User:Geo Swan/Abdul Hafiz (Guantanamo captive 1030)

Abdul Hafiz is a citizen of Afghanistan who was held for six and a half years in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 1030. American intelligence analysts estimate he was born in 1961. Abdul Hafiz was repatriated to Afghanistan in December 2009. By March 2010 Abdul Hafiz was reported to have resumed a senior role in the Taliban.

Background
According to the Associated Press the allegations against Hafiz, in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal, said he worked for a Taliban militia. They state that when he was captured he had in his possession a satellite phone that was "linked to a slaying".

The detainee claimed that he wasn't Abdul Hafiz at all, that his name was really Abdul Qawi. He said he was given the satellite phone by the real Abdul Hafiz, and didn't even know how to use it.

According to the Associated Press he complained about not being able to view the evidence against him, and told his Tribunal: ''"In our culture, if someone is accused of something, they are shown the evidence."

Hafiz's repatriation in December 2009 stirred controversy.

In March 2010 Newsweek magazine reported that Liz Cheney described Hafiz "Obama's first recidivist". National Review reported that Hafiz had been promoted to extort ransoms from charities and other non-governmental organizations that planned aid operations in Afghanistan.

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. 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.

Scholars at the Brookings Institute, lead 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 Hafiz was listed as one of the captives who was a "Taliban fighter and operative."

The US Department of Defense rleased two different version of the Summary of Evidence memo prepared for his 2004 Combatant Status Review Tribunal. A key element of the allegations was that Abdul Hafiz was carrying a satellite phone, when he was captured, that US officials asserted had called an individual who was suspected of leading an attack that killed two civilian employees of the International Committee of the Red Cross. He was also alleged to have been a member of a specially trained Taliban assassination squad US officials called the Taliban's "40 man unit".

Abdul Hafiz chose to participate in his 2004 Combatant Status Review Tribunal, and in his first annual status review, in 2005.

Repatriation
Carol Rosenberg, writing in the Miami Herald reported that Abdul Hafiz was one of twelve men transferred from Guantanamo on December 19, 2009.

The other eleven men were: Ayman Batarfi, Jamal Alawi Mari, Farouq Ali Ahmed, Muhammaed Yasir Ahmed Taher, Fayad Yahya Ahmed al Rami, Riyad Atiq Ali Abdu al Haf,

Sharifullah, Mohamed Rahim, Mohammed Hashim, Ismael Arale and Mohamed Suleiman Barre. Sharifullah, Mohamed Rahim and Mohammed Hashim were also Afghans. Mohamed Suleiman Barre and Asmael Arale were Somalis. The other six men were Yemenis.