Obaidullah (detainee)
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Obaidullah (born 1980) 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 one of the last remaining Afghan detainees 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 ...
, 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 ...
.list of prisoners (.pdf)
, ''
US Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and supervising the six U.S. armed services: the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Space Force, ...
'', May 15, 2006
He was captured as 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 ...
on July 20, 2002, transferred to Guantanamo on October 28, 2002, and transferred to the
United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...
on August 15, 2016. Obaidullah was released and repatriated to Afghanistan on 23 December 2019. Obaidullah's Guantanamo Internment Serial Number is 762. American
intelligence analysts Intelligence analysis is the application of individual and collective cognitive methods to weigh data and test hypotheses within a secret socio-cultural context. The descriptions are drawn from what may only be available in the form of delibera ...
estimate that Obaidullah was born in 1980 in
Khost Khōst () is the capital of Khost Province in Afghanistan. It is the largest city in the southeastern part of the country, and also the largest in the region of Loya Paktia. To the south and east of Khost lie Waziristan and Kurram Agency, Kurram i ...
, Afghanistan.


Capture and detention

On July 20, 2002, two dozen American Special Armed Forces soldiers, acting on an anonymous tip, raided Obaidullah's family home and took him into custody along with his cousins. At the time, Obaidullah was carrying a notebook which the U.S. alleges contained diagrams for improvised explosive devices. In a statement made during his habeas corpus proceedings, Obaidullah stated:
The Americans came while my family and I were all sleeping in our home in the village of Milani, close to Khost City. At that time I was approximately 19 years old. On that night, I heard noises and the soldiers woke me up. I was very confused about what was going on, and why they were in my home, but I and my family cooperated with them. Even though I was not resisting, they tied my feet together and my hands together with plastic cuffs. Then they put a hood over my head and forced me to sit for hours against a wall. The plastic cut into my hands and it was painful to sit that way for so long. I was terrified about what would happen to me.Obaydullah v. Obama, No. 11-5123 (D.C. Cir.), Doc. #1365630, at 33-44, Declaration of Obaidullah, signed September 2010.


Chapman Airfield

From his home, Obaidullah was transported to Chapman Airfield, a forward operating base. Obaidullah described his treatment at Chapman airbase in a statement made during his habeas corpus proceedings:
After I got to the military base, there were several soldiers who told me to put my hands up and then to hold them straight out to the front of me. I did what they told me to do. They then put two sandbags on my arms and made me walk around back and forth with them like that all night. They were extremely heavy, and if I dropped the bags, the soldiers put them back on my arms. They got so heavy that I had to kind of place them on my stomach as I moved. They did not let me sleep at all for the rest of that night but forced me to keep moving with bags on my arms. When they moved me from one location to another, the soldiers were extremely rough and shoved me around with their knees and elbows in a very painful and frightening way. In the morning before sunrise, I was taken into a room and interrogated by three or four soldiers. They told me that they would kill me if I didn't talk. After I told them I didn't know the answers to their questions, one of them knocked me to the floor. He took out a long knife and started sharpening it in front of me. I could hear the sounds of the knife being sharpened. He then lifted my hood and showed me the knife. He put it on the back of my head and said now start talking… I was terrified and fully believed that they might kill me.


Bagram

Obaidullah reported abusive interrogation while held 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 ...
, during a period when the officers in charge have acknowledged directing the use of the proscribed technique of chaining a detainee's hands above his head in order to impose sleep deprivation. Obaidullah alleges that after arriving at Bagram, he was kept in a small isolation cell, with his hands chained above his head to the ceiling:
The soldiers chained my hands above my head to the ceiling and would leave me like that for 45 minutes or an hour, then take me into an interrogation room, then take me back after the interrogation and chain my arms up again for another 45 minutes to two hours.
He described his interrogations: A Naval Criminal Investigative Service officer who investigated Obaidullah's case wrote in a sworn statement:
Based on my interviews of Afghan witnesses with personal knowledge and my other investigative efforts, detainees at Bagram during this period in 2002, including Obaidullah, were subjected to extraordinarily coercive measures which cause me to question the reliability of resulting statements."


