Majid Khan (detainee)
Majid Khan | |
---|---|
Born | Majid Shoukat Khan February 28, 1980 black sites, Guantanamo |
ISN | 10020 |
Charge(s) | Five war crimes, including murder, attempted murder and spying |
Status | Pleaded guilty[3][4][5] |
Majid Shoukat Khan (born February 28, 1980) is a Pakistani who was the only known legal resident of the United States held in the
Khan originally came to the United States in 1998, where he gained asylum. He lived in a suburb of
Early life
Khan's family settled in Catonsville, Maryland, near Baltimore, where he attended Owings Mills High School[11] and was "exposed to radical Islam".[6] He was granted asylum in the U.S. in 1998, and graduated the following year.[12]
In 2002, Khan returned to Pakistan, where he married 18-year-old Rabia Yaqoub.[13] According to
He returned to the United States for a short period to continue his work as a database administrator in a Maryland government office.
On December 25, 2002,
Arrest and detention
Khan returned to Pakistan on March 5, 2003. He, his brother Mohammed, and other relatives were arrested at their residence in Karachi by Pakistani security agents and taken into custody. Khan and his family were taken to an unknown location. After about a month, the entire family, with the exception of Khan, was released.
Rabia Khan and the rest of his family heard nothing of his whereabouts for three years. Then, in September 2006, President
Legal issues
Khan was the first of the fourteen high-value detainees to challenge his detention in court.[18] The Center for Constitutional Rights filed the habeas corpus challenge on October 5, 2006 — before President Bush signed the Military Commissions Act of 2006 into law.[19]
But, the Military Commissions Act of 2006 restricted detainees from mounting challenges through U.S. courts and was retroactive. The
Allegations
In the government's account, Khan was exposed to a
Government officials assert that Khan, under KSM's tutelage, was being trained to blow up gas stations and poison water reservoirs, and that he plotted to assassinate Pakistani President General
The
Legal challenge to government
Khan's attorneys at the
Khan's appeal points out that although he had been in U.S. custody for more than three and a half years, he had never had any kind of review of the legality of his detention.[19] Khan's attorneys at CCR petitioned to have his case tried in civilian court in the United States instead of by military tribunal at Guantanamo. A federal appeals court ruled in February 2007 that detainees at Guantanamo Bay could not use the U.S. court system to challenge their indefinite imprisonment.
Access to legal counsel
The
On November 4, 2006, the Justice Department said that Khan should not be allowed to speak to an attorney because he might "reveal the agency's closely guarded interrogation techniques".[24]
- The D.I.A. told the court that if Mr. Khan told just any person what the [interrogation] procedures were, it would cause "extremely grave damage to the national security."
- Marilyn A. Dorn, an official at the National Clandestine Service, part of the CIA, told the court that
If specific alternative techniques were disclosed, it would permit terrorist organizations to adapt their training to counter the tactics that C.I.A. can employ in interrogations.
Habeas corpus submission
Khan is one of 16 Guantanamo captives whose amalgamated habeas corpus submissions were heard by
Pakistan's International News reported Khan's wife's lawyer told the Sindh High Court that she was not informed that Khan was in U.S. custody for the first three years after he disappeared.[28]
Timeline of Majid Khan's Combatant Status Review Tribunal
February 7, 2007 |
|
March 28, 2007 |
|
April 15, 2007 |
|
May 15, 2007 |
The press release quoted from
The government is denying Majid any access to his attorneys solely to keep his torture and abuse secret, even from his lawyers, His father's testimony sheds light on the U.S. government's system of secret detention and makes clear that U.S. officials are trying to hide their own criminal conduct.
According to the press release, Khan's Tribunal was scheduled to start on April 10, 2007, and to finish by April 13, 2007.[32] Ali Khan made the affidavit on April 6, 2007, when the family confirmed they would not be allowed to testify in person.
According to
The Department of Defense announced on August 9, 2007 that all 14 of the "high-value detainees" who had been transferred to Guantanamo from the CIA's black sites, had been officially classified as "enemy combatants".[38] Although judges Peter Brownback and Keith J. Allred had ruled two months earlier that only "illegal enemy combatants" could face military commissions, the Department of Defense waived the qualifier and said that all 14 men could now face charges before Guantanamo military commissions.[39][40]
Legal action
First meeting with a lawyer
On October 15, 2007, Gitanjali Gutierrez, a CCR attorney, wrote about her pending first meeting with Majid Khan.
Order to preserve evidence
In December 2007, a Federal appeals court in
The order is significant because the D.C. circuit would have no reason to issue interim relief, by its own initiative, if it were absolutely certain that no torture evidence would be lost or destroyed before the preservation motion is fully briefed and decided on the merits.
