Abdul Rauf Aliza: Difference between revisions
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==The Taliban== |
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Having become a foot soldier for several known Taliban commanders, he eventually became a member of Taliban leader [[Mullah Omar]]’s elite mobile reserve force before the attacks on [[September 11, 2001]]. |
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[[Cathy Gannon]], of the ''Associated Press'', quoted former Kandahar Governor [[Sher Mohammad Akhundzada]] about Abdul Rauf's role in the Taliban. Akundzada asserted that prior to his initial capture in 2001 Abdul Rauf was a corps commander in [[Herat Province]], and in [[Kabul]].<ref name=AssociatedPress2010-03-04/> |
[[Cathy Gannon]], of the ''Associated Press'', quoted former Kandahar Governor [[Sher Mohammad Akhundzada]] about Abdul Rauf's role in the Taliban. Akundzada asserted that prior to his initial capture in 2001 Abdul Rauf was a corps commander in [[Herat Province]], and in [[Kabul]].<ref name=AssociatedPress2010-03-04/> |
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Revision as of 21:08, 22 February 2015
Abdul Rauf Aliza | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1981 Azam, Afghanistan |
| Status | repatriated to Afghan custody in 2007, finally freed in 2010 |
| Died | 9 February 2015 (aged 33–34) |
| Criminal charge(s) | no charge, he was held in extrajudicial detention |
Mullah Abdul Rauf Aliza, widely identified as Mullah Abdul Rauf Khadim, was an Afghan who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camp, in Cuba, until December 20, 2007.[1][2] His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 108. The Department of Defense reports that he was born on February 10, 1981, in Azam, Afghanistan.
While Abdul Rauf Aliza arrived in US custody as a youth in late 2001 to late 2007, and was held in Afghan custody for three more years, in 2010 press reports started to assert he was a senior Taliban leader, and former Provincial Governor, who had been active and at large throughout his detention.
Background
Abdul Rauf testified he was from Helmand Province.[3] He testified that an injury from a Soviet land mine had left him too injured for military duties, so he had been employed providing food during his Taliban conscription.[4]
Identity confusion
On March 4, 2010, the Associated Press reported that two former captives at Guantanamo had become senior Taliban leaders, after their release from Afghan custody.[5] The report quoted "senior Afghan officials who said the two captives named Abdullah Gulam Rasoul and Abdul Rauf Aliza were actully Abdul Qayyum and Abdul Rauf. They reported that Abdul Qayyum was being considered for as a candidate to replace recently captured Taliban second in command Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, and that Abdul Rauf was his deputy. The News International reported that both Abdul Qayyum Zakir and Abdul Rauf were members of the Taliban's Quetta Shura, and that they had been captured shortly after Baradar.
According to some reports Mullah Abdul Rauf was killed in a drone strike on February 9, 2015. It was said that the car he was travelling in was filled with ammunition and exploded. Rauf, his brother-in-law, and four Pakistani militants were said to have been killed.[6]
Cathy Gannon, of the Associated Press, quoted former Kandahar Governor Sher Mohammad Akhundzada about Abdul Rauf's role in the Taliban. Akundzada asserted that prior to his initial capture in 2001 Abdul Rauf was a corps commander in Herat Province, and in Kabul.[5]
Official status reviews
Originally the Bush Presidency asserted that captives apprehended in the "war on terror" were not covered by the Geneva Conventions, and could be held indefinitely, without charge, and without an open and transparent review of the justifications for their detention.[7] In 2004 the United States Supreme Court ruled, in Rasul v. Bush, 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 set up the Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants.[7]
A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for his 2004 Combatant Status Review Tribunal, listing six allegations that justified his confinement.[8] The allegations accused Abdul Rauf of joining the Taliban in 1998 and received military training. The allegations stated that Abdul Rauf: was issued a Kalishnikov rifle in Konduz; fought for the Taliban; surrendered to Abdul Dostum's Northern Alliance forces; and was in possession of a Kalishnikov when he surrendered.
