Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin
Encyclopedia
The Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin (HIG. Arabic
: حزب الإلكتروني الإسلامي قلب الدين) is an Afghan
islamist political party.
The original Hezb-e-Islami was founded in 1977 by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
who is now the head of HIG. The other faction is headed by Mulavi Younas Khalis
who split with Hekmatyar and established his own Hezbi Islami in 1979. It is known as the Khalis faction
, and its powerbase is in Nangarhar.
Well-financed by anti-Soviet forces during the Soviet war in Afghanistan
, the HIG was "sidelined from Afghan politics" by the rise of the Taliban in the mid-1990s. It remained so until later in the 00's when it "reemerged as an aggressive militant group, claiming responsibility for many bloody attacks against Coalition forces and the administration of President Hamid Karzai
" in the post-2001 war
in Afghanistan. Its fighting strength is "sometimes estimated to number in the thousands".
, Hekmatyar and his party operated near the Pakistan
i border against Soviet Communists. Areas such as Kunar
, Laghman
, Jalalabad
, and Paktia were Hezb-e Islami's strongholds. The party is highly centralized under Hekmatyar's command and until 1994 had close relations with Pakistan
, from which it received as much $600 million in U.S. aid money to fight the war with the Soviets. Despite its ample funding, it has been described as having
Frustrated by the enormously destructive warlord feuding in Afghanistan, including the Hebi Islami shelling of Kabul in April 1992, Pakistan abandoned HIG for the Taliban in 1994.
The bombardment of the capital by HIG in 1994, for example, is reported to have "resulted in the deaths of more than 25,000 civilians."
HIG was expelled from Kabul by the Taliban in September 1996 and many of its local commanders joined the Taliban "both out of ideological sympathy and for reason of tribal solidarity." In Pakistan Hezb-e-Islami training camps "were taken over by the Taliban and handed over" to Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam
(JUI) groups such as the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP).
and Pakistan
i support after 1994, "the remainder of Hizb-i Islmi merged into al-Qaeda
and the Taliban." The Jamestown Foundation describes it having been "sidelined from Afghan politics" for a decade or so after the Taliban takeover of Kabul. Hekmatyar opposed the 2001 American attack on Afghanistan and since then has aligned his group with remnants of the Taliban and al-Qaeda against the current Afghan government.
Radio Free Europe reports that "in 2006, Hekmatyar appeared in a video aired on the Arabic language Al-Jazeera television station and declared he wanted his forces to fight alongside Al-Qaeda." According to Le Monde
newspaper, as of 2007, the group was active around Mazari Sharif and Jalalabad
. HIG took credit for a 2008 attack on a military parade that nearly killed Karzai, an August 2008 ambush near Kabul that left ten French soldiers dead, and a October 3, 2009 attack by 150 insurgents which overwhelmed a remote outpost in Nuristan Province, killing eight American soldiers and wounding 24.
There have also been reports of clashes between members of the HIG and Taliban, and defection of HIG members to the Afghan government. Ten members of the group’s "senior leadership" met in May 2004 with President Hamid Karzai and "publicly announced their rejection of Hezb-e-Islami’s alliance with al-Qaeda and the Taliban."
Prior to Afghanistan's 2004 elections 150 members of the Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin party were said to have defected to Hamid Karzai
's administration. Jamestown Foundation reported in 2004 that according to Deputy Speaker of Parliament Sardar Rahmanoglu, HIA members "occupy around 30 to 40 percent of government offices, from cabinet ministers to provisional and other government posts." According to journalist Michael Crowley, as of 2010, HIG’s political arm holds 19 of 246 seats in the Afghan parliament and "claims not to take cues from Hekmatyar, though few believe it."
In early March 2010 elements of the Taliban and the HIG were reportedly fighting in Baghlan
province.