The CIA denied that it had tortured Khan or any other captive.[42] Dixon said:
At a bare minimum, General Hayden is not fully informed about the CIA torture program.
The Baltimore Sun quoted a CIA spokesman, George Little, who repeated that the CIA stood by its assertion that it had stopped videotaping captives' interrogations in 2002.[43] But Khan's lawyers said their client's interrogations had been taped more recently than that.
Motion to declare torture
A motion filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights was declassified in redacted form in December 2007. This motion aims for the Court of Appeals to declare that interrogation methods used against Majid Khan by the CIA "constitute torture and other forms of impermissible coercion."[44]
The government's response to the motion was due to the court on December 20, 2009.
The CCR attorneys Dixon Wells and Gita S. Gutierrez released some of their declassified notes from their conversations with Majid Khan in November 2007. They included the following:
- He chewed through the artery in his left arm until it bled in January 2007 and still had a scar.
- He was on hunger strikesto protest for his rights to see his lawyers and to protest his conditions and being kept in isolation. Hunger strikes were the only way he knew to assert his rights. He said a teacher at Owings Mills High School had taught him about checks and balances, and he learned that if you do not assert and protect your rights, you do not deserve to be in the United States.
- Khan went on hunger strike to get a subscription to The Washington Post.
- When meeting Khan for the first time, the attorneys initially thought the guards had brought the wrong detainee, which had happened in the past. But he had lost so much weight that they did not recognize him. He looked at them and said, "Dixon? Gita? I've been waiting a long time to meet you. It's good to see you."
- He is suffering from symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, including concentration, memory loss, and frantic expression.
- He said he wished he had gone to college.[45]
Petition of habeas corpus
A petition of habeas corpus was filed on Khan's behalf on September 29, 2006.[46]
On July 22, 2008,
On August 1, 2008, Dixon filed a "Motion for Order directing the Court Security Office to file supplemental status report".
Declaration of sentence completed
Via "The Guantánamo Docket" published by the
A senior Pentagon official declared his sentence complete on March 1, 2022. His lawyers argue that expiration of his sentence means he should be promptly released, although the U.S. had yet to reach a deal with a country to receive him.
Accusations against U.S.
Iyman Faris told authorities that Khan had referred to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed as an "uncle" and spoken of a desire to kill Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf.[12] Faris later said that his accusations had been "an absolute lie" that he had been coerced into making.[12] Khan made repeated offers to submit to a polygraph test to prove his innocence, but was turned down.[12]
Khan was represented by the
Letters from Guantanamo
Khan is the first of the 14 high-value detainees to get mail to his relatives.[51] The Washington Post reported that four letters from Khan had been received, three to his relatives in Maryland, and one to his wife. The letters were delivered to his family through the International Committee of the Red Cross. Its contact with detainees is contingent on the agency's promise not to publicly disclose any information received during the meetings, which is its standard process. Khan's letter to his wife was written in
Khan wrote that he was in solitary confinement, but he could talk to nearby captives through the cell walls.[51] Once a day he is permitted to leave his cell "to get sunburn" during an hour of solitary access in an exercise yard. His relatives said the letters showed he had become much more religious.
According to The Baltimore Sun:[43]
In one five-page handwritten account from Khan to his lawyers, only a single sentence survives the censor's pen. It says, 'I was practically an American who lived a comfortable live [sic] under freedoms of America, who never lived in caves or Afghanistan.'
Other quotes from Khan's letters include:
- "Think of me as a human being ... not a terrorist."[43]
- "I ask you to give me justice ... in the name of what U.S.A. once stood for and in the name of what Thomas Jefferson fought for ... allow me a chance to prove that I am innocent.[43]"
- "Why would I ever want to harm U.S.A., who has never done anything but good to me and my family?"[52]
The Baltimore Sun reported that Khan said that when he lived in the United States, he paid $2,400 per month in U.S. taxes.[43] It also reported that the only other captive he had any contact with since he arrived in Guantanamo was Abu Zubaydah.
Pakistani cooperation
In 2006, Khalid Khawaja, a spokesman for the Pakistani human rights group Defense of Human Rights, cited the examples of Majid Khan and Saifullah Paracha as proof that the Pakistani government had lied about whether it had handed over Pakistani citizens to the U.S.[53] The Associated Press quotes Khawaja as stating that: "Pakistan has sold its own people to the United States for dollars."
