Asif Iqbal (Guantanamo detainee 87)
Encyclopedia
Asif Iqbal in West Bromwich
West Bromwich
West Bromwich is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell, in the West Midlands, England. It is north west of Birmingham lying on the A41 London-to-Birkenhead road. West Bromwich is part of the Black Country...
, is a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
citizen who was held, in extrajudicial detention
Extrajudicial detention
Arbitrary or extrajudicial detention is the detention of individuals by a state, without ever laying formal charges against them.Although it has a long history of legitimate use in wartime , detention without charge, sometimes in secret, has been one of the hallmarks of totalitarian states...
, as a terror suspect in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Guantanamo Bay detainment camp
Guantanamo Bay detainment camp
The Guantanamo Bay detention camp is a detainment and interrogation facility of the United States located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba. The facility was established in 2002 by the Bush Administration to hold detainees from the war in Afghanistan and later Iraq...
s, in Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
.
Background
Iqbal's Guantanamo detainee Internment Serial Number was 87. The Department of DefenseUnited States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...
reports that he was born on April 24, 1981, in West Bromwich
West Bromwich
West Bromwich is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell, in the West Midlands, England. It is north west of Birmingham lying on the A41 London-to-Birkenhead road. West Bromwich is part of the Black Country...
, United Kingdom. Iqbal and four other Britons were released on March 9, 2004. Iqbal had traveled with, was captured with, and was released with two friends, Ruhal Ahmed
Ruhal Ahmed
Ruhal Ahmed is a British citizen. He was detained without trial for over two years by the United States government, first in Afghanistan, and then in Camp Delta, the United States prison for people it describes as suspects in its "War on Terror", at the Guantánamo Bay detention camp, Cuba...
and Shafiq Rasul
Shafiq Rasul
Shafiq Rasul is best known for being a detainee held at Guantanamo Bay by the United States, which treated him an unlawful combatant. His detainee ID number was 86....
, from his home town of Tipton
Tipton
Tipton is a town in the Sandwell borough of the West Midlands, England, with a population of around 47,000. Tipton is located about halfway between Birmingham and Wolverhampton. It is a part of the West Midlands conurbation and is a part of the Black Country....
, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
.
Report allegations
In August 2004, Iqbal, Ahmed and Rasul released a report on their abuse and humiliation while in US custody. In it, according to the BBCBBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, the three describe significant abuse, including being repeatedly punched, kicked, slapped, forcibly injected with drugs, deprived of sleep, hooded, photographed naked and subjected to body cavity searches and sexual and religious humiliations. The American guard allegedly told the inmates: "The world does not know you're here - we would kill you and no-one would know." Iqbal said when he arrived at Guantanamo, one of the soldiers told him: "You killed my family in the towers and now it's time to get you back." Rasul said an MI5 officer had told him during an interrogation that he would be detained in Guantanamo for life. The men said they saw the beating of mentally ill inmates and that another man was left brain damaged after a beating by soldiers as punishment for attempting suicide. The Britons said an inmate told them he was shown a video of hooded men - apparently inmates - being forced to sodomise one another. Guards threw Qur'ans belonging to prisoners into toilets and tried to force them to give up their religion. In the report they allege that those who represented themselves as from MI5
MI5
The Security Service, commonly known as MI5 , is the United Kingdom's internal counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its core intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service focused on foreign threats, Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence...
, or the British Foreign Office, seemed unconcerned with their welfare.
The appointment of General Geoffrey Miller
Geoffrey Miller (general)
Geoffrey D. Miller is a retired United States Army Major General who commanded the US detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and Iraq. Detention facilities in Iraq under his command included Abu Ghraib prison, Camp Cropper and Camp Bucca. He is also famous for training soldiers in "improved...
coincided with the alleged introduction of new, harsher, treatment, including short shackling
Short shackling
Short shackling is a technique that American interrogators use in the War on Terror. According to a military report the suspect's hands are shackled to an eyebolt in the floor, so that the suspect is forced to lie in a fetal position or squat...
and the forced shaving off of beards.
In the end, the abusive interrogation lead the three to falsely confess to being the three previously unidentified faces in a video that showed a meeting between Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
and Mohamed Atta
Mohamed Atta
Mohamed Mohamed el-Amir Awad el-Sayed Atta was one of the masterminds and the ringleader of the September 11 attacks who served as the hijacker-pilot of American Airlines Flight 11, crashing the plane into the North Tower of the World Trade Center as part of the coordinated attacks.Born in 1968...
, although Rasul was in the UK during the time period when the video was created.
In Rasul v. Rumsfeld
Rasul v. Rumsfeld
Plaintiffs Shafiq Rasul, Asif Iqbal, Ruhal Ahmed, and Jamal Al-Harith, four former Guantánamo Bay detainees, are suing former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. They charge that illegal interrogation tactics were permitted to be used against them by Secretary Rumsfeld and the military chain of...
, plaintiffs Shafiq Rasul
Shafiq Rasul
Shafiq Rasul is best known for being a detainee held at Guantanamo Bay by the United States, which treated him an unlawful combatant. His detainee ID number was 86....
, Asif Iqbal, Ruhal Ahmed
Ruhal Ahmed
Ruhal Ahmed is a British citizen. He was detained without trial for over two years by the United States government, first in Afghanistan, and then in Camp Delta, the United States prison for people it describes as suspects in its "War on Terror", at the Guantánamo Bay detention camp, Cuba...
, and Jamal Al-Harith
Jamal Udeen Al-Harith
Jamal Udeen Al-Harith is a British citizen who was held in extrajudicial detention as a suspected terrorist in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba for two and a half years.Al-Harith's Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 490....
, four former Guantánamo Bay detainees, sued former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. They charge that illegal interrogation tactics were permitted to be used against them by Secretary Rumsfeld and the military chain of command.
The 2006 film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
, The Road to Guantánamo
The Road to Guantanamo
The Road to Guantanamo, alternatively The Road to Guantánamo, is a British 2006 docudrama directed by Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross about the incarceration of three British detainees at a detainment camp in Guantánamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba...
is a docu-drama depicting the story of their detention.
External links
- Composite statement: Detention in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay Shafiq Rasul, Asif Iqbal and Rhuhel Ahmed
- Five of nine Britons released from Guantanamo Bay, BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, March 9, 2004 - Britons allege Guantanamo abuse, BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, August 4, 2004
