Abdullah Mohammad Khan

Infobox WoT detainees
subject_name = Abdullah Mohammad Khan

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image_size =
image_caption =
date_of_birth = Birth year and age|1972
place_of_birth = Faryab, Afghanistan
date_of_death =
place_of_death =
detained_at = Guantanamo
id_number = 556
group =
alias =
charge = no charge, held in extrajudicial detention
penalty =
status =
occupation =
spouse =
parents =
children =

Abdullah Mohammad Khan is a name of captiveheld in extrajudicial detention in the United States' Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba who Joint Task Force Guantanamo counter-terrorism analysts believed, in May 2006, was a citizen of Uzbekistan.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
publisher=United States Department of Defense
accessdate=2006-05-15
quote=] His detainee ID number is 556.American intelligence analysts estimate that he was born in 1972, in Faryab, Afghanistan.

Abdullah Mohammed Khan is notable because he is one of three captives who were initially determined not to have been enemy combatants, but who had this determination reversed when Admiral James McGarrah ordered a new Tribunal be convened for a "do-over".cite news
url=http://gtmoblog.blogspot.com/2007/01/some-combatants-faced-multiple.html
title=Some 'combatants' faced multiple tribunals
publisher=Chicago Daily Law Bulletin
author=Jerry Crimmins
date=2007-01-07
accessdate=2008-07-28
quote=In addition to Gorman's client, the cases in which the original finding that the detainee was not an enemy combatant was reversed involve Hassan Anvar and the detainee identified in a study by Seton Hall University School of Law as detainee No. 556, named in other documents as Abdullah Khan. Attorney George M. Clarke of the Washington office of Baker & McKenzie represents Anvar and provided the Law Bulletin with the unclassified record of his tribunal hearing.]

He was captured carrying a forged passport, and, as of September 2006, JTF-GTMO analysts remained unsure of his true identity.

He stands accused of participating in the Battle of Tora Bora during the first period when he was in Pakistani custody.

He was one of the captives whose initial Combatant Status Review Tribunal ruled that he was not an enemy combatant, after all, only to have a subsequent Tribunal convened which ruled that he was an enemy combatant.

Identity

* Captive 556 is named Abdullah Mohammad Khan on the official lists released on April 20 2006 and May 15 2006, and on six other official lists released in early September 2007. [http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/detainee_list.pdf list of prisoners (.pdf)] , "US Department of Defense", April 20 2006] [http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/detainee_list.pdf list of prisoners (.pdf)] , "US Department of Defense", April 20 2006] cite web
url=http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt_arb/index_CSRT_unclassified_summaries.pdf
title=Index for Combatant Status Review Board unclassified summaries of evidence
author=OARDEC
publisher=United States Department of Defense
date=July 17 2007
accessdate=2007-09-29
format=PDF] cite web
url=http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt_arb/index_CSRT_detainees_testimony.pdf
title=Index for testimony
author=OARDEC
publisher=United States Department of Defense
date=September 4 2007
accessdate=2007-09-29
format=PDF] cite web
url=http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt_arb/index_ARB_Round_1_transcripts_documents.pdf
title=Index of Transcripts and Certain Documents from ARB Round One
author=OARDEC
publisher=United States Department of Defense
date=August 9 2007
accessdate=2007-09-29
format=PDF] cite web
url=http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt_arb/index_ARB_Round_1_Detention_Transfer_Factors.pdf
title=Index to Summaries of Detention-Release Factors for ARB Round One
author=OARDEC
publisher=United States Department of Defense
date=August 9 2007
accessdate=2007-09-29
format=PDF] cite web
url=http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt_arb/index_Transcripts_ARB2.pdf
title=Transcripts and Certain Documents from Administrative Review Boards Round Two
author=OARDEC
publisher=United States Department of Defense
date=July 17 2007
accessdate=2007-09-29
format=PDF] cite web
url=http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt_arb/index_ARB_Round_2_Detention_Transfer_Factors.pdf
title=Index of Summaries of Detention-Release Factors for ARB Round Two
author=OARDEC
publisher=United States Department of Defense
date=July 17 2007
accessdate=2007-09-29
format=PDF]
* Captive 556 is named Abdulla (first name unknown) on the Summary of Evidence memo prepared for captive 556's second annual Administrative Review Board, on 10 September 2006.cite web
url=http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt_arb/ARB_Round_2_Factors_599-699.pdf#45
title=Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the case of Abdulla (first name unknown)
date=10 September 2006
author=OARDEC
pages=pages 45-47
publisher=United States Department of Defense
accessdate=2007-11-09]
* The Summary of Evidence memo prepared for captive 556's first annual Administrative Review Board hearing asserted that the forged passport he was carrying when he was captured was in the name of Abdul Latif al Turki.cite web
url=http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt_arb/ARB_Round_1_Factors_000895-000943.pdf#35
title=Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the case of Khan, Abdullah Mohammed
date=29 July 2005
author=OARDEC
pages=pages 35-37
publisher=United States Department of Defense
accessdate=2007-11-06]
* The Summary of Evidence memo prepared for captive 556's second annual Administrative Review Board hearing asserted that the forged passport he was carrying when he was captured was in the name of Ali Uzdamir and had merely been forged by Abdul Latif al Turki.

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 date=December 2007

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.

