Abdul Rahim Muslimdost

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Abdul Rahim Muslimdost (Urdu: عبد الرحیم مسلم دوست) is a former Pakistani journalist^[1] held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in Cuba.^[2] His detainee ID number is 561.^[3]

Muslimdost and his brother were captured on November 17, 2001, and later released on 17 April 2005 with no charges held against him.^[4]^[5] He has been noted for his poetry still detained by the American government and the lengths he went through to record it, ranging from scratching with a spoon onto polystyrene teacups to using rubbery pens, and has received much esteem in this regard. His account on his stay at Guantanamo, The Broken Chains, is currently being translated into English.

According to the Associated Press the allegations against Muslimdost, in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal, he was a member of an Islamic militant group, and served as a contact between that group and Al Qaeda.^[1]

Muslimdost acknowledged being a member of the militant group, but said he joined long ago, during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Muslimdost's brother was also a journalist; was also a held in extrajudicial detention in Guantanamo; was also released by the Americans following his Tribunal. Their presence in Guantanamo was discussed in the press prior the Departmen of Defense released the official list of detainee identities.

1 Combatant Status Review Tribunal
2 Determined not to have been an Enemy Combatant
3 September 2006 arrest
4 References

[edit] Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held in a small trailer, the same width, but shorter, than a mobile home. The Tribunal's President sat in the big chair. The detainee sat with his hands and feet shackled to a bolt in the floor in the white, plastic garden chair. A one way mirror behind the Tribunal President allowed observers to observe clandestinely. In theory the open sessions of the Tribunals were open to the press. Three chairs were reserved for them. In practice the Tribunal only intermittently told the press that Tribunals were being held. And when they did they kept the detainee's identities secret. In practice almost all Tribunals went unobserved.

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.

Muslimdost chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.^[6]

[edit] allegations

The allegations against Muslimdost were:^[2]

The detainee voluntarily traveled to Afghanistan in August 2001.
The detainee was a member of Jamaat ud Dawa il al Quran al Sunnat (JDQ).
Jamyat-u-Dawa-al-Quarani (JDQ) conducted training with several types of weapons in the Abdullah Abu Masood camp.
The JDQ is a militant religious school which trains students in military camps as well as classrooms. The JDQ has a militant wing and an assassination wing.
The detainee reportedly was an Al Qaeda point of contact in Herat, Afghanistan.

[edit] Muslimdost’s initial statement

In response to the first allegation Muslimdost said he was an Afghani, and didn’t see anything wrong with entering his own country.

In response to the second allegation, that he was a member of the JDQ, he acknowledged he had been a member - 16 years previously. He grew disenchanted with the organization, and left around the time the Communists were thrown out, when he realized that the JDQ did not have Afghanistan’s best interests at heart.

He agreed that the JDQ were conducting training, and had conducted assassinations, but since he had left the organization he didn’t feel those allegations had anything to do with him. He said that the JDQ had tried to assassinate him.

He denied any ties to Al Qaeda, and he denied ever visiting Herat.

He said that the allegations against him were manufactured by the Pakistani authorities in an attempt to silence his criticisms. Dost said he was offered a chance to ransom himself, rather than being handed over to Americans. He asserted that senior al Qaeda and Taliban leaders had bought their freedom.

[edit] Muslimdost’s Q & A

In answer to questions during the Tribunal Muslimdost stated:

He considered himself an Afghani; he was born in Afghanistan; but he had spent most of the thirty years prior to the overthrow of the Taliban living in Pakistan.
He had traveled to Afghanistan to build schools. He didn’t travel to Afghanistan at all when the communists were in power. Following their fall he traveled to Afghanistan once or twice a year.
He described himself as an opponent of the Taliban. He had to sneak in during their time in power, because they did not approve of the schools he worked to set up. He had also worked as a journalist, and had written against Pakistan’s policies in Afghanistan.
In answer to a question as to why he had joined JDQ, Muslimdost said there had been many groups fighting the Soviets. He thought the other groups were “doing wrong”. JDQ was a new organization, so he thought he would try them. Then he found that the JDQ was secretly backed by the ISI, the Pakistani intelligence service. So he quit, and started publishing exposes. He said that the JDQ had made three attempts to assassinate him. (He had described the Taliban as being creatures of the ISI as well.)
In answer to a question as to which side the JDQ fought for in Afghanistan Muslimdost claimed they were playing both sides. Earlier he had said that the ISI wanted to use the JDQ to spread instability in Afghanistan.
He said he had only a little information about the JDQ’s efforts against the United States, but that he had learned that they had tried to put three agents in American agencies.
He was with the JDQ for approximately five years before he became disillusioned and quit.

[edit] witness

Khirullah Said Wali Khairkhwa, the former governor of Herat, was called as a witness on Muslimdost’s behalf. In answer to questioning he stated:

Herat was a small Province. There was no Al Qaeda presence in Herat.
He would have known if Muslimdost had set up an office in Herat. But he hadn’t. And they never met in Afghanistan.
He said he didn’t believe that the JDQ were operating in Herat either.

[edit] Determined not to have been an Enemy Combatant

The Washington Post reports that Muslimdost was one of 38 detainees who was determined not to have been an enemy combatant during his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.^[7] They report that Muslimdost has been released.

[edit] September 2006 arrest

On September 30, 2006 the Chinese news agency Xinhua reported that Muslimdost had been arrested by Pakistani officials.^[8] The article quotes Muslimdost's brother, who linked the arrest to criticisms of the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate's role in the capture of Guantanamo detainees. Muslimdost's brother said he was arrested while leaving his Mosque.

Local Peshawar Police Superintendent Iftikhar Khan denied any knowledge of Muslimdost's arrest.^[8] But he acknowled Inter-Services Intelligence officials may have executed a covert arrest.