Abdul Ghaffar (Guantanamo detainee 1032)

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There are multiple individuals named Abdul Ghaffar.

Abdul Ghaffar is a citizen of Afghanistan, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in Cuba.^[1] Abdul Ghaffar's Guantanamo detainee ID number is 1032. American intelligence analysts estimate that Abdul Ghaffar was born in 1958, in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

[edit] Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held in a small trailer, the same width, but shorter, than a mobile home. The Tribunal's President sat in the big chair. The detainee sat with his hands and feet shackled to a bolt in the floor in the white, plastic garden chair. A one way mirror behind the Tribunal President allowed observers to observe clandestinely. In theory the open sessions of the Tribunals were open to the press. Three chairs were reserved for them. In practice the Tribunal only intermittently told the press that Tribunals were being held. And when they did they kept the detainee's identities secret. In practice almost all Tribunals went unobserved.

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.

Ghaffar chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.^[2]

[edit] allegations

The allegations against Ghaffar were:

a The detainee is associated with the Taliban

1. On 27 March 2003, a Red Cross convoy was attacked in Afghanistan, and a member of the Red Cross was murdered on the scene
2. Prior to the 27 March 2003, incident authorities in the Shahawali Kot area of Afghanistan were informed of a group operating in the area with the intent to do harm to westerners.
3. The detainee lives in Shahawali Kot, Afghanistan.
4. The detainee is suspected of being a bodyguard of the individual responsible for the killing of Red Cross personnel.
5. On 03 April 03, individual name Abdul Ghaffar was known to possesses a satellite phone.
6. The detainee was captured in a creek bed by U.S. forces on 21 April 03.

[edit] testimony

Ghaffar denied any knowledge of the attack on the Red Cross. Denied ever carrying weapons. Asserted everyone in his neighbourhood would concur that he worked with a shovel, not a gun. He said he was too poor to own a gun.

Ghaffar said he welcomed the American overthrow of the Taliban, and had heard that the Red Cross were generous people who came to Afghanistan to do good works.

Ghaffar said he had a dispute, with a neighbor, who had threatened to denounce him to the Americans.

[edit] Administrative Review Board hearing

Thuraya satellite phone, and solar charger, enabling usage in remote areas where there is no electrical service.

The Thuraya satellite phone has 250,000 subscribers in the middle east. It is capable of serving as a GSM cell phone in areas where cellular service is available, and falling back to satellite service in areas where cellular service is unavailable.

Detainees who were determined to have been properly classified as "enemy combatants" were scheduled to have their dossier reviewed at annual Administrative Review Board hearings. The Administrative Review Boards weren't authorized to review whether a detainee qualified for POW status, and they weren't authorized to review whether a detainee should have been classified as an "enemy combatant".

They were authorized to consider whether a detainee should continue to be detained by the United States, because they continued to pose a threat -- or whether they could safely be repatriated to the custody of their home country, or whether they could be set free.

Ghaffar chose to participate in his Administrative Review Board hearing.^[3]

[edit] The following primary factors favor continued detention:

a. Commitment

1. A road pass filed with the Consulate General of Pakistan gave Haji Abdul Ghafar permission to travel to Pakistan for multiple visits with Haji Abdul Satar.
2. The detainee is suspected of being Haji Satar’s bodyguard and driver. It is believed that Haji Satar led a group of Taliban Forces and instructed them to kill westerners in Afghanistan.
3. Mullah Satar was a leader on the ground of the group who killed the International Committee of the Red Cross worker. He was a top commander in Northern Afghanistan under the Taliban.
4. The detainee claims he was sleeping when his wife and mother work him to check on helicopters hovering overhead.
5. The detainee ran from U.S. Forces and was found hiding in a creek bed away from his home.
6. The detainee claims the attack happened approximately six hours away from his village.
7. The detainee claims that he heard about a Red Cross employee being killed and he heard that Satar was the killer.

b. Connections and Associations

1. An American non-governmental worker obtained information stating that a group of sixty men attacked the International Committee for the Red Cross. The group’s leaders included Abdul Hakim and Gut Mullah Satar.
2. Abdul Hakim issued fatwas calling for jihad against the U.S. presence in Afghanistan.
3. Abdul Hakim delivered speeches in Shah Wali Kot in an attempt to rouse the people to action against the United States and the Islamic Transitional Government of Afghanistan]] (ITGA). He also hoarded weapons and ammunition.
4. A Pashtu letter found in Afghanistan in May 2002 mentioned the Detainee’s name and a person named Mullah Abdul Hakim Akhund as being connected with the International Committee of the Red Cross murder.
5. Mullah Abdul Hakim Akhund is a Taliban facilitator and commander of approximately thirty people and is engaging in anti-United States and anti-Islamic Transitional Government of Afghanistan activities.
6. Abdul Hakim may be a Hezbe Islami associate who traveled from Quetta, Pakistan to Kandahar, Afghanistan to recruit personnel to fight against U.S. forces.
7. The Hezbe Islami Gulbuddin has stage small attacks in its attempt to force U.S. troops to withdraw from Afghanistan, overthrow the Afghan Transitional Administration and establish a fundamentalist state.
8. Haji Satar had been killed by U.S. forces, but he was implicated in the March 2003 murder of an International Committee of the Red Cross worker.
9. The group of International Committee of the Red Cross attacker consisted of Taliban and Hezbe Islami Gulbuddin personnel.
10. The leaders of the International Committee of the Red Cross attackers stayed in caves in Takht Ghar, which are in the mountains in the Shah Wali Kot district.
11. The detainee resides in the Shah Wali Kot district.

c. Other relevant data

1. The detainee may have hidden a satellite phone belonging to Satar just before detainment. The phone was never found despite extensive searches.
2. The detainee had a Thuraya satellite phone.
3. The detainee has a history of harassing guards.

[edit] The following factors favor release or transfer:

The detainee claimed he didn’t know any details about the murder. The detainee claims his innocence and that he doesn’t know Satar. The detainee claims that he’s not a Taliban or al Qaida supporter and doesn’t know anyone actively involved.

The detainee claims that he was not aware of any other incidents regarding U.S. Forces being fired upon by anyone in the area.

The detainee swears to God that he has never fired a weapon.

[edit] References

1. ^ list of prisoners (.pdf), US Department of Defense, May 15, 2006
2. ^ Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Abdul Ghaffar'sCombatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 25-32
3. ^ Summarized transcript (.pdf), from Abdul Ghaffar's Administrative Review Board hearing - page 13

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