deals. The rest include three convicted war criminals and other captives either awaiting trial or considered possible tribunal candidates.
  19. 1 2 Carol Rosenberg (2015-03-18). "Guantánamo parole board clears another 'forever prisoner'". Miami Herald. Board members from the Departments of Defense, Justice, State, Homeland Security as well as the National Intelligence directorate cited as a reason for his release a "lack of indications that the detainee harbors anti-American sentiments, extremist beliefs or intention to reengage" after 13 years in U.S. military custody.
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