Guantanamo

Obaidullah was transferred to Guantanamo on October 28, 2002. Regarding his interrogations there, Obaidullah stated:
When I was taken to an interrogation, they often put me in a freezing cold room with the air conditioning way up high. After the interrogation was over, they would leave me in there for another 3-4 hours by myself with the air conditioning up high. For a long time, maybe a year, after I got to Guantánamo, the interrogators controlled everything about our lives. If we wanted water or if we wanted to see a doctor, it all depended on whether the interrogators approved it or not. One time, about 2 or 3 months after I arrived in Guantánamo, I was very sick for many days. My throat was sore and I had a fever. Finally, they took me to the infirmary. A doctor began to examine me. After a short time, an interrogator came to the door and signalled to the doctor. The doctor went outside and talked to the interrogator for a short time and then left. He did not return. I was taken back to my cell even though I was still sick and felt very bad.


Hunger Strike

In February 2013, more than a decade after his arrival at Guantanamo, Obaidullah began a hunger strike. According to Obaidullah, he joined a hunger strike spurred by "invasive" cell searches conducted in February 2013. The removal of items including his family photos and mail from his attorneys, he said, was "especially distressing for me because I have nothing to provoke the authorities to take my belongings and comfort items that gave me a small sense of humanity." He stated:
I had not participated in hunger strikes, or organized protests in the past. I have been patiently challenging my imprisonment in US civil courts. But the latest actions in the camps have dehumanized me, so I have been moved to take action. Eleven years of my life have been taken from me, and now by the latest actions of the authorities, they have also taken my dignity... Despite the difficulties in continuing the strike, and the health effects I am experiencing and witnessing, we plan to remain on strike until we are treated with dignity... I am losing all hope because I have been imprisoned at Guantánamo for almost eleven years now and still do not know my fate.


Official status reviews

Originally, the Bush
Presidency A presidency is an administration or the executive, the collective administrative and governmental entity that exists around an office of president of a state or nation. Although often the executive branch of government, and often personified b ...
asserted that captives apprehended in the ''" war on terror"'' were not covered by the
Geneva Conventions upright=1.15, The original document in single pages, 1864 The Geneva Conventions are international humanitarian laws consisting of four treaties and three additional protocols that establish international legal standards for humanitarian t ...
, and could be held indefinitely, without charge, and without an open and transparent review of the justifications for their detention. In 2004, the
United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...
ruled, in
Rasul v. Bush ''Rasul v. Bush'', 542 U.S. 466 (2004), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court in which the Court held that foreign nationals held in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp could petition federal courts for writs of ''habeas corp ...
, that Guantanamo captives were entitled to being informed of the allegations justifying their detention, and were entitled to try to refute them.


Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants

Following the Supreme Court's ruling the
Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and supervising the six U.S. armed services: the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Space Force, ...
set up the
Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants The Office for the Administrative Review of the Detention of Enemy Combatants, established in 2004 by the Bush administration's Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, is a United States military body responsible for organising Combatant S ...
. Scholars at the
Brookings Institution The Brookings Institution, often stylized as Brookings, is an American think tank that conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in economics (and tax policy), metropolitan policy, governance, foreign policy, global econo ...
, led by
Benjamin Wittes Benjamin Wittes (born November 5, 1969) is an American legal journalist. He is editor in chief of '' Lawfare'' and senior fellow in governance studies at The Brookings Institution, where he is the research director in public law, and co-director ...
, listed the captives still held in Guantanamo in December 2008, according to whether their detention was justified by certain common allegations: * Obaidullah was listed as one of the captives who had faced charges before a military commission. * Obaidullah was listed as one of the captives who the military alleges were members of either al Qaeda or the Taliban and associated with the other group. * Obaidullah was listed as one of the captives who ''"The military alleges ... took military or terrorist training in Afghanistan."'' * Obaidullah was listed as one of the captives who ''"The military alleges that the following detainees were captured under circumstances that strongly suggest belligerency."'' * Obaidullah was listed as one of the captives who was an ''"al Qaeda operative"''. * Obaidullah was listed as one of the captives ''"who have been charged before military commissions and are alleged Al Qaeda operatives."'' * Obaidullah was listed as one of the ''"34 aptivesadmit to some lesser measure of affiliation—like staying in Taliban or Al Qaeda guesthouses or spending time at one of their training camps."'' * Obaidullah was listed as one of the captives who had admitted ''"to training at Al Qaeda or Taliban camps"''. Obaidullah testified at his 2004 and 2005 hearings.


