Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi

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Mustafa al-Hawsawi
Mustafa al-Hawsawi photo exhibit from the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui
Born	August 5, 1968 (1968-08-05) (age 41)
Detained at	CIA black sites, Guantanamo
Alternate name	Mustafa Ahmad Al-Hawsawi
ISN	10011
Charge(s)	Faces charges before a military commission, no conviction or appeal yet.

Mustafa al-Hawsawi (Arabic: مصطفى الحوساوي‎, Muṣṭafā al-Ḥawsāwī; , also transliterated in other ways, listed as Saudi, has used many aliases; born August 5, 1968 ^[1]) is a member of the militant Islamic organization al-Qaeda and allegedly an organizer and financer of the September 11, 2001 attacks. His alternate names and aliases include Mustafa Ahmed, Mustafa Muhammad Ahmad, Ahmad Mustafa, Isam Mansour, Mustafa Ahmed Al-Hisawi, Mr. Ali, and Hani (Fawaz Trdng).

Hawsawi was transferred from custody in an American black site to the Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba, on September 6, 2006. He is currently represented by Major Jon S. Jackson.[1] ^[2][3] His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number is 10011.

Contents 1 Pre-2001 2 Alleged to be "an al-Qaida financial manager" 3 Combatant Status Review 4 Questions from Salim Ahmed Hamdan's defense attorney 5 Military commission trial 6 Transfer to the USA 7 References 8 External links

Pre-2001

Before the 9/11 attacks, al-Hawsawi had apparently worked in al-Qaeda's media committee in Kandahar. Then, along with al-Qaeda financer Ali Abdul Aziz Ali (or perhaps using that name), al-Hawsawi assisted the hijackers from the United Arab Emirates. He helped coordinate with Mohammed Atta, the ringleader of the operation, to bring the "muscle hijackers" into the United States in 2001. He attempted to help bring the so-called "20th hijacker", Mohamed al-Kahtani, into the United States, but al-Kahtani was unable to enter the country.

Sharing a credit card account with Khalid Sheikh Mohammad,^[4] al-Hawsawi also sent funds to the hijackers. In the Summer of 2000, he appears to have sent a total of $109,910 to some of the 9/11 hijackers in a series of wire transfers under a variety of names. The New York Times has suggested that "Mustafa Ahmed" sent a total of $325,000 to the hijackers, but the 9/11 Commission was only able to verify $15,000 of this.

Just before the attacks, al-Hawsawi travelled to Pakistan. He was captured by authorities there March 1, 2003, reported taken to U.S. Bagram airbase in Afghanistan, unconfirmed by U.S. officials. [2]

In the indictment of Zacarias Moussaoui he is said to have been born in Jeddah on August 5, 1968.

Alongside Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Al-Hawsawi is one of three named and requested by Zacarias Moussaoui's defence team for questioning. However, although the U.S. Federal Government claims to be holding both men, it refused Moussaoui's request citing national security concerns.

Alleged to be "an al-Qaida financial manager"

The Summary of Evidence memos prepared for Abdullah Bin Omar's first and second annual Administrative Review Board hearings stated^[5][6]:

The detainee's name appeared on a spreadsheet account of stipend assistance provided to al Qaida operative families covering a six-month period of May to October 2002. The spreadsheet was found on a 20-gigabyte laptop computer hard drive associated with Mustafa Ahmad Al-Hawsawi. Al-Hawsawi, an al-Qaida financial manager, was known to provide funds for the September 11 hijackers.

Combatant Status Review

The Bush administration asserted that:

the protections of the Geneva Conventions did not extend to captured prisoners who are not members of the regular Afghan armed force nor meet the criteria for prisoner of war for voluntary forces.^[7]

Critics argued the Conventions obliged the U.S. to conduct competent tribunals to determine the status of prisoners. Subsequently, the U.S. Department of Defense instituted Combatant Status Review Tribunals (CSRTs), to determine whether detainees met the new definition of an "enemy combatant".

"Enemy combatant" was defined by the U.S. Department of Defense as:

an individual who was part of, or supporting, the Taliban, or al-Qaeda forces, or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners. This includes any person who commits a belligerent act or has directly supported hostilities in aid of enemy armed forces.^[8]

The CSRTs are not bound by the rules of evidence that would normally apply in civilian court, and the government’s evidence is presumed to be “genuine and accurate.”^[9] From July 2004 through March 2005, CSRTs were convened to determine whether each prisoner had been correctly classified as an "enemy combatant".

