Detainee Followup

Palestinian prisoner’s year of freedom

By:
Published October 18, 2012, in Detainee Followup, Muhammad Al Far, Palestinian Detainee, Palestinian Prisoners

“In prison you miss all the wonderful details of life; the sun, the trees, the beach, the women,” Muhammad Al Far tells me as he sinks back into a comfortable sofa at his house in Gaza City.

It is exactly a year since Al Far was released as part of a deal which saw over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners freed in exchange for the captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

Twelve months on, the sun shines in through the window of the former prisoner’s living room, Gaza’s beach is five minutes down the road and his new wife Wafa sits alongside him.

Al Far’s eyes shift towards the door. It is open. He can leave any time.

“I have my freedom,” he says.

Planned attacks

Muhammad Al Far spent 18 years in an Israeli prison. He was arrested in 1993 when he was 29, still a young man. He is now 47, well into middle age.

Al Far tells me he was once a senior figure in the military wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

An Israeli court gave him two life sentences after he was convicted of “intentionally causing death” and working for an “illegal and unrecognised organisation”.

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A Little Help

By:
Published September 15, 2011, in Detainee Followup, Faisal Shahzad, Mohammad Shafiq Rahman

David William Turner

Mohammad Shafiq Rahman / Andrew Propp

In a deep-blue button-down shirt and pressed slacks, Mohammad Shafiq Rahman waits at a busy bus stop in Portland, Maine with his $1.50 fare in hand—more than he has earned in the past year.

On May 13, 2010, Rahman, a native of Pakistan, was wrongfully accused of aiding would-be Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad. Rahman spent the succeeding 105 days in Maine’s largest prison. Since his release, he has been mired in a Kafkaesque bureaucratic immigration process that has left him unable to work legally.

His problems began twelve days after Shahzad parked an SUV packed with explosives in the middle of Manhattan. Rahman was apprehended by the Joint Terrorism Task Force—agents from the FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the Secret Service. His employer had failed to return certain paperwork in 2006, so his visa was technically in violation. Agents told him that if he cooperated, he might be able to return to his family—his wife Sara, an American, and her three children from a previous marriage—that night. For several hours, Rahman answered questions without a lawyer present and gave the FBI, who did not have a warrant, permission to remove anything they wanted from his apartment.

Eventually, what appears to be the real reason for his arrest came to light: Rahman knew Shahzad. They met in 2002 when Rahman was working in Connecticut. The two had friends in common, but lost touch soon after Rahman moved away and had not spoken in nearly a decade. After the interview, ICE imprisoned Rahman at the Cumberland County Jail in Maine. The FBI never contacted him again about the bombing, yet ICE opposed bail. Even so, an immigration judge eventually granted $10,000 bail, and Rahman was released on August 26, 2010.

But his ordeal continued. An IT specialist, he had been the primary breadwinner for his family. But with his work permit terminated, his income was lost. The FBI also had not returned the belongings agents stripped from his home, even after the immigration charges were dropped in December 2010. Among those items were identifying papers necessary to apply for a work permit. More than two months later, the confiscated items were finally returned—with the glaring exception of his birth certificate.

After months of calls, the FBI announced that they could not locate his birth certificate. As the family waited for a new certificate to arrive from Pakistan, the anniversary of his detention came and went. Rahman was still not able to work, and his family had to rely on relatives and friends. Sara’s parents helped pay lawyer fees, bail, and other expenses; her sister loaned the family cash. Rahman’s former boss, hoping for the return of a valued employee, lent him money to cover the work-permit fee once he was able to apply.

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In Afghanistan, Former Guantánamo Prisoners Reflect on Their Ruined Lives

By:
Published September 14, 2011, in Afghan Detainees, Detainee Followup, Guantanamo

By Andy Worthington

On the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, the Washington Post provided a powerful insight into the human cost of Guantánamo, and the problems created in Afghanistan through the intelligence failures that led to innocent people being seized by mistake, and even through the unforeseen knock-on effects of America’s reconstruction efforts.

In Kabul, Staff writer Ernesto Londoño met two former prisoners, Haji Sahib Rohullah Wakil (discussed below) and Haji Shahzada, a village elder in Kandahar province. About 50 years of age, Shahzada, who is a father of six, was seized in a raid on his house in January 2003, with two house guests, and held at Guantánamo for over two years until his release in April 2005.

