Gouled Hassan Dourad

Gouled Hassan Dourad (Somali: Guuleed Xasan Duurad, Arabic: جوليد حسن دوراد‎), born 1974, is a citizen of Somalia who is held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantánamo Bay detainment camps in Cuba.^[1]

Gouled Hassan Dourad arrived at Guantanamo on September 6, 2006, and has been held there for 7 years, 10 months, and 30 days.^[1][2][3][4]

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.^[5][6] 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 on account of his fraudulent passport.

Alleged ties to terrorism

According to American counter-terrorism officials, 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.^[5] 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.

American counterterrorism officials assert 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.^[5] 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.^[1] 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.^[1] 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.^[1]

Following Gouled's arrest, AIAI terrorists on March 19, 2004, tried unsuccessfully to kidnap a German aid worker and murdered a Kenyan contract employee in Hargeysa.^[1]

Mother's appeal

On November 23, 2009 Africa News published a profile of Gouled's mother, Adar Mohammed Yusuf, who asserted that he was innocent.^[7] Adar said her son was captured by a Somali warlord in 2004.

"If my son is a terrorist, why isn't he charged accordingly in a court of law. I am calling on the Somali government and human rights groups to look at my son’s case.”

Africa News reports Goulad was captured by the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism, which was associated with the CIA.^[7] Africa News reports that Goulad was one of dozens of captives apprehended by the Alliance.

Goulad's mother asserted that he had four children.^[7]

See also

• Mehdi Ghezali

Notes

External links

has original text related to this article: CSRT Summary of Evidence memo for Guleed Hassan Ahmed

• UN Secret Detention Report (Part One): The CIA’s “High-Value Detainee” Program and Secret Prisons Andy Worthington