Veil of Secrecy at Guantanamo Lifting

Veil of Secrecy at Guantanamo Lifting

Documents Reveal the Stories of Prisoners at Guantanamo Bay
By Greg Miller, Mark Mazzetti and Josh Meyer
The Los Angeles Times

March 04 March 2006

Washington - Forced by a federal court to lift the cloak of secrecy that had long shrouded the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the Pentagon released thousands of pages of documents Friday containing names and other details for hundreds of detainees scooped up after the Sept. 11 attacks.

The records provide the most comprehensive view to date of the Guantanamo prison population, as well as an exhaustive catalog of the U.S. government's charges against detainees who - in page after page of tribunal proceeding transcripts - protest their treatment and proclaim their innocence.

The records render portraits of more than 300 current and former detainees. Some described themselves as farmers or low-level Taliban foot soldiers; some were accused by their U.S. captors of having attended Al Qaeda training camps and of being associates of senior terrorist operatives.

Several of those whose cases were detailed in the documents appeared to have close ties to senior Al Qaeda leaders, including alleged operations chief Abu Zubaydah, who is now in U.S. custody. Several of the detainees told Guantanamo military panels that Osama bin Laden's followers were busy after Sept. 11 trying to provide cover for fleeing Al Qaeda trainees.

One prisoner identified only as Muhammed was described by the military as occasionally having been in charge of the notorious Khalden camp where thousands of Al Qaeda members trained. In one hearing, Muhammed was accused of conducting training in "mountain warfare" and in the use of machine guns, heavy weapons and rocket-propelled grenade launchers.

The detainee admitted to many of the charges but insisted he was not a member of Al Qaeda.

"I'd like to clear something up for you," he said, according to the transcript. "I'm not the only trainer there; there were other trainers as well."

Other captives appear to have been low-level fighters caught on the battlefield in Afghanistan. Qari Esmhatulla, an Afghan Pushtun, was captured during Operation Anaconda, the U.S. military offensive in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan in March 2002. He admitted he had carried a radio and hand grenades to Taliban fighters during the mountain battle.

The man said he helped the Taliban only because fellow villagers challenged him, asking why he was sitting at home while others fought the United States. According to the transcript, he said that in Pushtun culture, "it is a bad thing if you do not accept a challenge."

Esmhatulla said he never intended to fight the U.S., only to "fight against Farsi-speaking people who have differences with the Pashtu-speaking people."

The documents comprise more than 5,000 pages, transcripts of prisoners' appearances before U.S. military tribunals to hear and, if desired, challenge the charges against them. Many detainees complained that the process - facing a panel of U.S. military officers, with little or no ability to question witnesses or present evidence in their defense - was inherently unfair.

One detainee opened his appearance before a tribunal by noting that the three panelists were members of the U.S. military.

"The U.S. military is my adversary," the unidentified detainee complained, according to the transcript. "If the adversary is my judge É I should not expect any justice."

The head of the tribunal argued that "we are an impartial panel" and ultimately told the detainee: "This proceeding is going to go on with or without you. You are welcome to participate or not."

Amid growing international criticism of the detentions, the Pentagon began holding annual hearings in late 2004 on whether prisoners ought to be released, be transferred to another country, or remain at Guantanamo Bay.

The review board judgments are based primarily on two criteria: whether the detainee continues to pose a threat to the United States and whether he may hold further intelligence that interrogators could use.

After 463 review boards were completed in December 2005, 329 prisoners were judged to require further detention; 120 were transferred to other countries and 14 were released.

The Pentagon released the documents late Friday to meet a deadline set last month by Judge Jed S. Rakoff of the U.S. District Court in New York. Rakoff rejected Bush administration arguments that releasing the detainees' identities would violate their privacy and endanger them and their families.

The court order came as part of a lawsuit filed by the Associated Press, which sued the Pentagon under the Freedom of Information Act to release the names of detainees.

The Pentagon had previously released some of the documents with names and nationalities blacked out.

The avalanche of information is likely to intensify debate in the United States and abroad over whether the Guantanamo Bay detention facility is still holding prisoners who pose a serious threat or has outlived its usefulness in the war on terrorism.

Because they contain hundreds of names, the documents are also likely to be scrutinized by families in the Middle East and elsewhere seeking information on relatives in custody at Guantanamo. The Pentagon posted the documents here.

