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مركزغوانتناموللعدالة Guantanamo Justice Centre |
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Bagram - The Annotated Prisoner List On Friday January 15, 2010, the Pentagon responded to a FOIA request submitted by the ACLU last April, and released the first ever list of 645 prisoners held, as of September 22, 2009, in the US prison at Bagram airbase in Afghanistan (the Bagram Theater Internment Facility). In the hope of making the list more readily accessible — and searchable — than it is through a poorly photocopied Pentagon document, I reproduce it below, with commentary on some the prisoners I have been able to identify. This is very much a work-in-progress, of course, as the state of knowledge regarding Bagram is akin to that regarding Guantánamo back in 2005, before the prisoner lists and 8,000 pages of documents were released that allowed me to research and write my book The Guantánamo Files, and to begin a new career as a full-time journalist on Guantánamo and related issues. In an article accompanying the publication of this list, “Dark Revelations in the Bagram Prisoner List,” I examined what the list — which contains only the prisoners’ names, and not their nationalities or the date and place of their capture — reveals about the small number of foreign prisoners rendered to Bagram from other countries, three of whom are currently waiting to see if the Court of Appeals will overturn the right to habeas corpus that was granted to them by Judge John D. Bates last March, and raise questions about the whereabouts of other known “ghost prisoners” who do not appear to have been included on the list. In an article to follow, I’ll examine how the list reveals not only that around 3,000 prisoners have been held at Bagram in the last six years, but also how the majority of the prisoners listed here were seized in 2008 and 2009 — and I’ll examine what this means with regard to the US administration’s detention policies and the Geneva Conventions, which were discarded by George W. Bush and have clearly not been reintroduced by Barack Obama. Although I believe that I have had some success tracking down the stories of some of the 100 or so prisoners on the list who have been held at Bagram for between three and seven years, I have found few clues as to the identities of the majority of those listed, who, as mentioned above, were seized in the last two years. Most reports — by the US military or the media — of raids or skirmishes that led to the capture of those held have not furnished the names of those seized, and on the rare occasion that names have been provided it has tended to be because they are regarded as significant figures. I have no idea whether the allegations against these men are true, but, more importantly, I have not failed to notice that the majority of the prisoners (often men identified by only one name) are clearly not significant figures at all, and my fear — which, I have no doubt, will be confirmed when more information emerges — is that many of them will be revealed to be victims of the same chaotic approach to the capture of prisoners that has done so much to lose the battle for the “hearts and minds” of the people of Afghanistan and Iraq for the last eight years, and which, with regard to the 218 prisoners seized in Afghanistan between 2001 and 2003 and sent to Guantánamo, I chronicled in The Guantánamo Files. A clear sign that this is indeed the case came in August 2009, when Maj. Gen. Doug Stone, commissioned by Gen. David Petraeus to review detention policies in Afghanistan, produced a report in which he estimated that “as many as 400 of the 600 held at Bagram can be released,” explaining that “many of these men were swept up in raids” and “have little connection to the insurgency.” If you have any further information about any of these men, please feel free to email me, and I will incorporate the information into the list. Bagram: the prisoner listThe first three prisoners listed are referred to by their prisoner numbers at Guantánamo. All three were seized after their release from Guantánamo and imprisoned in Bagram. 459: Gul Zaman. He was released from Guantánamo in April 2005. The circumstances of his recapture are unknown. In The Guantánamo Files, I wrote, “Three members of a family of farmers — 59-year old Abib Sarajuddin, his 30-year old son Gul Zaman and his 39-year old brother Khan Zaman — were captured by US soldiers in a village near Khost in January 2002, allegedly because someone had fired on them, although the men, who were released in 2005 and 2006, said that the soldiers, who arrived at night by helicopter, broke into their houses and arrested them for no reason.” 