Abdul Rahim Ghulam Rabbani is a citizen of
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...
who was held in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
Guantanamo Bay detainment camp
The Guantanamo Bay detention camp ( es, Centro de detención de la bahía de Guantánamo) is a United States military prison located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, also referred to as Guantánamo, GTMO, and Gitmo (), on the coast of Guant ...
s, in
Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
.
[
]
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 deliberate ...
estimated that Rabbani was born in 1969.
Abdul Rahim Ghulam Rabbani arrived at Guantanamo on September 19, 2004, and was held at Guantanamo for over 18 years, until his release on February 23, 2023.
[
][
]
Detention in "the salt pit"
According to
Laid Saidi, Rabbani, and his brother,
Mohammed Ahmad Ghulam Rabbani
Mohammed Ahmad Ghulam Rabbani is a citizen of Pakistan currently held in extrajudicial detention by the United States military at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, in Cuba, since 2004. He has never been charged with a crime, has never had a tria ...
, were being held in the
CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
black site
In military terminology, a black site is a location at which an unacknowledged black operation or black project is conducted. According to the Associated Press, "Black sites are clandestine jails where prisoners generally are not charged with ...
known as "
the salt pit" at the same time as him.
[ He was born in a Pakistani family that migrated from India to ]Karachi
Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former c ...
following the partition in 1947. The family lived in Saudi Arabia for many years.
Official status reviews
Originally, the Bush
Bush commonly refers to:
* Shrub, a small or medium woody plant
Bush, Bushes, or the bush may also refer to:
People
* Bush (surname), including any of several people with that name
**Bush family, a prominent American family that includes:
*** ...
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
The war on terror, officially the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), is an ongoing international counterterrorism military campaign initiated by the United States following the September 11 attacks. The main targets of the campaign are militant ...
"'' were not protected by the Geneva Conventions
upright=1.15, Original document in single pages, 1864
The Geneva Conventions are four treaties, and three additional protocols, that establish international legal standards for humanitarian treatment in war. The singular term ''Geneva Conve ...
, and could be held indefinitely, without explanation.
However, 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 involve a point o ...
ruled, in Rasul v. Bush, that the captives were entitled to hear the allegations that justified their detention, and to try to refute those allegations.
Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants
In 2004, in response to the Supreme Court's ruling in Rasul v. Bush, the Department of Defense Department of Defence or Department of Defense may refer to:
Current departments of defence
* Department of Defence (Australia)
* Department of National Defence (Canada)
* Department of Defence (Ireland)
* Department of National Defense (Philipp ...
set up the . Documents from those reviews were published in response to 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 1982, the Australian act
* ...
requests.
Scholars at the Brookings Institution
The Brookings Institution, often stylized as simply Brookings, is an American research group founded in 1916. Located on Think Tank Row in Washington, D.C., the organization conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in e ...
, led by Benjamin Wittes
Benjamin Wittes (born November 5, 1969) is an American legal journalist and Senior Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution, where he is the Research Director in Public Law, and Co-Director of the Harvard Law School–Brookings ...
, listed the captives still
held in Guantanamo in December 2008, according to whether their detention was justified by certain
common allegations:
* Abdul Rahim Ghulam Rabbani was listed as one of the captives who ''"The military alleges ... are members of Al Qaeda."''[
* Abdul Rahim Ghulam Rabbani was listed as one of the captives who ''"The military alleges ... stayed in Al Qaeda, Taliban or other guest- or safehouses."''][
* Abdul Rahim Ghulam Rabbani was listed as one of the captives who ''"The military alleges ... took military or terrorist training in Afghanistan."''][
* Abdul Rahim Ghulam Rabbani was listed as one of the captives who was an ''"al Qaeda operative"''.][
* Abdul Rahim Ghulam Rabbani was listed as one of the captives who worked directly for ''"Khalid Sheikh Mohammad"''.][
]
Habeas petition
A habeas submission was submitted on his behalf to US District Court Judge Ricardo M. Urbina.[
]
In response, on December 13, 2005, the Department of Defense published a fourteen-page dossier of unclassified documents arising from his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.
His Summary of Evidence memo was drafted on November 10, 2004.[
The documents indicate a ]USAF
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...
Major, his Personal Representative
In common law jurisdictions, a personal representative or legal personal representative is a person appointed by a court to administer the estate of another person. If the estate being administered is that of a deceased person, the personal repres ...
, recorded on the detainee election form that they met
for half an hour on 17 November 2004 to discuss his upcoming Tribunal.[ His Personal Representative's notes state he chose not to attend his Tribunal.
Tribunal panel 21 convened 23 November 2004 and confirmed his "enemy combatant status".
The decision memo drafted by the Tribunal states it reached this conclusion based on classified evidence.][
Unusually this Tribunal was not convened in Guantanamo, and the Personal Representative who met with him was not present. The Department of Defense has not offered an explanation as to why this Tribunal was not convened in Guantanamo.
His name is spelled both as "Abdul Al-Rahim Ghulam Rabbani" and "Abu Rahim Moulana Gulam Rabbani" in the document.][
]
Formerly secret Joint Task Force Guantanamo assessment
On April 25, 2011, whistleblower organization WikiLeaks
WikiLeaks () is an international non-profit organisation that published news leaks and classified media provided by anonymous sources. Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activist, is generally described as its founder and director and ...
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 ha ...
analysts.[
][
][
]
His assessment was twelve pages long, and recommended his continued detention.[
]
It was signed by camp commandant David M. Thomas Jr.
David M. Thomas (born 1958) is a former senior officer in the United States Navy.
Early life
Thomas's father was a career Navy officer.
Thomas, and three of his brothers, are graduates of the United States Naval Academy. All are retired, ...
and was dated June 8, 2008.
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:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...
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
The Guantanamo Review Task Force was created by Executive Order 13492 issued by President of the United States Barack Obama on January 22, 2009, his second full day in office. United States Attorney General Eric Holder announced Matthew G. Olsen a ...
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 1982, the Australian act
* ...
request.[
]
Abdul Rahim Ghulam Rabbani 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. Rabbani was approved for transfer on May 13, 2021.
Hunger strike
Rabbani and his brother participated in the hunger strike
A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke a feeling of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most ...
that started on August 8, 2005.["Justice detained at Guantanamo?"]
''Denver Post
''The Denver Post'' is a daily newspaper and website published in Denver, Colorado. As of June 2022, it has an average print circulation of 57,265. In 2016, its website received roughly six million monthly unique visitors generating more than 13 ...
'', November 13, 2005
- mirror
/ref>
Release
Rabbani and his brother were transferred to Pakistan on February 23, 2023.
References
External links
UN Secret Detention Report (Part Two): CIA Prisons in Afghanistan and Iraq
Andy Worthington, June 16, 2010
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rabbani, Abdul Rahim Ghulam
Living people
Prisoners and detainees held in the Salt Pit
Year of birth uncertain
Muhajir people
Pakistani expatriates in Saudi Arabia
Detainees of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp
People from Karachi
Year of birth missing (living people)