Most of the detainees apparently were captured during the 2001 U.S.-led attack that deposed the Taliban and forced Bin Laden and his followers into hiding along Afghanistan's border with Pakistan. Many of the detainees are from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Egypt, Yemen and Algeria. Several said they were British citizens - including Moazzam Begg and Feroz Ali Abbasi, who were released in Britain in 2005 - and at least one identified himself as French.

The transcripts describe the circumstances of their capture, and offer a glimpse of the sort of evidence that U.S. military officials consider incriminating.

One detainee, for instance, was challenged to explain why he was found in possession of a certain model Casio wristwatch. That model watch "has been used in bombings that have been linked to Al Qaeda," a tribunal official said.

"I didn't know that watch was for the terrorists," the detainee, a Yemeni, replied. "I saw a lot of American people wearing the same watch. Does that mean we're all terrorists?"

Some prisoners apparently were in dire medical condition. One detainee caught fighting in Afghanistan tried to commit suicide by hanging himself in early 2003. The prisoner suffered "significant brain injury due to lack of oxygen," according to the records, which noted that he was unlikely to recover his mental abilities but he might be able to follow "simple, concrete directions."

Military officials determined that he remained a threat to the United States.

One detainee, Haji Ghalib, said he did not understand why he had been detained, because he had risked his life fighting against Al Qaeda and the Taliban and had captured many of them before he was captured himself.

He was accused in one proceeding of having been a Taliban commander in Shinwar, Afghanistan, and of having run a bomb-making facility. He described himself as a police chief and a staunch ally of the United States.

"For the last eight years I have fought the Taliban and Al Qaeda, and I also fought them at Tora Bora. It was a shock to me" to be accused of being an enemy of the United States, he said.

"I captured a lot of Al Qaeda and Arabs that were turned over to the Americans. I even went with U.S. forces to destroy the house of Osama bin Laden. All you have to do is check the record."

The tribunal allowed a villager who had worked as a police officer for Ghalib to appear briefly as a witness for him at the proceeding. But the tribunal president said the Afghan government had not responded to Ghalib's request that it provide two witnesses and documentary evidence that he said would exonerate him.

"We have allowed adequate time," the unidentified tribunal official said.

In March 2003, the Daily Times of Pakistan reported on Ghalib's arrest, saying authorities had received intelligence that he had "links" to Al Qaeda.



Go to Original

Details of Some Guantanamo Hearings
The Associated Press

Sunday 05 March 2006

Details from transcripts of "enemy combatant" hearings involving Guantanamo detainees:

* Abdulaziz Sayer, a Kuwaiti who studied at the Imam Mohamed Bin Saud Islamic University, has a degree in Islamic law. He met a man while worshipping in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, who advised him to go to Afghanistan to teach the Quran. He entered Afghanistan in October 2001 and did charity work. His name was found on a computer after coalition forces raided a house, but he denied belonging to al-Qaida or the Taliban.

* Jamal Alawi was accused of working for a charity with links to al-Qaida, but he said he only bought medicine for them. He said he was a representative who knew nothing about any al-Qaida links.

* Abdel Abdulhehim is an ethnic Uighur who left China because of government prosecution. He was headed to Turkey for its economic opportunities but ended up in Afghanistan and trained at the Uighur training camp at Tora Bora, where he learned how to fire an AK-47. U.S. authorities said the camp was funded by Osama bin Laden and the Taliban, but he said he went there to learn how to fight the Chinese.

* Arkin Mahmud, a Chinese Muslim Uighur who traveled to Afghanistan in August 2001, was captured by the Northern Alliance as a suspected Taliban fighter. He was at the Mazar-e-Shariff prison in November 2001 when CIA officer Johnny "Mike" Spann was killed. He said he only went to Afghanistan to look for his brothers. "If I am guilty they should come up with my punishment," he told the tribunal. "Otherwise, do something faster to finish my case."

* Mohammed Fenaitel told the tribunal he traveled from his native Kuwait to Afghanistan two days before the Sept. 11 attacks to see how his charitable donations were being spent. He lost his passport in Afghanistan and was smuggled into Pakistan, where he hoped to reach the Kuwaiti Embassy. He said smugglers sold him to Pakistani authorities. "Of course they pictured us as terrorists and turned us over to the United States," he said.

* Boudella al Hajj, an Algerian clergyman, worked with orphans in Bosnia for a humanitarian organization and the Bosnian army. He is accused of being in contact with known al-Qaida member Abu Zubaydah and belonging to an Algerian militant group - all of which he denied. He also was accused of planning to attack the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, but was acquitted before being handed over to the United States.

