Wali Mohammed (Guantanamo detainee 560)

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Wali Mohammed is a citizen of Afghanistan held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in Cuba.^[1] Mohammed's detainee ID is 560. The official list of names of Guantanamo detainees released on May 15, 2006 states that Mohammed was born on February 15, 1966, in Baghlan, Afghanistan.

Mohammed was arrested on January 24, 2002.^[2]

According to the Associated Press the allegations against Mohammed, in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal, he was in business with the Taliban and smuggled gold for al Qaeda, which he used to buy surface to air missiles.^[2] One witness had told the Americans that Mohammed had once been Afghanistan's transportation minister.

Mohammed claimed corrupt Pakistani security agents turned him over to the Americans because he wouldn't pay a bribe.^[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.

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.

Mohammed chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.^[3][4]

[edit] Letter from Abdul Salam Zaeef

Abdul Salam Zaeef wrote a letter on behalf of Mohammed. He said he didn't meet Mohammed personally before they were detained in Guantanamo. But he knew of him, because Mohammed was a businessman, and Zaeff was a member of the Economic Council of Afghanistan when he was a cabinet member.

Mohammed's name had come up because the propriety of a loan of $1,500,000 he got from the Central Bank was questioned because he was friends with the bank's President, Abdul Rahman Zahid. Mohammed had borrowed dollars. But he had converted it to Kaldars. When the Taliban leadership directed him to pay it back, they wanted the funds paid back in dollars. But the Kaldar had, in the meantime, gone down against the Dollar, and Mohammed lost a lot of money.

[edit] allegations

a. The Detamee is associated with the Taliban and/or al Qaida.

1. The Detainee admitted he was in business with the Taliban.
2. The Detainee is associated with senior members of the Taliban.
3. The Detainee started his business in Afghanistan only after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan.
4. The Detainee served as intermediary for funds passed through the al-Rasheed Trust.
5. The al-Rasheed Trust served as a conduit for funds going to extremist organizations and has provided financial and logistic assistance to al Qaida, Kashmiri extremist organizations, and Pakistani sectarian groups.
6. The Detainee is allegedly involved in smuggling gold for al Qaida.
7. The Detainee paid for a senior member of the Taliban to travel.
8. The Detainee purchased vehicles for the Taliban.
9. The Detainee facilitated transfers and exchanges of funds from Usama Bin Laden controlled accounts for the purchase of surface-to-air missiles for al Qaida.
10. The Detainee is an associate of Usama Bin Laden.

[edit] testimony

[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.

Mohammed chose to participate in his Administrative Review Board hearing.^[5]

[edit] References

1. ^ list of prisoners (.pdf), US Department of Defense, May 15, 2006
2. ^ ^{a b c} Sketches of Guantanamo Detainees-Part I, WTOP, March 15, 2006
3. ^ Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Haji Wali Mohammed's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 102-110
4. ^ Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Haji Wali Mohammed's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 1-2
5. ^ Summarized transcript (.pdf), from Haji Wali Mohammed's Administrative Review Board hearing - pages 111-127