Name: Gholam Ghaus Z- Home: Germany, Wuppertal
- Ethnicity: Afghan
- PLEASE NOTE: Gholam has been released! 6/1/08 see here
- DOB: Circa 1966 -67
- Arrested January 4, 2008
Gholam moved to Germany in 1990, and moved to Wuppertal 1992. Later he was granted German citizenship. He has taken an early retirement due to medical/psychiatric problems. Gholam has no ties to terrorist organizations or anything that could possibly be seen as suspicious.
German secret service, BND, investigated him and said that he is “harmless.” Communal authorities from the city he lived in confirmed that.
It was reported that he was apprehended while on a trip in January to visit relatives in Afghanistan. A Der Spiegel report states that his Kabul relatives told him that, as a German citizen, he could shop in the supermarket on the USA’s base in Kabul, which he proceeded to do.
he wanted to buy some things, including a electric shaver, so he went to the Bagram Air Force Base. He was allowed to enter the base because of his German passport. Later, he was arrested in the super market because he behaved “suspicious”.
Gholam Z. borrowed a relatives’ car to go on what a security expert has called his “fatal shopping trip,” during which he planned to buy a razor, among other items. According to his version of events, he drove up to the military base on Jan. 4, showed the guard his German passport in its red cover and was then allowed to pass through several security checkpoints without incident.
When he was arrested, they found money and phone cards from different countries and a Brochure of the Tower Bridge in London. Because of that, they arrested him as terror suspect.
He testified that he got the brochure when he visited Tower Bridge during a visit to relatives in London.
Since his arrest in January, he has spent more than 3 months in custody in Bagram base. As we have seen in the past, the interrogations and the treatment of the detainees is certainly not conducive to someone with mental health issues. The treatment in Bagram is enough to drive the healthiest person crazy.
German authorities, including German foreign minister Frank-Walther Steinmeier have demanded his release. The German ambassador in Afghanistan and a member of the BND (Bundesnachrichtendienst, German intelligence agency) have already questioned him in Bagram and come to the conclusion that he is innocent. Nevertheless, the USA has told German officials that he could not be released unless Germany provided assurances that amounted to “round the clock surveillance.”
Der Spiegel reported that the USA had been holding Ghulam Ghaus Z for approximately four months, and that his continued detention had been putting a strain on the relationship between Germany and the USA. Der Spiegel compared his detention to that of Murat Kurnaz.
TAKE ACTION: Write the officials below, see the main points at the end of this post.
455th Air Expeditionary Wing Bagram AFB Afghanistan
http://www.bagram.afnews.af.mil/main/contactus.asp
J. Alan Liotta,
Principal Director, Office of Detainee Affairs
Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense
2900 Defense Pentagon, Washington DC 20301-2900, USA
Email via: http://www.defenselink.mil/faq/comment.html
Salutation: Dear Director
Robert Gates Secretary of Defense
1000 Defense Pentagon
Washington, DC 20301-1000
The Honorable Condoleezza Rice
Secretary of State U. S. Department of State
2201 C Street, N. W. Washington DC 20520
Fax: + 1 202 261 8577
E-mail: Secretary@state.gov
Gordon England
Deputy Secretary of Defense
1010 Defense Pentagon
Washington, DC 20301-1010
J. Alan Liotta Principal Director
Office of Detainee Affairs
Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense
2900 Defense Pentagon
Washington DC 20301-2900 USA
President George W Bush The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Comments: 202-456-1111 Switchboard: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461
Demand that Gholam recieve the proper psychiatric care and that he not be made worse by harsh interrogation methods.
Demand the US release Gholam to the German officials ASAP.
Remind them that the Germans did a full investigation and found Ghalum to be “harmless.”
Remind them that no one wants another “Murat Kurnaz”
