Zia Ul Shah

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Zia Ul Shah is a citizen of Pakistan, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in Cuba.^[1] His detainee ID number is 015.

[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]

The neutrality of this section is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page.(December 2007) Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved.

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.

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

[edit] Allegations against Zia Ul Shah

a. Detainee is a member of the Taliban.

1. Prior to September 11, 2001, detainee traveled to Afghanistan for employment and worked as a driver for the Taliban for six to eight months.
2. Detainee transported personnel and material for the Taliban, included (sic) cooking oil, ammunition, heavy coats and blankets.

b Detainee engaged in hostilities against the US or its coalition partners.

1. Detainee admits transporting Taliban members that were armed with weapons. Their mission was to search for members of the Northern Alliance.
2. Detainee was ordered to surrender to Northern Alliance forces. Detainee was instructed to drive himself and approximately 60 fighters and their Kalashnikov weapons to Mazari Sharif.

[edit] Zia Ul Shah's testimony

• Shah denied being a member of the Taliban, and denied engaging in hostilities against the USA or its allies.
• Shah acknowledged traveling to Afghanistan to work as a driver. He acknowledged working as a driver for the Taliban. But he explained that his choice of his employer had nothing to do with a religious or political commitment. He pointed out that he worked for the Taliban before the USA engaged in hostilities against them. Further, he was never in any of the areas where the civil war with the Northern Alliance was active.
• Shah acknowledged that he had, occasionally also transported people carrying AK-47s. But this was not his usual cargo because the vehicle he would be assigned was not very reliable. His main cargo was food.
• Shah denied engaging in hostilities. He said when the USA attacked the roads were closed, and he tried to leave Afghanistan.
• Shah denied transporting anyone looking for the Northern Alliance, or any other kind of fight. He wasn’t near the front lines, and he never drove anyone to the front lines.
• Shah acknowledged driving Taliban who wanted to surrender. He said he saw it as his only opportunity to go home. He saw himself as a civilian, not a contractor. He thought that once he had delivered the surrendering fighters he would be allowed to go home.
• Shah said that the Taliban never put any pressure on him to join up, although they did forcibly conscript many people, but they never tried to conscript drivers, because they needed drivers, and they knew that if they tried to conscript them they could just drive away and not return on their next trip.

[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.

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

[edit] The following factors favor continued detention:

a. Commitment

1. After Eid 2000, the end of Ramadan, the detainee traveled from Karachi to Quetta, Pakistan then to Kandahar and Kabul, Afghanistan, changing buses in each city.
2. The detainee says that he had four other brothers that were also drivers for the Taliban. He claims that these are actual brothers, not just Muslim brothers.
3. The detainee transported personnel, weapons, food and supplies.
4. Additional materials the detainee transported consisted of cooking oil, bullets, heavy coats and blankets.
5. The detainee was identified as being a member of the Harakat Ul-Jihad-I-Islami.
6. The detainee admits to interacting with possible Pakistani Inter Service Intelligence Directorate (ISID) spies working for Taliban and Harakat Ul-Jihad-I-Islami forces that reported to their leader Sajjad.

b. Connections/Associations

1. Shams Afghani is a friend of the detainee who sold irons in Karachi, Pakistan and told him that Afghanistan needed drivers.
2. Shams Al Afghani is originally from the Tora Bora region and was identified as being in charge of military operations and various fighters located in the valley of the Tora Bora region.
3. The detainee stated that while employed as a driver with the Taliban, he received his pay from either Kari Saleem or [[[Mugheera] Bhai]].
4. Quari Saleem is the head of a madrassa used by Harakat Ul-Jihad-I-Islammi member Sajjad, who would frequently attend and hold meetings at the madrassa.
5. Sajjad is a member of the Taliban and a team leader in the Harakat Ul-Jihad-I-Islami. Sajjad held regular meetings in Qari Saleem’s madrassa with about twenty or thirty people from the Harakat Ul-Jihad-I-Islami.
6. The Harakat Ul-Jihad-I-Islami is a Sunni extremist group founded to fight in the jihad against the Soviets. It’s made up primarily of Pakistanis and foreign Islamists.
7. The Lashkar-e Tayibais the armed wing og the Pakistan-based organization, Markaz-ud-Dawa-wal-irshad, an anti-U.S. missionary organization formed in 1989. It was added to the U.S. Treasury Department’s Officer of Foreign Asset Control’s List, which included organizations that are believed to support terrorist groups.
8. The detainee admits to hearing about Baba Shams, a local administrator of the Taliban.
9. The detainee provided additional information regarding other senior Taliban leaders. He described Juma Bahai, an Uzbek and the leader of the Taliban in Khawajghar. Juma was in charge of all Arabs and foreigners such as Pakistanis and Afghanis

c. Other Relevant Data

1. Two of the detainee’s superiors were Qari Saleem and Mugheera Bhai.
2. Qari Saleem was commander of the Punjabi troops in the Konduz region. He coordinated troops and supply movements from the school to forward areas in Tangi, Bangi Taqar and Khawajaghaar. He also controlled all finances for the operation.
3. The Taliban forces used a school in Konduz as a headquarters and transition point for troops deployed in the Konduz region. Recruits, weapons, ammunition and food supplies were delivered from the school to forward areas north and east of Konduz.
4. The detainee surrendered to the Northern Alliance in Konduz on the tenth day of Ramadan. He drove his truck to Mazari Sharif to surrender.
5. The detainee escaped his captors shortly after surrendering and hid in a warehouse in some nearby woods until he was recaptured.
6. Besides the Harakat Ul-Jihad-I-Islam, the detainee was able to identify other Islamic groups known to him, the Jaish-e Muhammed Harakat-Ul-Mujahedin and Lashkar-e-Tayyiba.
7. The Harakat ul Mujahidin is a Pakistan-based Islamic militant organization.

