Jamil El Banna - Jamil El-Banna's Capture in Gambia

Jamil El-Banna's Capture in Gambia

Jamil and Bisher al-Rawi travelled to Gambia to meet a shipment of machine parts to be used to set up an edible oil factory owned by Basher's brother. They arrived in Gambia on November 7, 2002. He was captured by the Gambian National Intelligence Agency on arrival at Banjul airport in Gambia on November 8, 2002, purportedly on suspicion of alleged links to al-Qaeda. At first they were under a kind of unofficial house arrest. They were not formally charged with any crimes under Gambian law. They were told that they would be released when their machinery had been checked to make sure it wasn't something that could be used for terrorism.

They weren't detained in a Gambian jail, but rather in a CIA snatch team safe house, provided by American security officials, guarded by Gambians, but interrogated by Americans.

In late December, 2002 the decision was made to take them from Gambia. The team that arrived to do that wore black uniforms, their faces covered by black balaklavas. They cut their clothes from their bodies, when they bound them for transportation.. They were illegally "rendered" to Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, where he was imprisoned underground in total darkness for weeks. Once in the main portion of the airbase prison, he met Moazzam Begg whose bookshop he had visited in England. Nicknamed "Kenny Rogers", he once entertained American guards by singing half a verse Coward of the County. In March 2003 Jamil and Basher al-Rawi were transferred to Guantanamo Bay.