User:Geo Swan/Guantanamo/Taliban uniform

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One of the justifications the Bush administration offered for not extending the protections of Prisoner of War status, as defined in the Geneva Conventions to members of the Taliban was that they fought without wearing a recognizable Taliban uniform.

However the continued detention of several of the Guantanamo captives was justified by the allegation that they had been issued "Taliban uniforms".[1]

Contents

[edit] Geneva Convention requirement lawful combatants wear a "distinctive marking"

The Geneva Conventions do not require a lawful combatant to wear a uniform while engaged in combat to qualify for the protections of POW status. Article 4.2 of the Third Geneva Convention requires a lawful combatant to wear "a fixed distinctive sign recognizable at a distance".

[edit] Guantanamo captives alleged to have been issued a "Taliban uniform"

name notes
Rukniddin Fayziddinovich Sharipov
  • Two of the factors favoring Sharipov's continued extrajudicial detention that were offered to his Administrative Review Board were:[1]
    • "The Detainee was given military clothing, received some weapons training, and stood guard duty."
    • "In Mazar-e-Sharif [sic] , Afghanistan, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan gave the Detainee new clothing which consisted of two long shirts with pants. The also gave him a black turban. The detainee denied knowing that the Taliban wore these clothing items."

[edit] Guantanamo captives allegedly captured wearing an "olive drab" jacket

Some of the captives held in Guantanamo were originally captured because they were found near where there had been gunfire, and were wearing an "olive drab" jacket.

name notes
Alif Mohammed[2]
  • One of the allegations Alif Mohammed faced during his Combatant Status Review Tribunal was: "When captured, the detainee had a freshly-fired AK-47 in his possessio, as well as 3 loaded magazines, a vest, and was wearing an OD green jacket".[3]
Kushky Yar[2]
  • Two of the allegations Kushky Yar faced during his Combatant Status Review Tribunal were:[4]
    • "The detainee, at the time of his capture, was wearing an olive drab (OD) green jacket, also commonly seen on Taliban fighters in the area."
    • "The detainee's nephew admitted to wearing an OD green jacket."
Hafizullah[2]
  • One of the allegations Hafizullah faced during his Combatant Status Review Tribunal was: "The detainee when captured, was wearing an olive drab green jacket. He was stopped at a checkpoing because he was with a group observed caching weapons which had recently been used against U.S. forces."[5]
Baridad[2]
  • One of the allegations Baridad faced during his Combatant Status Review Tribunal was: "The Detainee, when captured, was wearing an olive drab green jacket. He was stopped at a checkpoint because he was with a group observed caching weapons, which had recently been used against United States forces."[6]
Abdul Bagi[2]
  • Two of the factors favoring Abdul Bagi's continued detention, offered to his Administrative Review Board were:[7]
    • "The detainee was apprehended wearing an Olive Drab (OD) green jacket consistent with the eyewitness accounts of the individual responsible for the attacks."
    • "OD jackets were worn by several men captured, [sic] on the same day as the detainee, at a checkpoint on the north side of town in a taxi and on motorcycles. The men all suffered from hearing loss assessed to be from firing activity."

[edit] John Walker Lindh's uniform according to Esquire

An article in Esquire magazine quoted an analyst who interviewed John Walker Lindh, who stated that he wore a "Taliban uniform".[8]

"The same conclusion was reached by Rohan Gunaratna, who was hired by James Brosnahan to interview John Walker Lindh and write a report to the court before his sentencing. Gunaratna had made a career of interviewing terrorists and writing about terrorism and had served as an expert witness both for and against the government. He spoke to John Lindh for eight hours and decided emphatically that he was not a terrorist. "He had no intention of killing civilians," Gunaratna says. "He was not Al Qaeda. At Al Farooq, there was military training for soldiers in the Taliban and very specialized training for Al Qaeda. He trained as a soldier. He wore a Taliban uniform. It has become common to speak of Al Qaeda and the Taliban as if they are the same thing, but they are not. In fact, he was asked by [Al Qaeda lieutenant] Abu Mohammad al-Masri if he wanted to go to the United States or Israel as a martyr. John answered that he came to Afghanistan to serve on the front lines against the Northern Alliance. It's very difficult to refuse in a place like Al Farooq. But he refused."

[edit] The Telegraph

An article published in The Telegraph on September 21, 2001 said:[9]

"'We know they are wrong,' said one man in his late teens and dressed in the Taliban uniform of black turban, long shirt and baggy trousers. 'If needs be we will fight anyone who attacks Afghanistan.'"

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b transcript (.pdf) from Rukniddin Fayziddinovich Sharipov's Administrative Review Board - pages 107-112
  2. ^ a b c d e Alif Mohammed, Kushky Yar, Hafizullah, Baridad, Abdul Bagi all lived in the village of Lejay, Afghanistan. They were all captured by American forces following a skirmish outside Lejay on February 10, 2003.
  3. ^ Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Alif Mohammed's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 55-70
  4. ^ Summary of Evidence memo (.pdf) prepared for Kushky Yar's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - November 10, 2004 - page 76
  5. ^ Summarized transcripts (.pdf) from Hafizullah's Combatant Status Review Tribunal pages 1-9
  6. ^ Summarized transcripts (.pdf) from Baridad's Combatant Status Review Tribunal pages 59-64
  7. ^ Summarized transcript (.pdf), from Abdul Bagi's Administrative Review Board hearing - page 42-48
  8. ^ Tom Junod. "Innocent: Can America and Islam coexist? The answer may lie with the fate of twenty-five-year-old", Esquire magazine, July 1, 2006. Retrieved on 2008-01-04. 
  9. ^ Tim Butcher. "Man with a mission brings Mohammed to the mountain", The Telegraph, September 21, 2001. Retrieved on 2008-01-05. 

Category:Terrorism