Wali Mohammed is a citizen of Afghanistan who was held in extrajudicial detention, for over fourteen and a half years, in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.[1][2][3] Guantanamo counter-terrorism analysts estimate he was born on February 15, 1966, in Wazirabad, Puli Khumri District, Baghlan Province, Afghanistan.[4][5]
Official status reviews
editOriginally the Bush Presidency asserted that captives apprehended in the "war on terror" were not covered by the Geneva Conventions, and could be held indefinitely, without charge, and without an open and transparent review of the justifications for their detention.[6] In 2004 the United States Supreme Court ruled, in Rasul v. Bush, that Guantanamo captives were entitled to being informed of the allegations justifying their detention, and were entitled to try to refute them.
Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants
edit
Following the Supreme Court's ruling the Department of Defense set up the Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants.[6][9]
Scholars at the Brookings Institution, led by Benjamin Wittes, listed the captives still held in Guantanamo in December 2008, according to whether their detention was justified by certain common allegations:[10]
- Wali Mohammed was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges ... fought for the Taliban."[10]
- Wali Mohammed was listed as one of the captives who was a member of the Taliban leadership.[10]
- Wali Mohammed was listed as one of the captives who had admitted "some form of associational conduct."[10]
Ali Shah Mousouvi v. George W. Bush
editWali Mohammed had a habeas corpus petition (05-cv-1124) filed on his behalf, in 2005.[11][12]
Formerly secret Joint Task Force Guantanamo assessment
editOn April 25, 2011, whistleblower organization WikiLeaks published formerly secret assessments drafted by Joint Task Force Guantanamo analysts.[13][14] His 10-page Joint Task Force Guantanamo assessment was drafted on October 23, 2008.[15] It was signed by camp commandant Rear Admiral David M. Thomas Jr. He recommended continued detention.
Repatriation or transfer
editSpencer Ackerman, reporting in The Guardian, wrote that the non-profit Afghanistan Analyst's Network named Mohammed as an individual whose status evaluations in Guantanamo had been characterized by "gross incompetence".[16]
Mohammed was transferred to the United Arab Emirates on January 19, 2017, the last day of the Barack Obama Presidency.[3][17][18]
On May 29, 2018, Missy Ryan, of The Washington Post described the conditions Mohammed and other individuals formerly held in Guantanamo experienced in their UAE rehabilitation centre.[19] Just as at Guantanamo, Mohammed and the other men were allowed very little contact with their family. Rare phone calls could last no more than five minutes, and officials who were listening in would often terminate the calls early, without warning. Unlike Guantanamo the men were not allowed visits from their lawyers, and the centre's location was a secret. Mohammed's son Abdul Musawer told Ryan his father was "very hopeless".
References
edit- ^ "Measurements of Heights and Weights of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (ordered and consolidated version)" (PDF). Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas, from DoD data. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-06-13. Retrieved 2009-12-21.
- ^
"Detainee Transfers Announced". US Department of Defense. 2017-01-19. Retrieved 2017-01-20.
The Department of Defense announced today the transfer of three detainees: Ravil Mingazov, Haji Wali Muhammed, and Yassim Qasim Mohammed Ismail Qasim from the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay to the government of the United Arab Emirates.
- ^ a b
William Theisen (2017-01-20). "Four Guantanamo detainees transferred on Obama's final day in office". The Jurist. Retrieved 2017-01-20.
The announcements came on the final full day of President Barack Obama's administration.
- ^ "Recommendation for Continued Detention Under DoD Control (CD) for Guantanamo Detainee, ISN US9AF-000560DP (S)" (PDF). Retrieved 2023-11-24.
- ^ "GUANTANAMO DETAINEE PROFILE - Detainee ISN: AF-560" (PDF). Retrieved 2023-11-24.
- ^ a b
"U.S. military reviews 'enemy combatant' use". USA Today. 2007-10-11. Archived from the original on 2007-10-23.
