User:Geo Swan/wl/Bermal raid, 2002-09-07

At least four men were apprehended during a random sweep of the bazaar in Bermal, Paktia, Afghanistan, in early September 2002 raid on the Bermal bazaar

In late April of 2011 previously secret detainee assessment briefs were published for almost all of the Guantanamo captives. According to these assessments, all four of these men were related. But the documents differ as to the actual relationship of the men. [1], [2], [3], [4].

The Detainee assessments published by wikileaks name four(?) captives who were captured in a sweep of the bazaar in Bermal, Paktia Province, on September 7, 2002.

Hawala and phone store operators

Three of these men's DAB's say they belonged to a family that operated a storefronts that offered traditional hawala funds transfers, and also operated public telephones. There were reported to have offices in Bermal, Afghanistan, Miran Shah, Pakistan, and in the UAE. Pashtuns who went to the Gulf, to serve as guest workers, sent funds home to their families using these shops. Noor Aslaam's DAB stated he was a security guard employed by a merchant's organization in the Bermal market.

discrepancies

There are discrepancies between the information in these captives' DABs and the information in other records, like the first full official list

isn	DAB name	2006-05-15 name	DAB d.o.b.	2006-05-15 d.o.b.	DAB p.o.b.	2006-05-15 p.o.b.	notes
818	Osman Khan	Osman Khan	1952	1950	Burmel, AF	Bermel, AF	Different birth dates Different spellings for the place of birth
820	Mohammed Yusef	Mohammed Haji Yousef	1967	1967	Bermal, PK	Bermal, AF	Different transliterations for his name. Different nations of birth.
822	Noor Aslaam	Noor Aslaam	1983	1982	Wana, PK	Warna, PK	Different birth dates Different spellings for the place of birth
826	Abdul Salaam	Abdul Salaam	1975	1975	Paktia, AF	Birmal, AF	Birmal|Bermal|Burmel is in Paktia

Family relationships explicitly stated

Abdul Salaam, born in 1975, is explicitly stated to be the brother of Osman Khan, born in 1952, and the cousin of Noor Aslam, the young security guard, born in 1983. His DAB strongly implies Noor Aslaam was also employed in the Hawala business. His DAB does not mention Mohammed Yusef.

The DABs of three of these men recommended their repatriation in August or September of 2003 -- after less than a year of detention. And these men were, in fact, repatriated in late 2003 or early 2004. We know more about Abdul Salaam, ISN 826. His 2003 recommended continued detention. He 2005 DAB said that, in several places, that, in the end, there was no evidence that he or his relatives had broken any laws, or had any ties to the Taliban or al Qaeda. One paragraph, possibly left over from before, said he knew other family members had transferred funds for Jalaluddin Haqqani, a former Taliban minister. Haqqani is routinely described as the leader of "the Haqqani Network". His "network" is sometimes deescribed as equal to or more important than the rump of the traditional Taliban. Haqqani has been described as a former anti-Soviet fighhter, from the 1980s, who has retained his own independent funding channels from rich oil barons in the Gulf.

isn	name	dob	place of birth	capture date	arrival date	last DAB date	repatriation date	notes
w:ISN 818	Osman Khan	1952	w:Bermel, Afghanistan	2002-09-07	2002-10-28	2003-09-06	2004-03-14	His DAB does not list a birth date, or place of birth. His DAB does not list a capture date, but the other men apprehended in the sweep were taken on September 6, 2002. "...Detainee claims to be a local businessman and, along with his brother, runs several small shops, including a call office..." He was recorded as being 67.5 inches tall, and weighing 200 pounds when he arrived at Guantanamo. His weight was recorded 15 times between January 2003 and February 2004. His weight rose to 240.8 pounds by 2004-02-19. According to his weight records, he refused to be weighed in March 2004. A couple of dozen Guantanamo captives' weight records contain an annocation that the captive refused to be weighed months, or even years, after the captive has left Guantanamo. This is clearly a mistake. A larger number of captives have a last entry in their weight records that they refused to be weighed on their final month in Guantanamo. That is the case with captive 818 and 822. I think it is quite possible that the annotations that they refused to be weighed, but rather because medical technicians had requested the captives to be broght to them, to be weighed, without knowing that the captive was no longer in Guantanamo/
w:ISN 820	Mohammed Yusef	1967	w:Bermal, Pakistan [sic]	2002-09-07	2002-10-28	2003-08-30	2003-11-18	He was recorded as being 64 inches tall, and weighing 149 pounds when he arrived at Guantanamo. His weight was recorded 8 times between January 2003 and November 16, 2003. His weight ranged from 160 to 147.6. "...Detainee was captured during a raid by Coalition forces on his PCO for suspicion of being an Al-Qaida facilitator. Several calls to incriminating numbers were reportedly made from the PCO. Detainee has maintained throughout the course of interrogations that he did not make the calls and was not aware of any suspicious activity going on in his store..." His DAB recommended his repatriation
w:ISN 822	Noor Aslaam	1983	w:Wana Pakistan	2002-09-07	2002-10-28	2003-09-06	2004-03-14	Noor Aslaam says, after the Taliban fell, and were no longer providing security in the Bermal Bazaar, an association of merchants in the Bermal bazaar decided to hire their own security force. His DAB says he told interrogators that several of his colleagues on that security force had also been sent to Guantanamo. But it is unclear from the DAB, and other DABs, who they could be. His date of birth in his DAB and on the first full official list of captives differ. The official list says 1982, not 1983. His place of birth is Wana, Pakistan in his DAB, and Warna, PK in the first full official list. On his arrival he was 65.5 inches tall, and weighed 130 pounds, on 2002-10-28. According to his weigh-in records, his weight was recorded 13 times from January 2003 to February 2004, skipping August, October and November 2003. The records state he refused to be weighed in March 2004. According to his records, his weight ranged from 130 pounds to 145 pounds. There is no record that any attempt was made for the remaining year he was in custody.
w:ISN 826	Abdul Salaam	1975	w:Paktia, Afghanistan	2002-09-07	2002-10-28	2005-05-13	2006-02-08	...It was first assessed detainee was involved in money laundering operations, however, after reviewing all of the available documentation, nothing has been found to support this claim. It is highly probable detainee's statements that he and his family are honest business people, have no connections to the Taliban or Al Qaida, and have never transferred any money for or on behalf of the Taliban or Al Qaida are truthful... His DAB says he is related to w:ISN 818 and w:822.