* Akhdar Qasem Basit traveled from his home in China through Kyrgyzstan and Pakistan to reach Afghanistan's Tora Bora region for training at an Uighur military camp. The U.S. alleged the camp, which was bombed by U.S. forces, was operated with funding from bin Laden and the Taliban. Basit said he did not know the Taliban was involved and that he did not receive military training before the camp was struck. "After the bombing we could not stay there so we ran off in to the mountains to take shelter in caves," he said. The tribunal pressed Basit for details: "Did you ever fire a weapon or help someone fire a weapon at U.S. or coalition forces?" His response: "That is a funny question. When we were in that place we did not see any U.S. or coalition forces against us. We did not see anyone we could fire at."

* Habib Noor, a resident of Lalmai, Afghanistan, is accused of owning a compound that attackers fled to after ambushing U.S. special forces and Afghan military forces. His brother, whom Noor said was mentally unstable, was suspected of participating in the fighting. He insisted he was unaware of the incident that day, which he spent as a vendor in the Lalmai village bazaar, in Khowst province. "I was just making sacks to sell at the bazaar to make money for my family," Noor said. "I would like to go home because I am worried about them."

* Redouane Khalid, a French citizen of Algerian heritage, traveled to Afghanistan on July 22, 2001, because he said he wanted to live in a Muslim society. He was captured in a Pakistani mosque and was accused of traveling to a Taliban camp in Kandahar, Afghanistan, for training. According to his legal representative, he was at a house in Kandahar and attempting to return to France after hearing of the Sept. 11 attacks. He has hepatitis C and scoliosis, the representative said.

* Abdul Rahim Muslimdost was a journalist for newspapers and magazines in Pakistan. U.S. authorities accused the Afghani of belonging to a Muslim militant group. He admitted membership but said he joined to help drive the Russians out of his country. He denied the accusation he had an al-Qaida contact in the province of Herat. Unknown whether still in custody.

* Mohammed Gul, a farmer and gas station owner in his native Afghanistan, was captured and held on suspicion of links to Taliban forces about six weeks after returning home from Saudi Arabia, where he lived for three years and worked as a driver. He told the tribunal he returned to Afghanistan to take care of his sick wife, and he urged the tribunal to release him. "I don't want to spend any more time here, not one more minute," he said.

* Ehsanullah Peerzaie was detained by U.S. forces in Klianjki, Afghanistan. He was carrying a list of Taliban members and Taliban radio codes, both written on crumpled pieces of scrap paper, the U.S. said. Peerzaie denied being a member of the Taliban, saying, "I am George Bush's soldier. I have never helped any Taliban and neither would I now."

* Emad Abdalla, a 25-year-old student from Yemen, was captured at a university dorm in Faisalabad, where he was studying the Quran. He is accused of traveling to Afghanistan to participate in jihad, being trained at Al-Farouq camp and going to Kandahar and the Tora Bora region. He was captured with up to 15 others, and spent 19 days in Afghanistan before being taken to Guantanamo Bay.

* Sa Ad Al Azmi is accused of working for a charity with links to al-Qaida, in Kabul, Afghanistan. He said he visited the organization to find a friend from his hometown and never worked there. Addressing allegations that he was arrested in Karachi with a known member of al-Qaida, he said, "As far as I know, Al Zamel has no ties to al-Qaida." He also was accused of being an Islamic extremist who participated in activities in Kuwait, which he denies.

* Nasir Najr Nasir Balud Al Mutayri is accused of associating with the Taliban and engaging in hostilities with the United States, which he denies. He went from Kuwait to Afghanistan about a year before the Sept. 11 attacks and was accused of being on the front lines in the fight the Northern Alliance, which teamed up with U.S.-led international forces to oust the Taliban. But Mutayri said he was there practicing a form of worship encouraged in Islam that teaches patience. He denied being a member of the Taliban or al-Qaida.

* Maasoum Abdah was accused of being a member of the Taliban. A Syrian, he said he traveled to Afghanistan in 2000 to find a wife and stay there for a couple of years because it is cheaper than Syria. He also was accused of operating a safe house that contained AK-47 rifles. He denied it was a safe house or that there were weapons. He was arrested crossing the border into Pakistan.

* Abdul Razzak was accused of being a Taliban driver and commander of a Taliban terrorist cell in Afghanistan. He was alleged to have conducted an escort mission for bin Laden in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, and to have been involved in assassination attempts against Afghan officials. Razzak denies this and says he was in Iran at the time.

