Abdul Zahir (عبدالظاهر) is a citizen of

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

currently 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 (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 territorie ...

' Guantanamo Bay detention camps, 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 ...

. He was the tenth captive, and the first Afghan, to face charges before the first Presidentially authorized Guantanamo military commissions. After the Supreme Court ruled that the President lacked the constitutional authority to set up military commissions, the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...

passed the Military Commissions Act of 2006. He was not charged under that system. Zahir was approved for transfer on July 11, 2016. On January 17, 2017, four days before the inauguration of

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...

, ten men were transferred from Guantanamo, while American and Oman officials declined to identify the men, Abdul Zahir's lawyer told the ''

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

'' that he had been released.

Background

Abdul Zahir was transferred to Guantanamo on October 28, 2002. Zahir was charged with conspiracy, aiding the enemy and attacking civilians in connection with the grenade attack that wounded Canadian reporter

Kathleen Kenna Kathleen Kenna is a Canadian journalist who was injured in a grenade attack in Afghanistan on March 4, 2002. Kenna wrote an

op-ed An op-ed, short for "opposite the editorial page", is a written prose piece, typically published by a North-American newspaper or magazine, which expresses the opinion of an author usually not affiliated with the publication's editorial board. O ...

The Guantanamo Files The Guantánamo Bay files leak (also known as The Guantánamo Files, or colloquially, Gitmo Files) began on 24 April 2011, when WikiLeaks, along with ''The New York Times'', NPR and ''The Guardian'' and other independent news organizations, began ...

'', Kenna's op-ed should have shamed the US Government. :

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: *** ...

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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, counterterrorism military campaign initiated by the United States following the September 11 attacks. The main targets of the campa ...

"'' were not covered 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 Conven ...

, 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 involve a point o ...

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 corpus ...

, 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 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 (Philippin ...

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 St ...

. According to ''The New York Times'' Guantanamo Docket Zahir had annual status reviews in 2004 and 2007. There is no record that he had an annual reviews in 2005, 2006 or 2008. 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 ec ...

, led by Benjamin Wittes, listed the captives still held in Guantanamo in December 2008, according to whether their detention was justified by certain common allegations: * Abdul Zahir was listed as one of the captives who had faced charges before a military commission. * Abdul Zahir was listed as one of the captives who had been charged before a Guantanamo military commission, and had subsequently had the charges dropped. * Abdul Zahir was listed as one of the captives who ''"The military alleges ... are members of al-Qaeda."'' * Abdul Zahir was listed as one of the captives who ''"The military alleges that the following detainees stayed in Al Qaeda, Taliban or other guest- or safehouses."'' * Abdul Zahir was listed as one of the captives who was an ''"

al Qaeda operative AL, Al, Ål or al may stand for: Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Al (''Aladdin'') or Aladdin, the main character in Disney's ''Aladdin'' media * Al (''EastEnders''), a minor character in the British soap opera * Al (''Fullmetal ...

"''. * Abdul Zahir was listed as one of the captives ''"who have been charged before military commissions and are alleged Al Qaeda operatives."'' * Abdul Zahir was listed as one of the captives who ''"deny affiliation with Al Qaeda or the Taliban yet admit facts that, under the broad authority the laws of war give armed parties to detain the enemy, offer the government ample legal justification for its detention decisions."'' * Abdul Zahir was listed as one of the captives who admitted ''" serving Al Qaeda or the Taliban in some non-military capacity."''

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 ful ...

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 U ...

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 1982, the Australian act * ...

request. Abdul Zahir 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 less than a quarter of men have received a review.

Formerly secret Joint Task Force Guantanamo assessment

On April 25, 2011, whistleblower organization

WikiLeaks WikiLeaks () is an international Nonprofit organization, non-profit organisation that published news leaks and classified media provided by anonymous Source (journalism), sources. Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activism, Internet acti ...

published formerly secret assessments drafted by Joint Task Force Guantanamo analysts. Joint Task Force Guantanamo drafted a 12 page assessment on November 19, 2008. Zahir's assessment recommended his continued detention under DoD control and 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, i ...

