Deleted:Abdul Rahman (Guantanamo detainee 357)

Abdul Rahman
Born	1976 (age 47–48) Haji Baras, Afghanistan

Abdul Rahman is a citizen of Afghanistan who was held in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 357. American intelligence analysts estimate that Rahman was born in 1976, in Haji Baras, Afghanistan.

Abdul Rahman was transferred to Afghanistan on April 18, 2005.

Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held 3 x 6 meters trailer. The captive sat with his hands cuffed and feet shackled to a bolt in the floor. Three chairs were reserved for members of the press, but only 37 of the 574 Tribunals were observed.

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.

Summary of Evidence memo

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Abdul Rahman's Combatant Status Review Tribunal, on 9 December 2004. The memo listed the following allegations against him:

a. The detainee is a member of the Taliban:

1. The Detainee purchased a vehicle for the Taliban with Pakistani rupees.
2. The Detainee was with four other Taliban soldiers, who were his security force, when he purchased the vehicle.
3. The Detainee was in charge of and gave orders to the four Taliban soldiers, who were with him when he purchased the vehicle.
4. The Detainee was wearing a "Page" turban during the vehicle purchase.
5. The detainee traveled to Yerghanak, Afghanistan, with a large number of Pashtuns and Taliban soldiers to surrender to General Dostum's forces, and was then held at Mazar-e Sharif [sic] for approximately forty days before being turned over to the United States.

Transcript

Abdul Rahman chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal. On March 3, 2006, in response to a court order from Jed Rakoff the Department of Defense published a 22 page summarized transcript from his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.

Determined not to have been an Enemy Combatant

Abdul Rahman was one of the 38 captives the Bush Presidency determined had not been enemy combatants after all. The Department of Defense refers to these men as No Longer Enemy Combatants.

Abdul Rahman was freed on April 20, 2005 with sixteen other Afghans whose Tribunals had determined they were not enemy combatants. The Associated Press reported that their release ceremony was addressed by Afghan Chief Justice Fazl Hadi Shinwari. Carlotta Gall of The New York Times reported that the Chief Justice encouraged the men to regard their detention as something sent from God. The reports stated that the Chief Justice warned the cleared men that a candid description of their detention could damage the chances of other Afghan captives to be released.

"Don't tell these people the stories of your time in prison because the government is trying to secure the release of others, and it may harm the release of your friends."

Abdul Rahman was one of the three captives who chose to address the Press. He was quoted as saying:

"There was a lot of bad treatment against us, but this is not the time to tell you," Rahman said. "Everybody in the world knows what kind of jail it is. I can't talk about it now." "In Cuba, our people are there without destiny. Some were taken from their homes, some were taken from their businesses, some were taken for the reason that they gave food to someone. Again I am requesting that our defenseless people be released."

Both reports quoted Chief Justice Fazil Hadi Shinwari distinguishing three categories of captives:

"There are three kinds of prisoners in Guantanamo. There are those that have committed crimes and should be there, then there are people who were falsely denounced, and third there are those who are there because of the mistakes of the Americans."