Mustafa al-Hawsawi

Who is Mustafa al-Hawsawi?

Mustafa al-Hawsawi is a Saudi Arabian citizen and a member of the terrorist organization al-Qaeda. He allegedly is an organizer and financier of the September 11 attacks in the United States.

Hawsawi was captured on March 1, 2003, along with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in Pakistan and transferred to CIA custody. It detained him at the Salt Pit, a secret black site in Afghanistan. It was reported in August 2010 that, after months of interrogation, the CIA transferred al-Hawsawi and three other high-value detainees to Guantanamo Bay detention camp on September 24, 2003 for indefinite detention. Fearing that Rasul v. Bush, a pending Supreme Court case about detainees' habeas corpus rights, might result in having to provide the men with access to counsel, the CIA took back custody on March 27, 2004 and transported the four men to one of their black sites.

Hawsawi was transferred from CIA custody to military custody at Guantanamo on September 6, 2006. The Bush administration was then confident of passage of the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which restricted detainee use of habeas corpus and prohibited them from using the federal court system. Al-Hawsawi was represented by the lawyer Jon Jackson.