Critics called it an overdue acknowledgment that the so-called Combatant Status Review Tribunals are unfairly geared toward labeling detainees the enemy, even when they pose little danger. Simply redoing the tribunals won't fix the problem, they said, because the system still allows coerced evidence and denies detainees legal representation.
- ^ Guantánamo Prisoners Getting Their Day, but Hardly in Court, New York Times, November 11, 2004 - mirror Archived 2007-09-30 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Inside the Guantánamo Bay hearings: Barbarian "Justice" dispensed by KGB-style "military tribunals", Financial Times, December 11, 2004
- ^ "Q&A: What next for Guantanamo prisoners?". BBC News. 2002-01-21. Archived from the original on 23 November 2008. Retrieved 2008-11-24.
- ^ a b c d Benjamin Wittes; Zaathira Wyne (2008-12-16). "The Current Detainee Population of Guantánamo: An Empirical Study" (PDF). The Brookings Institution. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2017-05-19. Retrieved 2010-02-16.
- ^ "Lead Petitioners' Counsel in Guantanamo Habeas Cases" (PDF). Center for Constitutional Rights. January 8, 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-03-27. Retrieved 2017-01-21.
- ^ "Respondents' response to Court's August 7, 2006 order" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. August 15, 2006. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 2, 2008. Retrieved 2008-06-23.
- ^
Christopher Hope; Robert Winnett; Holly Watt; Heidi Blake (2011-04-27). "WikiLeaks: Guantanamo Bay terrorist secrets revealed -- Guantanamo Bay has been used to incarcerate dozens of terrorists who have admitted plotting terrifying attacks against the West – while imprisoning more than 150 totally innocent people, top-secret files disclose". The Telegraph (UK). Archived from the original on 2012-07-15. Retrieved 2012-07-13.
The Daily Telegraph, along with other newspapers including The Washington Post, today exposes America's own analysis of almost ten years of controversial interrogations on the world's most dangerous terrorists. This newspaper has been shown thousands of pages of top-secret files obtained by the WikiLeaks website.
- ^ "WikiLeaks: The Guantánamo files database". The Telegraph (UK). 2011-04-27. Archived from the original on 2015-06-26. Retrieved 2018-04-05.
- ^ "Haji Wali Mohammed: Guantanamo Bay detainee file on Haji Wali Mohammed, US9AF-000560DP, passed to the Telegraph by Wikileaks". The Telegraph (UK). 2011-04-27. Retrieved 2016-07-09.
- ^
Spencer Ackerman (2016-11-03). "US accused of gross incompetence in cases of eight Afghans at Guantánamo: Researchers in Afghanistan say US made 'obvious' mistakes that harmed detainees and helped fuel country's insurgency amid 15-year war". The Guardian (UK). Retrieved 2017-07-10.
Wali Mohammed, for instance, learned in a 2005 non-judicial Guantánamo hearing that he "admitted he was in business with the Taliban". He replied, according to the transcript: "I didn't say I did business with the Taliban. I said I did business with the Afghanistan Bank."
- ^
Charlie Savage (2017-01-19). "Obama Transfers 4 From Guantánamo, Leaving 41 There as Term Ends". New York Times. washington DC. Retrieved 2017-07-10.
Three of the newly transferred men — Yasin Qasem Muhammad Ismail, a Yemeni, Ravil Mingazov, a Russian, and Haji Wali Mohammed, an Afghan — were resettled in the United Arab Emirates.
- ^ "Detainee Transfers Announced". US Department of Defense. 2017-01-19. Retrieved 2017-07-10.
- ^
Missy Ryan (2018-05-29). "After over a decade at Guantanamo, these men were supposed to go free. Instead, they're locked in a secretive center in the UAE". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2019-10-08.
But after more than 16 months at the UAE-run center, Mohammed has become "very hopeless," according to his son, Abdul Musawer, who has spoken with his father periodically.