Zia Ul Shah

Infobox WoT detainees
subject_name = Zia Ul Shah

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citizenship = | detained_at = Guantanamo
id_number = 015
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charge = no charge, held in extrajudicial detention
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status = Repatriated
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Zia Ul Shah is a citizen of Pakistan, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.cite web
url=http://www.dod.mil/news/May2006/d20060515%20List.pdf
title=List of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from January 2002 through May 15, 2006
author=OARDEC
publisher=United States Department of Defense
date=May 15 2006
accessdate=2007-09-29
format=PDF] His Guantanamo Internee Security Number is 015.

Combatant Status Review Tribunal

] Three chairs were reserved for members of the press, but only 37 of the 574 Tribunals were observed.cite web
url=http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=3902
title=Annual Administrative Review Boards for Enemy Combatants Held at Guantanamo Attributable to Senior Defense Officials
publisher=United States Department of Defense
date=March 6 2007
accessdate=2007-09-22] ]

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. [http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt/Set_42_2728-2810.pdf#25 Summarized transcripts (.pdf)] , from Zia Ul Shah's "Combatant Status Review Tribunal" - pages 25-41]

Allegations against Zia Ul Shah

:

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.

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 questionssic. [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.

Response to the Board's questions

McClatchy News Service interview

On June 15 2008 the McClatchy News Service published a series of articles based on interviews with 66 former Guantanamo captives.cite news
url=http://detainees.mcclatchydc.com/detainees/
title=Guantanamo Inmate Database: Page 1
publisher=Miami Herald
author=Tom Lasseter
date=June 15 2008
accessdate=2008-06-16
quote= [http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fservices.mcclatchyinteractive.com%2Fdetainees%3Fpage%3D1&date=2008-06-16 mirror] ] Zia Khalid Najib was one of the former captives who had an article profiling him.cite news
url=http://detainees.mcclatchydc.com/detainees/6
title=Guantanamo Inmate Database: Zia Khalid Najib
publisher=Miami Herald
author=Tom Lasseter
date=June 15 2008
accessdate=2008-06-16
quote= [http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fdetainees.mcclatchydc.com%2Fdetainees%2F6&date=2008-06-16 mirror] ]

The McClatchy article quoted Abdul Jabar Sabit, the Attorney General of Afghanistan, who visited Guantanamo and had interview Zia Khalid Najib.The Attorney General commented on how the USA seemed to base its release decisions on how compliant captives were, while in custody. He noted that the USA had released senior Taliban leaders who complied with the camp rules, while continuing to hold low-level foot-soldiers, or innocent victims of mistaken identity, who did not comply.

Zia Khalid Najib acknowledged that he had poor impulse control, and was routinely being punished by the guards provocations and Koran desecration:

Zia Khalid Najib told his McClatchy interviewers that his first interrogators asked him about serving as one of Osama bin Laden's drivers -- an allegation he denied.He confirmed he had driven low level Taliban fighters, but he had never driven anyone from Al Qaeda. He said that interrogators stopped asking him about driving Bin Laden, but that many of his later interrogation sessions consisted largely of personality clashes:

The McClatchy article noted that among the justifications for Zia Khalid Najib's continued detention was that he knew senior Taliban members, and his rebuttal.He attributed these allegations to incompetent translation.

References