, New Year's Day, of 1389 (March 21, 2010, Western calendar) Harun Zarghun, chief spokesman for Hizb-i-Islami, said that a five-member delegation was in Kabul to meet with government officials and that there were also plans to meet with Taliban leaders somewhere in Afghanistan. Khalid Farooqi
, a member of the parliament from Paktika province, confirmed that two delegations from Hizb-i-Islami had shown up. Zarghun, the group's spokesman in Pakistan, said that the delegation had a 15-point plan that called for the retreat of foreign forces in July 2010 - a full year ahead of President Barack Obama's intended withdrawal. The plan also called for the replacement of the current Afghan parliament in December 2010 by an interim government, or shura
, which then would hold local and national elections within a year. Zarghun said that a new Afghan constitution would be written, merging the current version with ones used earlier.
The same day, Afghanistan's vice-president Mohammad Qasim Fahim
reached out to militants at the Nowruz New Year celebrations in Mazar-i-Sharif in Northern Afghanistan. He declared that, with their input, a coming national conference would lay the foundations for peace. He called on resistance forces to participate in a jirga
, or assembly, planned for late April or early May.
.
, allegedly took a trip on November 19, 2005 to North Korea
via Iran
. Here is the exact text of the intelligence report:
THREAT TO AIRCRAFT IN HELMEND PROVINCE
Organization(s) Involved: HEZB E ISLAMI GULBUDDIN
TEXT: On 19 November 2005, Hezb-Islami party leader, Gulbuddin Hekmartyr and Dr. Amin ((nln)), Usama Bin Laden’s financial advisor, both flew to North Korea departing from an Iran. They returned to Helmand //geocoord: 3100n/06400e//, Afghanistan on approximately 3 December 2005. While in North Korea, the two confirmed a deal with the North Korean government for remote controlled rockets for use against American
and coalition aircraft. The deal was closed for an undetermined amount of money. The shipment of said weapons is expected shortly after the new year. nfi. Upon return from North Korea Dr. Amin stayed in Helmand, and Hekmartyr went to Konar, Nuristan province
Although a rocket attack reported to have happened in 2007, killing all onboard and destroying the vehicle, fit the characteristics of the mentioned North Korean rocket, the report still remains unverified as being accurate. No such Dr. Amin has surfaced of late, although it is speculated he is in the custody of Pakistan
's itelligence agency.
Originally the Bush
Presidency asserted it was not obliged to let any captives apprehended in Afghanistan know why they were being held, or to provide a venue where they could challenge the allegations against them. However, the United States Supreme Court's ruling in Rasul v. Bush
required the institution of a review. The Supreme Court recommended the reviews be modeled after the Army Regulation 190-8 Tribunals that were ordinarily used to determine whether captives were innocent civilians who should be released, lawful combatants entitled to Prisoner of War
status, or war criminals who could be tried, and who weren't protected by all the provisions of the Geneva Conventions
.
The Department of Defense
set up the Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants (OARDEC). OARDEC administered an initial Combatant Status Review Tribunal
for the 558 Guantanamo captives who were still in the detention camp as of August 2004. Unlike the AR 190-8 Tribunals, the Combatant Status Review Tribunals were not authorized to determine whether captives were entitled to POW status, only whether they were "enemy combatant
s. OARDEC also administered annual Administrative Review Board
hearings. The Boards were only authorized to make a recommendation as to whether captives might represent an ongoing threat, or might continue to hold intelligence value, and therefore should continue to be held in US custody.
Close to 10,000 pages of documents from the Combatant Status Review Tribunals and Administrative Review Board hearings were released after contested Freedom of Information Act
requests.
Dozens of captives faced allegations that they had been associated with the Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin. Some of the documents just alleged that a captive was associated with Hezb-e-Islami, without explaining why this implied they were an "enemy combatant". Other documents did provide brief explanations as how an association with Hezb-e-Islami implied a captive was an "enemy combatant". Neither Hezb-e-Islami nor Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin are on the U.S. State Department list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations
and they never have been; but Gubludding is on the additional list called "Groups of Concern."
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
: حزب الإلكتروني الإسلامي قلب الدين) is an Afghan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
islamist political party.