Abdul Rauf chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.[9] The Department of Defense published a three page summarized transcript on March 3, 2006.
A two-page Summary of Evidence memo was drafted for Abdul Rauf Aliza's first annual Administrative Review Board in 2005.[4] The allegations from the 2005 memo added the assertion that: Abdul Rauf claimed to be an involuntary conscript; that he had a handicapped that meant that he could only be used as a delivery boy; that he "was identified as Mullah Abdul Rauf, a Taliban troop commander;" and that he was part of a small squad of conscripts who guarded a "communication building called Sadarat in Konduz."
The Department of Defense published a seven page transcript from his review.[3]
Four pages of heavily redacted decision memos were published in September 2007, indicating that Abdul Rauf Aliza was one of the 121 captives whose 2005 review recommended should be released of transferred.[10][11][12] His memo was drafted on April 21, 2005, and Gordon R. England, the Designated Civilian Official who had the authority to clear him for release or transfer, initialed his authorization to transfer Abdul Rauf Aliza on April 22, 2005.
Formerly secret Joint Task Force Guantanamo assessment
On April 25, 2011, whistleblower organization WikiLeaks published formerly secret assessments drafted by Joint Task Force Guantanamo analysts.[13][14] His JTF-GTMO assessment was three pages long, and was dated October 26, 2004.[15] It started with a recommendation to his Administrative Review Board that he should be transferred from Guantanamo, for further detention, and characterized him as of low intelligence value and as a medium threat. The memo was signed by camp commandant Jay W. Hood.
Repatriation
Subsequently captured by US Army forces in Helmand province, he was sent to Guantanamo Bay for detention and interview. Held there as detainee 108, he was assessed according to documents later released by Wikileaks by US officials as:[16]
Cooperative, but his responses were vague or inconsistent when asked about the Taliban leadership. Detainee was in a position to have extensive knowledge of the opium trade in Afghanistan and could identify the individuals in the criminal organizations that were working with both the Taliban and the Northern Alliance in the opium trade.
Assessed not to be a threat, Rauf was recommended for transfer out and continued detainment in another country, and hence transferred back to Afghanistan in 2007. There he rejoined the Taliban in Helmand province, and built up a fighting force in Helmand and neighboring Kandahar province.[16] He subsequently became a Taliban politician.[17]
Allegiance to the Islamic State
Some time after the withdrawal of Coalition troops from Helmand province in October 2014, Rauf pledged allegiance to Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and began recruiting in southern Afghanistan. In January 2015 local Taliban commanders and tribal elders advised locals not to engage with Rauf or his deputies.[16] Rauf was then named as deputy leader of IS in "Khorasan" - an old name for Afghanistan - by the ISIS organisation in Syria.[18]
Death claims
On 9 February 2015 a US Air Force drone attacked a car allegedly carrying Abdul Rauf and five others, in the desert of Helmand Province, destroying the vehicle and the ammunition that it was carrying back from northern Pakistan.[18]
References
- ^
OARDEC. "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. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-09-30. Retrieved 2006-05-15.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help)
Works related to List of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from January 2002 through May 15, 2006 at Wikisource
- ^
OARDEC (2008-10-09). "Consolidate chronological listing of GTMO detainees released, transferred or deceased" (PDF). Department of Defense. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-12-20. Retrieved 2008-12-28.
{{cite news}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help)
Media related to File:Consolidated chronological listing of GTMO detainees released, transferred or deceased.pdf at Wikimedia Commons
- ^ a b OARDEC (2005-01-21). "Summarized Administrative Review Board Detainee Statement". United States Department of Defense. Retrieved 2010-03-04.
- ^ a b OARDEC. "Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the case of Aliza, Abdul Rauf (date redacted)". United States Department of Defense. Retrieved 2010-03-04.
- ^ a b
Kathy Gannon (2010-03-04). "Former Gitmo detainee said running Afghan battles". Associated Press. Archived from the original on 2010-03-04.
