Abdul Wahab

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Abdul Wahab
Born:	1971 (age 36–37) Badakhshan, Afghanistan.
Arrested:	February 10, 2003 Lejay, Afghanistan
Citizenship	Afghanistan
Detained at:	Guantanamo
ID number:	961
Conviction(s):	no charge, held in extrajudicial detention
Status	enemy combatant, detainee
Occupation:	farmer

Abdul Wahab is a citizen of Afghanistan, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in Cuba.^[1] Wahab's Guantanamo detainee ID number is 961.

Wahab was captured on February 10, 2003. He was a passenger on a minibus, that was stopped at aa checkpoint at the village of Lejay, Afghanistan, where there had been an ambush earlier in the day.

[edit] Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held in a trailer the size of a large RV. The captive sat on a plastic garden chair, with his hands and feet shackled to a bolt in the floor.^[2][3] Three chairs were reserved for members of the press, but only 37 of the 574 Tribunals were observed.^[4]

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 Tribunal. 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.

To comply with a Freedom of Information Act request, during the winter and spring of 2005, the Department of Defense released 507 memoranda. Those 507 memoranda each contained the allegations against a single detainee, prepared for their Combatant Status Review Tribunals. The detainee's name and ID numbers were redacted from all but one of the memoranda. However 169 of the memoranda had the detainee's ID hand-written on the top right hand of the first page corner. When the Department of Defense complied with a court order, and released official lists of the detainee's names and ID numbers it was possible to identify who those 169 were written about. Abdul Wahab was one of those 169 detainees.^[5]

[edit] Allegations

a. The detainee participated in military operations against the United States or coalition partners.

1. The detainee was captured at a checkpoint in the same type vehicle and clothing that was witnessed leaving the site of ambush against U.S. forces.
2. The detainee suffered hearing loss when captured, which was caused by firing weapons.
3. The detainee stated he used "klash-n-krors" (sic) against U.S. personnel.

[edit] Testimony

Wahab chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.^[6]

Wahab says he had boarded the minivan that picks up and drops off passengers along the road that passes through the village of Lejay, Afghanistan one hour before it was stopped at the checkpoint. He said that five of the other seven passengers had got on the bus before he did. He knew one other passenger, an old man named Jumandar.

He didn’t hear any firing, prior to his arrest. He said he was just a farmer, and that he had never fired a weapon in his entire life.

He denied there had ever been anything wrong with his hearing.

Wahab asked the Tribunal members to consider whether it would make sense for someone who had launched a surprise attack to head back to their enemy, unarmed.

[edit] Administrative Review Board hearings

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.

[edit] First annual Administrative Review Board hearing

The Summary of Evidence memo prepared for his first annual Administrative Review Board stated:^[7][8]

[edit] The following primary factors favor continued detention:

a. Commitment

1. During his confinement, the detainee has committed a hostile act, an assault and has had one incident of failure to comply.

b. Connections / Associations

1. The detainee was captured 10 February 2003 at a checkpoint north of Lejay, Baghran District, Helmond Province, Afghanistan based on suspicion that he was one of a number of men who had just engaged United States Forces.
2. The detainee appeared to cache weapons prior to capture, as did all of the men he was captured with.
3. Two individuals who were captured during a sweep of the Lejay ambush area admitted to participating in the ambush against United States Forces.
4. The detainee was captured with an individual who operated an intelligence collection network in support of a former Taliban Chief of Intelligence.
5. The detainee was captured with a Taliban Commander who attended a meeting of senior Taliban officials to discuss military operations against the Afghan Interim Administration.
6. The detainee was captured with an individual who was scheduled to meet with other Taliban leaders to discuss the upcoming jihad against the coalition and the Afghanistan Transitional Authority.
7. An individual has repeatedly tasked the detainee with transporting money from his village to Baghran.
8. The individual is a Taliban sub-commander.
9. The detainee's brother fought for Jamaat-I-Islami in the Jihad.
10. Jamaat-E-Islami ^[sic] is a political party in Pakistan made up of Islamic extremists. The party's leader has a relationship with Usama Bin Laden ^[sic] .

c. Intent

The detainee stated he used "klash-n-krors" ^[sic] against U.S. personnel.^[9]

[edit] The following primary factors favor release or transfer:

• The detainee claims not to know any of the other men who were in his taxi when he was captured.
• The detainee stated that none of the people in the taxi either possessed or disposed of weapons.
• The detainee denies that he was a member of the Taliban and insists he was nothing more than a farmer.

[edit] Transcript

Wahab chose to participate in his Administrative Review Board hearing.^[10]

[edit] opening statement

• Wahab testified: "Everything they said about me is [a] lie. The first one is [that] they accused me of not accepting the law and principle and things in the detention. Everything is a lie. I didn't do anything wrong.
• Wahab testified that the jitney taxi he was in contained no al Qaeda fighters. He was just going to the market, and the driver hadn't picked up any fighters. He never touched a Kalashnikov, never hit anybody with a Kalashnikov
• Wahad acknowledged taking money -- once -- to a money-lender. His brother had borrowed money. He sold his donkeys to repay the loan, and Wahab had carried that money to the market to repay the money-lender on his behalf. This transaction had nothing to do with the Taliban or al Qaeda.
• Wahab said he was just a poor farmer. He had never been a member of an Islamic group.
• Wahab told his Board that he had a polygraph administered to him. He was told he passed the test. His tester told him: "You [have passed the test by one] hundred percent and you are going home."

