[3][4][5][6] He claimed that he was forced to work as a doctor at the 2001 Battle of Tora Bora, during which time he treated injured mujahideen fighters inside the region's complex caves.

[7] At one of his Administrative Review Board hearings, he confirmed that Osama bin Laden was present during the battle, claiming that he had met with him for ten minutes.

[9] The article quoted the recently released Sudanese journalists Sami Al Hajj, who reported that Yemeni captives had been driven insane through the administration of hallucinogenic drugs.

[12][13] In response, on 4 August 2005, the Department of Defense released seventeen pages of unclassified documents related to his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.

The Kansas City Star reported that the unredacted portions of the transcript suggested the unnamed witness suffered from "anti-social personality disorder"—which would have prevented him from understanding the difference between right and wrong, and would make him likely to lie.

In the Spring of 2006, in response to a court order from Jed Rakoff the Department of Defense published a twenty page summarized transcript from his Administrative Review Board.

[20] On 30 March 2009, it was widely reported that Batarfi was the second captive to be cleared through the new review procedures put in place by United States President Barack Obama.

Carol Rosenberg, writing in the Miami Herald, reported that US District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan had scheduled Batarfi's habeas corpus hearing for early April.

On 5 January 2010, Jay Solomon, writing in The Wall Street Journal reported that Batarfi, and the five other Yemeni men repatriated with him, faced indefinite detention in Yemen.

In testimony before Congress, on 13 January 2010, White House official John Brennan was asked to justify the release of Batarfi, in light of the allegations he was associated with an al Qaeda Weapons of Mass Destruction plan.

[citation needed] During his appearance before Congress, Congressional Representative Frank Wolf, asked Brennan to explain why Batarfi had been cleared for release, when earlier military status reviews concluded there was reason to believe he had met Osama bin Laden, and that there was reason to believe he had played a role in an al Qaeda Weapons of Mass Destruction plan.

[23][26] In his written reply Brennan stated that the joint task force the Obama administration had put in place had conducted their own more recent review, and concluded the suspicions held against Batarfi weren't substantial enough to justify his detention.

[23] Joscelyn quoted several passages from the 2008 military assessment that asserted Batarfi had helped provide Yazid Sufaat with medical laboratory equipment that was intended to be used to develop an anthrax weapon.