Abdul Qayyum is also seen as a leading candidate to be the next No. 2 in the Afghan Taliban hierarchy, said the officials, interviewed last week by The Associated Press.
- ^ "Afghanistan drone strike 'kills IS commander Abdul Rauf'". BBC. 9 February 2015. Retrieved 9 February 2015.
A drone strike in Afghanistan has killed a militant commander who recently swore allegiance to Islamic State (IS), officials say. The police chief of Helmand said that former Taliban commander Mullah Abdul Rauf had died in the strike.
- ^ a b
"U.S. military reviews 'enemy combatant' use". USA Today. 2007-10-11. Archived from the original on 2012-08-11.
Critics called it an overdue acknowledgment that the so-called Combatant Status Review Tribunals are unfairly geared toward labeling detainees the enemy, even when they pose little danger. Simply redoing the tribunals won't fix the problem, they said, because the system still allows coerced evidence and denies detainees legal representation.
{{cite news}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ OARDEC (2004-08-17). "Summary of Evidence for Combatant Status Review Tribunal -- Abdul Rauf Aliza". United States Department of Defense. Retrieved 2010-03-04.
- ^ OARDEC. "Summarized Detainee Transcript (date redacted)". United States Department of Defense. Retrieved 2015-01-13.
- ^ OARDEC (July 17, 2007). "Index to Transfer and Release Decision for Guantanamo Detainees" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. Retrieved 2007-09-29.
- ^
"Administrative Review Board Assessment and Recommendation ICO ISN 108" (PDF). OARDEC. 2005-04-21. pp. page 34. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 February 2010. Retrieved 2010-03-04.
{{cite web}}:|pages=has extra text (help); Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^
"Classified Record of Proceedings and Basis for Administrative Review Board Decision for ISN 108" (PDF). OARDEC. 2005-01-21. pp. pages 35–37. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 February 2010. Retrieved 2010-03-04.
{{cite web}}:|pages=has extra text (help); Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^
Christopher Hope, Robert Winnett, Holly Watt, Heidi Blake (2011-04-27). "WikiLeaks: Guantanamo Bay terrorist secrets revealed -- Guantanamo Bay has been used to incarcerate dozens of terrorists who have admitted plotting terrifying attacks against the West – while imprisoning more than 150 totally innocent people, top-secret files disclose". The Telegraph (UK). Archived from the original on 2012-07-13. Retrieved 2012-07-13.
The Daily Telegraph, along with other newspapers including The Washington Post, today exposes America's own analysis of almost ten years of controversial interrogations on the world's most dangerous terrorists. This newspaper has been shown thousands of pages of top-secret files obtained by the WikiLeaks website.
{{cite news}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^
"WikiLeaks: The Guantánamo files database". The Telegraph (UK). 2011-04-27. Retrieved 2012-07-10.
{{cite news}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^
"Abdul Rauf Aliza: Guantanamo Bay detainee file on Abdul Rauf Aliza, US9AF-000108DP, passed to the Telegraph by Wikileaks". The Telegraph (UK). 2011-04-27. Retrieved 2014-01-13.
{{cite news}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ a b c http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2015/01/13/meet-the-shadowy-figure-recruiting-for-the-islamic-state-in-afghanistan/ Cite error: The named reference "WPShadow" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- ^ Esther Schrader, Rona Tempest (2001-10-29). "U.S. Warplanes Pound Taliban Troops, Rumsfeld Says". The Spectrum, University of Buffalo. Archived from the original on 2010-03-04.
On Sunday, a delegation of 10 men from the forces massed at Lagharay, Pakistan, six miles from the Afghan border in the Bajaur tribal area, traveled into neighboring Konar province to meet with Taliban Gov. Maulvi Abdul Rauf.
{{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ a b http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-31290147
External links
- The Stories of the Afghans Just Released from Guantánamo: Intelligence Failures, Battlefield Myths and Unaccountable Prisons in Afghanistan (Part One) Andy Worthington
