Abdul Rahman (Guantanamo detainee 357)

Infobox WoT detainees
subject_name = Abdul Rahman

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image_size =
image_caption =
date_of_birth = Birth year and age|1976
place_of_birth = Haji Baras, Afghanistan
date_of_death =
place_of_death =
detained_at = Guantanamo
id_number = 357
group =
alias =
charge = no charge, held in extrajudicial detention
penalty =
status = determined not to have been an enemy combatant after all
occupation =
spouse =
parents =
children =

Abdul Rahman is a citizen of Afghanistan, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.cite web
url=http://www.dod.mil/news/May2006/d20060515%20List.pdf
title=List of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from January 2002 through May 15, 2006
author=OARDEC
publisher=United States Department of Defense
date=May 15 2006
accessdate=2007-09-29
format=PDF] His Guantanamo Internee Security Number is 357.American intelligence analysts estimate that Rahman was born in 1976, in Haji Baras, Afghanistan.

Combatant Status Review Tribunal

] Three chairs were reserved for members of the press, but only 37 of the 574 Tribunals were observed.cite web
url=http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=3902
title=Annual Administrative Review Boards for Enemy Combatants Held at Guantanamo Attributable to Senior Defense Officials
publisher=United States Department of Defense
date=March 6 2007
accessdate=2007-09-22] ]

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.

ummary of Evidence memo

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Abdul Rahman'sCombatant Status Review Tribunal, on
9 December 2004.cite web
url=http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt_arb/000300-000399.pdf#89
title=Summary of Evidence for Combatant Status Review Tribunal -- Rahman, Abdul
date=9 December 2004
pages=page 89
author=OARDEC
publisher=United States Department of Defense
accessdate=2008-04-16] The memo listed the following allegations against him:

:"'a. The detainee is a member of the Taliban::#The Detainee purchased a vehicle for the Taliban with Pakistani rupees.:#The Detainee was with four other Taliban soldiers, who were his security force, when he purchased the vehicle.:#The Detainee was in charge of and gave orders to the four Taliban soldiers, who were with him when he purchased the vehicle.:#The Detainee was wearing a "Page" turban during the vehicle purchase.:#The detainee traveled to Yerghanak, Afghanistan, with a large number of Pashtuns and Taliban soldiers to surrender to General Dostum's forces, and was then held at Mazar-e Sharif sic for approximately forty days before being turned over to the United States.

Transcript

Abdul Rahman chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal. cite web
url=http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt/Set_49_3298-3380_Revised.pdf#46
title=Summarized Statement
date=date redacted
pages=pages 46-67
author=OARDEC
publisher=United States Department of Defense
accessdate=2008-04-16] On March 3 2006, in response to a court order from Jed Rakoff the Department of Defense published a 22 page summarized transcript from his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.cite news
url=http://www.theage.com.au/news/World/US-releases-Guantanamo-files/2006/04/04/1143916500334.html
title=US releases Guantanamo files
publisher=The Age
date=April 4, 2006
accessdate=2008-03-15
quote=]

Handcuffs

Abdul Rahman asked the Tribunal's President if he could have his handcuffs loosened. His Tribunal's President said they were standard operating procedure. He told his Tribunal's President they were on so tight they were very painful. His Tribunal's President suggested he just try to move them to a more comfortable position.

Health

Abdul Rahman told his Tribunal he was very sick.