The original Hezb-e-Islami was founded in 1977 by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar is an Afghan Mujahideen leader who is the founder and leader of the Hezb-e Islami political party and paramilitary group. Hekmatyar was a rebel military commander during the 1980s Soviet war in Afghanistan and was one of the key figures in the civil war that followed the...
who is now the head of HIG. The other faction is headed by Mulavi Younas Khalis
Mulavi Younas Khalis
Mawlawi Mohammad Yunus Khalis was a mujahideen commander in Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. His party was called Hezb-i-Islami , the same as Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's party...
who split with Hekmatyar and established his own Hezbi Islami in 1979. It is known as the Khalis faction
Khalis faction
In 1979 Maulawi Khalis separated from Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hezb-e Islami and formed his own resistance group. It was also called Hezb-e Islami. The two parties were distinguished as Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin and Hezb-e Islami Khalis, after the names of their respective leaders.The Khalis party was...
, and its powerbase is in Nangarhar.
Well-financed by anti-Soviet forces during the Soviet war in Afghanistan
Soviet war in Afghanistan
The Soviet war in Afghanistan was a nine-year conflict involving the Soviet Union, supporting the Marxist-Leninist government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan against the Afghan Mujahideen and foreign "Arab–Afghan" volunteers...
, the HIG was "sidelined from Afghan politics" by the rise of the Taliban in the mid-1990s. It remained so until later in the 00's when it "reemerged as an aggressive militant group, claiming responsibility for many bloody attacks against Coalition forces and the administration of President Hamid Karzai
Hamid Karzai
Hamid Karzai, GCMG is the 12th and current President of Afghanistan, taking office on 7 December 2004. He became a dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001...
" in the post-2001 war
War in Afghanistan (2001–present)
The War in Afghanistan began on October 7, 2001, as the armed forces of the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Afghan United Front launched Operation Enduring Freedom...
in Afghanistan. Its fighting strength is "sometimes estimated to number in the thousands".
History
During the Soviet War in AfghanistanSoviet war in Afghanistan
The Soviet war in Afghanistan was a nine-year conflict involving the Soviet Union, supporting the Marxist-Leninist government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan against the Afghan Mujahideen and foreign "Arab–Afghan" volunteers...
, Hekmatyar and his party operated near the Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
i border against Soviet Communists. Areas such as Kunar
Kunar Province
Kunar is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the northeastern part of the country. Its capital is Asadabad. It is one of the four "N2KL" provinces...
, Laghman
Laghman
Laghman can refer to:* Laghman Province in Afghanistan* Laghman, a place in Jowzjan Province, Afghanistan* Lamian and variants thereof as soup...
, Jalalabad
Jalalabad
Jalalabad , formerly called Adinapour, as documented by the 7th century Hsüan-tsang, is a city in eastern Afghanistan. Located at the junction of the Kabul River and Kunar River near the Laghman valley, Jalalabad is the capital of Nangarhar province. It is linked by approximately of highway with...
, and Paktia were Hezb-e Islami's strongholds. The party is highly centralized under Hekmatyar's command and until 1994 had close relations with Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
, from which it received as much $600 million in U.S. aid money to fight the war with the Soviets. Despite its ample funding, it has been described as having
the dubious distinction of never winning a significant battle during the war, training a variety of militant Islamists from around the world, killing significant numbers of mujahideen from other parties, and taking a virulently anti-Western line. In addition to hundreds of millions of dollars of American aid, Hekmatyar also received the lion's share of aid from the Saudis.
Frustrated by the enormously destructive warlord feuding in Afghanistan, including the Hebi Islami shelling of Kabul in April 1992, Pakistan abandoned HIG for the Taliban in 1994.
The bombardment of the capital by HIG in 1994, for example, is reported to have "resulted in the deaths of more than 25,000 civilians."
HIG was expelled from Kabul by the Taliban in September 1996 and many of its local commanders joined the Taliban "both out of ideological sympathy and for reason of tribal solidarity." In Pakistan Hezb-e-Islami training camps "were taken over by the Taliban and handed over" to Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam
Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam
The Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam is a political party in Pakistan. It formed a combined government in national elections in 2002 and 2008...
