Taj Mohammed 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 ...

. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 902.

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 ...

counter-terrorism Counterterrorism (alternatively spelled: counter-terrorism), also known as anti-terrorism, relates to the practices, military tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, law enforcement, businesses, and intelligence agencies use to co ...

analysts estimate Mohammed was born in 1981. He was repatriated in 2006. According to Washington Post reporter, Mahvish Khan, who visited Taj Mohammed in detention with habeas counsel, he learned English during his four years of detention.

Press reports

According to 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 ...

, the allegations against Nasir, in his

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 ...

, was accused of being a member of Lashkar-e-Tayyiba -- ''The Army of the Pure.'' Mohammed told his Tribunal: ''"I was a shepherd, and I never can even go out very much, and I was always with my goats on the mountain, These are all lies about me."'' 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.
mirror
Taj Mohammed was one of the former captives who had an article profiling him. Taj Mohammed reported being sexually harassed during his interrogations. He reported that guards desecrated the Quran. According to his McClatchy interviewer, Taj Mohammed tried to retaliate: According to the ''McClatchy'' profile of him, Taj Mohammed was radicalized in Guantanamo and said he beat less religious captives. The article said his lawyers, Paul Rashkind, was taken aback when told of these assertions, and questioned whether the McClatchy interviewer may have been taken in by an impostor. According to the ''McClatchy'' interviewer, Taj Mohammed was mentored and given lessons in Arabic and the Quran by Yemeni captive Ali Abdullah Ahmed—one of the three men camp authorities reported committed suicide on June 10, 2006. According to the ''McClatchy'' interviewer Taj Mohammed spent nine months in Camp four in 2005, the camp where "compliant" captives were allowed to mingle with other captives. He was, however, demoted when he slapped a female doctor. ''

ABC News ABC News most commonly refers to: * ABC News (Australia), a national news service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation * ABC News (United States), a news-gathering and broadcasting division of the American Broadcasting Company ABC News may a ...

'' reported on February 22, 2010, that Taj Mohammed was employed by the Agribusiness Development Team, a

Provincial Reconstruction Team A Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) was a unit introduced by the United States government, consisting of military officers, diplomats, and reconstruction subject matter experts, working to support reconstruction efforts in unstable states. PRT ...

development project with participation from the US military. He worked as a translator. He was reported to be surprisingly fluent in both English and Spanish—learned in Guantanamo.

Namesakes

On January 16, 2010, 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, ...

was forced to publish the names of the 645 captives held in 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 ...

. One of the individuals on the list was named Taj Mohammed.

References

External links

The Stories of the Afghans Just Released from Guantánamo: Intelligence Failures, Battlefield Myths and Unaccountable Prisons in Afghanistan (Part Two)
Andy Worthington
McClatchy News Service - video
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mohammed, Taj Afghan extrajudicial prisoners of the United States Living people Bagram Theater Internment Facility detainees Guantanamo detainees known to have been released 1981 births