Testimonies of CSRT Officers
Lt. Col. Stephen Abraham
Photo: Chris Carlson / NPR
According to a July 14, 2006 memorandum from the Department of Defense, the Secretary of Defense established, on 7 July 2004 a Combatant Status Review Tribunal (CSRT) process to determine, "in a fact-based proceeding, whether individuals detained by the Department of Defense at the U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are properly classified as enemy combatants and to permit each detainee the opportunity to contest such designation." The shortcomings of this proceeding have been detailed in an October 2006 report by Mark Denbeaux and others.
In an article in Counterpunch, author and journalist Andy Worthington reported that three CSRT officers have given testimony that raises serious doubts about the fairness of these tribunals to the detainees. Since these doubts constitute allegations of legal abuse, CSHRA has gathered these testimonies, added to them, and posted all of them below. The actual CSRT documents that have been made public have been posted here.
- Testimony of Lt. Col. Stephen Abraham as a member of OARDEC1
- Testimonies of members of CSRTs
- Testimony of Lt. Col. Stephen Abraham as a member of a CSRT
- Testimony of the Army Major casting the dissenting vote in the CSRT for Adel Hamad
- More Testimony of Lt. Col. Stephen Abraham
- New York Times, July 23, 2007
- Congressional Testimony, July 26, 2007
- Speech to the European Parliament, February 28, 2008
- A Question of Conscience: A Military Perspective on the "War on Terror", April 3, 2008
- Remarks before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, May 20 2008
- Interview with Andy Worthington (Part 1) | (Part 2) December 22-30, 2008
- Talking Dog Blog Interview, September 26, 2009
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Testimonies of personal representatives of detainees
CSHRA Notes
1. OARDEC stands for Office for the Administrative Review of the Detention of Enemy Combatants.