SALAHI v. OBAMA

• Decision Date: 05 November 2010
• Docket Number: No. 10-5087.,10-5087.
• Citation: 625 F.3d 745
• Parties: Mohammedou Ould SALAHI, Detainee, Guantanamo Bay Naval Station and Yahdih Ould Salahi, as next friend of Mohammedou Ould Salahi, Appellees v. Barack OBAMA, President of the United States, et al., Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit

625 F.3d 745

Mohammedou Ould SALAHI, Detainee, Guantanamo Bay Naval Station and Yahdih Ould Salahi, as next friend of Mohammedou Ould Salahi, Appellees

v.Barack OBAMA, President of the United States, et al., Appellants.

No. 10-5087.

United States Court of Appeals,District of Columbia Circuit.

Argued Sept. 17, 2010.

Decided Nov. 5, 2010.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (No. 1:05-cv-00569).

August E. Flentje, Attorney, U.S. Department of Justice, argued the cause for appellants. With him on the briefs were Douglas N. Letter and Robert M. Loeb, Attorneys.

Theresa M. Duncan argued the cause for appellees. With her on the brief were Nancy Hollander, Jonathan L. Hafetz, Melissa A. Goodman, Linda Moreno, and Arthur B. Spitzer.

Emily Berman was on the brief for amicus curiae Non-Governmental Organizations Brennan Center for Justice and Reprieve in support of appellees. Walter Dellinger entered an appearance.

David R. Berz was on the brief for amicus curiae National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers in support of appellees. Blair G. Brown entered an appearance.

Before: SENTELLE, Chief Judge, TATEL and BROWN, Circuit Judges.

Opinion for the Court filed by Circuit Judge TATEL.

TATEL, Circuit Judge:

This case is more than merely the latest installment in a series of Guantanamo habeas appeals. The United States seeks to detain Mohammedou Ould Salahi on the grounds that he was “part of” al-Qaida not because he fought with al-Qaida or its allies against the United States, but rather because he swore an oath of allegiance to the organization, associated with its members, and helped it in various ways, including hosting its leaders and referring aspiring jihadists to a known al-Qaida operative. After an evidentiary hearing at which Salahi testified, the district court found that although Salahi “was an al-Qaida sympathizer” who “was in touch with al-Qaida members” and provided them with “sporadic support,” the government had failed to show that he was in fact “part of” al- Qaida at the time of his capture. The district court thus granted the writ and ordered Salahi released. Since then, however, this Court has issued three opinions- Al-Adahi v. Obama, 613 F.3d 1102 (D.C.Cir.2010); Bensayah v. Obama, 610 F.3d 718 (D.C.Cir.2010); and Awad v. Obama, 608 F.3d 1 (D.C.Cir.2010)-that cast serious doubt on the district court's approach to determining whether an individual is “part of” al-Qaida. We agree with the government that we must therefore vacate the district court's judgment, but because that court, lacking the benefit of these recent cases, left unresolved key factual questions necessary for us to determine as a matter of law whether Salahi was “part of” al-Qaida when captured, we remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

I.

Enacted just seven days after the September 11 terrorist attacks, the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) empowers the President of the United States to “use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons.” Pub. L. No. 107-40, § 2(a), 115 Stat. 224, 224 (2001) (reprinted at 50 U.S.C. § 1541 note). We have held that the “necessary and appropriate force” authorized by the AUMF includes the power to detain individuals who are “part of” al-Qaida, the organization that perpetrated the September 11 attacks. See Bensayah, 610 F.3d at 724-25. Although the government previously claimed authority to detain Salahi on other grounds as well-because he allegedly aided the September 11 attacks and because he “purposefully and materially support[ed]” forces associated with al-Qaida “in hostilities against U.S. Coalition partners,” Al-Bihani v. Obama, 590 F.3d 866, 872 (D.C.Cir.2010)-it has since dropped those claims and now relies solely on the allegation that Salahi was “part of” al-Qaida at the time of his capture.

In the district court, the government relied heavily on statements Salahi made to interrogators. Salahi v. Obama, 710 F.Supp.2d 1, 4 (D.D.C.2010). Conceding, however, that those interrogators had “mistreat[ed]” Salahi from mid-June to September 2003, the government declined to rely on any statements Salahi made during that period. Appellants' Opening Br. 52; see also Staff of S. Comm. on Armed Services, 110th Cong., Inquiry into the Treatment of Detainees in U.S. Custody xxii, 135-43 (Comm. Print 2008); A.T. Church, III, Review of Department of Defense Detention Operations and Detainee Interrogation Techniques 159-74 (2005); U.S. Dep't of Justice Office of the Inspector Gen., A Review of the FBI's Involvement in and Observations of Detainee Interrogations in Guantanamo Bay, Afghanistan, and Iraq xxvii, 122-29, 190, 197-99, 295-302 (2008); Jess Bravin, The Conscience of the Colonel, Wall St. J., Mar. 31, 2007, at A1. Although the district court formally received all evidence offered by the government, the taint of the “extensive and severe mistreatment” that Salahi suffered led the court to accord little weight to any of Salahi's statements that lacked independent corroboration. Salahi, 710 F.Supp.2d at 6; see also Hr'g Tr. at 644:19-24 (Dec. 15, 2009). The government complains that the district court improperly failed to credit certain of Salahi's statements, but because this issue is largely irrelevant to the legal questions we address in this opinion, we present the facts as found by the district court, supplementing with citations to the record only as necessary to provide context for the parties' arguments.

