Mohammad Nabi Omari Explained

Mawlawi Mohammad Nabi Omari
Office:First Deputy Minister for Interior Affairs
Term Start:6 October 2022
President:Hibatullah Akhundzada
Predecessor:Mohmand Katawazaii
Birth Date:[1]
Birth Place:Khost Province, Afghanistan
Profession:politician
Termstart2:24 August 2021
Office2:Acting Governor of Khost Province

Mawlawi Mohammad Nabi Omari is an Afghan politician serving as First Deputy Minister for Interior Affairs[2] under the internationally unrecognized Taliban regime since 6 October 2022.[3] He was also appointed Acting Governor of Khost Province in late August 2021.[4] Omari was held for nearly twelve years in extrajudicial detention at the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.[5] His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 832. American intelligence analysts estimate that he was born in 1968, in Khost, Afghanistan. He arrived at the Guantanamo detention camps on October 28, 2002.[6]

He was transported from Guantanamo Bay to Qatar on June 1, 2014. Omari and four other men known as the Taliban five were exchanged for captured U.S. soldier Bowe Bergdahl. The men were held by the Qataris in a form of house arrest. The swap was brokered by the Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Emir of Qatar. Omari and the others were required to stay in Qatar for a year as a condition of their release.[7]

Official status reviews

Originally the Bush Presidency asserted that captives apprehended in the "war on terror" were not covered by the Geneva Conventions, and could be held indefinitely, without charge, and without an open and transparent review of the justifications for their detention.[8] In 2004 the United States Supreme Court ruled, in Rasul v. Bush, that Guantanamo captives were entitled to being informed of the allegations justifying their detention, and were entitled to try to refute them.

Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants

Following the Supreme Court's ruling the Department of Defense set up the Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants.[8] [9]

Scholars at the Brookings Institution, led by Benjamin Wittes, listed the captives still held in Guantanamo in December 2008, according to whether their detention was justified by certain common allegations:[10]

During his Combatant Status Review Tribunal Omari acknowledged he had worked for the Taliban, but claimed that was prior to 9–11.[11] He claimed that after the US invasion he had been a loyal supporter of the Hamid Karzai government, and that he had been a covert operative for a US intelligence officer he knew only as "Mark".

Formerly secret Joint Task Force Guantanamo assessment

On April 25, 2011, whistleblower organization WikiLeaks published formerly secret assessments drafted by Joint Task Force Guantanamo analysts.[12] [13] WikiLeaks published an 11-page Joint Task Force Guantanamo assessment that had been drafted on January 28, 2008.[14] The assessment was signed by camp commandant Mark H. Buzby, who recommended continued detention.

Guantanamo Joint Task Force review

When he assumed office in January 2009, President Barack Obama made a number of promises about the future of Guantanamo.[15] [16] [17] He promised the use of torture would cease at the camp. He promised to institute a new review system. That new review system was 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.[18] Mohammed Nabi Omari was one of the 71 individuals deemed too innocent to charge, but too dangerous to release.Although Obama promised that those deemed too innocent to charge, but too dangerous to release would start to receive reviews from a Periodic Review Board. Less than a quarter of men have received a review.

Transfer negotiations and post-hoc criticisms

See main article: Taliban Five. Negotiations over exchanging Bowe Bergdahl for five Guantanamo went on for years. After the exchange, and after Bergdahl was charged with desertion, critics claimed the Obama did not inform Congress in advance, and so the transfer was illegal. Critics claimed the men were likely to, certain to, or had already "re-engaged with terrorism"—even before their first year of house arrest was over. On May 31, 2015, The New York Times quoted a State Department official who insisted on anonymity that Qatar had unofficially "agreed to maintain the current restrictive conditions". They reported that this further restriction would last for at least six months, while negotiations were finalized.