Mustafa al-Hawsawi was among the 60% of prisoners who chose to participate in tribunal hearings.^[10] A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for the tribunal of each detainee, listing the allegations that supported their detention as an "enemy combatant".

Mustafa al-Hawsawi's memo accused him of the following: ^[11]

The Department of Defense announced on August 9, 2007 that all fourteen of the "high-value detainees" who had been transferred to Guantanamo from the CIA's black sites, had been officially classified as "enemy combatants".^[12] Although judges Peter Brownback and Keith J. Allred had ruled two months earlier that only "illegal enemy combatants" could face military commissions, the Department of Defense waived the qualifier and said that all fourteen men could now face charges before Guantanamo military commissions.^[13][14]

Questions from Salim Ahmed Hamdan's defense attorney

Wikisource has original text related to this article: U.S. v. Hamdan - Special Request for Relief - Supplement

On 23 April 2008 attorneys working on behalf of Salim Ahmed Hamdan requested permission to meet with Abdulmalik Mohammed and Mustafa al-Hawsawi.^[15] Hamdan's attorneys had previously requested permission to get the "high-value detainees" to answer written questions, which would confirm that if Hamdan played a role in al Qaeda it had been a peripheral one. Abdul Malik and Mustafa al-Hawsawi declined to answer the questions, because they said they had no way to know that the questions purporting to be from Hamdan's attorneys was not a ruse. requested permission for Lieutenant Commander Brian Mizer to meet in person with the two men to try to assure them that the questions were not a ruse, and would not be shared with their interrogators.

Military commission trial

In June 2008, al-Hawsawi and four other "high-value detainees" (Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Ramzi Binalshibh, Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali and Walid Bin Attash) were charged in a military commission trial. The charges included 2,973 individual counts of murder, one for each person killed in the September 11 attacks, as well as conspiracy, murder in violation of the law of war, attacking civilians, attacking civilian objects, intentionally causing serious bodily injury, destruction of property in violation of the law of war, terrorism and providing material support for terrorism.^[16][17] The judge ordered al-Hawsawi and Binalshibh to undergo mental competency hearings. On December 8, 2008, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed told the judge that he and the other four indictees wished to confess and plead guilty; however, the plea would be delayed until after the competency hearings for al-Hawsawi and Binalshibh so that all five men could make their plea together.^[17]

In May 2009 Al Arabiya reported that Montasser al-Zayyat had been invited to defend Hawsawi.^[18] Al Zayat described suspecting, at first, that he was the target of a hoax.

Transfer to the USA

On August 31 2009 , a trade journal for the prison industry, speculated that "Mustafa Ahmed al Hawsawi" was one of ten captives they speculated might be moved to a maximum security prison in Standish, Michigan.^[19]

References

External links

Wikisource has original text related to this article: CSRT Summary of Evidence memo for Mustafa Ahmed Al Hawsawi

• Information on Hawsawi and 13 other detainees, Office of the Director of National Intelligence
• The Final 9/11 Commission Report
• Alleged al Qaeda paymaster in custody - CNN
• Indictment of Zacarias Moussaoui
• Pentagon charges 6 in 9-11 attacks
• 'Clean team interrogated 9-11 suspects

•  •  'High-value' captives in the 'War on Terror' Captives transferred to Guantanamo Bay from CIA black sites Mustafa al-Hawsawi, Ahmed Ghailani, Ramzi Binalshibh, Walid bin 'Attash, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, Abu Zubaydah, Abu Faraj al-Libbi, Ammar al-Baluchi, Riduan Isamuddin (Hambali), Mohamad Farik Amin, Mohammed Nazir Bin Lep, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Majid Khan, Gouled Hassan Dourad, Abdul Hadi al Iraqi Unaccounted-for captives Abdul Aziz, Abdul Rahim al-Sharqawi, Muhammed al-Darbi, Mohammed Omar Abdel-Rahman, Yassir al-Jazeeri, Adil al-Jazeeri, Tariq Mahmood, Hassan Ghul, Musaad Aruchi Died in custody Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi

NAME	Hawasawi, Mustafa al-
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	مصطفى الحوساوي (Arabic); Mustafa Muhammad Ahmad (alias); Mansour, Isam (alias); Mustafa Ahmed Al-Hisawi (alternate spelling); Mr. Ali (alias); Hani (alias); Trdng Fawaz (alias)
SHORT DESCRIPTION	al-Qaida leader
DATE OF BIRTH	August 5, 1968
PLACE OF BIRTH	Saudi Arabia
DATE OF DEATH	living
PLACE OF DEATH