Abdul Majid Muhammed

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Abdul Majid Muhammed is a citizen of Iran, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.[1] His detainee ID number is 555. American intelligence analysts estimate Muhammed was born in 1978, in Zahedan, Iran.

Contents

[edit] Press reports

Muhammad was accused of serving as a night watchman for the Taliban.[2]

[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.
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.

Muhammed chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.[3]

[edit] allegations

  1. The Detainee traveled to Afghanistan after 11 September 2001.
  2. The Detainee was identified as a "Watchman" for the Taliban.
  3. As a "Watchman," the Detainee was on patrol for the Taliban.
  4. The Detainee was captured by the Northern Alliance in the vicinity of Ghazni, Afghanistan.

[edit] testimony in response to the allegations

  1. In response to the allegation that he entered Afghanistan, from Iran, after September 11th:
    • Huhammed identified himself as a Catholic. (When asked to swear in, prior to his testimony, he used the non-Muslim oath.)
    • Muhammed said the sole reason he crossed into Afghanistan was to try to make money smuggling drugs. This trip was the first trip to Afghanistan to smuggle drugs.
    • Muhammed said he had no animosity against the USA.
    • Huhammed said he was wanted by the Iranian military because he was a deserter.
  2. In response to the allegations that he was a Taliban watchman:
    • Muhammed denied any involvement with the Taliban.
    • Muhammed said the Taliban do not like Iranians because they are not Sunni Muslims.
    • Muhammed said he believed the Taliban would have killed him if they learned he was Catholic.
  3. See above.
  4. In response to the allegations that he was captured by the Northern Alliiance near Ghazni.
    • Muhammad acknowledged being captured by the Northern Alliance. He couldn't state where.
    • Muhammad described his capture in detail. He was washing himself by the side of the road when several trucks full of armed Afghans drove up and took him prisoner. They spoke to him in Pashtun -- which he doesn't speak. But he could tell they were very excited. And he understood when they kept shouting "Arab! Arab! Arab!".
    • Muhammad said that when he was taken back to their base there were some people who spoke some Persian who tried to tell the others he was an Iranian. They pointed out that his complexion was dark, like an Iranians. But the others didn't care, because the USA paid a bounty for Arabs, not Iranians.
    • The Afghans didn't feed him, or give him any water, during the two days it took them to take him to the Americans.

[edit] Muhammed's opening statement

Muhammed told his Tribunal that all the Arab prisoners hated him, because he was Catholic. Some of them had tried to kill him. He offered to show his Tribunal the scars.

Muhammad said he had been cooperative and well behaved in Guantanamao. He asked for the Tribunals help, because he hadn't done anything wrong.

[edit] Muhammed's testimony in response to Tribunal officer's questions

Muhammed said he worked as a well digger. But he didn't like doing that because it was dangerous, and didn't pay well. He also said he had worked for a drug dealer.

Muhammad said he became involved in the drug trade after being released from a psychiatric hospital:

"When I got out of the hospital I found a friend and he told me that he was working in narcotics trading and stuff like that. He told me that he would work with me, since it was the first time that I found a friend, at the age of eighteen. Muhammad acknowledged he had been working for the drug dealer for seven to eight years as a street level drug dealer, selling Opium and Hashish.
Main article: Afghan Opium trade
Main article: Guantanamo detainees who admit involvement in the drug trade

Muhammed acknowledged that he was a little bit of an addict himself, and he was in debt. He acknowledged that he had been arrested, and imprisoned, twice, for selling drugs in Iran.

Muhammed said the trip where he was captured was his first trip to Afghanistan. He knew some Afghans in Iran, who had made it sound easy. But he had been in Afghanistan for fifteen days, without making any contacts.

Muhammed said he knew that there was a war in Afghanistan, but he had heard that all the fighting had stopped. That is why he thought it would be safe for him to travel. Muhammed said he traveled after Ramadan. (ie. December 2001)

Muhammed said an Afghan friend had obtained a photo ID card, valid to the Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin militia, which he gave to him, so he could cross the Iran-Afghanistan border. His friend had taken his picture, and 5,000 in Iranian money to bribe the clerk, to the local HiG office in Iran, and told the clerk Muhammed was his brother.

[edit] Administrative Review Board hearing

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.

Muhammed chose to participate in his Administrative Review Board hearing.[4]

[edit] The following factors favor continued detention:

a. Commitment
  1. The detainee worked for a long time as a drug courier between Afghanistan and Iran.
  2. The detainee had an Afghani person obtain a letter from the Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin allowing the detainee to cross the border from Iran to Afghanistan. The detainee paid 5,000 in Iranian money (NFI).
  3. Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin (HIG) has long established ties with Usama Bin Ladin. (HIG) founder Gulbuddin Hikmatyar offered to shelter Bin Ladin after the latter fled Sudan in 1996. HIG has staged small attacks in its attempt to force U.S. troops to withdraw from Afghanistan, overthrow the Afghan Transitional Administration (ATA) and establish a fundamentalist state.
b. Training:
The detainee was in the Iranian army in the 3-4 years before he went to Afghanistan. While in the military he was trained in basic drill and the AK-47.

[edit] The following factors favor release of transfer:

  • The detainee has been diagnosed with a severe borderline personality disorder.
  • The detainee answered no to questions about belonging to anti U.S. groups, attacking coalition forces, or plans to attack coalition forces if released.

[edit] Muhammed's opening statement

Muhammed acknowledged that working in the drug trade was a bad thing. He pointed out that he had been well behaved while in Guantanamo. He said he is a peaceful person, who doesn't like fighting. He pointed out to the Board that he is a Catholic. He said he doesn't disrespect any religion.

Muhammed told his Board that he had tried to kill himself in Guantanamo. But now he was at peace. He has told the prisoners who want to kill him to go ahead and kill him, because he knows he will wake up and go beside God. He said he needs to be a friend to everybody, young or old, man or woman, all of them. He looks at everybody like a brother, sister, mother.

Muhammed pleaded for the Board's help in going home. He told the Board that two months previously he had received a letter from home, saying a drug dealer had killed his daughter. He said that he owed a large debt to this drug dealer, and that is why he went to Afghanistan, to smuggle drugs.

[edit] References

  1. ^ list of prisoners (.pdf), US Department of Defense, May 15, 2006
  2. ^ Sketches of Guantanamo Detainees-Part II, The Guardian, March 15, 2006
  3. ^ Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Abdul Majid Muhammed's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 107-121
  4. ^ Summarized transcript (.pdf), from Abdul Majid Muhammed's Administrative Review Board hearing - pages 90-97