Bashir al-Marwalah
Nationality: Yemeni
Date of birth: December 1979
Place of birth: Al-Haymah, Yemen
Aliases: Abu al-Fida al-Sanaani, Abu Fida al-Yemeni
Capture: 11 September 2002, Karachi, Pakistan
Captured alongside: Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Hassan bin Attash, Abd al-Rahim Ghulam Rabbani, Ghulam Rabbani, Ayub Marshid Salih, Ha’il al-Mithali, Musab al-Mudwani, Said Saleh Said, Shawqi Awad
SSCI prisoner number: 8
Entered CIA custody: 14 September 2002 – 15 September 2002
Period of CIA custody: 30-39 days
Left CIA custody: 14 October 2002 – 24 October 2002
Detained: Pakistan, Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay
Current status: detained, Guantánamo Bay
Bashir al-Marwalah is a Yemeni man who – according to calculations published by the SSCI – was held by the CIA for around a month (30-39 days). He was one of a number of suspects captured on 11 September 2002 in a series of raids in Karachi by Pakistani ISI officers, rangers and police officers, sparked by the capture the day before of another suspect, Ghulam Rabbani . After capture, al-Marwalah may have been held in Pakistani detention for a number of days before being transferred into CIA custody.
It appears from the SSCI report that a group of prisoners captured on 11 September 2002, including al-Marwalah, were moved into and out of CIA custody together. Analysis by The Rendition Project and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism has also concluded it likely that this group was transferred to CIA custody along with Hassan bin Attash, who was then separated from the group and transferred onwards to Jordan. Given bin Attash’s own testimony, this transfer date is likely to have been at some point on either 14-15 September 2002. Al-Marwalah was then held at the CIA-run DETENTION SITE COBALT in Afghanistan. According to CIA records cited by the SSCI report, al-Marwalah told debriefers in Guantánamo Bay that he was tortured whilst at COBALT, including being forced to “stand up for five days straight and answer questions”, and to “strip naked and stand in front of a female interrogator.”
Given what is known about the duration of his CIA detention, al-Marwalah would have been transferred out of CIA control at some point 14-24 October 2002. DoD records show that he was held at the military detention site at Bagram Airbase (without giving an exact inbound date), and then transferred to Guantánamo Bay on 28 October 2002, where he remains.
Sources
SSCI, Committee Study of the Central Intelligence Agency’s Detention and Interrogation Program, 9 December 2014
DoD, JTF-GTMO Detainee Assessment: Bashir Nasir Ali al-Marwalah, 30 May 2008
New York Times, The Guantánamo Docket: Bashir Nasir Ali al Marwalah
