Mohammad Nasim (Guantanamo captive 958)
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- For other individuals named Mohammed Nasim see Mohammed Nasim (disambiguaiton).
Mohammed Nasim is a citizen of Afghanistan, who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.[1]
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[edit] Identity
The official list of Guantanamo captives named three individuals named Mohammed Nasim:
- Another Mohammad Nasim, reportedly born in Shahidan, Afghanistan in 1973, was issued ID number 453.[2]
- Another Mohammed Nasim, reportedly born in Megan, Afghanistan in 1980, was issued ID number 849.[2]
- A Mohammad Nasim, reportedly born in Pai Warzai, Afghanistan in 1962, was issued ID number 958.[2]
- The San Francisco Chronicle reports that a Guantanamo captive named Mohammed Nasim told his Tribunal he was 55 years old, that he was born in Warzai, Afghanistan. The press report states he denied commanding a unit of 25 Taliban fighters. The press report states he was captured on February 11, 2003.ŋ
[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 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.
Nasim chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.[3]
[edit] Witnesses
Nasim had requested two "off-island" witnesses. They were deemed relevant, and the State Department was requested to ask the Afghan government to contact the witnesses, on December 29, 2004, and on January 10, 2005. The Afghan embassy in Washington had not replied by January 12, 2005, so they were deemed "not reasonably available", and Nasim's Tribunal was held, without the testimony of his witnesses on January 13, 2005.
The two witnesses Nasim requested were his uncle and brother. Nasim said he thought they could have testified that the allegations against him were untrue.
[edit] Allegations
The allegations Nasim faced during his Tribunal were:
- The detainee commanded a squad of Mujahidin fighters for a Kabul commander.
- The detainee's squad consisted of twenty-five Mujahidin armed with twenty-three AK-47s, one RPK LMG and one RPG-7.
- The detainee's name was referenced in intercepted radio transmissions regarding Northern Alliance troop movement.
- The detainee is alleged to have acted as a sentry to report troop movement to the Taliban.
- The detainee was reported to be part of an early warning system.
- The detainee was captured on 11 February 2003, by United States forces in Afghanistan as a suspected Taliban.
[edit] Testimony
Nasim said he was a poor farmer, and that he had never left his village during his entire life.
He denied owning any weapons or having any military training, or even knowing what the weapons in the list in the allegations against him were.
He said he was captured on Eid, a muslim holiday where people visited their eldest male relative for a dinner and a blessing. He was not engaging in hostilities.
Before he was hooded he saw that one of his older brothers was captured when he was, and a younger male relative. Nasim estimated that he was at least 55 years old, and described his older brother as elderly. He did not see his relatives in the prisons in Afghanistan, and they were not transferred to Guantanamo.
He said he couldn't have used a radio to report on Northern Alliance troop movements because he never engaged in hostilities, he didn't live anywhere near the area where the Northern Alliance operated, and he had never seen a radio before in his life and had no idea how to operate one.
In answer to questioning Nasim said:
- No, he didn't own binoculars, and he didn't know what they were.
- No, neither he or his relatives had resisted their captors.
- The scraps of paper found in his pockets merely contained blessings. Traditionally it was considered good luck to carry blessing in one's pockets.
- When asked why he thought he was captured and detained, Nasim said he was amazed when he learned of the allegations against him.
- Nasim was asked, several times, if he knew of anyone else named Mohammed Nasim, with whom he might have been confused. He said he did not. But the DoD held two other individuals named Mohammed Nasim in Guantanamo.
[edit] Letters from home
Nasim entered as exhibits two letters he had received from his family, through the Red Cross. In one of those letters his brother spoke about the last day they were together, Eid, which Nasim said was the day he was captured.
[edit] Determined not to have been an Enemy Combatant
The Washington Post reports that Nasim was one of 38 detainees who was determined not to have been an enemy combatant during his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.[4]
They report that Nasim has been released.
[edit] References
- ^ Sketches of Guantanamo Detainees-Part I. San Francisco Chronicle (Wednesday, March 15, 2006). Retrieved on January 15, 2007.
- ^ a b c list of prisoners (.pdf), US Department of Defense, May 15, 2006
- ^ Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Mohammed Nasim's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 100-109
- ^ Guantanamo Bay Detainees Classifed as "No Longer Enemy Combatants", Washington Post
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