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Boudella el Hajj is a native of Algeria who became a Bosnian citizen, then fell under suspicion by American security officials, who transported him to Camp Delta in the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
El Hajj was raised and educated in Algeria. El Hajj was a University Science lecturer in Algeria. He later studied Islamic studies, and became an iman. In the mid-nineties el Hajj traveled to Bosnia. He became a Bosnian citizen. Married a Bosnian woman, and started a family.
El Hajj worked for the International Committee of the Red Crescent. He oversaw the care of orphans.
According to press reports American security official intercepted suspicious phone calls between a Bosnian of Algerian descent and an Afghani they believed to be Abu Zubaydah, a senior aide to al Qaeda. According to press reports this Bosnian of Algerian descent made 70 calls to Afghanistan between September 11, 2001 and his arrest on November 16, 2001
Half a dozen Bosnians of Algerian descent were taken into custody. According to el Hajj three of them were good friends of his, but he didn't know the other two at all, including the guy who American security officials said phoned Afghanistan. According to el Hajj his three friends were arrested, and the Police phoned him, and told him they wanted to talk to him, so he voluntarily came to the station and surrendered himself.
El Hajj and his compatriots had a trial, before the Bosnian Supreme Court, in January 2002. According to El Hajj they were acquitted, released, and thought they were on their way home, but were apprehended by a mixed force of Americans and Bosnian security officials just outside the prison, and then transported to Guantanamo without bothering with the red-tape of a formal extradition. , where he was Like all high school teenagers in Algeria he underwent compulsary military training.
- a. The detainee is associated with al Qaida:
- The detainee was arrested with XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX, a known al Qaida associate, for International Terrorism by the Bosnian-Herzegovina authorities.
- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX had phone conversations with Abu Zubayday, a senior aide to Usama Bin Laden, who was in charge of screening recruits for al Qaida training camps in Afghanistan.
- The detainee and others acted as an organizaed terrorist group and they were in contact with known al Qaida member, Abu Zubaydah.
- Detainee was arrested by Bosnian authorities in connection with a planned attack on the American embassy.
- Detainee is a member of the Mujahadin network. Also, detainee is likely a member of Armed Islamic Group of Algeria, a militant organization.
- Armed Islamic Group of Algeria, a militant organization.
- Armed Islamic Group of Algeria is on the list of sympathizers and helpers of Usama Bin Laden's al Qaida.
In November 2001 American security officials started to suspect that their was a plot to bomb the American Embassy in Bosnia.
Six guys, born in Algeria were accused. Bosnian authorities arrested them. They stood trial, and were acquitted. Yet they still ended up Guantanamo Bay.
Five of the six were naturalized Bosnian citizens, and the sixth was married to a Bosnian woman. Several of them worked for the International Committee of the Red Crescent -- the Islamic equivalent of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The records of the Combatant Status Review Tribunals of several of these guys are available for download from the Associated Press. They make for ineresting reading. Ostensibly they were captured because American authorities were captured because American security officials still believed they were plotting with al Qaeda to bomb the embassy. Yet, in their Combat Status Review Tribunals the detainees all reported that their interrogators never asked them any questions about the bombing.
The documents AP made available are only the unclassified portions. All the PDFs say, essentially. The unclassified evidence didn't provide any evidence of guilt -- so we relied on the classified evidence. Well, what kind of unclassified evidence was in the detainee's dossiers?
Often there was no unclassified evidence. The Bosnian-Algerians Of course you know One detainee reported that one of his interrogators told him that internal politics within the American security edifice did not allow them to release them from GITMO, even though they had no evidence of any bombing plot.