Ehsanullah (born 1977) is a citizen of
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...
who was held in
extrajudicial detention
Administrative detention is arrest and detention of individuals by the state without trial. A number of jurisdictions claim that it is done for security reasons. Many countries claim to use administrative detention as a means to combat terrorism ...
in the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
Guantanamo Bay detention camp
The Guantanamo Bay detention camp, also known as GTMO ( ), GITMO ( ), or simply Guantanamo Bay, is a United States military prison within Naval Station Guantanamo Bay (NSGB), on the coast of Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. It was established in 2002 by p ...
s, in
Cuba
Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...
.
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His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 523. He worked as a farmer before he was recruited as a guard for the Taliban and served as such in Nahreen. After three months of working as a guard, the Northern Alliance took over the facility and he was handed over to US forces. Eventually he was sent to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba on June 12, 2002, for his supposed knowledge of leadership of the Taliban in the area. He was recommended for release on September 27, 2002, by
Michael Dunlavey, because he was not a threat to the United States, nor could provide information of terrorist activity.
McClatchy News Service interview
On June 15, 2008, the
McClatchy News Service
McClatchy Media Company, or simply McClatchy and MCC, is an American publishing company incorporated under Delaware's General Corporation Law. Originally based in Sacramento, California, United States, and known as The McClatchy Company, it b ...
published a series of articles based on interviews with 66 former Guantanamo captives.
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Ehsanullah
was one of the former captives who had an article profiling him.
mirror
Ehsanullah acknowledged having once served as a
Taliban
, leader1_title = Supreme Leader of Afghanistan, Supreme leaders
, leader1_name = {{indented plainlist,
* Mullah Omar{{Natural Causes{{nbsp(1994–2013)
* Akhtar Mansour{{Assassinated (2015–2016)
* Hibatullah Akhundzada (2016–present) ...
foot-soldier, but stated he was an involuntary conscript.
[
He said he abandoned his post as soon as he learned that the Taliban government had collapsed, and was trying to make his way home, when he was captured by ]Northern Alliance
The Northern Alliance ( ''Da Šumāl E'tilāf'' or ''Ettehād Šumāl''), officially known as the United National Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan ( ''Jabha-ye Muttahid-e barāye Afğānistān''), was a military alliance of groups that op ...
soldiers. He said he and other captives, taken at the same time, were sold to the Americans for a bounty. "The commander told the Americans that he had arrested high-ranking Taliban and got $5,000 for each of us."
According to Ehsanullah:[ "There was no training. They said, 'This is the trigger; pull it.'"
Ehsanullah was interviewed by telephone because he feared local Taliban sympathizers learning he had met with a foreigner.][ The McClatchy reporters found that local security officials had never heard of him.][
Ehsanullah was held in both the ]Bagram Theater Internment Facility
The Parwan Detention Facility (also called Detention Facility in Parwan or Bagram prison) is Afghanistan's main military prison. Situated next to the Bagram Air Base in the Parwan Province of Afghanistan, the prison was built by the U.S. during ...
and the Kandahar detention facility
Kandahar Central Jail, also known as Sarpuza Prison, is a minimum-security prison in Kandahar, Afghanistan. It is located next to the Kandahar-Herat Highway in the Sarpuza neighborhood, which is between the neighborhoods of Mirwais Mena and Shahr ...
, prior to being transferred to Guantanamo.[ He reported being physically abused in American custody in Afghanistan, and he reported witnessing an American GI throwing a ]Koran
The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...
into a bucket of excrement.
Ehsanullah said conditions were better in Guantanamo, no one beat him, he was interrogated infrequently, and when he was:[ "They kept asking me why I was arrested?" He said: "They told me that the (Northern Alliance) commander had sold me to them, and they were trying to figure out what the truth was."
Ehsanullah was held for less than a year.][
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Height and weight records
On March 16, 2007, the Department of Defense published limited height and weight records for the captives.[
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See also
* Ehsanullah, a Guantanamo captive with a similar name, released on March 23, 2003, six weeks earlier.
References
External links
The Guantánamo Files: Website Extras (8) – Captured in Afghanistan
Andy Worthington
McClatchy News Service - videoPrisoner File from Department of Defense
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ehsanullah
Guantanamo detainees known to have been released
Afghan extrajudicial prisoners of the United States
Living people
1977 births