User:Geo Swan/Guantanamo/wiki disagreements/Yakub Abahanov

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Yakub Abahanov is a citizen of Kazakhstan held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.^[1] Abahanov's Guantanamo detainee ID number is 526. The Department of Defense reports that Abahanov was born in Semeya, American intelligence analysts provided a birthdate, or an estimated year of birth for all but 22 of the detainees. Abahanov was one the 22 detainees whose age they declined to estimate.

During his Combatant Status Review Tribunal Abdallah Tohtasinovich Magrupov said he had been captured with, two friends from his village, Yakup ^[sic] and Tolkin.^[2] They were both from his village. The official list of detainees, released on May 15, 2006, lists Abahanov as being from Semeya, Kazakhstan, and Magrupov as being from Semey, Kazakhstan.

However Magrupov says they are from Omond, Kazakhstan.

The allegations against Magrupov in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal said he: "...was captured by the United Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan (UIFSA) and turned over to U.S. custody in December 2001."

Magrupov said that their initial captors imprisoned them in a cellar for over two months.

1 Combatant Status Review Tribunal
- 1.1 Allegations
2 Administrative Review Board hearing
3 Release
4 References

[edit] Combatant Status Review Tribunal

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. Yakub Abahanov was one of those 169 detainees.^[3]

[edit] Allegations

a. The detainee is associated with the Taliban:

The detainee is ######## ####### ####### ####### ####### who relocated with his family in August 2000 ^[^sic] to Afghanistan after recruitment by Taliban representatives working in Semey, KZ ^[^sic] .
Detainee was an assistant cook at the Taliban Karabakh camp from August 2001 to October 2001.
The Taliban Karabakh camp served primarily as a field kitchen and transit point for Taliban troops serving on the front lines in the war against Northern Alliance forces.

b. The detainee participated in military operations against the United States or its coalition partners:

Detainee was issued a Kalashnikov rifle, which was used for Taliban guard duty. He claimed to be a good shot.
When detainee was specifically questioned, he admitted to being part of a small fighting team during his employment as an assistant cook.
Detainee claims that Northern Alliance commander, Topan, single-handedly arrested him in his home.

[edit] Administrative Review Board hearing

Hearing room where Guantanamo captive's annual Administrative Review Board hearings convened for captives whose Combatant Status Review Tribunal had already determined they were an "enemy combatant".^[4]

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] Summary of Evidence memo

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Yakub Abahanov's Administrative Review Board, on July 8, 2005.^[5]

[edit] The following primary factors favor continued detention:

Commitment

1.	The detainee claimed that Yusupov Parkhat ^[sic] (name variants: Farhat, Parhat, Farkhat, and possibly Barhat) recruited him in the detainee's garden of Almaty Oblast.
2.	Yusupov Parkhat facilitated all the detainee's travel arrangements into Afghanistan and was the decision-maker for the group.
3.	The detainee and his family moved into a Taliban provided house in Kabul.
4.	The detainee was offered a job as an assistant cook at a Taliban camp, where about 45 soldiers were located. The detainee had a Kalashnikov for guard duty and firing team duties but claimed he only fired the weapon three times, while at a range.
5.	The detainee fought with the Taliban in the Bagram area under the command of Gul Rahman ^[sic] .

Training

1.	The detainee was a member of the Kazakhstan Army from 1995 to 1997. He was trained in the use of Kalashnikov rifle and his duties included communications and base guard.
2.	The detainee has admitted to receiving military training at the Taliban's Karabakh Camp. The detainee received training in hand-to-hand combat, the AK-47, and RPGs.

Connections/Associations

1.	The detainee was identified as a member of a Uighur ^[sic] criminal organization in Kazakhstan. The organization split with one branch moving to Afghanistan to join the Eastern Turkestan Islamic Party/Movement (ETIP/ETIM) leader Hassam Makhsum ^[sic] (aka Abu Muhammad Al-Turkistani ^[sic] ; aka Aysu Maksum ^[sic] ) to become terrorists.
2.	The Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement ^[sic] (ETIM), a small Islamic extremist group based in China's western Xinjiang Province, is the most militant of the ethnic Uighur separatist groups pursuing an independent "Eastern Turkistan" ^[sic] . ETIM is linked to al Qaida and the international mujahidin movement.
3.	The detainee indentified five other detainees as member of the ETIM who he knew from Afghanistan.
4.	On 24 August 2004, the Uzbek Supreme Court convicted and sentenced Furkat Kasimovich Yusupov ^[sic] to 18 years deprivation of freedom for his involvement in terrorist attacks in Tashkent and Bukhara Provinces, Uzbekistan, during March and April 2004.
5.	Farhat Yusupov ^[sic] is a senior member of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan ^[sic] (IMU) who was arrested in Tashkent in 2002.
6.	The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan ^[sic] (IMU) is closely affiliated with al Qaida and, under the leadership of Tohir Yoldashev, has embraced Usama Bin Ladin's anti-US, anti-Western agenda.

Intent

The detainee has claimed he had a strong desire to wage "jihad" when he went to Afghanistan.

Other Relevant Data

1.	The detainee was arrested at his residence by the United Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan (UIFSA) in December 2001.
2.	At the time of his arrest, the detainee was found to be in possession of anti-aircraft missiles. He claims to know nothing at all about anti-aircraft.

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

a..	The detainee stated he was unaware of the September 11th attacks on the U.S. until he was questioned about them in Kandahar. He was saddened to hear so many innocent people were killed and that the perpetrators were not true Muslims.
b..	Early in the interrogation process, the detainee expressed an interest in cooperating with the United States in any manner he could.
c.	The detainee denies ever being a member of the East Turkistan Islamic Movement ^[sic] (ETIM) or the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan ^[sic] (IMU).

[edit] Board's recommendation

Yakub Abahanov's Administrative Review Board was held on July 27, 2005.^[6] The report his Board submitted to Gordon England, the Designated Civilian Official authorized to make the final decision about whether he should be released, or continue to be held in Guantanamo, that he did not choose to participate in his Board hearing.

The Board's recommendation was unanimous. Most of the documents the Board prepared for the Designated Civilian Official were redacted, including the Board's actual recommendation.

The Board was presented with documents from the CIA, the FBI and the DASD-DA.

The Board reported that he: "...continues to be a threat to the United States and its allies."

[edit] Release

The Miami Herald reports that three of the four Kazakh detainees in Guantanamo were repatriated and set free on December 21, 2006.^[7] According to the Herald Abdullah Tohtasinovich Magrupov, Ihlkham Battayev and Yakub Abahanov were the three released men.