Gholam Ruhani

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Gholam Ruhani is a citizen of Afghanistan, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in Cuba.^[1] His detainee ID number is 003.

A widely distributed Associated Press story said that Ruhani was a clerk for the Taliban intelligence service.^[2] AP quoted from Ruhani's testimony before his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.

"The Taliban law was that young people had to join the Taliban, I had to join, but protested several times that I had an old father and I wanted to go back to my family. ... If I had not cooperated with the Taliban Intelligence service member, I would have been sent to the front lines. I was afraid I would be killed."

[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 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.

Ruhani chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.^[3]

[edit] Ruhani's statement

Ruhani's Personal Representative read a statement prepared by Ruhani. Among the points Ruhani's statement addressed were:

• Ruhani said he was forced into the Taliban.
• Ruhani said he had protested his impressment, several times, because he had to care for his elderly father.
• Ruhani said he was only forced to work for the Taliban part-time. He continued to work in his family's electrical store.
• Ruhani said: "One of the things I was required to do was to work security for a small group, but I had no position of authority or responsibility."
• Ruhani said that if he had not cooperated with the Taliban's local security office, he would have been sent to the front, where he was afraid he would be killed.
• Ruhani said: "In order to cooperate with the Americans, I provided English to Pashtu translation at the 9 December 2001 meeting, during which I was captured. I thought it was a friendly meeting of which I believed I was on the American's side."
• Ruhani volunteered:

"Abdul Haq Wasiq and Haji Gholam Mohammad and an American called 'Tony" were present at the meeting. I turned over my pistol and ammunition to the American, as an act of faith, because it was a friendly meeting."

Following the reading of his statement Ruhani added:

"I understand that all combatants against the United States were brought here. I never had a war against the United States and I am surprised I'm here.

"This Tribunal was supposed to have happened 3 years ago. I have been here 3 years and I am not guilty.

"My complaint is whether guilty or not, it [my case] is supposed to go to a Tribunal or court at the time of capture. I've been here 3 years and I'm going through the process now."

[edit] Allegations

Unlike most of the other transcripts from captive's Combatant Status Review Tribunal Ruhani's transcript did not record the allegations against him.

[edit] Response to Tribunal questions

• Ruhani grew up in Ghazni, about 140 km from Kabul.
• Ruhani was asked how he came to work for the Taliban in Kabul, when he lived in Ghazni. Ruhani did not appear to understand this question.
• Ruhani confirmed he was armed with a pistol when he arrived at the meeting where he was captured. He added: "...all Afghan people carried a gun at that time."
• Ruhani confirmed he understood English, but clarified he had never provided translation services for the Taliban.
• Ruhani said he served as an occasional driver, delivering vehicles, and that he served as an occasional security guard in the Taliban's local lost and found department.
• Ruhani said that although he wore his gun in his civilian life, he was not proficient with firearms, never visited firing ranges, and had never had occasion to use his weapon.
• Ruhani's pistol was a Makarov.
• Ruhani only finished five years of formal education -- he had learned English on his own.

[edit] Administrative Review Board hearing

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.

The factors for and against continuing to detain Ruhani were among the 121 that the Department of Defense released on March 3, 2006.^[4]

[edit] The following primary factors favor continued detention:

a. Commitment

1. Detainee admitted being a member of the Taliban. A supervisor of Taliban Civilian Intelligence recruited the detainee into the Taliban.
2. Detainee served as the driver for a Taliban Intelligence Service member and performed clerical work for the Intelligence Service in Kabul, AF, from 1999 or 2000 until his capture by U.S. forces in December of 2001. The detainee was required to carry a pistol in this job.
3. Detainee was captured with a senior Taliban intelligence member, Abdul Haq Wasiq, by U.S. forces on 9 December of 2001. The detainee was in possession of 7.62MM ^[sic] rounds when captured.
4. During confinement the detainee has made death threates to guards.

b. Connections / Associations

1. For years the detainee worked for the Taliban in the Operations Department of the Ministry of Intelligence in Kabul. The detainee supervised several associates.
2. The detainee and his 13-14 associated were members of a quasi-police organization affiliated with Taliban Internal Affairs. The detainee and others in the unit were armed.
3. The detainee's sister is married to a Taliban Intelligence Officer.
4. The Taliban Chief of Intelligence led a group of 600 to 700 armed Taliban fighters in an Afghan province.
5. The detainee couriered a letter between the Taliban Chief of Intelligence and a Taliban military commander.
6. The Taliban military commander is associated with Hizb-I Islami Gulbuddin (HIG). The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, [[Terrorist Organization Reference Guide, states that HIG has long established ties with Usama Bin Laden ^[sic] and has staged attacks in attempts to force United States troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.

c. Intent

After the fall of Kabul the detainee and his associated fled the city in a pick-up truck armed with two RPG-7's ^[sic], twenty AK-47's ^[sic] and two PK machine guns.