(JUI) groups such as the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP).
After 2001
The Columbia World Dictionary of Islamism reports that having lost Saudi support when it supported Saddam HusseinSaddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
and Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
i support after 1994, "the remainder of Hizb-i Islmi merged into al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
and the Taliban." The Jamestown Foundation describes it having been "sidelined from Afghan politics" for a decade or so after the Taliban takeover of Kabul. Hekmatyar opposed the 2001 American attack on Afghanistan and since then has aligned his group with remnants of the Taliban and al-Qaeda against the current Afghan government.
Radio Free Europe reports that "in 2006, Hekmatyar appeared in a video aired on the Arabic language Al-Jazeera television station and declared he wanted his forces to fight alongside Al-Qaeda." According to Le Monde
Le Monde
Le Monde is a French daily evening newspaper owned by La Vie-Le Monde Group and edited in Paris. It is one of two French newspapers of record, and has generally been well respected since its first edition under founder Hubert Beuve-Méry on 19 December 1944...
newspaper, as of 2007, the group was active around Mazari Sharif and Jalalabad
Jalalabad
Jalalabad , formerly called Adinapour, as documented by the 7th century Hsüan-tsang, is a city in eastern Afghanistan. Located at the junction of the Kabul River and Kunar River near the Laghman valley, Jalalabad is the capital of Nangarhar province. It is linked by approximately of highway with...
. HIG took credit for a 2008 attack on a military parade that nearly killed Karzai, an August 2008 ambush near Kabul that left ten French soldiers dead, and a October 3, 2009 attack by 150 insurgents which overwhelmed a remote outpost in Nuristan Province, killing eight American soldiers and wounding 24.
There have also been reports of clashes between members of the HIG and Taliban, and defection of HIG members to the Afghan government. Ten members of the group’s "senior leadership" met in May 2004 with President Hamid Karzai and "publicly announced their rejection of Hezb-e-Islami’s alliance with al-Qaeda and the Taliban."
Prior to Afghanistan's 2004 elections 150 members of the Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin party were said to have defected to Hamid Karzai
Hamid Karzai
Hamid Karzai, GCMG is the 12th and current President of Afghanistan, taking office on 7 December 2004. He became a dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001...
's administration. Jamestown Foundation reported in 2004 that according to Deputy Speaker of Parliament Sardar Rahmanoglu, HIA members "occupy around 30 to 40 percent of government offices, from cabinet ministers to provisional and other government posts." According to journalist Michael Crowley, as of 2010, HIG’s political arm holds 19 of 246 seats in the Afghan parliament and "claims not to take cues from Hekmatyar, though few believe it."
In early March 2010 elements of the Taliban and the HIG were reportedly fighting in Baghlan
Baghlan
Baghlan is a city in northern Afghanistan, in the eponymous province, Baghlan Province. It is located three miles east of the Kunduz River, 35 miles south of Khanabad, and about 1,700 metres above sea level in the northern Hindu Kush...
province.
Scores of Hizb-e-Islami militants, including 11 commanders and 68 fighters, defected on Sunday [7 March 2010] and joined the Afghan government as a clash between the group and the Taliban left 79 people dead, police said.
Peace negotiations 2010
On the celebration of NowruzNowruz
Nowrūz is the name of the Iranian New Year in Iranian calendars and the corresponding traditional celebrations. Nowruz is also widely referred to as the Persian New Year....
, New Year's Day, of 1389 (March 21, 2010, Western calendar) Harun Zarghun, chief spokesman for Hizb-i-Islami, said that a five-member delegation was in Kabul to meet with government officials and that there were also plans to meet with Taliban leaders somewhere in Afghanistan. Khalid Farooqi
Khalid Farooqi
Khalid Farooqi is an Afghan parliamentarian from Paktika Province, and leader of Hezb-e-Islami Khalid Farooqi.-References:...