831: Khadan Kadir. Also identified as Qadir Khandan, he was released from Guantánamo in October 2006. The circumstances of his recapture are unknown. In The Guantánamo Files, I wrote, “Arrested at his home in September 2002 and accused of running a safe house for a bomb-making cell, Khandan pointed out that he was working for the Karzai government in the National Security Office in Khost, and that, as a pharmacist, bombs were ‘truly against my ideology.’ He also explained that he was badly abused by American soldiers in a prison in Khost. ‘They put tight round glasses around my eyes, had my ears shut with plugs and I was covered with a bag,’ he said, adding, ‘I was ordered to stand up 24 hours for 20 days in a row. I had blood coming out of my body and my nose for days because I was tortured so much.’ Describing what appear to be otherwise unreported murders in US custody, he also said, ‘I saw four people die right in front of me.’” 1001: Hafizullah Shabaz Khail. Also identified as Hafizullah Shabaz Khiel, he was released from Guantánamo in December 2007. A 56-year old pharmacist from Zormat, south of Gardez, he had been approached by the town elders after Hamid Karzai first came to power as the head of the interim post-Taliban government, and served as the mayor for six months until an official appointment was made. He then continued to help out with security. “While I was mayor in Zormat,” he said, “there were no problems with the Americans. I met with American commanders several times … We even took pictures together.” He was apparently seized by US forces because of false information provided by a rival, Abdullah Mujahid Haq (who also ended up in Guantánamo). On his return, he was cleared of all charges by the Afghan government, but in February 2009 the Associated Press reported that he had been seized again during a nighttime raid on his home in September 2008, and noted, pointedly that his story “shows just how difficult it is for the US to determine who is guilty and who is not in Afghanistan, where corruption rules and grudges are held for years, if not decades.” This time around, he was accused of “treating sick Taliban as a pharmacist,” but as the AP noted, “Some Afghans claim the US is far too quick to arrest people without understanding the complexities of the culture.” Ishaq Gailani, a member of President Hamid Karzai’s government, explained, “We are fed up. Bagram is full of these people who are wrongly accused. They arrest everyone — a 15-year-old boy and a 61-year-old man. They arrest them because they run away from their helicopters … I would run away too if I saw them. They don’t know who is the terrorist and who is not.” As the AP described it, “Zormat elders, leading clerics, the provincial governor, the National Reconciliation Bureau and two members of Parliament have signed documents attesting to Hafizullah’s innocence.” The report also explained, “Family members fear a decades-old feud involving a distant cousin, Fazle Rabi, may have been behind the nighttime raid on Hafizullah’s home.” For the rest of the Bagram prisoners, their prisoner numbers appear to have carried on from the last numbers given to prisoners sent to Guantánamo. The last was Mohammed Mussa, sent to Guantánamo in November 2003, and his detainee number was 1165. 1207: Haji Pacha Wazir. A Pakistani living in the United Arab Emirates, where he ran an international chain of hawalas, Wazir was suspected of being a major money handler for al-Qaeda. In September 2002, as described by Ron Suskind in his book The One Percent Doctrine, the UAE government froze millions of dollars of his assets and informed him that he was under investigation by the FBI. Although Wazir asked to meet with FBI representatives to persuade them that he was innocent, he was kidnapped by CIA agents en route to the meeting. After failing to provide useful information under interrogation in the UAE, his brother was then seized, but he provided no useful information either. The CIA then kidnapped two of Wazir’s employees operating a store in Karachi, Pakistan, replacing them with CIA agents of Pakistani descent, who allegedly secured information leading to the capture of “dozens” of key figures. Wazir and the other three men were apparently rendered to a CIA black site, but only Wazir surfaced at Bagram, and the whereabouts of the others is unknown. In July 2009, Haji Wazir’s habeas corpus petition was denied by US District Court Judge John D. Bates. 