[edit] The following primary factors favor release or transfer:

• The detainee claims his involvement with the Taliban should not be viewed as synonymous ^[sic] to the Taliban's ideology. ^[sic] The detainee claims he joined the Taliban because it was a matter of political and survival necessity. ^[sic]
• The detainee denied having knowledge of the attacks in the United States prior to their execution on September 11th and also denied knowledge of any rumors or plans of future attacks on the United States or its interests.

[edit] Transcript

Ruhani chose to participate in his Administrative Review Board hearing.^[5]

[edit] Ruhani's statement

Ruhani had prepared a statement:

• He was born in Ghazni, Afghanistan, in 1355.
• He has five years of schooling.
• He speaks some English.
• He married in 1973, and had children.
• When the Taliban took power:

  "There was heavy fighting in Afghanistan and most people lost their lives. Therefore, I was forced to join one of the Security Forces in Kabul, Afghanistan, so they wouldn't take me to the battlefield.

• His work for the Security Force was part time, and consisted of occasionally going in to the office to mow the grass or sweep the floor.
• When the Ammericans aattacked he thought it was time to return to Ghazni.

[edit] Factors for and against Ruhani's continued detention

Most captives have the factors for and against their continued detention read aloud, so they could respond to them, one at a time. And those factors are then recorded in the transcripts. The factors for and against Ruhani's detention, however, are not recorded in his transcript.

[edit] Response to the factors

While responding the the factors Ruhani described how he came to be captured. He was asked to translate between a local senior Northern Alliance leader hew knew, another senior Northern Alliance leader, and two visiting American VIPs. The other Northern Alliance leader had also brought a translator, named Abdul Haq, who had a much superior command of English. So, he went for some tea, and left Abdul Haq to perform the translations. When he returned the Americans took him into custody. He believed he had been denounced by Abdul Haq, the other translator.

[edit] Response to Board members questioning

• Ruhani testified he took five semesters, about one year, of private English lessons. He said his work in Electronics required a lot manuals that were written in English.
• Ruhani testified he wasn't engaged in hostilities, and never received any military training. He preferred doing low level tasks for the intelligence department because he thought it would be safer than engaging in hostilities.
• Ruhani testified he never witnessed the Taliban torturing anyone.
• Ruhani wasn't sure when he started working for the Taliban -- possibly 1999.
• Ruhani was asked what he knew about Ghulan Mohammed Hotak, who he mentioned in his opening statement. He said he knew him through an introduction from a baker who had the shop next to his. He said Hotak "...was a close friend of the Americans and he is working with the Americans."
• When Ruhani was asked if Hotak was an American intelligence agent he replied: "I don't know his specific duties but he's with the Americans and whatever they ask him I guess he will do."
• When Ruhani was asked what his association with Abdul Haq Wasiq was he replied: "He is the gentleman that the Americans wanted to talk with him and Haji Ghulan Mohammed asked me to go there to translate."
• Ruhani said he knew Abdul Haq by sight, but had never been introduced to him.
• Ruhani was asked why Hotak asked him to translate, at a sensitive meeting, when Hotak didn't know him personally. Ruhani said Hotak wasn't from Ghazni.
• Ruhani's Board expressed surprise that Ruhani, who represented himself as a lowly driver, janitor and gardner, felt the need to go about armed. Ruhani assured them that being armed was not unusual in Afghanistan.
• Ruhani said he didn't usually wear his gun when he went to the Taliban office. He said he sometimes took it to his shop too.
• Ruhani denied ever receiving any intelligence or law enforcement training.
• The Presiding Officer asked:

  "Part of the Unclassified Summary says that you and 10 to 12 other people were part of a 'quasi-police organization associated with Taliban Internal Affairs.' Is that correct?"

  Ruhani repeated that he preferred duties in security because it saved him from serving on the front lines, where he could be killed.

• When the Presiding Officer asked Ruhani if he knew anything about Hizb-I Islami Gulbuddin, he replied he knew nothing about it.
• When the Presiding Officer asked if is Abdul Haq was a Mullah he said he didn't know him that well. Ruhani suggested that Abdul Haq was detained in Guantanamo that the Board ask him.
• Ruhani's Presiding Officer insisted that Ruhani would know if Abdul Haq was a mullah.
• Ruhani testified he had never seen the Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar or any other senior members of the Taliban leadership. He repeated he was just a low-level worker.
• Ruhani denied that he had been a non-compliant captive. He insisted he had never been visited by the Immediate Response Force.

[edit] References

1. ^ list of prisoners (.pdf), US Department of Defense, May 15, 2006
2. ^ Sketches of Guantanamo detainees-Part I, The State (newspaper), March 15, 2006
3. ^ Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Gholam Ruhani's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 7-12
4. ^ Factors for and against the continued detention (.pdf) of Gholam Ruhani Administrative Review Board, May 2, 2005 - page 54
5. ^ Summarized transcript (.pdf), from Gholam Ruhani's Administrative Review Board hearing - pages 152-163