Shahzada’s story (and that of the men seized with him) was one that had struck me as particularly significant when I was researching my book The Guantánamo Files, as it was a clear demonstration of how easily US forces in Afghanistan were deceived, seizing innocent people after tip-offs from untrustworthy individuals with their own agendas. In Shahzada’s case, it has not been confirmed whether the tip-off came from a rival or from members of his family seeking to seize his assets, but the entire mission was a disgrace.

One of the men seized with him, Abdullah Khan, had sold Shahzada a dog, as both men were interested in dog-fighting, but he was regarded by the soldiers involved in the raid (and, subsequently, by US interrogators) as Khairullah Khairkhwa, a senior figure in the Taliban. The problem with this scenario was not only that Khan was not Khairkhwa, but also that Khairkhwa had been in US custody since February 2002 and was held at Guantánamo (where he remains to this day).

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Young Afghan struggles to adapt after Guantanamo

By:
Published October 27, 2009, in Detainee Followup, Mohamed Jawad

Mohammed Jawad, widely considered the prison’s youngest detainee, is back home in Afghanistan after a judge ordered him freed. He is angry and confused. Many U.S. officials are unhappy he’s free.

Mohamed-Jawad

Mohamed Jawad sits with his cousin Bader at his family home in Kabul.
Jawad is believed to have been the youngest detainee at Guantanamo Bay.
(Paula Bronstein / Getty Images)

Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan – At family gatherings, the young Afghan with the scraggly beard instinctively sits with the children, before others remind him that he is a man now.

Old friends he last saw when they were flying kites are now in college, married with children, enjoying their careers. He’s happy for them, but he feels like he’s watching life flash by, and he’s not a part of it.

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Prisons’ legacy haunts Afghanistan

By:
Published October 15, 2009, in Detainee Followup, Mohamed Jawad

Chris Sands, Foreign Correspondent

mohamedjawad








Mohammed Jawad claims he was only 12
when he was arrested for allegedly planning
a grenade attack in Kabul in 2002. He says
he was beaten by Afghan police to make
him confess before being transferred to US
custody at Bagram and then at Guantanamo Bay.
Chris Sands / The National

Mohammed Jawad claims he was only 12 when he was arrested for allegedly planning a grenade attack in Kabul in 2002. He says he was beaten by Afghan police to make him confess before being transferred to US custody at Bagram and then at Guantanamo Bay. Chris Sands / The National

KABUL // As the Obama administration inches toward closing the Guantanamo Bay detention centre, Afghanistan is already struggling to deal with the bitter legacy it and other prisons are leaving behind.

Officials and a former inmate are unanimous in believing that the growing insurgency is partly inspired by a sense of anger over how Taliban and al Qa’eda suspects are treated here and overseas.

Some allege that the entire justice system remains deeply flawed and counter-productive, as many innocent civilians are arrested and moderates turned into extremists.

Sayed Sharif Sharif heads the Afghan government commission responsible for checking on the status of detainees at Guantanamo and Bagram air base, north of Kabul. He said he believes both prisons should be shut down and claims that civilians are still being arrested too often because of faulty intelligence and misunderstandings.

“The Americans are not familiar with Afghanistan, with the culture, the people, the area. That’s why they are making these mistakes. And of course if they are putting someone in jail without any reason and abusing him for two or three years, then when he is released he will do a suicide attack or take up arms and fight, especially against the international troops.


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“I Was 12 When Sent to Guantanamo”

By:
Published August 28, 2009, in Detainee Followup, Mohamed Jawad

Islamonline

Image

“All I could do was hope that one day I’d be free and back home in Afghanistan with my mother,” said Jawad [R].

CAIRO — Mohammed Jawad is still struggling to pick up the pieces of his lost childhood and teenage years after languishing for seven whole years in America’s notorious Guantanamo detention center on terror charges.

“I hadn’t done anything — they took me for nothing,” the young Afghan, who was released to Afghanistan earlier this week, told The Times on Thursday, August 27.

