Mohammad Nasim (Guantanamo captive 958)

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Mohammad Nasim (Guantanamo captive 958)

Mohammed Nasim is a citizen of Afghanistan, who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.[1][2]

Identity

The official list of Guantanamo captives named three individuals named Mohammed Nasim:

Combatant Status Review Tribunal

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.

Summary of Evidence memo

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Mohammed Nasim's Combatant Status Review Tribunal, on December 20, 2004.[3] The memo listed the following allegations against him:

A. The detainee is a member of the Taliban:
  1. The detainee commanded a squad of [[Mujahidin fighters for a Kabul commander.
  2. The detainee's squad consisted of twenty-five Mujahidin armed with twenty-three AK-47s, one RPK LMG and one RPG-7.
  3. The detainee's name was referenced in intercepted radio troop movements to the Taliban.
  4. The detainee is alleged to have acted as a sentry to report troop movements to the Taliban.
  5. The detainee was reported to be part of an early warning system.
  6. The detainee was captured on 11 February 2003, by United States forces in Afghanistan as a suspected Taliban.

Transcript

Nasim chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.[4] On March 3, 2006, in response to a court order from Jed Rakoff the Department of Defense published a ten page summarized transcript from his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.[5]

Witnesses

Nasim had requested two "off-island" witnesses. They were deemed relevant, and the State Department was requested to ask the Afghan government to contact the witnesses, on December 29, 2004, and on January 10, 2005. The Afghan embassy in Washington had not replied by January 12, 2005, so they were deemed "not reasonably available", and Nasim's Tribunal was held, without the testimony of his witnesses on January 13, 2005.

The two witnesses Nasim requested were his uncle and brother. Nasim said he thought they could have testified that the allegations against him were untrue.

Testimony

Nasim said he was a poor farmer, and that he had never left his village during his entire life.

He denied owning any weapons or having any military training, or even knowing what the weapons in the list in the allegations against him were.

He said he was captured on Eid, a Muslim holiday where people visited their eldest male relative for a dinner and a blessing. He was not engaging in hostilities.

Before he was hooded he saw that one of his older brothers was captured when he was, and a younger male relative. Nasim estimated that he was at least 55 years old, and described his older brother as elderly. He did not see his relatives in the prisons in Afghanistan, and they were not transferred to Guantanamo.

He said he couldn't have used a radio to report on Northern Alliance troop movements because he never engaged in hostilities, he didn't live anywhere near the area where the Northern Alliance operated, and he had never seen a radio before in his life and had no idea how to operate one.

In answer to questioning Nasim said:

  • No, he didn't own binoculars, and he didn't know what they were.
  • No, neither he nor his relatives had resisted their captors.
  • The scraps of paper found in his pockets merely contained blessings. Traditionally it was considered good luck to carry blessing in one's pockets.
  • When asked why he thought he was captured and detained, Nasim said he was amazed when he learned of the allegations against him.
  • Nasim was asked, several times, if he knew of anyone else named Mohammed Nasim, with whom he might have been confused. He said he did not. But the DoD held two other individuals named Mohammed Nasim in Guantanamo.

Letters from home

Nasim entered as exhibits two letters he had received from his family, through the Red Cross. In one of those letters his brother spoke about the last day they were together, Eid, which Nasim said was the day he was captured.

Determined not to have been an Enemy Combatant

The Washington Post reports that Nasim was one of 38 detainees who was determined not to have been an enemy combatant during his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.[6]

They report that Nasim has been released.

Guantanamo medical records

On 16 March 2007 the Department of Defense published medical records for the captives.[7] According to those records he was 66.5 inches tall. According to those records he weighed 158 pounds on May 9, 2003—his "inprocess date". Although the standard operating procedures for the medical treatment of captives required them to be weighed at least once a month, his monthly weigh-ins started in January 2004. Those weights fluctuated between 184 and 200 pounds.

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 OARDEC (2006-05-15). "List of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from January 2002 through May 15, 2006" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. http://www.dod.mil/news/May2006/d20060515%20List.pdf. Retrieved 2007-09-29. 
  2. "Sketches of Guantanamo Detainees-Part I". San Francisco Chronicle. 2006-03-15. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2006/03/15/international/i133614S80.DTL&type=printable. Retrieved January 15 2007. 
  3. OARDEC (2004-12-20). "Summary of Evidence for Combatant Status Review Tribunal -- Nasim, Mohammed". United States Department of Defense. pp. page 89. http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt_arb/000600-000699.pdf#89. Retrieved 2008-06-29. 
  4. OARDEC (date redacted). "Summarized Statement". United States Department of Defense. pp. pages 100-109. http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt/Set_51_3490-3642_Revised.pdf#100. Retrieved 2008-06-29. 
  5. "US releases Guantanamo files". The Age. 2006-04-04. http://www.theage.com.au/news/World/US-releases-Guantanamo-files/2006/04/04/1143916500334.html. Retrieved 2008-03-15. 
  6. Guantanamo Bay Detainees Classified as "No Longer Enemy Combatants", Washington Post
  7. JTF-GTMO (2007-03-16). "Measurements of Heights and Weights of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba". Department of Defense. http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/measurements/. Retrieved 2008-12-22.  mirror

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