Al-Qaeda safe house
Encyclopedia
American
intelligence analysts justify the extrajudicial detention
of Guantanamo
suspects because they stayed in what they characterized as an Al Qaida safe house.
American intelligence analysts also justify the detention of suspects who stayed in an Al Qaida guest house, a Taliban safe house or a Taliban guest house.
In the first Seton Hall report
, Mark Denbeaux
writes that guest houses and/or safe houses are mentioned in the evidence against 27% of detainees. Denbeaux states that "In the region, the term guest house refers simply to a form of travel accommodation" and "Stopping at such facilities is common for all people traveling in the area." A response to that report written by West Point's Combating Terrorism Center
argued that "the Seton Hall report inaccurately defines the term ‘safe-house’ – a well-known tool leveraged by criminals and terrorists to facilitate discrete movement of associates – as an innocuous residence used by American
tourists and travel agencies."
Denbeaux responded that the Seton Hall study had "used the Department of Defense’s terms objectively and accepted their plain meanings" and that "West Point does not provide any basis for equating guest houses and safe houses other than the obvious problem with detaining an individual in part based on his stay in a 'guest' house."
The CTC report states that:
Benjamin Wittes
and his colleagues at the Brookings Institute noted in January 2010 that different judges reviewing the habeas petitions for different Guantanamo captives had reached conflicting conclusions on the common issue of whether an alleged stay in a suspect guest house indicated terrorist affiliation strongly enough to justify continued detention.
Wittes and his colleagues, in their analysis of the documents from the first 558 Combatant Status Review Tribunals, reported that continued detention was found justified for 130 Guantanamo captives at least in part because they "stayed in Al Qaeda, Taliban, or other guest- or safehouses."
Joseph Felter and his colleagues, in "An Assessment of 516 Combatant Status Review Tribunal (CSRT) Unclassified Summaries", found that 24 percent of the Summary of Evidence memos
, or 122 of the 516 they analyzed, justified the continued detention of a captive due to claims of stays in a suspicious guest house or safe house.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
intelligence analysts justify the extrajudicial detention
Extrajudicial detention
Arbitrary or extrajudicial detention is the detention of individuals by a state, without ever laying formal charges against them.Although it has a long history of legitimate use in wartime , detention without charge, sometimes in secret, has been one of the hallmarks of totalitarian states...
of Guantanamo
Guantanamo Bay detainment camp
The Guantanamo Bay detention camp is a detainment and interrogation facility of the United States located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba. The facility was established in 2002 by the Bush Administration to hold detainees from the war in Afghanistan and later Iraq...
suspects because they stayed in what they characterized as an Al Qaida safe house.
American intelligence analysts also justify the detention of suspects who stayed in an Al Qaida guest house, a Taliban safe house or a Taliban guest house.
In the first Seton Hall report
Seton Hall reports
Seton Hall report refers to several studies into the handling of detainees taken to Guantánamo Bay done by professor Mark P. Denbeaux of the Seton Hall University School of Law, and some of his law students....
, Mark Denbeaux
Mark Denbeaux
Mark P. Denbeaux is a law professor at Seton Hall University School of Law, Director of the Center for Policy and Research at Seton Hall Law School, author of a standard law text, and practicing attorney of counsel in the family law firm of Denbeaux & Denbeaux.Denbeaux served as senior attorney in...
writes that guest houses and/or safe houses are mentioned in the evidence against 27% of detainees. Denbeaux states that "In the region, the term guest house refers simply to a form of travel accommodation" and "Stopping at such facilities is common for all people traveling in the area." A response to that report written by West Point's Combating Terrorism Center
Combating Terrorism Center
The Combating Terrorism Center is an academic institution at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York that provides education, research and policy analysis in the specialty areas of terrorism, counterterrorism, homeland security and weapons of mass destruction...
argued that "the Seton Hall report inaccurately defines the term ‘safe-house’ – a well-known tool leveraged by criminals and terrorists to facilitate discrete movement of associates – as an innocuous residence used by American
tourists and travel agencies."
Denbeaux responded that the Seton Hall study had "used the Department of Defense’s terms objectively and accepted their plain meanings" and that "West Point does not provide any basis for equating guest houses and safe houses other than the obvious problem with detaining an individual in part based on his stay in a 'guest' house."
The CTC report states that:
Safe-houses, sometimes referred to as ‘guest-houses,’ facilitate an individual’s ability to
discretely transit from one location to another by providing them with a place to spend the
night, acquire resources, obtain false documentation or secure modes of transportation.
Organized crime syndicates, terrorist networks and traffickers all rely on safe-houses to
move people from place-to-place. They may be houses, apartments, mosques, stores,
refugee camps, barracks, or any other type of infrastructure that houses individuals involved
in nefarious activities.
Al-Qa`ida, the Taliban and their associates have leveraged the safe-house network to great
ends, particularly in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Many of these houses and apartments,
which had been run for the specific purpose of ensuring safe passage for associates of those movements, have been identified by the United States in its ongoing counterterrorism
operations.
Benjamin Wittes
Benjamin Wittes
Benjamin Wittes is a fellow at the Brookings Institution, where he is Research Director in Public Law. Wittes is also a member of the Hoover Institution's Task Force on National Security and Law...
and his colleagues at the Brookings Institute noted in January 2010 that different judges reviewing the habeas petitions for different Guantanamo captives had reached conflicting conclusions on the common issue of whether an alleged stay in a suspect guest house indicated terrorist affiliation strongly enough to justify continued detention.
Wittes and his colleagues, in their analysis of the documents from the first 558 Combatant Status Review Tribunals, reported that continued detention was found justified for 130 Guantanamo captives at least in part because they "stayed in Al Qaeda, Taliban, or other guest- or safehouses."
Joseph Felter and his colleagues, in "An Assessment of 516 Combatant Status Review Tribunal (CSRT) Unclassified Summaries", found that 24 percent of the Summary of Evidence memos
Summary of Evidence (CSRT)
Counter-terrorism analysts prepared a Summary of Evidence memo for the Combatant Status Review Tribunals of the 558 captives who remained in the Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba in the fall of 2004.-The 2005 release:...
, or 122 of the 516 they analyzed, justified the continued detention of a captive due to claims of stays in a suspicious guest house or safe house.