Response to the allegations

*Abdul Rahman disputed the allegation that he had bought a vehicle for the Taliban.
*:"In the name of Allah, I have never bought a car; no one has seen me with a car, and I don't have that type of financing or money. I question my own ability to afford my own life, or run my own house. The whole house and all my assets were taken by the Taliban. All the people in my village and the governor and people around me know that my enemies supported by the Taliban confiscated my assets. How could a person that could not release his assets from the enemy do an operation like this? I did not buy a car for anyone, I did not have a car, and no one saw me drive a car. The people in my district know about this fact. I can present as many witnesses as you want from around my town, district and province. Nobody has ever seen me driving a car; or even sitting in one; I did not drive a car at all. Haji Bars Sahib, Mohammad Khan Kaka, and Haji Mohammad Rahim all are totally aware of the facts and will testify for me tat I did not have a car. All these people I've mentioned are not people of Taliban sic and never supported them; they are believers in the new government. On top of that, not me, and no member of my family have ever become part of the Taliban or their army; this is a fact. On top of that, they were not Taliban, but were very involved with the mujahidin during the time of the Russians."
*Abdul Rahman questioned how he could afford to pay bodyguards when he didn't have funds to buy a car. He repeated that every day was a struggle to make enough money to feed his family.
*Abdul Rahman disputed that he was in a position to give orders, he was just a simple shopkeeper. He testified that the letters from the most respected people in his village would back up his story. He said his whole village was looking forward to the improvements they expected American involvement in Afghanistan would bring.
*Abdul Rahman responded to the allegation that he was wearing a "Page" turban by explaining that the Turban was commonly worn, for everyday wear, by everyone in his district, by both Muslims and non-Muslims. However, when he was staffing his shop, he sometimes wore a hat, and he was wearing a hat when he was captured.
*Abdul Rahman disputed the account of his capture in the allegations.
**He disputed that he was detained in Mazari Sharif, he was detained in Shebergan.
**His shop was in Kondoz sic, His village was a considerable distance, So far that he didn't go home very frequently. His last visit home had been almost a year before.
**Prior to the launching the aerial bombardment the Americans had dropped leaflets and announced on the radio that they were not interested in hurting innocent civilians, that, in fact, they would do what they could to protect innocent civilians.
**Kondoz sic was populated largely by Uzbeks and Tajiks, and Abdul Rahman, and other Pashtun shopkeepers, anticipated that the imminent breakdown of Taliban authority would trigger ethnic violence, and decided that it was in their best interests to leave Kondoz, and try to make their way to the protection of the American forces.
**They had heard that General Fahim's men had closed the roads, letting people from the Tajik or Farsi sic ethnic groups go, and capturing Pashtuns, stealing their money, and beating them up.
**They thought the road towards Shebergan was free of Fahim's men, and they thought American forces there would protect them. But they encounted General Dostum's forces on that road instead.
**They bound him and his fellow merchants. They administered some brutal beating.
**Abdul Rahman testified that he saw Dostum's forces bury approximately fifty people alive. He testified he could hear them scream as the dirt was thrown on them.
**When they were brought to Mazari Sharif they were packed, 200 or 300 at a time, into shipping containers, on the back of semi-trucks.
**Adbdul Rahman said that many people died in the shipping containers, from lack of food.
**The dead were dumped, while those who remained alive were put in the local jail. They had gone several days without any food or water.
**Abdul Rahman's observation was that the Taliban had escaped, through bribery. None of his fellow captives were members of the Taliban.

Determined not to have been an Enemy Combatant

Abdul Rahman was one of the 38 captives the Bush Presidency determined had not been enemy combatants after all. [http://projects.washingtonpost.com/guantanamo/nlec/ Guantanamo Bay Detainees Classifed as "No Longer Enemy Combatants"] , "Washington Post"] cite news
url=http://media.miamiherald.com/smedia/2008/03/27/20/NLEC_DetaineeList.source.prod_affiliate.56.pdf
title=Detainees Found to No Longer Meet the Definition of "Enemy Combatant" during Combatant Status Review Tribunals Held at Guantanamo
publisher=United States Department of Defense
author=
date=November 19, 2007
accessdate=2008-04-15
quote=
format=PDF] The Department of Defense refers to these men as No Longer Enemy Combatants.

Abdul Rahman was freed on April 20 2005 with sixteen other Afghans whose Tribunals had determined they were not enemy combatants.The "Associated Press" reported that their release ceremony was addressed by Afghan Chief Justice Fazl Hadi Shinwari.cite news
url=http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-04/20/content_435839.htm
title=17 Afghans, Turk home from Guantanamo Bay
publisher=China Daily
date=April 20, 2005
accessdate=2008-04-18
quote=Pentagon spokesman Maj. Michael Shavers said the 17 Afghans and the Turkish man had been cleared of accusations they were enemy combatants during the Combatant Status Review Tribunal process that recently ended. Five others cleared in late March already had been sent home and another 15 await transfers home. [http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.chinadaily.com.cn%2Fenglish%2Fdoc%2F2005-04%2F20%2Fcontent_435839.htm&date=2008-08-04 mirror] ]
Carlotta Gall of the "New York Times" reported that the Chief Justice encouraged the men to regard their detention as something sent from God.cite news
url=http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/20/international/asia/20afghan.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
title=17 Afghans Freed From Guantánamo Prison
publisher=New York Times
author=Carlotta Gall
date=April 20 2005
accessdate=2008-04-18
quote=In a brief ceremony, Chief Justice Fazil Hadi Shinwari told the 17 men that they were free to return home and he tried to reconcile them to the idea their imprisonment was something sent from God. Some prisoners in Guantánamo were guilty and deserved to be imprisoned, he said, but others were innocent victims of false accusations or military mistakes, or were duped into supporting terrorism. [http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2005%2F04%2F20%2Finternational%2Fasia%2F20afghan.html%3F_r%3D1%26oref%3Dslogin&date=2008-08-04 mirror] ] The reports stated that the Chief Justice warned the cleared men that a candid description of their detention could damage the chances of other Afghan captives to be released.:

References