Habeas Petition

Following the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in
Boumediene v. Bush ''Boumediene v. Bush'', 553 U.S. 723 (2008), was a writ of ''habeas corpus'' petition made in a civilian court of the United States on behalf of Lakhdar Boumediene, a naturalized citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina, held in military detention by t ...
that Guantanamo detainees are entitled to
habeas corpus ''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a legal procedure invoking the jurisdiction of a court to review the unlawful detention or imprisonment of an individual, and request the individual's custodian (usually a prison official) to ...
proceedings, Obaidullah filed a petition for habeas corpus in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in July 2008. Two months later, the Bush administration filed charges against him in the military commissions at Guantanamo. On October 19, 2010, Judge Richard Leon of the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia ruled that Obaidullah's detention was lawful. Judge Leon denied Obaidullah's petition for writ of habeas corpus after finding he was "more likely than not" an insurgent.


Appeal

Obaidullah appealed the decision, and In August 2012, the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit denied the appeal, affirming the lower court's ruling. The court held that the lower court had correctly determined that it was "more likely than not" that Obaidullah was a member of al Qaeda, relying on the secret source whose tip to the U.S. military led to the raid on Obaidullah's family compound. The identity of this source and the information received have not been revealed to Obaidullah or his attorneys. "Individuals who had lived in Obaidullah's village identified two males who were not originally from the same village but had lived there for a period, and who were rumoured to have sold false information to Americans," a Navy intelligence officer investigating Obaidullah's case in Afghanistan said in a sworn statement. "It was stated that those two men later disappeared and it is not known whether they are alive".


Motion to Reopen

On February 8, 2012, Obaidullah's lawyers moved to reopen the record. This would allow Obaidullah a new trial in the district court on the grounds that new evidence had been uncovered. This evidence was attested to in a declaration by Lieutenant Commander Richard Pandis, an NCIS investigator assigned to the case. The motion was denied on January 30, 2013.


Supreme Court

On February 26, 2013, Obaidullah filed a petition for
writ of certiorari In law, ''certiorari'' is a court process to seek judicial review of a decision of a lower court or government agency. ''Certiorari'' comes from the name of a prerogative writ in England, issued by a superior court to direct that the record of ...
in the
US Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all Federal tribunals in the United States, U.S. federal court cases, and over Stat ...
.


Formerly secret Joint Task Force Guantanamo assessment

On April 25, 2011, whistleblower organization
WikiLeaks WikiLeaks () is a non-profit media organisation and publisher of leaked documents. It is funded by donations and media partnerships. It has published classified documents and other media provided by anonymous sources. It was founded in 2006 by ...
published formerly secret assessments drafted by
Joint Task Force Guantanamo Joint Task Force Guantanamo (JTF-GTMO) is a U.S. military joint task force based at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Guantánamo Bay, Cuba on the southeastern end of the base. JTF-GTMO falls under US Southern Command. Since January 2002 the command ...
analysts. His 8-page Joint Task Force Guantanamo assessment was drafted on June 16, 2008. It was signed by camp commandant
Rear Admiral Rear admiral is a flag officer rank used by English-speaking navies. In most European navies, the equivalent rank is called counter admiral. Rear admiral is usually immediately senior to commodore and immediately below vice admiral. It is ...
David M Thomas Jr. He recommended continued detention at Guantanamo.


