Abdullah Rasoul

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Categories: Articles with broken citations | Guantanamo Bay detainees | Afghan extrajudicial prisoners of the United States

Abdullah Gulam Rasoul (born circa 1973) is a citizen of Afghanistan held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.<ref name=DoDList2>list of prisoners (.pdf), US Department of Defense, May 15 2006</ref> His Guantanamo Internee Security Number is 008. JTF-GTMO analysts estimate he was born in 1973, in Helmand, Afghanistan.

Combatant Status Review Tribunal

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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.

Rasoul chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.<ref name=CsrtAbdullahGulamRasoul> Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Abdullah Gulam Rasoul's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 1-6</ref>

Unlike other detainee's transcripts Rasoul's does not contain a point by point response to the allegations Rasoul faced in his CSRT's "summary of evidence". The transcript is only two pages long.

Rasoul's statement

Rasoul had traveled to Kabul just because he wanted to see the big city, and was caught there during the US bombardment, where he was injured. After his wounds were treated at a Chinese hospital in Kandahar, he returned to Konduz, the nearest city to the village where he lived.

When he heard that the Americans were approaching Konduz he sought them out to surrender himself. He praised the American efforts to rebuild Afghanistan’s irrigation infrastructure. He told the Tribunal how his elders had praised the Americans for their help during the Soviet occupation. He said he had been showing pictures, in Guantanamo, showing the progress of the reconstruction, and that this made him happy with the American intervention.

Rasoul's testimony

He acknowledged that he was with a Taliban leader, when he surrendered, and that he had a rifle, when he surrendered. But he said the rifle was forced on him by the Taliban.

Administrative Review Board hearings

Hearing room where Guantanamo captive's annual Administrative Review Board hearings convened for captives whose Combatant Status Review Tribunal had already determined they were an "enemy combatant".<ref name=TheWire20060310> Template:Cite news</ref>

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.

First annual Administrative Review Board hearing

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Abdullah Gulam Rasoul's first annual Administrative Review Board, on 15 February 2006.<ref name=FactorsAbdullahGulamRasoul> Factors for and against the continued detention (.pdf) of Abdullah Gulam Rasoul Administrative Review Board - page 36</ref>

The following primary factors favor continued detention:

a. Commitment

1. The detainee advised that he was called to fight Jihad in approximately 1997; he then went to Kabul to join the Taliban.
2. The detainee stated that he felt it would be fine to wage Jihad against Americans, Jews, or Israelis if they were invading his country.
3. The detainee was seriously wounded in a bombing shortly after joining the Taliban, and returned home to recuperate. In 1999, the detainee went to Kandahar to join up with the Taliban once again.
4. In approximately September of 2001, the detainee went to Konduz to join up with his Taliban comrades to fight the [[Northern Alliance.

b. Intent

1. He was given a Kalashnikov rifle by the Taliban.
2. Detainee knew Americans were bombing Afghanistan when he went to Konduz to fight the Northern Alliance.
3. Detainee was captured while riding in a car with a Taliban Leader named Mohammad.

The following primary factors favor release or transfer:

• Detainee was conscripted into the Taliban in 1995.
• Detainee rejoined the Taliban in 1998-1999 to gain better medical attention.
• The detainee had not heard of al Qaida or Usama bin Laden until after his capture.
• The detainee never attended any training camps.

Transcript

Rasoul chose to participate in his Administrative Review Board hearing.<ref name=ArbAbdullahGulamRasoul> Summarized transcript (.pdf), from Abdullah Gulam Rasoul's Administrative Review Board hearing - page 95</ref>

Assisting Military Officer's summary

Rasoul’s Assisting Military Officer summarized the notes he had made when he interviewed Rasoul and they discussed the Summary of Evidence, prior to the hearing.

• Rasoul had said that the assertion that he traveled to Kabul to join the Taliban in 1997 was false.
• Rasoul had pointed out that, if he had really wanted to join the Taliban, it would have made more sense to go to Kandahar, the centre of the Taliban’s influence, which was closer to his home.
• Rasoul had told him he was unaware of any call to fight Jihad in 1997.
• Rasoul had denied asserting that it would be correct to wage Jihad against Americans or Israelis. He had reiterated that he had welcomed and appreciated the American intervention and reconstruction efforts.
• Rasoul had “emphasized that during his numerous interrogations people come and go all the time asking questions and make up thing he did not say.”
• Rasoul denied ever engaging in hostilities.
• Rasoul stated his injuried occurred during the bombing of Kabul.
• Rasoul acknowledged asking the Taliban for government assistance, because of his wounds, but that they did not provide him with any help.
• Rasoul acknowledged accepting an AK47 from the Taliban in Konduz, but he had no intention of using it.
• Rasoul denied knowing that the Americans were bombing Afghanistan when he traveled to Konduz.
• Rasoul emphasize that he was not captured, he willinglysurrendered.

Rasoul's oral statement

• Rasoul repeated that he did not have any objection to America.
• Rasoul repeated that he appreciated the Americans' efforts to rebuild his country.
• Rasoul repeated that he traveled to Kabul just to see the sights.
• Rasoul attributed the capture of men, like himself, to the bounties U.S. intelligence paid for the capture of Taliban or Al Qaeda fighters.
• Rasoul stated there had been animosity between the Uzbek portion of Afghanistan, where the Northern Alliance was based, and the Pashtun portion of Afghanistan where he lived, and where the Taliban was based, for over four hundred years.

In answering questions Rasoul stated:

• The local Taliban commander had told the population to surrender. Almost everyone complied, both civilian and Taliban fighters and officials.
• In 1997 he was very young, and still in school.
• His September 2001 visit to Kabul was his first trip to Kabul.
• He said that there was nothing remarkable about being issued a rifle by the Taliban. At that time they insisted that every man walk about armed.

Orange uniform

In answer to a question as to why he was wearing the orange jumpsuit, not the white jumpsuit that compliant detainees wore, Rasoul said he had an argument with a guard over the policy of only allowing detainees to shower once a week, and because the guard had shown disrespect to his Koran.

Main article: Guantanamo captive's uniforms

Second annual Administrative Review Board hearing

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for his annual Administrative Review Board.<ref name=ArbSummaryOfEvidenceAbdullahGulamRasoul> {{

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The following primary factors favor continued detention:

The following primary factors favor release or transfer:

References

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