Jamil al-Banna
Jamil al-Banna (, ) is a
Jordanian with
refugee status in the
United Kingdom, presently incarcerated in
Guantanamo Bay.
Jamil contends that while on a business trip to
Gambia with his friend and business associate,
Bisher Amin Khalil al-Rawi, he was captured by the Gambian National Intelligence Agency on arrival at Banjul airport in Gambia on
November 8,
2002, purportedly on suspicion of alleged links to
al-Qaeda. He was turned over to
U.S. authorities, who transported him to Guantanamo Bay.
Jamil's lawyer,
Clive Stafford Smith, quoted in an article in
The Guardian, said Jamil was a participant in both the
hunger strike that ended when the camp authorities made promises on
July 28,
2005, and a second that started on
August 8. Smith said that Jamil told him that one of the reasons for the second hunger strike was that guards were still searching through the prisoner's copies of the
Qur'an by hand.
Jamil's case has caused controversy within the UK as the British Government refuses to make representations on his behalf, due to his not having attained British citizenship before his imprisonment. All the British nationals imprisoned at Guantanamo were freed before September 2004, following British Government representations.
An article in
The Times repeated Jamil's claim that his American interrogators told him that
MI5 had colluded in Jamil's
extraordinary rendition. The lawyers of Guantanamo Bay detainees have to hand in all their notes. They are all classified. The lawyers are only allowed to examine their notes in a single secure location outside
Washington DC. The Times describes how a section of Stafford Smith's notes were recently declassified::''"In Cuba one interrogator is alleged to have told al-Banna: 'Why are you angry at America? It is your government, Britain, the MI5, who called the CIA and told them you and Bisher were in Gambia and to come and get you. Britain gave everything to us. Britain sold you out to the CIA.'"
The Times repeats Jamil's claim that he was offered $10 million, and a US passport, if he would testify against
Abu Qatada. According to The Times:
"When he refused, an interrogator told him: 'I am going to London . . . I am going to fuck your wife. Your wife is going to be my bitch. Maybe you'll never see your children again.'"Like his friend Bisher al-Rawi, Jamil chose to participate in his
Combatant Status Review Tribunal. The allegations against him recorded in the documents were:
''a. The detainee is a member of al-Qaida::#
Abu Qutada is a known al-Qaida operative arrested in the United Kingdom as a danger to national security.:#
Detainee visited Abu Qatada while Qatada was in hiding from the British police.:#
Detainee has been indicted by a Spanish National High Court Judge for membership in a terrorist organization.:#
Detainee was arrested in Gambia, while attempting to board an airplane with equipment that resembled a homemade electronic device.The Tribunal President struck from the record an allegation that Jamil had helped transmit some money to a charity. The record is not clear why the Tribunal President struck this allegation.
Jamil al-Banna's relationship with Abu Qatada
Jamil admitted knowing Abu Qatada. He had known him for over nine years, prior to the attack on
September 11,
2001. They had lived in the same neighbourhood. And their wives had given birth to children at the same time. Abu Qatada had lead prayers at the mosque he attended. And they were both refugees from Jordan. But they weren't close.
Jamil al-Banna's visit to Abu Qatada while he was in hiding
Jamil admitted driving Abu Qatada's wife and children to visit him, after British authorities had announced he was going to be arrested. He did so at the request of his friend Basher al-Rawi.
Jamil al-Banna's Spanish indictment
Jamil, was indicted by Spanish "superjudge"
Baltasar Garzón. But he claimed that he had no idea why.
Arrest for traveling with homemade electronics
Jamil corrected the Tribunal's "home-made electronics" allegation on several points.
* The arrest was in England, not Gambia.
* The device was carried by his friend, Basher al-Rawi, not himself.
* British authorities determined that the device was not modified, but was just what Basher said it was, a mundane battery charger.
Jamil and Basher al-Rawi travelled to Gambia to meet a shipment of machine parts to be used to set up an edible oil factory owned by Basher's brother. They arrived in Gambia on
November 7,
2002. At first they were under a kind of unofficial house arrest. They were not formally charged with any crimes under Gambian law. They were told that they would be released when their machinery had been checked to make sure it wasn't something that could be used for terrorism.
They weren't detained in a Gambian jail, but rather in a
safehouse, provided by American security officials, guarded by Gambians, but interrogated by Americans.
When the decision was made to take them from Gambia the team that arrived to do that wore black uniforms, their faces covered by black balaklavas. They cut their clothes from their bodies, when they bound them for transportation to Cuba.
*
Amnesty International Fact Sheet on al-Banna*
Some questions about the hunt for Al Qaeda in Spain, World Socialist Web Site*
Documents from Jamil al-Banna's Combatant Status Review Tribunal (.pdf)*
Tortured, humiliated and crying out for some justice,
The Guardian,
January 12,
2005*
UK's 'forgotten' Cuba detainees,
BBC,
25 January 2005*
#
Hunger strikers pledge to die in Guantánamo,
The Guardian,
September 9,
2005#
UK's 'forgotten' Cuba detainees,
BBC,
January 25 2005#
MI5 colluded with CIA over suspects sent to torture jails,
The Times,
December 18 2005