Joint Review Task Force

When he assumed office in January 2009
President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...
made a number of promises about the future of Guantanamo. He promised the use of torture would cease at the camp. He promised to institute a new review system. That new review system was composed of officials from six departments, where the OARDEC reviews were conducted entirely by the Department of Defense. When it reported back, a year later, the Joint Review Task Force classified some individuals as too dangerous to be transferred from Guantanamo, even though there was no evidence to justify laying charges against them. On April 9, 2013, that document was made public after a
Freedom of Information Act Freedom of Information Act may refer to the following legislations in different jurisdictions which mandate the national government to disclose certain data to the general public upon request: * Freedom of Information Act (United States) of 1966 * F ...
request. Obaidullah was one of the 71 individuals deemed too innocent to charge, but too dangerous to release. Although Obama promised that those deemed too innocent to charge, but too dangerous to release would start to receive reviews from a
Periodic Review Board The Periodic Review Boards administrate a US ''"administrative procedure"'' for recommending whether certain individuals held in the Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba are safe to release or transfer, or whether they should continue to be held ...
less than a quarter of men have received a review.


Charges

On September 10, 2008, charges were filed against Obaidullah for "conspiracy" and "providing material support for terrorism" under the Military Commissions Act of 2006. According to ''
Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency ...
'': : Anne Richardson, one of his lawyers, described how, when his defense team were able to disprove the allegations used to justify detaining him, and on which the charges he faced were based, the prosecution chose to drop the charges, instead of allowing him to prove his innocence, at trial, which would have justified freeing him. She wrote: : On June 7, 2011, the Convening Authority for the military commissions dismissed the charges without prejudice. There are currently no charges pending against him. MAJ Jason D. Wright was Obaidullah's military defense lawyer.


Incarceration in Guantanamo

Obaidullah appears on a Department Defense list of "71 Guantanamo Detainees Determined Eligible to Receive a Periodic Review Board as of April 19, 2014."Department of Defense, Office of Freedom of Information, "71 Guantánamo Detainees Determined Eligible to Receive a Periodic Review Board as of April 19, 2013," Obaidullah was participating in a hunger strike along with half of the other Guantanamo detainees as of April 23, 2013. Obaidullah received his Periodic Review Board (PRB) hearing on April 19, 2016. The decision of the PRB was released Friday, May 20, 2016, and the PRB approved Obaidullah for release into an appropriate environment in an accepting nation, not necessarily his original home country of Afghanistan, similar to conditions placed upon previously released detainees.


Transfer to the United Arab Emirates

On August 15, 2016, the USA transferred Obaidullah, and fourteen other men, to the
United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...
. Like Obaidullah, Mohammed Kamin, another Afghan, had faced charges under the
Military Commissions Act of 2006 The Military Commissions Act of 2006, also known as HR-6166, was an Act of Congress signed by President George W. Bush on October 17, 2006. The Act's stated purpose was "to authorize trial by military commission for violations of the law of ...
, but wasn't recharged when the
US Congress The United States Congress is the legislature, legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a Bicameralism, bicameral legislature, including a Lower house, lower body, the United States House of Representatives, ...
passed the Military Commissions Act of 2009. The ''
Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...
'' sought out and interviewed members of Obaidullah's family, on August 17. One of brothers told the ''Associated Press'' that one of Obaidullah's lawyers had told the family that, after living for six months to a year in the UAE he would be free to leave. Obaidullah would undergo government monitored rehabilitation. ''
The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
'' noted that Obaidullah had maintained he was tortured into the confessions that led to him being charged, and that he was assessed not to hold anti-American feelings.


Release in Afghanistan

Obaidullah was reported to have been released and repatriated to Afghanistan by 23 December 2019.


References


External links


Afghan Nobody Faces Trial by Military Commission
Andy Worthington
Amnesty International Blasts Obama for Delays and Injustice on Human Rights, Guantánamo and Terrorism
Andy Worthington Andy Worthington is a British historian, investigative journalist, and film director. He has published three books, two on Stonehenge and one on the war on terror, been published in numerous publications and directed documentary films. Art ...
June 26, 2010 *Human Rights First
The Case of Obaidullah, Afghan
*Human Rights First
The Case of Obaidullah, Afghan
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Obaidullah Detainees of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp Afghan extrajudicial prisoners of the United States Bagram Theater Internment Facility detainees Living people People from Khost 1980 births