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Haroon al-Afghani

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Haroon al-Afghani
CitizenshipAfghanistan
Detained at Guantanamo
ISN10028
Charge(s)No charge
StatusStill held in Guantanamo

Haroon al-Afghani is an Afghan citizen currently held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.[1]

Haroon al Afghan arrived at the Guantanamo detention camps on June 22, 2007, and has been held there for 17 years, 5 months and 1 day.[2][3]

On June 22, 2007, the United States Department of Defense acknowledged transferring Haroon al-Afghani to Guantanamo.[3][4][5]

The DoD claims that he is an al Qaida courier, and "There is significant information available that Haroon al-Afghani is a senior commander of Hezb-e-Islami/Gulbuddin."

According to DoD spokesman Bryan Whitman:[5]

  • "He commanded multiple HiG terrorist cells, conducted IED (improvised explosive device) attacks in Nangarhar province, and is assessed to have regular contact with senior Al-Qaeda and HiG leadership,"
  • "He may have additional information with respect to ongoing Al-Qaeda operations, and may have information that is useful to us in thwarting future attacks."
  • "Remember that Guantanamo serves a number of functions. One is it's an intelligence center as well as a detention facility, and it's a place where we have built the structure and capacity to try people for ... War crimes through the military commission process."

In late November 2008 the New York Times published a page summarizing the official documents from each captive.[6] The New York Times stated that no further official records of his detention—no Combatant Status Review Tribunal had been published.[2] They identified him as identified captive 10028.

Joint Review Task Force

On January 21, 2009, the day he was inaugurated, United States President Barack Obama issued three Executive orders related to the detention of individuals in Guantanamo.[7][8][9][10] He put in place a new review system 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 request.[11] Haroon al-Afghani was one of the 71 individuals deemed too innocent to charge, but too dangerous to release. Obama said those deemed too innocent to charge, but too dangerous to release would start to receive reviews from a Periodic Review Board.

Periodic Review Board

The first review wasn't convened until November 20, 2013.[12] As of 15 April 2016 29 individuals had reviews, but Haroon al Afghani wasn't one of them.

Al Jazeera profile

The Al Jazeera news service profiled al-Afghani on January 20, 2016, describing him as an individual about whom "almost nothing certain is known".[13] They identified him as a "forever prisoner" – one of those the 2009 Guantanamo Review Task Force concluded was too dangerous to release – even though he was not charged with any crime.

It’s believed that Afghani was born around 1981 and is from the Sherzad district in Nangarhar province in Afghanistan. “He was just a normal young boy,” his relative said according to a report by Al Jazeera. Afghani was a student when the Taliban was in power. He studied economics at Hayatabad Science University in Peshawar, Pakistan.

  1. ^ Gabriel Haboubi (June 22, 2007). "Afghan terror suspect transferred to Guantanamo Bay prison". The Jurist. Retrieved 2007-06-22.
  2. ^ a b Margot Williams (2008-11-03). "Guantanamo Docket: Haroon al-Afghani". New York Times. Retrieved 2010-03-30. mirror
  3. ^ a b "Terror Suspect Transferred To Guantanamo". Department of Defense. June 22, 2007. Retrieved 2007-06-22.
  4. ^ Deb Reichman (June 22, 2007). "U.S. says Afghan prison not meant to be Gitmo alternative". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved 2007-06-22.
  5. ^ a b "Afghan insurgent commander lands in Guantanamo". Indiainfo. June 23, 2007. Retrieved 2007-06-22.
  6. ^ "The Detainees". New York Times. 2008-11-23. Retrieved 2008-12-02. mirror
  7. ^ Andy Worthington (2012-10-25). "Who Are the 55 Cleared Guantánamo Prisoners on the List Released by the Obama Administration?". Retrieved 2015-02-19. I have already discussed at length the profound injustice of holding Shawali Khan and Abdul Ghani, in articles here and here, and noted how their cases discredit America, as Khan, against whom no evidence of wrongdoing exists, nevertheless had his habeas corpus petition denied, and Ghani, a thoroughly insignificant scrap metal merchant, was put forward for a trial by military commission — a war crimes trial — under President Bush. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |trans_title= (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  8. ^ Andy Worthington (June 11, 2010). "Does Obama Really Know or Care About Who Is at Guantánamo?". Archived from the original on 2010-06-16. Retrieved July 21, 2010. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  9. ^ Peter Finn (January 22, 2010). "Justice task force recommends about 50 Guantanamo detainees be held indefinitely". Washington Post. Archived from the original on 2015-05-19. Retrieved July 21, 2010. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  10. ^ Peter Finn (May 29, 2010). "Most Guantanamo detainees low-level fighters, task force report says". Washington Post. Archived from the original on 2015-05-19. Retrieved July 21, 2010. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  11. ^ "71 Guantanamo Detainees Determined Eligible to Receive a Periodic Review Board as of April 19, 2013". Joint Review Task Force. 2013-04-09. Archived from the original on 2015-05-19. Retrieved 2015-05-18. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  12. ^ "Periodic Review Secretariat: Review Information". Periodic Review Secretariat. Archived from the original on 2016-04-15. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  13. ^ Sami Yousafzai, Jenifer Fenton (2016-01-20). "Gitmo 'forever prisoner' Haroon al-Afghani remains virtually unknown: Details surrounding the life and alleged crimes of one detainee at the notorious facility are essentially a mystery". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 2016-01-21. In official documents, almost nothing certain is known about Afghani's background and activities. Yet he has been held for more than eight years without being charged. Afghani is a so-called forever prisoner, a detainee at Guantánamo who has not been charged with a crime but has not been cleared for transfer. Nor does he even have a lawyer.
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