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

• The detainee claims he was never introduced to anyone higher than Qari Saleem.
• The detainee denied ever receiving training from the Taliban and he claims he was not aware of any training camps for Taliban or al Qaida fighter nearby
• The detainee states he has never met Usama Bin Laden and doesn’t know where he’s located.

[edit] = Response to the factors=

• Al Shah denied being captured after Eid of Ramadan.
• Al Shah said he had five brothers, not four, but only one was a truck driver, and he had never left Pakistan.
• Al Shah said the third factor, that he transported personnel, weapons, food and supplies was partially correct. He then offered this explanation of how the Taliban came to employ him as a truck driver.
•  :"I went to Afghanistan looking for a job. When I got there I spent one night in Kabul and after that I traveled north to Konduz. Then, there was a vehicle parked. That vehicle was not in working order and belonged to the Soviet Union ^[sic] . The person responsible for it asked me if we fix this vehicle I would like you to transport some wood and some other stuff [for us] when we need you. I told him htat I would never go to war and I came here to work-not ^[sic] for war. They hired me to transport this car and the car was not able to go into war anyway. Only a couple of times when they were transferring weapons to another vehicle and what ever was left over... it was only two times... not far... only two miles and then I didn't drive the truck. Somebody else drove my truck. I made an agreement with them that I would never go some place where there was a war.
• In response to the factor that he was identified as being a member of Harakat Ul-Jihad-I-Islami, Al Shah replied:
•  :"At the place where I was working there were people from Harakat Ul-Jihad-I-Islami, Jaish-e-Mohammed and a lot of other people. I never got off my truck. All the time there were 40-50 people sitting there from Harakat Ul-Jihad-I-Islami or other people and I never got off my truck. I always spent time in my truck and if I had to get off I would walk to the market. I never got myself involved with them.
• In response to the factor that he admitted to interacting with possible spies, who reported to their leader Sajjad, he replied that, so far as he knew, Sajjad was just an ordinary person. He didn't know anything about him being a spy.
• Al Shah confimred that Shams Al Afghani was his friend, and told him that Afghanistan needed drivers.
• Al Shah disputed that Al Afghani was in charge of military operations in Tora Bora.
• Al Shah confirmed that he received his pay either from Kari Saleem or Mugheera Bhai.
• Al Shah disputed the description of Quari Saleem's school. He said it was a school, not a regular madrassa. It was in ruins. He confirmed that some meetings were held there, but he disputed the description that they were regularly held there.
• Al Shah said all he knew about the Harakat Ul-Jihad-I-Islami was that it was "made to fight against Russia".
• Al Shah said that the Lashkar-e Tayibais operated solely in Pakistan.
• Al Shah said he had never heard the name "Baba Shams" before his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.
• Al Shah disputed the description that he provided additional information regarding other senior Taliban leaders. He said he merely passed on what he knew, which was common known information.
• Al Shah disputed the description that Qari Saleem and Mugheera Bhai were his superiors; "...they were just paying me".
• Al Shah confirmed that he knew Qari Saleem was "...some big shot in that madrassa", but he didn't know anything more about him.
• Al Shah disputed the description that he drove his truck to Mazari Sharif to surrender:
•  :"There is a mistake in this statement. I never traveled on the tenth of Ramadan. I left [on the] seventh or eighth day of Ramadan. I did not go to surrender, they asked me to take these other people to surrender then they said I could go home. I took them to surrender and dropped them off, and then I left. There were a lot of other drivers that they let go, but they arrested me because I was the only Pakistani.
• Al Shah disputed the description that he escaped his captors, and hid until he was recaptured. He said that the men he had dropped off, to surrender, had dropped their weapons in his truck. He encountered two other trucks, from different factions, who wanted to fight over the weapons in his truck. He left his truck when they started fighting. One of the two groups won, and drove away with his truck, leaving him by the side of the road. A local man took him in, and fed him, but also imprisoned him, and sold him for a bounty. His Afghani captors beat him every day, because they wanted him to tell a particular account of himself to the Americans, and he refused. When he was handed over to the Americans they also beat him, breaking his nose. Al Shah repeated that the drivers who were Afghanis were not arrested.
• Al Shah disputed the description that he was able to identify other Islamic groups. He said that these groups had big posters, back in Pakistan, and everyone knew their names. That is all he had told his interrogators -- not that he had any relationship with them.

[edit] Zia Al Shah's statement

At the end of the factors Al Shah offered an impromptu statement:

"I trusted the investigators. There are some questions that they asked me and I responded, byt they exaggerated in the questions^[sic] . [A little bit is true], but then they exaggerate a lot of things... They were interrogating me and I said I did not know, [but] they said tell [us] just a little bit. I did not know how many people would get together in the madrassa...30-40...they wouls say just tell them...and then they would just write [a number] down. I don't know how many people they trapped like this. I knew I was not at fault and I wanted to tell them without any hesitation. Luckily I cam in front of the board today and I am telling you all of these thing, but the interrogators did this to a lot of people.

Al Shah also said that he knew nothing about the attacks of 9-11 until after he attended his CSRT, and the pictures he was shown made him feel sympathy for the American people: "I realized that they have a right to be angry. Their brother, their sister, their daughter died there. They have a right to be angry."

Al Shah concluded by telling his Board that he was worried about the family members he helped support financially. He lost all his money when he was captured, and he asked who he should appeal to for compensation.

His Presiding Officer suggested he consider applying for help to the United Nations, if and when he was released.

[edit] Response to the Board's questions

[edit] References