Charged before a military commission

Zahir was charged with conspiracy, aiding the enemy and attacking civilians in connection with the grenade attack that wounded Canadian reporter

Kathleen Kenna Kathleen Kenna is a Canadian journalist who was injured in a grenade attack in Afghanistan on March 4, 2002.US brings charges against 10th Guantanamo prisoner
''

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was estab ...

'', January 20, 2006 Kenna wrote an

about her feelings about Abdul Zahir's trial on December 27, 2009. She wrote that she and her companions weren't interested in retribution. She wrote that she hopes Abdul Zahir has a truly fair trial. She wrote that she and her companions couldn't identify their attackers. Abdul Zahir was transferred to Guantanamo on October 28, 2002, and remains there today. The first hearing in Zaher's case was held on April 5, 2006. Although the rules for Military Commissions required the suspect to be given a copy of the charges against them in a language they could read, Zahir had not been given a translation. Officials could not explain why the hearing had been convened without hiring a

Farsi Persian (), also known by its endonym Farsi (, ', ), is a Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian subdivision of the Indo-European languages. Persian is a pluricentric language predominantly spoken an ...

translator, so Zahir could understand what was going on. According to

Jamil Dakwar Jamil ( ar, جميل) is an Arabic given name. It means "handsome" in Arabic as well as "beautiful". The Latin spelling variants include Gamil (used mainly in Egypt), Cemil (in Turkish), Djemil or Djamel (mainly in North African countries influence ...

, the director of the

ACLU The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...

's Human Rights Program, an observer at Zahir's April 5 hearing, the military commission system ''"...is a deficient system rife with legal and procedural problems..."'' Dakwar noted that Zahir's hearing was the first when the Presiding Officer wore a black robe, like a civilian judge. He noted that the charge ''"conspiracy to commit war crimes"'' was not a crime recognized under any international law. Zahir's second hearing was held on May 17, 2006. It was convened because Zahir sole defense attorney,

Lieutenant Colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...

Thomas Bogar, had filed a motion questioning whether the Presiding Officer

Colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge of ...

Robert Chester should recuse himself due to inherent bias. Bogar dropped his motion, telling reporters later he was satisfied with the answers he received from Chester and the jury members.

Transfer to Oman

On January 17, 2017,

Oman Oman ( ; ar, عُمَان ' ), officially the Sultanate of Oman ( ar, سلْطنةُ عُمان ), is an Arabian country located in southwestern Asia. It is situated on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and spans the mouth of t ...

accepted the transfer of ten men from Guantanamo. The names of the transferred men was withheld, by both American and Oman authorities. Oman officials said the men had been granted ''"temporary residence"''. Vermont lawyer David Sleigh, Zahir's pro-bono habeas attorney, told the ''

'' he was one of the transferred men.

References

External links

Afghan fantasist to face trial at Guantánamo
Andy Worthington

''

Miami Herald The ''Miami Herald'' is an American daily newspaper owned by the McClatchy Company and headquartered in Doral, Florida, a List of communities in Miami-Dade County, Florida, city in western Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County and the M ...

'', January 20, 2006 * Testimony by Abdul Zahir as witness for detainee Islam (p. 10)''

Pentagon In geometry, a pentagon (from the Greek πέντε ''pente'' meaning ''five'' and γωνία ''gonia'' meaning ''angle'') is any five-sided polygon or 5-gon. The sum of the internal angles in a simple pentagon is 540°. A pentagon may be simpl ...

'' '' Reprocessed Combatant Status Review Tribunal''
Who Are the Remaining Prisoners in Guantánamo? Part Eight: Captured in Afghanistan (2002-07)
Andy Worthington {{DEFAULTSORT:Zahir, Abdul Detainees of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp Afghan extrajudicial prisoners of the United States Bagram Theater Internment Facility detainees Living people Year of birth uncertain 1972 births