Friday, August 06, 2004 2:09:27 PM
Taliban Fighter in Guantanamo Says Not Against U.S.
Sitting with his hands cuffed and his ankles chained to the floor, an Afghan prisoner told a U.S. military panel on Thursday he joined the Taliban and was forced to carry a rifle but 'wasn't going to fight anyone.' The slightly built and thickly bearded 31-year-old was the ninth among 585 Guantanamo prisoners granted a hearing to determine if he is an enemy combatant or has the right to challenge his indefinite detention in the U.S. naval base in Cuba. Detainees in orange jumpsuits are shown at Camp X-Ray at Naval Base Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, in this January 11, 2002 file photo. Photo by Shane T. Mccoy, U.S. Navy/Reuters
Thu Aug 5, 2004 01:51 PM ET
By Jane Sutton
U.S. NAVAL BASE, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (Reuters) - Sitting with his hands cuffed and his ankles chained to the floor, an Afghan prisoner told a U.S. military panel on Thursday he joined the Taliban and was forced to carry a rifle but "wasn't going to fight anyone."
The slightly built and thickly bearded 31-year-old was the ninth among 585 Guantanamo prisoners granted a hearing to determine if he is an enemy combatant or has the right to challenge his indefinite detention in the U.S. naval base in Cuba.
Journalists were allowed for the first time on Thursday inside the carpeted, air-conditioned hearing room in a double-wide trailer, as he pressed his case for release during the hourlong, unclassified portion of the hearing.
The man was one of the prisoners Washington considers to be enemy combatants without the right to protection under the Geneva Conventions, and has held them at Guantanamo to interrogate them.
The Pentagon set up the hearings after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that the Guantanamo prisoners have the right to contest their detention in the U.S. courts. Since the hearings began last Friday, five of the prisoners have refused to participate.
For this man, who provided sworn testimony through a Pashto translator, U.S. military records were summarized during the proceeding. He was said to be a Taliban soldier who fought with the fundamentalist Islamic movement that was driven out of power in Afghanistan by the U.S. invasion for harboring al Qaeda. The record said he had been captured with a Taliban leader.
The man said he had joined the Taliban and was forced to accept a Kalashnikov rifle because "they were giving everyone a weapon."
"I wasn't going to fight anyone," he added.
He said he bore no ill will toward Americans and knew they had helped Afghanistan defeat the Soviet invasion by giving them "some very effective weapons."
"Should I be crazy to be against Americans?" the translator quoted him as saying.
He said he heard on the radio that Americans were "coming to get Osama bin Laden" and were arresting Taliban members, so he arranged through the Red Cross to surrender to a Northern Alliance warlord allied with U.S. forces.
"I surrendered myself to Americans because I am believing Americans are for human rights," he said. "If you're arresting everybody under the name of Taliban, it doesn't mean that they're all against Americans."
The three military officers conducting his review were to examine classified documents outside his presence and then make a decision, which must be reviewed by military legal officials and the admiral in charge of the new "enemy combatant status reviews." A decision on his fate was expected in two weeks.
Human rights advocates deplore Guantanamo as a "legal black hole," and released prisoners have said some were tortured to get information, a charge the United States denies.
Military officials say the hearings exceeded the standards set by the court, though human rights activists dispute that because the prisoners do not have access to lawyers and cannot see classified documents.
The Afghan prisoner was one of four so far who participated in their hearings. Hearings for the five who refused to attend were held without them.
Officers involved in the hearings said the Afghan was the most talkative so far as the others who participated "mostly just keep their heads down and don't have anything to say."
The prisoner, who has been held at Guantanamo 2-1/2 years, mostly sat with his head lowered as well but several times asked questions of the officers seated at a table in front of him.
"If I'm not considered, determined to be an enemy combatant, will you release me or keep me here?" he asked.
The Army colonel heading the panel told him he would be sent home if deemed not to be an enemy combatant, but if he was judged to be one, another review board would decide whether he was considered a threat and should still be held.
