User:Geo Swan/Userified 2011-01/Abdul Razzak Hekmati

Abdul Razzak Hekmati (c. 1929 – December 30, 2007) was a citizen of Afghanistan. He was recognized as war hero, during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. In 1999 he and his son lead a daring rescue of Northern Alliance leaders from a Taliban prison. In response the Taliban placed a $1,000,000 reward for his capture, and the Northern Alliance paid him a stipend to support him while he was in exile in Iran. Nevertheless, he was apprehended in 2003, based on allegations he was Taliban leader, and was transferred to the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. He died there, from colon cancer, on December 30, 2007.

His ID while in US custody was 942. Joint Task Force Guantanamo analysts estimate he was born in 1929, in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

Following Hekmati's death Carlotta Gall, a long-time New York Times correspondent in Afghanistan, and historian Andy Worthington, author of The Guantanamo Files, found they were able to confirm Hekmati's alibi. They concluded that American analysts never understood who Hekmati was, never understood his role in opposing the Taliban, and failed to make a meaningful attempt to contact the senior Northern Alliance leaders who tried to vouch for him.

Hekmati's medical care
In April 2008 the Adam M. Robinson, the United States Navy's Surgeon General, wrote that every captive over fifty years old had been offered a colonoscopy to detect colon cancer. Robinson reported camp medical staff had performed 20 colonoscopies.

Hekmati's death from a cancer that is one of the easiest to detect and treat was offered as a reason to question whether the Guantanamo captives receive good medical care. According to John Chandler, an Atlanta, Georgia lawyer who has volunteered to help Guantanamo captives, and who volunteered at Emory University's International Humanitarian Law Clinic, "A colonoscopy in 2003 might have detected the cancer and saved Hekmati's life; indeed, colon cancer is entirely preventable if doctors detect and remove precancerous growths." Chandler noted that not only wasn't Hekmati able to give informed consent to whatever treatment he was provided with, the identity and credentials of his doctors were withheld from him.

Name issues
Abdul Razzaq Hekmati was one of half a dozen captives in US custody American intelligence analysts called some variation of "Abdul Razzak".

On all the official documents released as of February 2008 Abdul Razzaq Hekmati's name was spelled "Abdul Razzak". However Gall and Worthington found that during his entire stay in US custody American officials had been identifying him solely by his personal names. They found he was well-known, in Afghanistan, under his full name, "Abdul Razzaq Hekmati". Gall and Worthington wrote that he was widely known by the nickname "Baraso".

Combatant Status Review
The Bush administration asserted that: the protections of the Geneva Conventions did not extend to captured prisoners who are not members of the regular Afghan armed force nor meet the criteria for prisoner of war for voluntary forces. Critics argued the Conventions obliged the U.S. to conduct competent tribunals to determine the status of prisoners. Subsequently, the U.S. Department of Defense instituted Combatant Status Review Tribunals (CSRTs), to determine whether detainees met the new definition of an "enemy combatant".

"Enemy combatant" was defined by the U.S. Department of Defense as: "an individual who was part of, or supporting, the Taliban, or al-Qaeda forces, or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners. This includes any person who commits a belligerent act or has directly supported hostilities in aid of enemy armed forces."

The CSRTs are not bound by the rules of evidence that would normally apply in civilian court, and the government’s evidence is presumed to be “genuine and accurate.” From July 2004 through March 2005, CSRTs were convened to determine whether each prisoner had been correctly classified as an "enemy combatant".

was among the 60% of prisoners who chose to participate in tribunal hearings. A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for the tribunal of each detainee, listing the allegations that supported their detention as an "enemy combatant".

's memo accused him of the following:

The Department of Defense released a six page summarized transcript on March 3, 2006.

Witnesses
Razak requested three witnesses; Abdul Wahled, Haji Abdul Zaher and Ismael Kahn. The Tribunal's President ruled that they were not reasonably available because they thought that they were all in Afghanistan, and the State Department's requests to the Afghan government had gone unanswered.

Administrative Review Board
Detainees whose Combatant Status Review Tribunal labeled them "enemy combatants" were scheduled for annual Administrative Review Board hearings. These hearings were designed to assess the threat a detainee might pose if released or transferred, and whether there were other factors that warranted his continued detention.

First annual Administrative Review Board hearing
A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for his Administrative Review Board.

The following primary factors favor continued detention

The following primary factors favor release or transfer

Transcript
Hekmati chose to participate in his Administrative Review Board hearing.

Second annual Administrative Review Board hearing
A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for his second annual Administrative Review Board on August 5, 2006.

The following primary factors favor continued detention

The following primary factors favor release or transfer

New York Times' profile
On February 5, 2008 New York Times writer Carlotta Gall and historian Andy Worthington, author of The Guantanamo Files, published a profile of Hekmati. Gall and Worthington noted:

Gall and Worthington described the prison break as such a "deep humiliation" for the Taliban; that they had offered a bounty of one million dollars.

Gall and Worthington had no trouble contacting the three Northern Alliance leaders he helped rescue. They pointed out that although Hekmati had requested the leaders as witnesses, he was told they were not reasonably available.

When Gall and Worthington contacted the leaders, they found that none of them had been invited to offer testimony on Hekmati's behalf. Furthermore, the leaders said they had been aware that Hekmati had been sent to Guantanamo, and had made efforts to get him released. Ismail Khan, Minister of Energy, asked Afghan President Hamid Karzai, and American Ambassador to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, for help getting Hekmati released. They quoted Zahir: