Hamidullah (Guantanamo detainee 1119)
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- For other individuals named Hamidullah, see the Hamidullah (disambiguation).
Hamidullah is a citizen of Afghanistan, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in Cuba.[1] His detainee ID number is 1119.
A senior Taliban leader, also named Hamidullah, surrendered on November 24, 2001.[2]
According to a widely republished Associated Press article:[3]
- ...was accused of having ties to Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin
- ...claimed he had been imprisoned by the Taliban, and had escaped and had been living as a refugee in Pakistan.
- ...blamed his capture on false denunciations prompted by his support for the return of former King Zahir Shah
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[edit] Combatant Status Review Tribunal
Initially the Bush administration asserted that they could withhold all the protections of the Geneva Conventions to captives from the war on terror. This policy was challenged before the Judicial branch. Critics argued that the USA could not evade its obligation to conduct a competent tribunals to determine whether captives are, or are not, entitled to the protections of prisoner of war status.
Subsequently the Department of Defense instituted the Combatant Status Review Tribunals. The Tribunals, however, were not authorized to determine whether the captives were lawful combatants -- rather they were merely empowered to make a recommendation as to whether the captive had previously been correctly determined to match the Bush administration's definition of an enemy combatant.
Hamidullah chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.[4]
[edit] allegations
The allegations against Hamidullah were:[4]
[edit] associations
- The detainee has long established ties to HIG
- HiG is a terrorist organizaiton
- The detainee was reported absent from a HiG leadership meeting conducted after his capture.
- The detainee controlled a cache of weapons, including Kalashnikov rifles, machine guns, RPG’s and rockets.
- The detainee was captured in the home of an al Qaida financier.
[edit] commitment
- The detainee reportedly led a group of 30 men who conspired to attack coalition forces in the vicinity of Kabul, Afghanistan.
[edit] testimony
Hamidullah acknowledged being a member of HIG, but fifteen years ago, during his youth; elder members of his family pushed him into it. He had served under a commander named Abdul Khadar. It was during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and everyone joined one or another of the groups resisting the Soviets. When the Taliban came to power he cut all ties with HiG.
He said he thought the Taliban would bring unity to Afghanistan, and the tribal and regional wars would disappear, and had gone to enlist with them. But they threw him in prison, because of his earlier association with HiG..
He denied that he controlled a weapons cache. He stated that he was illiterate, and this would have barred him from such an important task.
He said he was not arrested in the home of an al Qaida financier. He said he was arrested in a house where he had been told to stay by Mullah Izat, a Northern Alliance commander, when he had returned to Afghanistan. After he escaped from the Taliban he and his family had been staying in Pakistan, as refugees, during the Taliban’s time in power.
He said that he had some responsibilities for a group of fighters - but fifteen years ago, during the Soviet occupation. And he had not been that group’s commander, but rather he was the one sent to the market to shop for foodstuff.
He said that when the Americans evicted the Taliban he wanted to work to help bring former king Zahir Shah back to power. He said he made contact with General Rahim Wardak. He said Defense Minister Fahim Khan and Besmil Khan, the commander of the Northern Alliance sent him a message:
- “...don’t do this; we are mujahedin, and the King is a Western guy, and we don’t need him. This won’t be good for your future."
He had once attended a speech by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the founder of HiG. But he had never met him.
When told that the Tribunal was going to go into closed session, to consider the classified evidence, he was asked if there was anything he said during any of his interrogations that he wanted to expand on, or correct. He replied that the allegations about storing weapons and about the leadership meeting were new. He had never been asked about them during his interrogations.
The Tribunal officers commented on his willingness to cooperate, and asked why he was wearing an orange uniform.
[edit] witness
His witness was Nasrat Khan. Khan testified that he had known Hamidullah's father in the HiG. That he met Hamidullah when he joined, as a teenager. And that he remembered Hamidullah's desertion.
[edit] Administrative Review Board hearing
Detainees who were determined to have been properly classified as "enemy combatants" were scheduled to have their dossier reviewed at annual Administrative Review Board hearings. The Administrative Review Boards weren't authorized to review whether a detainee qualified for POW status, and they weren't authorized to review whether a detainee should have been classified as an "enemy combatant".
They were authorized to consider whether a detainee should continue to be detained by the United States, because they continued to pose a threat -- or whether they could safely be repatriated to the custody of their home country, or whether they could be set free.
Hamidullah chose to participate in his Administrative Review Board hearing.[5]
[edit] Factors for and against continued detention
The primary factors for and against continued detention were:
- The detainee was a member of the Hizb-I Islami Gulbuddin (HIG) during the jihad. He served with the HIG before the Taliban regime took over.
- The Hizb-I Islami Gulbuddin (HIG) was founded by Gulbuddin Hikmatyar as a faction of the Hizb-I Islami party in 1977. It was one of the major mujahedin groups in the war against the Soviets. HIG has long-established ties with Usama Bin Laden.
- The detainee was a member of the Mahaz-e Melli Tanzim.
- The Mahaz-e Melli Tanzim attempted to recruit and organize supporters in Kabul, Afghanistan, following the fall of the Taliban. King Zahir Shah intended to establish a post-Taliban government for the purpose of rebuilding the war torn nation.
- In 2003, the detainee was a HIG commander who worked directly for Abu Bakr, the alleged highest-ranking HIG commander in Kabul. The detainee controlled a large weapons cache in Kabul.
- The detainee was reported to be one of the heads of the Psychological Operations Wing of the HIG.
- The detainee was captured in August 2003, in Kabul, in one of the homes owned by Raouf.
- In May 2003, the detainee was the commander of 30 men, with ties to the Taliban, who were planning an attack on an Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) unit in the vicinity of Kabul City, Afghanistan.
- As a known HIG member, the detainee was arrested by the Taliban and placed in jail. He spent 23 months in jail before escaping to Pakistan.
- In November 2001, while attempting to recruit and organize supporters for Shah and the Mahaz-e Melli, Afghanistan, the Northern Alliance arrested the detainee, however the detainee escaped.
- The detainee claimed he is friendly to the United States and turned to the Islamic faith as being a reason not to kill.
[edit] Hamidullah’s statement
Hamidullah spoke at length about the problems that had beset Afghanistan because of the armed struggle between different groups. He decried how Afghanistan had become the world’s training ground for terrorism and suicide bombers. He decried those who used suicide bombers, and expressed suspicion over their true motives.
He described how he wanted to work for a strong, unified, popular tolerant, democratic government. He welcomed the intercession of the United Nations and the United States. He said: “With this new conditions under the United States and United Nations, whoever were a true patriot...whoever was [a] supporter of humanity and human rights and he wanted to rebuild Afghanistan. He [would] supported the new government...”
He said that after the United States intervention some some of their nominal allies worked, under the table, to hurt the new regime and cause chaos. He believed Burhanuddin Rabbani, Abdul Rasul Sayyaf and Mohammed Fahim, were among those who did not have the best interests of the new regime at heart. He expressed his suspicions that the Russians were backing the chaos-sowers.
[edit] References
- ^ list of prisoners (.pdf), US Department of Defense, April 20, 2006
- ^ Taliban in north surrender in droves, CNN, November 24, 2001
- ^ Sketches of Guantanamo detainees-Part I, Associated Press, March 15, 2006
- ^ a b Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Hamidullah'sCombatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 89-101
- ^ Summarized transcript (.pdf), from Haji Hamidullah's Administrative Review Board hearing - page 242
