Rasool Shahwali Zair Mohammed Mohammed

Rasool Shahwali Zair Mohammed Mohammed is a citizen of Afghanistan, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. [http://www.dod.mil/news/May2006/d20060515%20List.pdf list of prisoners (.pdf)] , "US Department of Defense", May 15 2006] His Guantanamo Internee Security Number is 835.The Department of Defense reports that he was born on June 1 1976, in Khowst, Afghanistan.

Mohammed's older brother was also detained in Guantanamo.

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 date=December 2007

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.

Mohammed chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal. [http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt/Set_36_2493-2577.pdf Summarized transcripts (.pdf)] , from Rasool Shahwali Zair Mohammed Mohammed's "Combatant Status Review Tribunal" - pages 13-28]

Allegations

The allegations against Rasool Shahwali Zair Mohammed Mohammed were:

:""'a. The detainee is associated with the Taliban.:#"The detainee traveled to Afghanistan 26 September 2001.:#"The detainee operated medical equipment at a local clinic, but no such equipment was found.:#"The detainee can fire an AK and a pistol.:#"Two rifles, a pistol, and a signal mirror were located in a center building, also referred to as the “Target Compound”.

:""'b. The detainee participated in military operations against the United States and its coalition partners.:#"The detainee was arrested in the house into which someone entered after firing rockets at United States forces.:#"The detainee exhibited the burnt hair, gunpowder smell, and oil stains on his clothes, indicative of the recent firing of a rocket launcher.

Mohammed’s statement

Mohammed was born in Afghanistan, but, like most of his immediate family, he had left Afghanistan for the duration of the Taliban reign.

Mohammed and his older brother had lived in Pakistan during the Taliban reign. There father had been working in Dubai, and supporting them while they studied in Pakistan. Mohammed's older brother attended Medical school, graduating in 1998, and finishing his internship and some postdoctoral training a few years later. Mohammed had studied to become a medical lab technician.

Concerning the accusation that the American forces didn't find the equipment from his lab, the lab was in the clinic, and Mohammed and his brother were captured in their home. The American interrogators never asked about the location of the lab or its medical equipment.

Mohammed pointed out that practically everyone in Afghanistan knows how to fire a gun. Because there is practically no law and order, every head of a household has to possess a rifle, and he and his brother each had one. Mohammed also denied that any part of their household was used for target practice.

Mohammed denied that the American forces found a "signal mirror". Like any household the house he shared with his extended family had several ordinary mirrors used for ordinary personal grooming.

Mohammed acknowledged that they had seen rocket fire earlier that evening. He denied firing any rockets, or that the rocket fire had come from anywhere near their house. Mohammed volunteered that a neighbour, Abdullah Hakeem, had brought his family to stay over in their house, because his house was nearer to where the firing took place, and he didn't feel safe. Mohammed wondered why Hakeem, who was out and about, was allowed to remain in Afghanistan, while he and his brother were shipped to Guantanamo.

Mohammed denied having burnt hair. He acknowledged that he might have oil stains on his clothes from his work in the lab.

Together the two of them returned to the area of Afghanistan where they were born, and where they had a large, extended family. The two of them had equipped the lab in their clinic with an older, used, xray machine.

The clinic was in the village where their relatives lived, 8-10 kilometers away.

Mohammed's brother's testimony

Mohammed's brother, Shahwali Zair Mohammed Shaheen Naqeebyllah, speaks English, albeit imperfectly. He addressed the Tribunal in English.He suggested the chemical smell that the captors identified as gunpowder may have been lingering smells of the chemicals Mohammed worked with in the lab. He said that Mohammed had always had very weak hair, and, if it grew to any length, he got split ends. He suggested that Mohammed's captors confused Mohammed's split ends with hair charred by a rocket exhaust.

The description of the rocket attack in the allegations against Mohammed's brother was more detailed than the description in Mohammed's allegation. It said that the officer in charge of the nearby American fire base had seen a vehicle with its headlights off proceed to their household, and someone got out. Mohammed pointed out that they lived in rough terrain. He and his brother didn't own a car. Their visitor and his family had proceeded on foot. The American's didn't pass any vehicles on their way to their household. Their house was at the end of the road. There was no place to go off-road. And the Americans didn't find a vehicle.

During his own Tribunal Mohammed's brother described his own theory as to why they were captured. He was the only person in the district who spoke English. When the American base was installed the first CO had called on his to serve as an informal liaison. Locals frequently asked him to write letters to the local American CO, on their behalf. He thought the local American CO appreciated his efforts.

He and his brother Mohammed were captured shortly after the first American unit rotated out. He had written a couple of letters about local concerns to the new local American CO. He found in the allegations against him that the new local American CO had described the two letters he had written, as containing implied threats. He said that they weren't any different than the dozens he had written to the previous local CO, and he suggested that the threats the new CO felt were implied were simply misunderstandings. He suggested that the Americans proceeded to the household he shared with his brother because of the misunderstanding over the implied threats.

Determined not to have been an Enemy Combatant

The Washington Post reports that both Mohammed, and his brother, were among the 38 detainees who were determined not to have been an enemy combatants during their Combatant Status Review Tribunals. [http://projects.washingtonpost.com/guantanamo/nlec/ Guantanamo Bay Detainees Classifed as "No Longer Enemy Combatants"] , "Washington Post"] They report that Naqeebyllah has been released, but that Mohammed remains in detention.

References