Uthman Abdul Rahim Mohammed Uthman

ISN: 027

Nationality: Yemeni

The following is a summary of the allegations against Uthman Abdul Rahim Mohammed Uthman found in publicly available US military documents. If US military documents about this prisoner are inaccurate or misleading then this summary will be as well. The introduction to this set of summaries explains some of the terms used below.  

Uthman Uthman told US interrogators Shaykh Muqbil al Wadi provided him money to travel to Afghanistan. Shaykh al Wadi’s followers declared their willingness to follow Osama Bin Laden. Bin Laden himself was strongly influenced by the anti-Western teachings of Shaykh al Wadi.

Uthman says he flew from Yemen to Pakistan in March 2001. He then went to Afghanistan.

Abdu Sharqawi, Walid Bin Attash, and Yasin Basardah identified Uthman as a Bin Laden bodyguard. Ahmed Ghailani said Uthman was a member of Al Qaeda.

The Yemeni Political Security Agency said Uthman was a member of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan who went by the alias Huthayfa al Adani. Walid Bin Attash identified Uthman’s codename as Huzayfah al Adani.

Ahmed Ghailani said Huthayfa al Yemeni fought on the front lines with the Taliban around 1999. He added Huthayfa trained at Al Qaeda’s al Faruq training camp in 1999. Ghailani said he saw him fight on the front lines near Tora Bora.

Abdullah Ahmed said Hudayfah the Yemeni was a bodyguard who was among Bin Laden’s security staff at Tora Bora. Ahmed was one of two people in charge of selecting Bin Laden’s security detail.

Mohammed Al Qahtani and Abd al Hilala said Uthman fought on the front lines with the Taliban. Mohammed Al Qahtani also said Uthman received advanced training at Al Qaeda’s Tarnak Farm training camp.

Uthman denies being a member of Al Qaeda and says he went to Afghanistan to teach the Koran to children. The unclassified summary of evidence for Uthman’s 2006 Administrative Review Board says he was unable to provide the name of the village where he taught the Koran for nine months.

Pakistan says Uthman was captured by Pakistani forces on December 15, 2001 while attempting to enter Pakistan from Afghanistan. He was captured with 31 other men.  The US government believes the group consisted primarily of Bin Laden bodyguards and other Al Qaeda members in charge of his protection. The group is referred to as the “Dirty 30” in US intelligence documents because US interrogators believe their claims of innocence to be untrue.

Ali Al Bahlul, Mohammed Al Qahtani, and Abdul Shalabi were also part of the “Dirty 30.”

Uthman says he turned himself in to Pakistani authorities so he could be taken to the Yemeni embassy. He says they turned him over to the US instead and claimed he was a member of Al Qaeda.

The group was held in a Pakistani prison in Peshawar for 15 days.

Mohammad al Zaylai, who was captured with Uthman, says the Pakistani warden of the prison where the group was held told them to tell US interrogators they were in Afghanistan to teach the Koran and study religion.  

On December 26, 2001 Uthman was transferred to US custody at the Kandahar Detention Facility.

He was transferred to Guantanamo on January 16, 2002.

Uthman was recommended for continued detention by Obama’s inter-agency Guantanamo task force in January 2010.

In April 2013 he was deemed eligible to have his ongoing imprisonment evaluated by a Periodic Review Board. A hearing date to reconsider his status has not yet been set.