Abdul Salam Zaeef

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Abdul Salam Zaeef
Born: 1968 (age 39–40)
Detained at: Guantanamo
ID number: 306
Conviction(s): no charge, held in extrajudicial detention
Status Repatriated

Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, born 1968 in Kandahar, was the Taliban ambassador to Pakistan before the US invasion of Afghanistan. He was crippled during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. He was detained in Pakistan somewhere in the winter or spring of 2001/2002 as an "unlawful combatant" in the Guantanamo Bay detainment camps and was kept there as of June 2004.

Contents

[edit] Identity

Captive 306 was identified inconsistently on official Department of Defense documents:

  • Captive 306 was identified as Abdul Salam Zaeef on the first official lists of captives' names published in 2006.[1][2]
  • Captive 306 was identified as Abdul Salam Deiff on the official list of captives whose habeas corpus petitions should be dismissed following their transfer from US custody.[3]

[edit] Background

Zaeef was a minister of transportation until he became the Taliban's envoy to Pakistan. After the September 11 attacks in 2001, Zaeef was seen around the world when he held news conferences for the regime. While he condemned the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, he said that Osama bin Laden was not responsible and he would not be given up. He also reportedly consulted with Taliban leader Mullah Omar on ways to avert war.

[edit] Capture and detention

After the U.S. invasion, Zaeef ended his news conferences and moved to Pakistan, where authorities handed him over to the U.S. on January 2, 2002. He spent his time in detention on an American warship, bases in Afghanistan, and finally in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.[2] The Pajhwok Afghan News has reported that Zaeef has been freed from Guantanamo Bay.[4]

An article in the September 18, 2005 Daily Times Zaeef is quoted as saying that his release was "due to the effort of some friends".[5] He did not attribute his release to his Combatant Status Review Tribunal or his 2005 Administrative Review Board hearing. He described the actions of these two bodies as illegal.

[edit] Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Combatant Status Review Tribunal notice read to a Guantanamo captive. During the period July 2004 through March 2005 a Combatant Status Review Tribunal was convened to make a determination whether they had been correctly classified as an "enemy combatant". Participation was optional. The Department of Defense reports that 317 of the 558 captives who remained in Guantanamo, in military custody, attended their Tribunals.
Combatant Status Review Tribunal notice read to a Guantanamo captive. During the period July 2004 through March 2005 a Combatant Status Review Tribunal was convened to make a determination whether they had been correctly classified as an "enemy combatant". Participation was optional. The Department of Defense reports that 317 of the 558 captives who remained in Guantanamo, in military custody, attended their Tribunals.

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 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.

[edit] Allegations

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Addul Salam Zaeef's Combatant Status Review Tribunal, on October 6, 2004.[6] The allegations it listed were:

a. The detainee is a member of the Taliban:
  1. The detainee admitted joining the Taliban in 1996.
  2. The detainee was appointed to the position of president of the Central Bank of Afghanistan by the leader of the Taliban.
  3. The detainee was then appointed to the position of the Deputy Afghanistan Minister of Mining and Industry by the leader of the Taliban.
  4. The detainee then served for 3 months in the Taliban government as the head of the Transportation Ministry in Kabul, Afghanistan.
  5. The detainee's last position was as the Taliban government's ambassador to Pakistan, where he served for approximately 18 months until his arrest in December 2001.
  6. In the beginning of the Taliban's rise to power, operational commanders of the Taliban and al Qaida forces in the Shomali and Kabul regions of Afghanistan reported to the detainee as the Deputy of Defense for the Taliban.
  7. As the Ambassador ot Pakistan for the Taliban government, the detainee had direct ties to senior Taliban members.

[edit] Transcript

There is no record that Abdul Salam Zaeef chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.

[edit] Letter for Wali Mohammed

Zaeef wrote a letter on behalf of Wali Mohammed, an Afghani businessman whose case he considered when he sat on the Economic Council of Afghanistan.[7] Zaeef didn't meet Mohammed until they were both sent to Afghanistan.

[edit] Habeas corpus

A writ of habeas corpus was submitted on his behalf.[3] It was amalgamated with Mohammon v. Bush.

Unlike other captives who had habeas corpus petitions submitted on their behalf the dossier of unclassified documents produced by his Combatant Status Review Tribunal has not been published.[8]

[edit] Repatriation

Zaeef was released from Guantanamo in the summer of 2005.[9]

[edit] Abuse claims

Zaeef released a book "A Picture of Guantanamo" detailing his claims of mistreatment at Guantanamo.[10] Zaeef also claims he was chained in illegal "stress positions" and subjected to sleep deprivation and extremes of temperature, while held in the USA's Bagram Theater Detention Facility.[11]

Further information: Bagram torture and prisoner abuse

[edit] Call for a unity government

On April 12, 2007 Zaeef "stirred controversy" by calling for a unity-government in Afghanistan.[11]

On Friday June 6, 2008 The Guardian published excerpts from an interview with Zaeef. It reported he claimed negotiations with the Taliban was the key to peace. And it reported he argued that the presence of foreign troops eroded the authority of the central government[12]:

"As long as the foreign troops are here, negotiations with the government will be difficult."

[edit] Move to Kabul

An article in the German publication Der Spiegel, on April 12, 2007, reported that Zaeef had moved into a "...handsome guest house, located in the dusty modern neighborhood Khosh Hal Khan."[11] The Der Spiegel article goes on to state that the new home Karzai's government has provided Zaeef is around the corner from one occupied by former Taliban Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil. Der Spiegel described Zaeef's home as being guarded, inside and out, by a heavily armed security detail. Der Spiefel described both Zaeef and Muttawakil as regarded as among the more moderate former members of the Taliban.

[edit] References

  1. ^ OARDEC (April 20, 2006). List of detainee who went through complete CSRT process. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2007-09-29.
  2. ^ a b OARDEC (May 15, 2006). List of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from January 2002 through May 15, 2006. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2007-09-29.
  3. ^ a b "Exhibit B: List Of Enemy Combatant Detainees With Pending Habeas Corpus Petitions Who Have Been Released From United States Custody", United States Department of Justice, April 17, 2007. Retrieved on 2008-05-05. 
  4. ^ Taliban ambassador Zaeef freed from Guantanamo Bay, Pajhwok Afghan News
  5. ^ No law at Guantanamo Bay prison, says Zaeef, Daily Times, September 18, 2005
  6. ^ OARDEC (October 6, 2004). Summary of Evidence for Combatant Status Review Tribunal -- Zaeef, Abdul Salam page 43. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2007-10-12.
  7. ^ Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Haji Wali Mohammed's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - page 3
  8. ^ OARDEC (August 8, 2007). Index for CSRT Records Publicly Files in Guantanamo Detainee Cases. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2007-09-29.
  9. ^ Behroz Khan. "Ex-Taliban envoy released from Guantanamo Bay", Tuesday September 13, 2005. Retrieved on 2007-7-2. 
  10. ^ Zeeshan Haider. "Ex-Taliban Details Guantanamo 'Humiliation'", The Australian, July 30, 2006. Retrieved on 2007-7-3. 
  11. ^ a b c Olaf Ihlau. "Ex-Taliban Official Calls for Unity Government in Afghanistan", Der Spiegel, April 12, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-07-01. 
  12. ^ Nushin Arbabzadah. "Talking to the Taliban: Afghan politicians increasingly believe negotiations with the ousted Taliban regime are the key to peace", The Guardian, Friday June 6, 2008. Retrieved on 2008-06-01. 

[edit] External links