, a member of the parliament from Paktika province, confirmed that two delegations from Hizb-i-Islami had shown up. Zarghun, the group's spokesman in Pakistan, said that the delegation had a 15-point plan that called for the retreat of foreign forces in July 2010 - a full year ahead of President Barack Obama's intended withdrawal. The plan also called for the replacement of the current Afghan parliament in December 2010 by an interim government, or shura
Shura
Shura is an Arabic word for "consultation". The Quran and Muhammad encourage Muslims to decide their affairs in consultation with those who will be affected by that decision....
, which then would hold local and national elections within a year. Zarghun said that a new Afghan constitution would be written, merging the current version with ones used earlier.
The same day, Afghanistan's vice-president Mohammad Qasim Fahim
Mohammed Fahim
Mohammad Qasim Fahim is an Afghan military commander, politician and the First Vice President since November 2009. He was the Defense Minister of the Afghan Transitional Administration, beginning in 2002 and also served as Vice President from June 2002 to December 2004...
reached out to militants at the Nowruz New Year celebrations in Mazar-i-Sharif in Northern Afghanistan. He declared that, with their input, a coming national conference would lay the foundations for peace. He called on resistance forces to participate in a jirga
Jirga
A jirga is a tribal assembly of elders which takes decisions by consensus, particularly among the Pashtun people but also in other ethnic groups near them; they are most common in Afghanistan and among the Pashtuns in Pakistan near its border with Afghanistan...
, or assembly, planned for late April or early May.
2010 Badakhshan massacre
In August 2010, Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin was possibly responsible for the 2010 Badakhshan massacre2010 Badakhshan massacre
On the 5th of August 2010, ten members of International Assistance Mission Nuristan Eye Camp team were killed in Kuran wa Munjan District of Badakhshan Province in Afghanistan....
.
Alleged ties to North Korea and Iran
According to a document dump in the summer of 2010, a Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin member, along with an agent of Osama Bin LadenOsama 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...
, allegedly took a trip on November 19, 2005 to North Korea
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
via Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
. Here is the exact text of the intelligence report:
THREAT TO AIRCRAFT IN HELMEND PROVINCE
Helmand Province
Helmand is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan. It is in the southwest of the country. Its capital is Lashkar Gah. The Helmand River flows through the mainly desert region, providing water for irrigation....
Organization(s) Involved: HEZB E ISLAMI GULBUDDIN
TEXT: On 19 November 2005, Hezb-Islami party leader, Gulbuddin Hekmartyr and Dr. Amin ((nln)), Usama Bin Laden’s financial advisor, both flew to North Korea departing from an Iran. They returned to Helmand //geocoord: 3100n/06400e//, Afghanistan on approximately 3 December 2005. While in North Korea, the two confirmed a deal with the North Korean government for remote controlled rockets for use against American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and coalition aircraft. The deal was closed for an undetermined amount of money. The shipment of said weapons is expected shortly after the new year. nfi. Upon return from North Korea Dr. Amin stayed in Helmand, and Hekmartyr went to Konar, Nuristan province
Although a rocket attack reported to have happened in 2007, killing all onboard and destroying the vehicle, fit the characteristics of the mentioned North Korean rocket, the report still remains unverified as being accurate. No such Dr. Amin has surfaced of late, although it is speculated he is in the custody of Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
's itelligence agency.
Accused combatant prisoners at Guantanamo
Dozens of inmates at the United States prison at Guantanamo Bay faced allegations that they had been associated with the Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin.Originally the Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
Presidency asserted it was not obliged to let any captives apprehended in Afghanistan know why they were being held, or to provide a venue where they could challenge the allegations against them. However, the United States Supreme Court's ruling in Rasul v. Bush
Rasul v. Bush
Rasul v. Bush, 542 U.S. 466 , is a landmark United States Supreme Court decision establishing that the U.S. court system has the authority to decide whether foreign nationals held in Guantanamo Bay were wrongfully imprisoned...
required the institution of a review. The Supreme Court recommended the reviews be modeled after the Army Regulation 190-8 Tribunals that were ordinarily used to determine whether captives were innocent civilians who should be released, lawful combatants entitled to Prisoner of War
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
status, or war criminals who could be tried, and who weren't protected by all the provisions of the Geneva Conventions
Geneva Conventions
The Geneva Conventions comprise four treaties, and three additional protocols, that establish the standards of international law for the humanitarian treatment of the victims of war...