Mohammedou Ould Salahi was born in 1970 in Mauritania. In December 1990, he traveled from Germany, where he was attending college, to Afghanistan “to support the mujahideen”-Islamic rebels seeking to overthrow Afghanistan's Soviet-supported Communist government. Salahi Am. Decl. ¶ 5. While in Afghanistan, Salahi attended a training camp run by al-Qaida, which organized and funded efforts by foreign volunteers to assist the resistance movement. See John Rollins, Cong. Research Serv., R41070, Al Qaeda and Affiliates: Historical Perspective, Global Presence, and Implications for U.S. Policy 3-4 (2010). Although the United States denies having supported al-Qaida directly, it acknowledges that it provided significant economic and military support to the Afghan mujahideen from approximately 1981 to 1991. Id. at 4.

In March 1991, shortly after finishing his training, Salahi swore bayat, an oath of loyalty, to al-Qaida. He left Afghanistan soon after taking this oath but returned in January 1992. Having “heard rumors that the mujahideen had invaded Kabul and started fighting among themselves,” Salahi decided to travel back to Germany in March 1992. Salahi Am. Decl. ¶ 11. At this point, he alleges, he “severed all ties with ... al Qaida.” Id. ¶ 12.

According to the government, however, the record contains significant evidence that Salahi recruited for al-Qaida and provided it with other support after his alleged withdrawal in 1992. For example, the district court found that Salahi sent a fax to al-Qaida operative Christopher Paul in January 1997, asking for his help in finding “a true Group and Place” for “some Brothers” interested in fighting jihad. Salahi, 710 F.Supp.2d at 11 (quoting Salahi's fax to Paul). Salahi admitted to interrogators that he knew Paul to be a “man of great respect in Al-Qaida” and that he sent the fax to “facilitate getting the [aspiring jihadists] to fight.” Id. (internal quotation marks omitted).

As the district court recognized, “[t]he most damaging allegation against Salahi is that, in October 1999, he encouraged Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Marwan al-Shehhi, and Ziad Jarrah to join al-Qaida.” Id. at 10. Bin al-Shibh helped coordinate the September 11 attacks, and al-Shehhi and Jarrah were two of the September 11 pilots. Nat'l Comm'n on Terrorist Attacks Upon the U.S., The 9/11 Commission Report 225, 434-35, 437 (2004) [hereinafter 9/11 Commission Report ]. The government contends that while bin al-Shibh, al-Shehhi, and Jarrah had originally intended to travel to Chechnya to wage jihad against Russian forces, Salahi convinced them to travel instead to Afghanistan to receive military training. According to the government, the three men followed Salahi's advice and with his assistance traveled to Afghanistan, where they were recruited by al-Qaida into the September 11 plot. But the district court, having discounted portions of the government's evidence as unreliable and inconsistent, found only that “Salahi provided lodging for three men for one night at his home in Germany, that one of them was Ramzi bin al-Shibh, and that there was discussion of jihad and Afghanistan.” Salahi, 710 F.Supp.2d at 11.

In addition to Salahi's connection to bin al-Shibh, the district court found that Salahi “had an ongoing and relatively close relationship” with Abu Hafs al-Mauritania, who “is believed to be one of [Usama] bin Laden's spiritual advisors and a high-ranking leader of al-Qaida.” Id. at 12, 14. Abu Hafs is Salahi's cousin and is married to the sister of Salahi's ex-wife. Id. at 12-13.

In August 1993, Salahi accompanied Abu Hafs to an al-Qaida safe house in Mauritania. Id. at 8. Several years later, Abu Hafs asked Salahi to meet with Abu Hajar al-Iraqi, allegedly al-Qaida's telecommunications chief, when al-Iraqi visited Germany in late 1995 and early 1996 to explore purchasing telecommunications equipment for al-Qaida operations in Sudan. Id. at 8, 12. At the evidentiary hearing in the district court, Salahi testified that his involvement with al-Iraqi was limited to discussing the telecommunications equipment al-Iraqi planned to purchase and to driving him to various...