Abdur Sayed Rahaman

Abdur Sayed Rahaman
Born	1965 (age 45–46) Pishin, Pakistan
Arrested	2002-01 Pakistan
Released	2005-03-11 Pakistan
Detained at	Guantanamo
Alternate name	Shed Abdur Rahman Abdul Rahim Zahid Basha
ISN	581
Status	determined not to be an enemy combatant, after all

Abdur Sayed Rahaman (also transliterated as Shed Abdur Rahman) is a citizen of Pakistan who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.^[1] American intelligence analysts estimate Rahaman was born in 1965, in Pishin, Pakistan.

Shed Abdur Rahman was captured in Pakistan in January 2002, was transferred to Guantanamo on June 16, 2002.^[2][3][4][5]

Press reports

On July 12, 2006 the magazine Mother Jones provided excerpts from the transcripts of a selection of the Guantanamo detainees.^[6] Rahman was one of the detainees profiled. According to the article:

"Detainee 581 was accused of being Abdur Zahid Rahman, the Taliban’s former deputy foreign minister. He explained to the tribunal that he was, in fact, Abdur Sayed Rahman.

rahman: The entire time I have been here, I have not seen anything proving that I did anything wrong…. I have been here for three years and the past three years, whatever I say, nobody believes me…. I never even hit my own child at home. Why would I go and torture and murder someone?... The only time I have ever been in Afghanistan was for two days to attend a funeral…. I was only a chicken farmer in Pakistan.

Canadian journalist, and former special assistant to US President George W. Bush, David Frum, published an article based on his own reading of the transcripts from the Combatant Status Review Tribunals, on November 11, 2006.^[7] It was Frum who coined the term "Axis of evil" for use in a speech he wrote for Bush. Rahman's transcript was one of the nine Frum briefly summarized. His comment on Rahman was:

"A detainee identified by eyewitnesses as a Taliban military judge, who inflicted hideous punishments on hundreds of accused, explained to the tribunal that he was in fact only a humble chicken farmer. The question, 'What did you feed your chickens?' baffled this detainee. He answered: 'A mixture of foods they sell in the bazaar' (perhaps at the Afghan equivalent of Petco)."

Frum came to the conclusion that all nine of the men whose transcript he summarized had obviously lied.^[7] He did not, however, state how he came to the conclusion they lied. His article concluded with the comment:

"But what’s the excuse of those in the West who succumb so easily to the deceptions of terrorists who cannot invent even half-way plausible lies?"

Determined not to have been an Enemy Combatant

The Washington Post reports that Rahaman was one of 38 detainees who was determined not to have been an enemy combatant during his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.^[5] They report that Rahaman has been released. The Department of Defense refers to these men as No Longer Enemy Combatants.

References

1. ^ OARDEC. "List of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from January 2002 through May 15, 2006". United States Department of Defense. http://www.dod.mil/news/May2006/d20060515%20List.pdf. Retrieved 2006-05-15. 
2. ^ JTF-GTMO (2007-03-16). "Measurements of Heights and Weights of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba". Department of Defense. http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/measurements/. Retrieved 2008-12-22.  mirror
3. ^ "Measurements of Heights and Weights of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (ordered and consolidated version)". Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas, from DoD data. Archived from the original on 2009-12-21. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fhumanrights.ucdavis.edu%2Fresources%2Flibrary%2Fdocuments-and-reports%2Fgtmo_heightsweights.pdf&date=2009-12-21. 
4. ^ "Guantanamo Docket: Abdur Sayed Rahaman". New York Times. 2008-11. http://projects.nytimes.com/guantanamo/detainees/581-shed-abdur-rahman. Retrieved 2010-03-30. 
5. ^ ^{a b} Guantanamo Bay Detainees Classifed as "No Longer Enemy Combatants", Washington Post
6. ^ "Why Am I in Cuba?", Mother Jones (magazine), July 12, 2006
7. ^ ^{a b} David Frum (November 11, 2006). "Gitmo Annotated". National Review. Archived from the original on 2010-04-22. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Ffrum.nationalreview.com%2Fpost%2F%3Fq%3DOTQxMWVkMjJlNWZiMmE3ZmRlYTM5MDU4ZWFlOTQxOGY%3D&date=2010-04-22. Retrieved 2007-04-23. 

Persondata
Name	Rahman, Shed Abdur
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1965
Place of birth	Pishin, Pakistan
Date of death
Place of death