Gouled Hassan Dourad

Gouled Hassan Dourad (Somali: Guuleed Xasan Duurad, born 1974) is a citizen of Somalia and who is currently held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantánamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. His Guantana Internee Security Number is 10023.

Early life

Gouled was born in Mogadishu, Somalia. When the Somali Civil War erupted in 1991, his parents sent him to Germany where he lived in a refugee camp. He traveled to Sweden and gained asylum there in 1993. In 1994 he attempted travel to the United States but was turned back in Iceland because of his fraudulent passport.

Alleged ties to terrorism

While in Sweden, Gouled attended a Somali mosque, whose imam arranged for Gouled and his friend, future AIAI bombmaker Qasim Mohamed, to train in Afghanistan before joining the Somali war effort. Gouled trained at the Khalden camp in weapons and explosives from January through October 1996, and at another camp in Khost in assassination techniques for several months. By late 1996 he returned to Somalia.

Gouled became a member of AIAI in 1997 out of a commitment to support the Somali war against Ethiopia and to win the Ogaden region of Ethiopia back to Somalia. He fought against the Ethiopians in Ogaden off and on from 1997 to 2002 and trained AIAI fighters. He allegedly became associated with al-Qaeda because its members were in Somalia and his AIAI cell supported the al-Qaeda. Gouled was introduced to Abu Talha al-Sudani, who came to Mogadishu to hide following the Mombasa attacks in November 2003, in early 2003 by his AIAI cell leader. Gouled was recruited to work for al-Sudani, in part, because he had trained in Afghanistan: spoke Arabic, English, some Swedish and Somali, and had a high-school education.

According to the United States Director of National Intelligence, Gouled was the head of the Mogadishu-based facilitation network of al-Itihaad al-Islamiya (AIAI) members that supported al-Qaeda members in Somalia. Gouled was a member of a small, selective group of AIAI members who worked for the East African al-Qaida cell led by Abu Talha al-Sudani. Gouled's responsibilities included locating safehouses, assisting in the transfer of funds, and procuring weapons, explosives and other supplies. Gouled was privy to several terrorist plots under consideration by his AIAI cell, including shooting down an Ethiopian jetliner landing at an airport in Somalia in 2003 and kidnapping Western NGO-workers in Hargeysa, Somalia, in 2002 as a means to raise money for future AIAI operations.

Following Gouled's arrest, AIAI terrorists on March 192004, tried unsuccessfully to kidnap a German aid worker and murdered a Kenyan contract employee in Hargeysa.

Combatant Status Review Tribunal

a.	The detainee was recruited by a senior al Qaida operative who participated in the 1998 bombing of the United States embassy in Kenya and the 2002 Mombasa, Kenya, attacks. This senior al Qaida operative considered himself the senior al Qaida officer for the Horn of Africa.
b.	The detainee was identified as a prominent Al-Ittihad al-Islami jihadist faction member.
c.	The United States Department of Homeland Security Terrorist Organization Reference Guide placed Al-Ittihad al-Islami on the Terrorist Exclusion List. An organization placed on the Terrorist Exclusion List is known to commit or incite to commit acts which can cause death or serious bodily injury, prepares or plans a terrorist activity, gathers information on potential targets for terrorist activity, or provides material support to further terrorist activity.
d.	The Al-Ittihad al-Islami jihadist faction suffered significant blows and setbacks with the arrest of the detainee and three other individuals.
e.	As of 2004, the Al-Ittihad al-Islami jihadist faction in the Horn of Africa was affiliated with al Qaida and were in direct contact with Pakistan-based al Qaida operatives.
f.	The detainee was a well-trained fighter, who trained in guerrilla warfare tactics, explosives, and marksmanship in the tribal border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan in the early 1990s. The detainee later trained at the Al-Ittihad al-Islami training camp in Lugh, Somalia.
g.	In 2002, the detainee participated in Al-Ittihad al-Islami operations in Mogadishu, Somalia, which involved killing Ethiopian nationals and individuals believed cooperating with the Ethiopians.
h.	The detainee was named an al Qaida Djibouti cell leader and senior facilitator.

Transcript

Gouled Hassan Dourad chose not to attend his Combatant Status Review Tribunal. But his Personal Representative read a statement on his behalf:

3.b	I am not a member of any Al-Ittihad al-Islami jihadist faction. However, I did fight jihad alongside Al-Ittihad against Ethiopians, which is my right to do.
3.e	I was arrest and detained in 2004. And even before 2004, this did not concern me because I was not a member of Al-Ittihad and I did not have any knowledge of such an affiliation.
3.f	My training was solely for the purpose of fighting in Somalia, but not against Americans. I never had training in Lugh, Somalia. Why would I need training there if I already had training in Afghanistan?
3.g	I never participated in Al-Ittihad al-Islami operations in Mogadishu, Somalia against Ethiopians. There never were such operations. If Ethiopian military members came to Mogadishu, I would defend against them. That is my right to do as a Somali, but it is against my religious beliefs to fight against civilians.
3.h	This statement is not true.

See also

• Mehdi Ghezali

References