Qari Hasan Ulla Peerzai

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Qari Hasan Ulla Peerzai is a citizen of Afghanistan, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in Cuba.^[1] Peerzai's Guantanamo Internee Security Number is 562. American intelligence analysts estimate that Peerzai was born in 1977, in Baghran, ^[sic] Afghanistan.

[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]

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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.

Peerzai chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.^[5]

[edit] allegations

The allegations against Peerzai were:

a The detainee is a member of and supported the Taliban.

1. The detainee had a working relationship with persons known by him to be associated with the Taliban.
2. When captured, the detainee was in possession of pocket litter containing a list of known Taliban.
3. Notebooks found on the detainee at the time of capture contain codes known to be used by the Taliban.
4. The detainee tried at least two occasions to get a job with the Taliban government.
5. The detainee was arrested by the U.S. force in Klianjki, Afghanistan.

[edit] testimony

Peerzai claimed to be a supporter of former King Zahir Shah. He claimed that he had defeneded the Americans to other Afghans, and told them that he was “George Bush’s soldier”

His explanation for the pocket litter was that Mullah Ehsanullah gave him these things when he was learning to read. He said the notebooks contained lists of mundane items, bread from the bakery, a petrol.

He said he was captured in Kajaki, not Klianjki.

He also admitted he was jailed in Iran, in 1990 or 1991, for nine years, for smuggling hashish.

He said he was falsely denounced by Said Shah and Haji Abdul Khaliq.

[edit] Administrative Review Board hearing

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.

Peerzai chose to participate in his Administrative Review Board hearing.^[6]

[edit] Enemy Combatant Election Form

Qari Hasan Ulla Peerzai's transcript does not include his Assisting Military Officer reading from his or her notes recorded on the Enemy Combatant Election Form.

[edit] The following primary factors favor continued detention:

a. Commitment

1. The detainee was arrested in early February 2002 in the village of Kajacki in the Helmand Province.
2. The detainee was identified as Taliban and turned over to Americans ^[sic] by two individuals for whom he worked.
3. When captured, the detainee was in possession of pocket litter containing a list of known Taliban.
4. Notebooks found on the detainee at the time of the capture contain codes know ^[sic] to be used by the Taliban.
5. The detainee confirmed that he had two million Afghanis in his possession when arrested. He claims 600,000 came from his brother, 1,000,000 from his father and 400,000 were his own.

b. Connections/Associations

1. The detainee tried on at least two occasions to get a job with the Taliban government.
2. The detainee worked as a clerk for Haji Mullah Sharif Adin who was the Governor of the Tangi ^[sic] of Kajaki District.
3. Haji Sharif Adin worked for the Taliban Intelligence Chief, Qari Hamid Ghul, during the Taliban rule.
4. Haji Sharif Adin was expected to attend a meeting at the home of Haji Ghul Agha. Agha is responsible for an explosion in front of the Kandahar Mayor's office in May 2002.
5. Agha and the Hezbe Islami Gulbuddin ^[sic] are suspected of planning several of the recent bombings in Kandahar and are planning to target U.S. personnel in the near future.
6. Hezbe Islami Gulbuddin ^[sic] (HIG) has long established ties with bin Laden. HIG has staged small attacks in it's ^[sic] attempt to force U.S. troops to withdraw from Afghanistan, overthrow the Afghan Transitional Administration, and establish a fundamentalist state.
7. The detainee had a working relationship with persons known by him to be associated with the Taliban.

c. Other relevant data

1. The detainee spent 9 years and 4 months in various Iranian prisons for possession of hashish, which he had been trafficking.
2. The detainee is extremely evasive and uses multiple resistance techniques. He was likely recruited by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) or the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), trained and returned to Afghanistan as a collector and for operational use.
3. Contacts with al Qaida were said to have been established through the Iranian Ministry Intelligence and Security (MOIS). All Iranian Intelligence Chiefs had contact with al Qaida as of the mid 1990's ^[sic] .

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

a.	The detainee denies having any knowledge of the attacks in the U.S. prior to their execution and denies having any knowledge of any rumors or plans of future attacks on the U.S. or U.S. interests.
b.	The detainee states that Usama bin Laden is responsible for his current incarceration and he would like to kill him if he could get his hands on him.
c.	The detainee stated that the current idea of jihad is wrong. He believes that jihad is the spreading of Islam or preaching. Jihad is not brutality and killing.

[edit] Response to the factors

[edit] Response to Board questions

[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. ^ Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Qari Hasan Ulla Peerzai'sCombatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 24-34
6. ^ Summarized transcript (.pdf), from Qari Hasan Ulla Peerzai's Administrative Review Board hearing - page 134