.
The Department of Defense
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...
set up the Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants (OARDEC). OARDEC administered an initial Combatant Status Review Tribunal
Combatant Status Review Tribunal
The Combatant Status Review Tribunals were a set of tribunals for confirming whether detainees held by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp had been correctly designated as "enemy combatants". The CSRTs were established July 7, 2004 by order of U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense...
for the 558 Guantanamo captives who were still in the detention camp as of August 2004. Unlike the AR 190-8 Tribunals, the Combatant Status Review Tribunals were not authorized to determine whether captives were entitled to POW status, only whether they were "enemy combatant
Enemy combatant
Enemy combatant is a term historically referring to members of the armed forces of the state with which another state is at war. Prior to 2008, the definition was: "Any person in an armed conflict who could be properly detained under the laws and customs of war." In the case of a civil war or an...
s. OARDEC also administered annual Administrative Review Board
Administrative Review Board
The Administrative Review Board is a United States military body that conducts an annual review of the suspects held by the United States in Camp Delta in the United States Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba....
hearings. The Boards were only authorized to make a recommendation as to whether captives might represent an ongoing threat, or might continue to hold intelligence value, and therefore should continue to be held in US custody.
Close to 10,000 pages of documents from the Combatant Status Review Tribunals and Administrative Review Board hearings were released after contested Freedom of Information Act
Freedom of Information Act (United States)
The Freedom of Information Act is a federal freedom of information law that allows for the full or partial disclosure of previously unreleased information and documents controlled by the United States government. The Act defines agency records subject to disclosure, outlines mandatory disclosure...
requests.
Dozens of captives faced allegations that they had been associated with the Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin. Some of the documents just alleged that a captive was associated with Hezb-e-Islami, without explaining why this implied they were an "enemy combatant". Other documents did provide brief explanations as how an association with Hezb-e-Islami implied a captive was an "enemy combatant". Neither Hezb-e-Islami nor Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin are on the U.S. State Department list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations
U.S. State Department list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations
"Foreign Terrorist Organization" is a designation of non-United States-based organizations declared terrorist by the United States Secretary of State in accordance with section 219 of the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act...
and they never have been; but Gubludding is on the additional list called "Groups of Concern."
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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... ." |
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Mahbub Rahman Mahbub Rahman is a citizen of Afghanistan who is still held in extrajudicial detention after being transferred from United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba — to U.S... |
Soviet Union The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991.... . HIG has long established ties with Usama Bin Laden. HIG has staged small attacks in its attempt to force NATO troops to withdraw from Afghanistan, overthrow the Afghan government, and establish a fundamentalist state. |
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Juma Din Juma Din is a citizen of Afghanistan who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.Din's Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 941.... |
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Taj Mohammed -Administrative Review Board hearing:Detainees who were determined to have been properly classified as "enemy combatants" were scheduled to have their dossier reviewed at annual Administrative Review Board hearings... |
United States Secretary of State The United States Secretary of State is the head of the United States Department of State, concerned with foreign affairs. The Secretary is a member of the Cabinet and the highest-ranking cabinet secretary both in line of succession and order of precedence... has identified the HIG as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. Gulbuddin Hikmatyar founded HIG as a faction of the Hizb-I Islami party in 1977 and it was one of the major Mujahedin groups in the war against the Soviets. HIG has long-established ties with Usama bin Ladin. HIG has stages small attacks in its attempt to force United States troops to withdraw from Afghanistan, overthrow the Afghanistan government, and establish a fundamentalist state. |
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Mohammed Quasam Mohammed Quasam is a citizen of Afghanistan who is still held in extrajudicial detention after being transferred from United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba — to U.S. supervised imprisonment in Afghanistan.... |
