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Kushky Yar is a citizen of Afghanistan, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in Cuba.^[1] Yar's Guantanamo detainee ID number is 971. American intelligence analysts estimate that Kushky Yar was born in 1963, in Lejay, Afghanistan.

Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held in a small trailer, the same width, but shorter, than a mobile home. The Tribunal's President sat in the big chair. The detainee sat with his hands and feet shackled to a bolt in the floor in the white, plastic garden chair. A one way mirror behind the Tribunal President allowed observers to observe clandestinely. In theory the open sessions of the Tribunals were open to the press. Three chairs were reserved for them. In practice the Tribunal only intermittently told the press that Tribunals were being held. And when they did they kept the detainee's identities secret. In practice almost all Tribunals went unobserved.

Initially the Bush administration asserted that they could withhold all the protections of the Geneva Conventions to captives from the war on terror. This policy was challenged before the Judicial branch. Critics argued that the USA could not evade its obligation to conduct a competent tribunals to determine whether captives are, or are not, entitled to the protections of prisoner of war status.

Subsequently the Department of Defense instituted the Combatant Status Review Tribunals. The Tribunals, however, were not authorized to determine whether the captives were lawful combatants -- rather they were merely empowered to make a recommendation as to whether the captive had previously been correctly determined to match the Bush administration's definition of an enemy combatant.

Yar chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.^[2]

A memorandum summarizing the evidence against Kushky Yar prepared for his Combatan Status Reiew Tribunal, was among those released in March of 2005.^[3]

The allegations Kushky Yar faced during his Tribunal were:

a. The detainee participated in military operations against the United States and its coalition partners.

1. A site was investigated after seeing mirror flashing and possible ditching of weapons from a position where enemy personnel were previously seen with a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG).
2. The detainee was captured, along with his nephew, in what appears to be a hasty fighting position identified as the location of the flashing mirror and RPG sighting on February 10, 2003.
3. The detainee admitted to being part of an ambush against US forces.
4. The detainee admitted to throwing his weapons down a well.
5. The detainee, at the time of his capture, was wearing an olive drab (OD) green jacket, also commonly seen on Taliban fighters in the area.
6. The detainee's nephew admitted to wearing an OD green jacket.

Detainees who were determined to have been properly classified as "enemy combatants" were scheduled to have their dossier reviewed at annual Administrative Review Board hearings. The Administrative Review Boards weren't authorized to review whether a detainee qualified for POW status, and they weren't authorized to review whether a detainee should have been classified as an "enemy combatant".

They were authorized to consider whether a detainee should continue to be detained by the United States, because they continued to pose a threat -- or whether they could safely be repatriated to the custody of their home country, or whether they could be set free.

Yar chose to participate in his Administrative Review Board hearing.^[4]

1. ^ list of prisoners (.pdf), US Department of Defense, May 15, 2006
2. ^ Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Kushky Yar's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 89-98
3. ^ Summary of Evidence memo (.pdf) prepared for Kushky Yar's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - November 10, 2004 - page 76
4. ^ Summarized transcript (.pdf), from Kushky Yar's Administrative Review Board hearing - page 95-112