External links

Notes and References

  1. https://int.nyt.com/data/documenttools/82333-isn-832-mohammad-nabi-omari-jtf-gtmo-detainee/99d90d0150c5d1c3/full.pdf JTF- GTMO Detainee Assessment
  2. Web site: Charge d'Affaires Dr.Zhao Haihan Meets with Mohammad Nabi Omari, First Deputy Minister of Interior Affairs of Afghanistan . 2023-12-02 . af.china-embassy.gov.cn.
  3. Web site: 2022-10-11 . Taliban names former Guantanamo detainee deputy interior minister FDD's Long War Journal . 2023-12-02 . www.longwarjournal.org . en-US.
  4. Web site: Taliban appoints former Guantanamo Bay detainee released under Obama to leadership post in Afghanistan . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20210921011254/https://news.yahoo.com/taliban-appoints-former-guantanamo-bay-191849920.html . 2021-09-21 . 2021-09-19 . news.yahoo.com . en-US.
  5. Web site: List of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from January 2002 through May 15, 2006. OARDEC. OARDEC. United States Department of Defense. https://web.archive.org/web/20070930184034/http://www.dod.mil/news/May2006/d20060515%2BList.pdf. 2007-09-30. live. 2006-05-15.
  6. Web site: Measurements of Heights and Weights of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (ordered and consolidated version) . Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas, from DoD data . 2009-12-21 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20100613004352/http://humanrights.ucdavis.edu/resources/library/documents-and-reports/gtmo_heightsweights.pdf . 2010-06-13.
  7. News: American soldier held captive in Afghanistan is now free. 1 June 2014. MSNBC.
  8. News: U.S. military reviews 'enemy combatant' use . . 2007-10-11 . 2007-10-23 . https://web.archive.org/web/20071023220558/http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-10-11-guantanamo-combatants_N.htm . live . Critics called it an overdue acknowledgment that the so-called Combatant Status Review Tribunals are unfairly geared toward labeling detainees the enemy, even when they pose little danger. Simply redoing the tribunals won't fix the problem, they said, because the system still allows coerced evidence and denies detainees legal representation..
  9. News: Q&A: What next for Guantanamo prisoners? . . 2002-01-21 . 2008-11-24 . https://web.archive.org/web/20081123204530/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1773140.stm . 23 November 2008 . live.
  10. Web site: The Current Detainee Population of Guantánamo: An Empirical Study. The Brookings Institution. 2008-12-16. Benjamin Wittes. Benjamin Wittes. Zaathira Wyne. 2010-02-16. https://web.archive.org/web/20170519100934/https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/1216_detainees_wittes.pdf. 2017-05-19. live.
  11. News: Summarized Unsworn Detainee Statement: ISN 832. United States Department of Defense. 2004. 37–41. 2013-08-14. 2006-07-22. https://web.archive.org/web/20060722035618/http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt/Set_36_2493-2577.pdf#page=37. live .
  12. News: WikiLeaks: Guantanamo Bay terrorist secrets revealed -- Guantanamo Bay has been used to incarcerate dozens of terrorists who have admitted plotting terrifying attacks against the West – while imprisoning more than 150 totally innocent people, top-secret files disclose . . 2011-04-27 . 2012-07-13 . Christopher Hope . Robert Winnett . Holly Watt . Heidi Blake . 2012-07-15 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120715015806/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/wikileaks/8471907/WikiLeaks-Guantanamo-Bay-terrorist-secrets-revealed.html . live . The Daily Telegraph, along with other newspapers including The Washington Post, today exposes America's own analysis of almost ten years of controversial interrogations on the world's most dangerous terrorists. This newspaper has been shown thousands of pages of top-secret files obtained by the WikiLeaks website. .
  13. News: WikiLeaks: The Guantánamo files database. https://web.archive.org/web/20110429040459/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wikileaks-files/guantanamo-bay-wikileaks-files/8476672/WikiLeaks-The-Guantanamo-files-database.html. dead. 2011-04-29. The Telegraph (UK). 2011-04-27. 2012-07-10.
  14. News: Mohammad Nabi Omari: Guantanamo Bay detainee file on Mohammad Nabi Omari, US9AF-000832DP, passed to the Telegraph by Wikileaks . The Telegraph (UK). 2011-04-27. 2015-06-01.
  15. News: Justice task force recommends about 50 Guantanamo detainees be held indefinitely . Peter Finn . Washington Post . January 22, 2010 . July 21, 2010 . 2015-05-04 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150504225142/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/21/AR2010012104936.html . live.
  16. News: Most Guantanamo detainees low-level fighters, task force report says . Peter Finn . Washington Post . May 29, 2010 . July 21, 2010 . 2015-05-10 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150510052105/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/28/AR2010052803873.html . live.
  17. Web site: Andy Worthington. Does Obama Really Know or Care About Who Is at Guantánamo?. June 11, 2010. July 21, 2010. 2010-06-16. https://web.archive.org/web/20100616161842/http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2010/06/11/does-obama-really-know-or-care-about-who-is-at-guantanamo. live.
  18. News: 71 Guantanamo Detainees Determined Eligible to Receive a Periodic Review Board as of April 19, 2013. Joint Review Task Force. 2013-04-09 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150519230955/https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1020057-guantanamo-parole-list.html. 2015-05-19. 2015-05-18. live .