1209: Lutfi al-Arabi al-Gharisi. According to a report compiled by Abu Yahya al-Libi, a prisoner who escaped from Bagram in July 2005, one of the prisoners who was held with him was a Tunisian, Abou Houdayfa, whose first name, according to al-Libi, was Lotfi. Captured in Peshawar, Pakistan, at the end of 2002, he was reportedly held in several CIA prisons in Afghanistan, including the “Dark Prison,” before being moved to Bagram. It’s also probable that he is “Hudeifa,” a Tunisian prisoner mentioned by Marwan Jabour, who was also held in several secret prisons, but was released in 2006. He later told his story to Human Rights Watch, who published it as a report, “Ghost Prisoner,” in February 2007. 1220: Arsala Khan 1286: Malang Zafar. A man of this name was seized in December 2003 by Gurkhas, and was described as a “chief of operations” for Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin (HIG), a fiercely anti-US group headed by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a veteran warlord who, ironically, received the lion’s share of CIA funding in the 1980s, via Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence agency (ISI). According to a report in the Independent in December 2003 1287: Gulam Rabbani Abu Bakr. A man of this name was seized in 2003 by Afghan forces and a West Midlands regiment of Territorial Army soldiers. 1288: Qalam. 1432: Ahmad Dilshad. A man named Dilshad Ahmad, was “arrested in Iraq by British forces, and then given over to the US for interrogation,” 1433: Salah Mohammad Ali. This may be the man identified by Abu Yahya al-Libi who escaped from Bagram - as Salah Din al-Bakistani, who lived in Doha, Qatar. According to al-Libi, he was seized in Iraq in 2004, and was apparently held in Abu Ghraib and another “torture prison.” Salah Din was identified by the legal action charity Reprieve as Salahuddin and was apparently seized by British forces and transferred to Bagram with another Pakistani, a rice merchant named Amanatullah Ali. However, no one of that name is on the Bagram prisoner list, even though it is clear, from letters received by his family, that Amanatullah Ali is being held at Bagram. According to Reprieve, Salahuddin, who was brought up in the Gulf states, “has not been able to contact his family or even reassure them that he is alive.” Reprieve also noted that, through various sources, they have been told that, “as a result of his abuse in UK and US custody, Salahuddin is in catastrophic mental and physical shape, and now spends most of his time in the mental health cells at Bagram.” 1442: Haji Ghulam Farooq 1456: Moez Bin Abdul Qadir Fezzani. From his name, it appears that this prisoner is Tunisian, but what is confusing is that a prisoner with the same name (Moez Ben Abdelkader Fezzani, also identified as Abou Nassim) is held in Guantánamo, where he appears to be identified as Abdul bin Mohammed bin Ourgy. On December 20, following the transfer of two Tunisians from Guantánamo to Italian custody (one of whom, Adel Ben Mabrouk, was also identified in June as Moez Fezzani) 1464: Mohammed Amin al-Bakri (Yemeni). Seized in Thailand at the end of 2002, he was reportedly held in three secret CIA prisons before Bagram, according to Abu Yahya al-Libi, who escaped from Bagram in July 2005. In March 2009, his habeas corpus petition was granted by US District Court Judge John D, Bates, but as of January 2010 the ruling is being reviewed by the Court of Appeals. In his habeas petition, he is identified as Amin Mohammed Abdallah al-Bakri. 1466: Ridha Ahmad Najjar 1474: Amal Khan 1815: Fadi Ahmed. 1869: Hamidullah 1897: Fazel Karim. 2273: Molvia Hamidullah 2421: Haji Raiz. 2422: Abdul Kabir 2521: Sayed Gulab. 2615: Sham Ali Khan 3314: Maulawi Ahmad Jan. 3316: Mullah Abdul Malik Akund 3468: Mullah Shabir 3469: Khan Mohammad 3510: Hajj Abdul Majid Khan. 3511: Wali Gul 3580: Mahajir Ziarahman. 3582: Mullah Toor Jan 4065: Maulawi Qabil. 4066: Mohammad Osman 4113: Pasta Khan. (This may be Masta Khan) 4114: Mujahed 4125: Mullah Karim. 4126: Mullah Naim The following numbering system is not explained, although it may be a new system, just introduced: 20001: Mir Wali Khan 20022: Mohammad Dawood. 20023: Mahmood Compiled by Andy Worthington the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison (published by Pluto Press, distributed by Macmillan in the US, and available from Amazon — click on the following for the US and the UK). To receive new articles in your inbox, please subscribe to his RSS feed (and He can also be found on Facebook and Twitter). Also see the definitive Guantánamo prisoner list, updated in January 2010, details about the new documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (co-directed by Polly Nash and Andy Worthington, and launched in October 2009) by Andy Worthington
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