Abdul Haq Wasiq

Abdul Haq Wasiq is a citizen of Afghanistan in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. Wasiq's Guantanamo detainee ID number is 004. American intelligence analysts estimate that Wasiq was born in 1971, in Ghazni, Afghanistan.

The factors in favor of the continued detention of Gholam Ruhani said he and Abdul Haq Wasiq were captured together on December 9 2001.

Abdul Haq testified before Mohammad Fazil's Combatant Status Review Tribunal where he said he worked for the governor of Takhar province.

Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held in a trailer the size of a large RV. The captive sat on a plastic garden chair, with his hands and feet shackled to a bolt in the floor. Three chairs were reserved for members of the press, but only 37 of the 574 Tribunals were observed.

Initially the Bush administration asserted that they could withhold all the protections of the Geneva Conventions to captives from the war on terror. This policy was challenged before the Judicial branch. Critics argued that the USA could not evade its obligation to conduct a competent tribunals to determine whether captives are, or are not, entitled to the protections of prisoner of war status.

Subsequently the Department of Defense instituted the Combatant Status Review Tribunals. The Tribunals, however, were not authorized to determine whether the captives were lawful combatants -- rather they were merely empowered to make a recommendation as to whether the captive had previously been correctly determined to match the Bush administration's definition of an enemy combatant.

Abdul Haq chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.

allegations

The allegations against Abdul Haq were:

a The detainee is associated with al Qaida and the Taliban.

1. The detainee in a letter to his brother, included greetings to an al Qaida member.
2. The detainee was the Taliban Deputy Minister of Intelligence.
3. The detainee used a radio to communicate with the Taliban Chief of Intelligence.

b The detainee participated in military operations against the coalition.

1. The detainee was involved in the operation to re-establish the front lines of Konduz, Afghanistan.

testimony

Unusually, Abdul Haq's Tribunal convened twice, on October 25 2004 and November 30 2004.

The Tribunal's President informed Abdul Haq that a witness he had requested was relevant, but "not reasonably available". The transcript does not record the identity of the unavailable witness.

Abdul Haq expressed confusion over how he could defend himself against the claim that he had written the letter described in the allegation, since, if it existed, it would be classified, and he would unavailable to him.

Abdul Haq said:

"I asked my Personal Representative who told him about the letter, and he told me, the interrogators. In the past three years of interrogation, no one has mentioned such a thing. I am surprised that over the past three years no one told me anything except for today."

Abdul Haq acknowledged working for the Taliban. He returned to Afghanistan from Pakistan, when the Taliban took power. He testified that he was warned, by a subordinate of Qari Ahmadullah named Kalmi Abdul Magduli, that he was about to be forcibly recruited to the Taliban, so he chose to volunteer instead. He worked for Ahmadullah, who was the Governor of Takhar Province, and was also Minister of Intelligence. Ahmadullah liked him and promoted him. According to Haq his job was fighting bribery.

Abdul Haq acknowledged receiving orders from Ahmadullah, over the radio. But he asserted that all those orders were prior to September 11, 2001.

Abdul Haq disputed the allegation that he participated in military operations. He said he was a civilian employee, not a military commander. He denied ever traveling to Konduz, which is in the North of Afghanistan, while he lived in the South. As with the letter he said that his interrogators had never asked him any questions about Konduz.

Press reports

An article in the Christian Science Monitor quotes Ahmadullah, who was told by Mohammed Omar to go back to Kandahar. It quotes him:

"He called me twice to come to Kandahar. But I cannot go there easily, because a lot of people know me, and I am frightened they will capture me somewhere on the road. So I sent my assistant Mullah Abdul Haq Wasiq to Kandahar. Unfortunately he was captured by American agents in Ghazni."