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar Gulbuddin Hekmatyar is an Afghan Mujahideen leader who is the founder and leader of the Hezb-e Islami political party and paramilitary group. Hekmatyar was a rebel military commander during the 1980s Soviet war in Afghanistan and was one of the key figures in the civil war that followed the... founded Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin as a faction of the Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin party in 1977, and that it was one of the major Mujadhedin groups in the war against the Soviets; that the Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin has long established ties with Usama Bin Ladin; that Hexb-e-Islami Gulbuddin has staged small attacks in its attmpt to force United States troops to withdraw from Afghanistan, overthrow the Afghanistan Transitional Administration, and establish a fundamentalist state. |
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Akhtar Mohammed (Guantanamo detainee 845) Akhtar Mohammed is a citizen of Afghanistan who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.Mohammed's Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 845.... |
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Abdul Zahor Abdul Zahor is a citizen of Afghanistan, formerly held in the United States's Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.American intelligence analysts estimate Zahor was born in 1964, in Charikar, Afghanistan... Abdul Ghaffar (Guantanamo detainee 1032) Abdul Ghaffar is a citizen of Afghanistan who is still held in extrajudicial detention after being transferred from United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba — to an Afghan prison.... |
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Jumma Jan -First annual Administrative Review Board:The factors for and against continuing to detain Jumma Jan were among the 121 that the Department of Defense released on March 3, 2006.The following primary factors favor continued detention... |
Afghan Transitional Administration The Afghan Transitional Administration was the name of a temporary administration of Afghanistan put in place by the 2002 Loya Jirga and followed the Afghan Interim Administration which was installed after the Bonn Conference.-Background:Following the US Invasion in Afghanistan, a UN sponsored... and establish a fundamentalist state. |
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Jumma Jan -First annual Administrative Review Board:The factors for and against continuing to detain Jumma Jan were among the 121 that the Department of Defense released on March 3, 2006.The following primary factors favor continued detention... |
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Sharbat (terror suspect) -Transcript:Sharbat chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.On March 3, 2006, in response to a court order from Jed Rakoff the Department of Defense published a five page summarized transcript from his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.... |
Terrorist Organization Reference Guide The Terrorist Organization Reference Guide is a field manual jointly published by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the US Border Patrol. The guide is a synopsis of groups and individuals designated to be terrorist organizations and is provided to... as having long-established ties with Usama Bin Laden." |
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Abdul Zahor Abdul Zahor is a citizen of Afghanistan, formerly held in the United States's Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.American intelligence analysts estimate Zahor was born in 1964, in Charikar, Afghanistan... |
Terrorist Organization Reference Guide The Terrorist Organization Reference Guide is a field manual jointly published by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the US Border Patrol. The guide is a synopsis of groups and individuals designated to be terrorist organizations and is provided to... . |
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Mohammed Quasam Mohammed Quasam is a citizen of Afghanistan who is still held in extrajudicial detention after being transferred from United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba — to U.S. supervised imprisonment in Afghanistan.... |
United States Department of Homeland Security The United States Department of Homeland Security is a cabinet department of the United States federal government, created in response to the September 11 attacks, and with the primary responsibilities of protecting the territory of the United States and protectorates from and responding to... has designated Hexb-e-Islami Gulbuddin as a terrorist organization. |
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Improvised explosive device An improvised explosive device , also known as a roadside bomb, is a homemade bomb constructed and deployed in ways other than in conventional military action... (IEDs) and electronics." |
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Abdul Majid Muhammed -Transcript:Muhammed chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.His Tribunal was convened on December 10, 2004.-Tribunal documents:Lieutenant Commander Peter C... |
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Lufti Bin Swei Lagha Lufti Bin Swei Laghais a citizen of Tunisia who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States's Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.The Department of Defense reports that he was born on November 28, 1968 in Tunis, Tunisia.... |