© Copyright Reuters 2004.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=5887294
Sitting with his hands cuffed and his ankles chained to the floor, an Afghan prisoner told a U.S. military panel on Thursday he joined the Taliban and was forced to carry a rifle but 'wasn't going to fight anyone.' The slightly built and thickly bearded 31-year-old was the ninth among 585 Guantanamo prisoners granted a hearing to determine if he is an enemy combatant or has the right to challenge his indefinite detention in the U.S. naval base in Cuba. Detainees in orange jumpsuits are shown at Camp X-Ray at Naval Base Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, in this January 11, 2002 file photo. Photo by Shane T. Mccoy, U.S. Navy/Reuters
Thu Aug 5, 2004 01:51 PM ET
By Jane Sutton
U.S. NAVAL BASE, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (Reuters) - Sitting with his hands cuffed and his ankles chained to the floor, an Afghan prisoner told a U.S. military panel on Thursday he joined the Taliban and was forced to carry a rifle but "wasn't going to fight anyone."
The slightly built and thickly bearded 31-year-old was the ninth among 585 Guantanamo prisoners granted a hearing to determine if he is an enemy combatant or has the right to challenge his indefinite detention in the U.S. naval base in Cuba.
Journalists were allowed for the first time on Thursday inside the carpeted, air-conditioned hearing room in a double-wide trailer, as he pressed his case for release during the hourlong, unclassified portion of the hearing.
The man was one of the prisoners Washington considers to be enemy combatants without the right to protection under the Geneva Conventions, and has held them at Guantanamo to interrogate them.
The Pentagon set up the hearings after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that the Guantanamo prisoners have the right to contest their detention in the U.S. courts. Since the hearings began last Friday, five of the prisoners have refused to participate.
For this man, who provided sworn testimony through a Pashto translator, U.S. military records were summarized during the proceeding. He was said to be a Taliban soldier who fought with the fundamentalist Islamic movement that was driven out of power in Afghanistan by the U.S. invasion for harboring al Qaeda. The record said he had been captured with a Taliban leader.
The man said he had joined the Taliban and was forced to accept a Kalashnikov rifle because "they were giving everyone a weapon."
"I wasn't going to fight anyone," he added.
He said he bore no ill will toward Americans and knew they had helped Afghanistan defeat the Soviet invasion by giving them "some very effective weapons."
"Should I be crazy to be against Americans?" the translator quoted him as saying.
He said he heard on the radio that Americans were "coming to get Osama bin Laden" and were arresting Taliban members, so he arranged through the Red Cross to surrender to a Northern Alliance warlord allied with U.S. forces.
"I surrendered myself to Americans because I am believing Americans are for human rights," he said. "If you're arresting everybody under the name of Taliban, it doesn't mean that they're all against Americans."
The three military officers conducting his review were to examine classified documents outside his presence and then make a decision, which must be reviewed by military legal officials and the admiral in charge of the new "enemy combatant status reviews." A decision on his fate was expected in two weeks.
Human rights advocates deplore Guantanamo as a "legal black hole," and released prisoners have said some were tortured to get information, a charge the United States denies.
Military officials say the hearings exceeded the standards set by the court, though human rights activists dispute that because the prisoners do not have access to lawyers and cannot see classified documents.
The Afghan prisoner was one of four so far who participated in their hearings. Hearings for the five who refused to attend were held without them.
Officers involved in the hearings said the Afghan was the most talkative so far as the others who participated "mostly just keep their heads down and don't have anything to say."
The prisoner, who has been held at Guantanamo 2-1/2 years, mostly sat with his head lowered as well but several times asked questions of the officers seated at a table in front of him.
"If I'm not considered, determined to be an enemy combatant, will you release me or keep me here?" he asked.
The Army colonel heading the panel told him he would be sent home if deemed not to be an enemy combatant, but if he was judged to be one, another review board would decide whether he was considered a threat and should still be held.
© Copyright Reuters 2004.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=5887294
Greensburg, KS - 5/4/07
"Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty."
from John Philpot Curran, Speech
upon the Right of Election, 1790
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