Jawed Ahmad (1986 – March 10, 2009) also known as "Jojo" was an Afghan reporter working for Canadian media outlet
CTV who was arrested by American troops and declared an
enemy combatant
Enemy combatant is a term for a person who, either lawfully or unlawfully, engages in hostilities for the other side in an armed conflict, used by the U.S. government and media during the War on Terror. Usually enemy combatants are members of t ...
, while working with
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...
at
Kandahar Airport
Ahmad Shah Baba International Airport, also referred to as Kandahar International Airport (, ), and by some military officials as Kandahar Airfield (KAF), is located in the Daman District, Afghanistan, Daman District of Kandahar Province in Afgh ...
on October 26, 2007.
[
Ahmad was then held in military custody at the detention facility at the United States Air Base in ]Bagram
Bagram (; Pashto/) is a town and seat in Bagram District in Parwan Province of Afghanistan, about 60 kilometers north of the capital Kabul. It is the site of an ancient city located at the junction of the Ghorband and Panjshir Valley, near t ...
, Afghanistan for 11 months without access to a lawyer. As a result of advocacy by his friends and family, and a habeas corpus petitio
filed by the International Justice Network
The International Justice Network (IJNetwork) is a non-profit organization dedicated to protection of human rights and the rule of law throughout the world. They provide direct legal assistance to victims of human rights abuses through a global net ...
, Jojo was released on September 21, 2008 after almost a year of being held in U.S. custody.
Early life
Jawed started working as a tailor's apprentice at twelve years old.[
]
Jawed earned 75 cents a day. He used the money he earned to pay for schooling.
His education, and language skills, allowed him to start working as a translator for United States forces shortly after the overthrow of the Taliban.
Jawed was later to work for independent security firms.[
In 2006 Jawad started working as a translator and "fixer" for Canadian journalists.][
]
Capture
Jawed was captured on October 26, 2007.[
]
Jawed reported on his release that he was captured after receiving a request to come to Kandahar Air Field
Ahmad Shah Baba International Airport, also referred to as Kandahar International Airport (, ), and by some military officials as Kandahar Airfield (KAF), is located in the Daman District of Kandahar Province in Afghanistan, about southeast f ...
to complete a survey on opinion survey of Afghan journalists from a GI who represented himself as a Public Affairs Officer.[
American officials claimed the 22-year-old native of Kandahar was carrying ]phone number
A telephone number is the address of a telecommunication endpoint, such as a telephone, in a telephone network, such as the public switched telephone network (PSTN). A telephone number typically consists of a sequence of digits, but histor ...
s and videos of Taliban officials.[
]
He appeared before a military review, which determined there was "credible information" and is held at Bagram Airbase.[
]
His brother, Siddique, has been in contact with him during his detention, due to the efforts of the International Red Cross
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is a aid agency, humanitarian organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, and is a three-time Nobel Prize laureate. The organization has played an instrumental role in the development of Law of ...
.[
]
According to his brother, he has been beaten since being detained.[
]
Captives in the Bagram Theater Detention Facility do not have Combatant Status Review Tribunal
The Combatant Status Review Tribunals (CSRT) were a set of tribunals for confirming whether detainees held by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp had been correctly designated as " enemy combatants". The CSRTs were establi ...
s convened to confirm their combatant status. According to Eliza Griswold in ''The New Republic
''The New Republic'' (often abbreviated as ''TNR'') is an American magazine focused on domestic politics, news, culture, and the arts from a left-wing perspective. It publishes ten print magazines a year and a daily online platform. ''The New Y ...
'' their status is determined by the base commander, who may convene a more secret, less formal, less thorough procedure called an " Enemy Combatant Review Board".[
]
According to Grizwold:
The ''Washington Post
''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'' reported on June 29, 2008 on comments Tina Monshipour Foster made about Jawed Ahmad's detention in Bagram.[
]
Release
Jawad Ahmad was released, without explanation, on September 22, 2008.[
He described being hooded, bound, slammed into walls and beaten. One of the beatings broke two of his ribs.
Jawad said he was subjected to ]sleep deprivation
Sleep deprivation, also known as sleep insufficiency or sleeplessness, is the condition of not having adequate duration and/or quality of sleep to support decent alertness, performance, and health. It can be either Chronic (medicine), chronic ...
. In an interview with the BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
he states "When I landed first of all they stood me in snow for six hours, it was too cold - I had no socks, no shoes, nothing. I became unconscious two times.".
Jawad said his interrogators insisted he was a spy for the Taliban, Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...
and Pakistan
Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...
,[
that his family had all been captured and had already confessed, and that he was being held because his Canadian employers had insisted on it.
After his release, Jawad told journalists that he was told he was going to be sent to Guantanamo.][
]
Jawad reported that Koran desecration remained routine at Bagram.
Death
On March 10, 2009, Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders (RWB; ; RSF) is an international non-profit and non-governmental organisation, non-governmental organization headquartered in Paris, which focuses on safeguarding the right to freedom of information. It describes its a ...
(RWB) issued a statement
See also
*Bagram torture and prisoner abuse
In 2005, ''The New York Times'' obtained a 2,000-page United States Army investigatory report concerning the homicides of two unarmed civilian Afghans, Afghan prisoners by Military of the United States, U.S. military personnel in December 2002 at ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ahmad, Jawed
Journalists held in extrajudicial detention in the War on Terror
Afghan extrajudicial prisoners of the United States
Bagram Theater Internment Facility detainees
Afghan journalists
Kandahar detention facility detainees
Bagram captives' habeas corpus petitions
2009 deaths
1986 births
20th-century journalists