Bismillah (Guantanamo detainee 658)

To distinguish between the different individuals named Bismullah see the disambiguation page.

Bismullah is a citizen of Afghanistan, who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States's Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.^[1] His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 658. Joint Task Force Guantanamo analysts estimate he was born in 1952, in Oruzgan, Afghanistan.

Release

Bismillah was one of 18 detainees released on March 25, 2003.^[2][3][4][5]

Bismillah says he was woken at 2am, and taken into custody because he couldn't answer GI's questions because he was hard of hearing.^[3]

He and the other seventeen men he was repatriated with were released from Afghan custody on March 26, 2003.^[6] Marc Kaufmann, of the Washington Post interviewed some of the seventeen other men he was repatriated with. He reported they had each been issued a set of American style clothes, American running shoes, an American gym bag, and their medical records. He reported that the men had to rely on charity to get home. He reported that some of the men described brutal treatment and Koran desecration.

The summary of evidence from the Combatant Status Review Tribunals and Administrative Review Board hearings of the captives captured following the ambush at Lejay, Afghanistan revealed that GIs considered hearing loss a confirming factor that a captive was an enemy fighter, who had been deafened by firing weapons.

Medical records

On 16 March 2007 the Department of Defense published height and weight records for the captives.^[7] Bismillah was stated to be 67 inches tall. His weight was recorded 8 times between June 14, 2002 and March 21, 2003. His records state between December 15 and December 19 he lost 22 pounds.

References