Jawad was arrested in 2002 when he was 12 on suspicions of throwing a grenade at US invading troops in Afghanistan.

“They knew I was underage but they did not care about my age.”

The teenager was first sent to a Kabul airbase before being flown to notorious Guantanamo, where his ordeal began.

“There was a lot of oppression when I was in Guantanamo,” said a weary-looking Jawad.

“I was oppressed the whole time until I was released.”

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Osama’s ex-driver now a Yemen cabbie

By:
Published August 17, 2009, in Detainee Followup, Salim Hamdan

This makes total sense to me.  He was a taxi driver before – he was illegally detained in Guantanam – he was freed, why not go back to work?

SANAA, Yemen, (UPI) — Osama bin Laden‘s former chauffeur says he is back to driving for a living following his return to his native Yemen.

Salim Ahmed Hamdan told the Toronto Star business is difficult given the lack of tourism in the capital of Sanaa and he sometimes doesn’t make enough to cover the price he has to pay for use of the car.

But Hamdan says his life is a lot better than it was for seven years when he was locked up at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay.

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Former Bagram Detainee Describes “Completely Wild” Arrest, Interrogation By US Troops

By:
Published July 29, 2009, in Bagram, Detainee Abuse, Detainee Followup

Huffington Post Contributor

s-DETAINEE-large* Scroll down for the Pentagon’s response.

Text and photos by Jonathan Horowitz, a consultant working in Afghanistan for the Open Society Institute.

I recently sat down with an Afghan farmer who had been detained by US forces. He shared his experience at Bagram and his views on US detention policies.

For security purposes, I will refer to him as Wasiq. His recount is extremely relevant as President Obama’s task force reviews current US detention policies and provides recommendations for moving forward. The report, supposed to have been released last week, has been delayed six months.

In order for US forces to stabilize Afghanistan and end the conflict, the US detention policy needs to change. Afghans frequently cite the way the US captures and detains people as their main complaint against the US, second only to civilian casualties.

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Lakhdar Boumediene: I Was Tortured At Guantanamo

By:
Published June 8, 2009, in Detainee Followup, Interview, Lakhdar Boumedienne

(Video Interview Below)

Lakhdar Boumediene was an aid worker for the Red Crescent when he was swept up in a 2001 raid by Bosnian police and then transferred to the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, accused of plotting to attack a U.S. embassy.

Seven and a half years later, his nightmare his over. The charges against him have been dropped, and in May he was transferred to France as a free citizen, though he has been staying at a military clinic there for physical and psychological observation.

In a series of recent interviews, including one published today by ABC News, Boumediene says he was tortured at Guantanamo.

“I don’t think. I am sure,” he said, lifting his arms to show the scars.

Boumediene says he was physically abused at the U.S. prison, deprived of sleep for 16 days at a time, and then force-fed through a tube in his right nostril after he initiated a hunger strike.

 

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Will the U.S. Help Britain with Its Terror Probe?

By:
Published April 14, 2009, in Detainee Abuse, Detainee Followup, Detainee Policy, Extraordinary Rendition, Torture, Torture flights, UK, USA

By Catherine Mayer / London

 

From Prime Ministers to pop stars, terror suspects to teenage tearaways, Scotland Yard has questioned them all. But the request by the British Attorney General that the London police launch an investigation into MI5, the U.K.’s domestic security service, is unprecedented. At issue are claims by Binyam Mohamed, a former Guantánamo detainee, who alleges that British intelligence agents knew he was being held and tortured in prisons in Pakistan, Morocco and Afghanistan, and even supplied questions to his interrogators.

Mohamed’s lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, says that to evaluate his client’s claims — which could expand the investigation to include similar allegations by fellow Gitmo alumni — police will need access to records and personnel from the British intelligence community as well as from ministries with oversight of the security services and perhaps even to the pinnacles of decision-making in Westminster — and Washington. “It would be very surprising if the decision [on Mohamed] was not taken at a high level. The question is how high,” says Stafford Smith, who is also the director of the legal charity Reprieve. During a live broadcast of Britain’s nightly Channel 4 News on March 26, the attorney was more explicit. “The British investigation cannot just stop at the British people because the real torturers … were the Americans and the Pakistanis and the Moroccans,” he said.

 

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