Summary of Evidence memo

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Abdullah Mohammed Khan'sCombatant Status Review Tribunal, on 5 November 2004.cite web
url=http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt_arb/000400-000499.pdf#75
title=Summary of Evidence for Combatant Status Review Tribunal -- Khan, Abdullah Mohammed
date=5 November 2004
author=OARDEC
page=75
publisher=United States Department of Defense
accessdate=2007-11-07] The memo listed the following allegations against him:

:"'The detainee is associated with the Taliban and al Qaida::#When arrested by Pakistani authorities, the detainee had a falsified Turkish passport that he had purchased from a Turk.:#The detainee attended a "physical fitness " camp in Jalalabad, Afghanistan for six months.:#The detainee was at the Khana Gulam Bacha guesthouse on the Taliban front lines in Kabul, Afghanistan in late 1999 and early 2000.:#The detainee stated he had a Jamiat Al Islamiya sic identification card.:#Jamiat Al Islamiya is designated as a non-governmental organization that supports terrorist activities.:#The Detainee was arrested in Islamabad, Pakistan by Pakistani authorities while living in a house used by Arabs, and was later turned over to U.S. custody.

Transcript

Khan chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.cite web
url=http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt/Set_52_3643-3869.pdf#107
title=Summarized Unsworn Detainee Statement
date=date redacted
pages=pages 107-115
author=OARDEC
publisher=United States Department of Defense
accessdate=2008-04-02] On March 3 2006, in response to a court order from Jed Rakoff the Department of Defense published an eight 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=]

Discussion of the classified allegations

Captive 556 expressed concern about the allegations against him contained in classified documents.

Transcript

Abdullah Mohammed Khan’s Administrative Review Board hearing was held in early September 2005. cite news
url=http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt/ARB_Transcript_Set_7_20497-20750.pdf#98
title=Summarized transcript
page=98
publisher=United States Department of Defense
author=OARDEC
date=September 2005
accessdate=2007-11-09]

Translation problems

The Board adjourned because he had originally been provided with a Persian translator, and his native language was Uzbek. It reconvened when a Persian translator was found.

Enemy Combatant Election Form

Captive 556's Assisting Military Officer met with him on August 31 2005, forone hour, to help prepare for his Administrative Review Board. Although his native language was Uzbek his copy of the unclassifieddocuments to be presented to the Board had been translated into the Persian language.

The translator attending his Board was also a Persian translator. After stating, several times, that he would prefer a translator inhis native language, but that he would try to make do with a Persian translator, his Board recessed so that a Uzbek translator could attend.

His Assisting Military Officer, and an Uzbek translator, met with Captive 556 on September 7 2005, for forty-five minutes.

His Assisting Military Officer described Captive 556 as "very polite".

Response to the factors

* Captive 556 acknowledged fighting against the Russians sic during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. He said that most men fought against the Soviets. He stated that he believed British and American governments aided the Afghan resistance to the Soviet invaders.
* Captive 556 confirmed that he was arrested in Peshawar in late 2001, and then released when authorities determined he was not Arab. He said one of his interrogators was an American.
*Captive 556 clarified that he was arrested with Musa, in Musa's house. The factor was incorrect to state they were also captured with Abdul Rashad.
*Captive 556 confirmed that he was told his hands had tested positive for explosive residue. But he disputed the accuracy of this report -- he had not touched any explosives since the Soviets left Afghanistan.
*Captive 556 confirmed that he had told Pakistani authorities, after he second capture, that his name was Captive 556. He disputed that his real name was Abdul Latif Al Turki. He disputed that the name on his passport was Abdul Latif Al Turki. Abdul Latif Al Turki was the name of the person who forged the documents, not the name on the forged documents.
*Captive 556 disputed that he and Musa were "very close". He described their relationship as a "friendly association".
*Captive 556 confirmed that he was arrested in Musa's house.
*Captive 556 responded to the factor that Musa was al "al Qaida suspect", by stating he did not know him as Musa, and he never had any suspicions that he was associated with al Qaida. He had believed what Musa had told him -- that he came from Turkey, and had come to Pakistan for medical treatment. He had a debilitating medical problem with his feet that left him unable to work, and Captive 556 had believed Musa's account that he was being financially supported by family members.
*Captive 556 denied knowing any of the other names the Designated Military Officer read to him.
*Captive 556 responded to the allegation that an al Qaida detainee identified him as Abdul Latif Al Turki by stating that he never associated with any Arabs; he repeated his denial that he was anyone but Captive 556, and that the anonymous witness who had denounced him was lying.
*Captive 556 denied ever having any association with the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group.
*Captive 556 responded to the allegation that an Iraqi detainee had seen him in the Khana Gulam Bacha guesthouse by stating that he had stopped at guesthouses, while traveling, without making note of their names, and that he would not have known if they were owned by the Taliban. He added::quotation|"I know there are lots of Iraqi people here at this camp and they don't like each other and they try to put bad information on [other people] . About two years ago, I was prepared to be released from here, at that point I lived with some Iraqi people and because they disliked m they were lying, they were throwing some allegations on me and that's why my process has stopped ant that's why I have not been released."
*Captive 556 responded to the allegation: "The detainee interrupts and monopolizes the interpreter constantly to disrupt interrogations." as follows::
*Captive 556 was asked what job skills he had to support his family, if the Board were to recommend release or transfer. He replied that he would not want to be a leader, that any little job would be nice. He said he was ready to pick up any kind of work.
*Captive 556's Presiding Officer advised him that there were procedures for captives to contact friends and relatives back home, to have them send helpful information back to Guantanamo. Captive 556 responded that he had an uncle in Turkey that he hoped could help him find work there.
*After some clarification captive 556 offered some further names, that of Hussein Jon, whose full address he had previously offered, and Haji Jamshiit, Pidam Kol, and his father. He stated that the authorities at a refugee camp in Pakistan for Afghans name Shaam Shiitu could document his stay there, and information about his character.

References