Armed Islamic Group The Armed Islamic Group is an Islamist organisation that wants to overthrow the Algerian government and replace it with an Islamic state... (GIA) and Hizb-I Islami Gulbuddin are designated terrorist organizations. Hizb-I Islami Gulbuddin ran terrorist training camps in Afghanistan. They have staged attacks in an attempt to force U.S. troops to withdraw from Afghanistan." |
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Adel Hassan Hamad -Lawsuit:On May 14, 2008 the Daily Times of Pakistan reported that "Salim Mahmud Adam" and "Adel Hasan Hamad" had announced plans to sue the United States government over their detention.... |
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Sabar Lal Melma -Administrative Review Board hearing:Detainees who were determined to have been properly classified as "enemy combatants" were scheduled to have their dossier reviewed at annual Administrative Review Board hearings... |
Sudan Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the... . HIG has staged small attacks in its attempt to force U.S. troops to withdraw from Afghanistan. |
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Hajji Hajji or El-Hajj, is an honorific title given to a Muslim person who has successfully completed the Hajj to Mecca, and is often used to refer to an elder, since it can take time to accumulate the wealth to fund the travel. The title is placed before a person's name... Nasrat Khan Nasrat Khan -Administrative Review Board hearing:Detainees who were determined to have been properly classified as "enemy combatants" were scheduled to have their dossier reviewed at annual Administrative Review Board hearings... |
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Mohamed Jawad Mohamed Jawad, born in Miranshah, Pakistan, was accused of attempted murder before a Guantanamo military commission on charges that he threw a grenade at a passing American convoy on December 17, 2002. Jawad's family says that he was 12 years old at the time of his detention in 2002... |
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... . |
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Juma Din Juma Din is a citizen of Afghanistan who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.Din's Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 941.... |
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Akhtiar Mohammad (Guantanamo detainee 1036) Akhtiar Mohammad is a citizen of Afghanistan who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 1036... |
Terrorist Organization Reference Guide The Terrorist Organization Reference Guide is a field manual jointly published by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the US Border Patrol. The guide is a synopsis of groups and individuals designated to be terrorist organizations and is provided to... as having long-established ties with Usama Bin Laden. |
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Jumma Jan -First annual Administrative Review Board:The factors for and against continuing to detain Jumma Jan were among the 121 that the Department of Defense released on March 3, 2006.The following primary factors favor continued detention... |
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Soviet Union The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991.... . HIG has long-established ties with Usama bin Laden. |
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Hamidullah (Guantanamo detainee 1119) Hamidullah is a citizen of Afghanistan currently held in the United States's Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.Joint Task Force Guantanamo counter-terrorism analysts estimate he was born in 1963, in Kabul, Afghanistan.... Mohammed Mussa Yakubi Mohammed Mussa Yakubi is a citizen of Afghanistan who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 1165.... |
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Mohammed Mustafa Sohail Mohammed Mustafa Sohail is a citizen of Afghanistan, currently held in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.Sohail's Guantanamo Internment Serial Number is 1008.... |
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Hajji Hajji or El-Hajj, is an honorific title given to a Muslim person who has successfully completed the Hajj to Mecca, and is often used to refer to an elder, since it can take time to accumulate the wealth to fund the travel. The title is placed before a person's name... Nasrat Khan Nasrat Khan -Administrative Review Board hearing:Detainees who were determined to have been properly classified as "enemy combatants" were scheduled to have their dossier reviewed at annual Administrative Review Board hearings... |
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Abdul Razak (Guantanamo detainee 1043) Maulavi Abdul Razak is a citizen of Afghanistan, who held the post of Minister of Commerce in the Taliban government. He was captured by government forces in April 2003, and is still held in extrajudicial detention after being transferred from United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba... |
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar Gulbuddin Hekmatyar is an Afghan Mujahideen leader who is the founder and leader of the Hezb-e Islami political party and paramilitary group. Hekmatyar was a rebel military commander during the 1980s Soviet war in Afghanistan and was one of the key figures in the civil war that followed the... , and Usama bin Laden agreed to unite their forces. |
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Gholam Ruhani Gholam Ruhani is a citizen of Afghanistan, who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 3.... |
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