* Mohammed Gul was accused of belonging to HIG, a terrorist organization. He reportedly was arrested with a Kalashnikov rifle near a Taliban facility. He was captured at the same time as a recruiter for Pacha Khan, a renegade Pashtun commander. Gul denies belonging to HIG. He said he had been working in Saudi Arabia as a driver for a supermarket and only came home to see his sick wife.

* Abdul Razak worked as the Minister of Commerce in the Taliban government. He said the Taliban had given him a civilian job because he had no military training. After the Taliban's fall, he said he took up farming, but months later Afghan authorities came and arrested him. He was carrying a Kalashnikov rifle at the time of his arrest. His legal representative said he was carrying the rifle for protection, as everybody does. Razak said he did not oppose current Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government.

* Fouad Al Rabia, a 45-year-old native of Kuwait, said he worked as an engineer for Kuwaiti Airways and is a part-owner of a health club. He acknowledged he saw bin Laden four times while visiting Afghanistan in June 2001 but denied accusations of providing money to al-Qaida. Al Rabia told the tribunal he returned to Afghanistan that October to gather evidence that would persuade people to support a relief effort there, but was trapped in the country and ultimately handed over to the Northern Alliance.

* Shardar Khan, an Afghan who had worked as a cook, was accused of training to be part of an infantry supporting an alleged al-Qaida cell leader. Khan denies fighting U.S. forces. He had been detained two years.

* Sarajuddin (no full name given) said 12 of his family members were killed when U.S. forces bombed his family's compound. He said there were allegations he had harbored a person by the name of Haqqani but that he had not.

* Kadir Khandan, of Khowst, Afghanistan, was accused of links to the Taliban and running a safe house for an explosive-manufacturing cell in Khowst. Khandan told the tribunal he worked for the Karzai government and opposed the Taliban. He previously was a pharmacist who had studied in Pakistan. "When I started medicine school, I told my God that I wanted to heal people," he said. He said explosives destroyed people and were "truly against my ideology." Khandan said he was tortured by U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. Among other alleged mistreatment, he said, "I was ordered to stand up 24 hours for 20 days in a row. I had blood coming out of my body and my nose for days because I was tortured so much." Later he said "Here in Cuba, I have been treated nice. Overall it is fine here."

* Karam Khamis Sayd Khamsan, a soldier from Yemen, denied accusations of links to the Taliban and al Qaida. He said a Yemeni drug dealer he identified as Tarek Mohammed arranged to send him to Pakistan to act as human collateral in a drug deal. "He offered me some money because of the fact that he knows I want to get married, and that I needed the money." He was detained in Pakistan.

* Zaman Gul, a shopkeeper accused of links to the Taliban and being in possession of weapons and communications equipment, was detained along with his father, uncle and a village elder by U.S. soldiers who claimed someone fired on them during the capture operation.

* Mohammed Ahmed Salam was accused of associating with forces engaged in hostilities against the U.S. He traveled from Yemen to Pakistan in May 2001; authorities said the trip was paid for by an Islamic missionary organization that acts as a front for terrorist activity. Salam said he went there for a medical procedure on his nose, although he stayed eight or nine months. He denies the organization paid for his trip.

* Hussein Salem Mohammed, born in 1977 in Yemen, was accused of belonging to al Qaida. Charges against the detainee included that he stayed in an alleged al Qaida guesthouses in Afghanistan, and was associated with Jama'at Al Tablighi, a Pakistan-based missionary organization accused of masking the travel of al Qaida members, and was arrested in Tehran for illegally entering Iran. Mohammed acknowledged traveling illegally across borders, saying his goal was to find his way to Europe, where he would apply for refugee status. "As you know Tablighi is the missionaries," he said, "they go everywhere in the world. My goal was to just travel with them, I wasn't really associated with them. I wanted just to use them to travel with them to get out" of Yemen.

* Zain Ul Abedin (initially listed as Jumma Jan), a native of Tajikistan born in 1978, was captured in Mazar-e-Shariff, Afghanistan, by coalition forces July 3, 2003. He told the tribunal that U.S. forces had arrested the wrong man: "That's true the people who found me, that's me they arrested me. But I'm not that name, I don't know what they call me. Jumma Jan. I am not that person." He is accused of being a Taliban and Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin leader, and of carrying out a mission in Tajikistan with al Qaida after Sept. 11, 2001. Abedin said he came to Afghanistan in 1991 or 1992 as a refugee and was a taxi driver at the time of his arrest.

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