[edit] testimony

• Wahab confirmed he was a passenger in the taxi, not the driver.
• Wahab said the reason he was going to the market was that it was the Muslim festival of Eid and he wanted to buy things for his family's feast that night.
• Wahab testified if he were released he would try to earn money to feed his children, if they were not dead already.
• Wahab testified that the amount of his brother's loan was fifty thousand Pakistani Rupee[s].
• Wahab confirmed that there were many bounty hunters who sold innocent Afghanis to the Americans based on false denunciations. He believed he had been sold based on false denunciations.
• Wahab testified that the taxi he was in approached the American checkpoint with no idea what was going on, and that they might end up being captured.
• Wahab testified that there were seven occupants in the taxi.
• Wahab testified that he had boarded the taxi at a taxi pickup stand, and had been in the taxi for about twenty minutes before it reached the American checkpoint. The taxi picked up one further passenger after he boarded.
• Wahab and five other passengers had boarded in the village of Clanji.
• Wahab was carrying the fifty thousand rupees he was repaying the money lender on his brother's behalf, and ten thousand rupees of his own.
• Wahab said the family members he was responsible to support were his mother, his wife, four sons and a daughter.
• Wahab said his taxi fare was fifty rupees.
• Wahab explained that although the Taliban controlled Afghanistan, he lived in a very mountainous area, and there had been hardly any Taliban presence there.
• Wahab testified that there hadn't been any fighting in his area: "No one threw [a] bomb in our area and no one [was] fight[ing] in our area. The day [that] I was arrested, I heard some noise, but I [didn't] know what [it] was. I don't know if it was a bomb. The day [that] the airplane came I didn't see anything."
• Wahab testified that he was unaware that Americans were attacking his country.
• Wahab testified that he didn't know any of the other men captured at the same time he was: "They arrested approximately [one] hundred people. There were people coming from [the] north, from [the] south [and] from [every]where. They [would] stop them and they arrested them. I don't know if they are the (inaudible) people. I didn't know any of them."
• When Wahab was asked if he knew the former Chief of Intelligence he was alleged to have been captured with, he replied: "Well I [have] told you several times repeatedly [that] I don't know anybody, except one person, he was a poor man [just] like me. His name was Jamadar (ph). He was a very poor man. That's all [and] I don't know any [ofthe other] passengers."
• Wahab confirmed that his brother had fought with the Jamaat-I-Islami, and that he was injured. His brother incurred his injury eighteen years previously.^[11]
• Wahab's brother lost his leg, below the knee, when he stepped on a mine. He was eight years old when he lost his leg.
• One of Wahab's Board members confirmed, with the Board's translator, that "klash-n-krors" was a Kalashnikov. Wahab repeated his denial that he had ever owned or used a Kalashnikov.
• Wahab was asked to explain, how, if he had never held a Kalashnikov, one of his interrogators recorded that he acknowledged using one against U.S. forces. Wahab replied that he never acknowledged using one.
• Wahab testified that the crops he raised were wheat and corn.
• Wahab testified that the taxi was so old and noisy conversation was impossible, so he and the other passengers hadn't tried to chat with one another. The only conversation he had was when he and the driver negotiated his fare.
• Wahab's concluding comment was to tell his Board how worried he was about his children, a point he had raised a dozen times before.

[edit] Second annual Administrative Review Board hearing

Casio F91W, in daily alarm mode. The watch is currently set to ring an alarm, and flash its light, at 7:30am.

The Summary of Evidence memo prepared for his first annual Administrative Review Board stated^[12]

[edit] The following primary factors favor continued detention:

[edit] The following primary factors favor release or transfer:

[edit] See also

• Alif Mohammed
• Abdul Bagi
• Baridad
• Rahmatullah
• Kushky Yar
• Raes Abdul Wahed

[edit] References

1. ^ list of prisoners (.pdf), US Department of Defense, May 15, 2006
2. ^ Guantánamo Prisoners Getting Their Day, but Hardly in Court, New York Times, November 11, 2004 - mirror
3. ^ Inside the Guantánamo Bay hearings: Barbarian "Justice" dispensed by KGB-style "military tribunals", Financial Times, December 11, 2004
4. ^ Annual Administrative Review Boards for Enemy Combatants Held at Guantanamo Attributable to Senior Defense Officials. United States Department of Defense (March 6, 2007). Retrieved on 2007-09-22.
5. ^ Summary of Evidence memo (.pdf) prepared for Abdul Wahab's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - October 15, 2004 - page 75
6. ^ Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Abdul Wahab's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 42-48
7. ^ Factors for and against the continued detention (.pdf) of Abdul Wahab Administrative Review Board, April 21, 2005 - page 59
8. ^ OARDEC (April 21, 2005). Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the case of Abdul Wahab pages 59-60. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2007-10-06.
9. ^ "Klash-n-krors is a Pashtun pronunciation of Kalashnikov.
10. ^ Summarized transcript (.pdf), from Abdul Wahab's Administrative Review Board hearing - pages 174-186
11. ^ Eighteen years earlier the CIA was providing assistance to Afghan militia groups who were fighting Afghanistan's Soviet occupiers
12. ^ OARDEC (April 21, 2005). Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the case of Abdul Wahab pages 59-60. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2007-10-06.