Jabir Jubran Al Fayfi

Al Qaeda terrorist

Jabir Jubran Al Fayfi (also Jabir Jubran Al Fayfi and Jaber Jabran Ali Al Fayfee and Jaber Al Fifi; born in 1975 in Ta'if, Saudi Arabia) is a citizen of Saudi Arabia who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantánamo Bay detention camp, in Cuba on allegations he trained and fought with al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001. Al Fayfi was repatriated to Saudi custody in December 2006, and completed a rehabilitation program. He then however joined al Qaeda in Yemen and was in Yemen for two years, where he rose to become one of the top dozen leaders of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. In September 2010, he surrendered to Saudi Arabia, and on November 1, 2010, he was reported to have provided information that helped thwart the 2010 cargo plane bomb plot.

Al Faifi grew up in Taif and earned a certificate after completing 18 months in the Technical and Vocational Training Corporation. At the age of 22 he worked as a security guard at Taif Prison and then transferred to a prison in Jeddah. Al Faifi said of his move, "I moved to Jeddah because I wanted to join the Al Ahli club. I used to play football for the prison team in Taif. My friend recommended I move to work in Jeddah so I could be closer to the club which I could join and continue working. However, when I moved to Jeddah, I found out that the period to register new players was over." He was fired from his job at the prison after receiving many warnings for being late. He returned to Taif and was unable to find employment and remained unemployed for four years. It was during this time that al Faifi's involvement with militants began. He began to go out with "friends every day to escape from the daily pressure of finding a job." At first he led a self described "wild life," but then became more religiously conservative to the extent that he would prevent his siblings from watching television. He listened to taped lectures on the subject of Jihad and then he said he "felt like joining a jihad group." He spent the next nine months with a group of friends who showed him videotapes of militant activities in Chechnya. One of his friends arranged for al Faiafi to travel to Afghanistan by way of Qatar and then Pakistan while his family thought him to have gone to the Eastern Province for employment. It asserted Al Fayfi had acknowledged being an armed participant in the Taliban's conflict with the Afghan Northern Alliance in the fall of 2001, but that he denied ever firing his weapon. It also indicated that Al Fayfi had denied ever meeting any al Qaeda member in Afghanistan, and that he denied attending any Afghan training camps. Al Fayfi said that he decided to go to Afghanistan as a form of repentance, because he had not been a sufficiently observant Muslim, having used drugs, smoked, and not prayed often enough. Al Fayfi's Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 188. American intelligence analysts estimate he was born in 1975, in Ta'if, Saudi Arabia.

Initially the Bush administration asserted they could withhold the protections of the Geneva Conventions from captives in the War on Terror, while critics argued the Conventions obliged the United States to conduct competent tribunals to determine the status of prisoners. Subsequently the Department of Defense instituted Combatant Status Review Tribunals, to determine whether the captives met the new definition of an "enemy combatant". Detainees do not have the right to a lawyer before the CSRTs or to access the evidence against them. The CSRTs are not bound by the rules of evidence that would apply in court, and the government’s evidence is presumed to be “genuine and accurate.” However, unclassified summaries of relevant evidence may be provided to the detainee and each detainee has an opportunity to present “reasonably available” evidence and witnesses. From July 2004 through March 2005, a CSRT was convened to make a determination whether each captive had been correctly classified as an "enemy combatant". Jabir Jubran Al Fayfi was among the one third of prisoners for whom there was no indication they chose to participate in their tribunals. In the landmark case Boumediene v. Bush, the U. S. Supreme Court found that CSRTs are not an adequate substitute for the constitutional right to challenge one's detention in court, in part because they do not have the power to order detainees released. The Court also found that "there is considerable risk of error in the tribunal’s findings of fact." A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for the tribunal, listing the alleged facts that led to his detainment. His memo accused him of the following:

a. The detainee is associated with al Qaida and the Taliban. The detainee was recruited at a mosque in Saudi Arabia to participate in Jihad. Detainee received two weeks of weapons training on the Kalashnikov rifle. In November and December 2001, detainee met with al Qaida members while in Tora Bora, Afghanistan. One of the detainee's known aliases was on a list of captured al Qaida members that was discovered on a computer hard drive associated with a senior al Qaida member. b. The detainee participated in military operations against the coalition. Detainee was issued a Kalashnikov rifle in Bagram, Afghanistan, to fight on the lines. Detainee fought the Northern Alliance from September through December 2001. Detainee was instructed to flee Afghanistan and go to Pakistan via the mountains.

Detainees whose Combatant Status Review Tribunal labeled them "enemy combatants" were scheduled for annual Administrative Review Board hearings. These hearings were designed to assess the threat a detainee might pose if released or transferred, and whether there were other factors that warranted his continued detention.

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Jabri Jabran Al Fayfi's second annual Administrative Review Board, on February 18, 2006. The memo listed factors for and against his continued detention.

In early September 2007, the Department of Defense released two heavily redacted memos, from his Board, to Gordon R. England, the Designated Civilian Official. The Board's recommendation was unanimous. According to the Saudi government, Al Fayfi was repatriated on December 14, 2006, along with six other Saudis. The seven men were detained, without charge, in Hayer Prison, while Saudi justice officials determined whether they had violated any Saudi laws.

He went through and completed Saudi Arabia's militant rehabilitation program, at the Muhammad Bin Naif Al Munasaha Center. He was considered "low risk", and one of a series of test cases to assess whether the program worked. The program seeks to convince its participants through Islamic teachings that al Qaeda's ideology is wrong. On February 3, 2009, the Saudi government published a list of 85 "most wanted" suspected terrorists, that included Al Fayfi.