Related case
In September 2006, Uzair Paracha, the son of Saifullah Paracha, another Guantanamo detainee, was tried and convicted of terrorism charges in a U.S. court. Paracha had requested Majid Khan as a witness. The U.S. government declined to produce him, although he was in U.S. custody.[14][55]
Enhanced interrogation techniques
According to Khan, during his time imprisoned by the CIA, "the more I cooperated, the more I was tortured", and so he made up lies in order to appease interrogators.[7] In the CIA black site, which he described as resembling a dungeon, "he was kept naked with a hood on his head, his arms chained in ways that made sleep impossible".[8]
On March 13, 2008, the
The
Release and life in Belize
Sentence completion and release
On June 7, 2022, lawyers for Khan petitioned the United States District Court for the District of Columbia for a writ of habeas corpus. The petition asked the United States inter alia to release him from his unlawful detention in Guantanamo and for the United States to comply with their non-refoulement obligations under international law for relocation to anywhere but his native Pakistan.[59]
On 25 July 2022 the New York Times published that "a senior Pentagon official declared" Khan's sentence was completed on March 1, 2022,[48] Khan was transferred to Belize on February 2, 2023.[10]
Belize
Belize’s foreign minister called its agreement to settle Khan along with his wife and their teenage daughter “a humanitarian act”.[6] Belize had required that the US government provide funds to buy Khan "a home, a phone, a laptop and a car".[6]
In Belize, Khan issued a statement saying:
I have been given a second chance in life and I intend to make the most of it. I deeply regret the things that I did many years ago, and I have taken responsibility and tried to make up for them. The world has changed a lot in twenty years, and I have changed a lot as well."[7]
References
- ^ "JTF- GTMO Detainee Assessment" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. June 13, 2008. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 29, 2022. Retrieved February 5, 2023 – via New York Times.
- ^ Rosenberg, Carol (October 29, 2021). "For First Time in Public, a Detainee Describes Torture at C.I.A. Black Sites". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 29, 2021. Retrieved October 29, 2021.
- ^ Finn, Peter (March 1, 2012). "National Security". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on March 2, 2012. Retrieved September 4, 2017.
- ^ "Guantanamo detainee Majid Khan pleads guilty; details of government crimes against him remain classified top secret". Archived from the original on July 3, 2015. Retrieved June 6, 2015.
- ^ "5 Things You Need to Know: The CIA's Horrific Torture of Majid Khan". June 5, 2015. Archived from the original on June 8, 2015. Retrieved June 6, 2015.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Carol Rosenberg (February 9, 2023). "Freed Former C.I.A. Prisoner Has Big Dreams for a New Life in Belize". The New York Times. New York Times. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
- ^ a b c Madeline Halpert (February 2, 2023). "US resettles Guantanamo Bay detainee Majid Khan in Belize". BBC. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
- ^ a b ROSEN, DAVID (February 16, 2023). "Lessons from Majid Khan's Release from Guantánamo". The Progressive. Retrieved April 28, 2023.
- ^ "Stipulation of Fact" (PDF). U.S. Office of Military Commissions. February 13, 2012. Archived (PDF) from the original on February 9, 2022. Retrieved February 9, 2022.
- ^ a b Rosenberg, Carol (February 2, 2023). "Tortured Guantánamo Detainee Is Freed in Belize". The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 2, 2023. Retrieved February 2, 2023 – via NYTimes.com.
- ^ a b From Baltimore Suburbs to a Secret CIA Prison: Family Learned Last Week That Man Was Among 'High-Value' Terrorism Suspects Moved to Guantanamo Archived 2017-03-02 at the Wayback Machine, The Washington Post, September 11, 2006
- ^ a b c d e f Rich, Eric. The Washington Post, Terrorism suspect alleges mental torture Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine, May 16, 2007
- ISBN 9780062097958. Archivedfrom the original on February 5, 2023. Retrieved June 16, 2013.
- ^ a b c Scharper, Julie; Gorman, Siobhan (September 11, 2006). "Terrorism suspect has Balto. Co. ties". Baltimore Sun. Archived from the original on June 22, 2021. Retrieved February 5, 2023.
- ISBN 1-84277-866-8, accessed February 12, 2010
- ^ "The intelligence factory: how America makes its enemies disappear" Archived 2014-03-17 at the Wayback Machine, Harper's Magazine, November 2009
- ^ Over "Pakistani man convicted of providing material support to Al-qaeda sentenced to 30 years in federal prison" Archived August 30, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, Department of Justice, July 2006
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- ^ Christian Science Monitor, October 6, 2006
- ^ "Boumediene v. Bush, 128 S.Ct. 2229, 171 L.Ed.2d 41 (2008)". Archived from the original on August 4, 2011. Retrieved November 17, 2009.
- ^ "Detainee Suspected of Plot to Destroy Gas, Water Supplies". The Nature of the Enemy. Vol. 1, no. 5. November 8, 2006. Archived from the original on February 13, 2008. Retrieved February 22, 2008.
This experience made Khan highly qualified to assist [Khalid Sheikh] Mohammad with the research and planning to blow up gas stations. Khan is also suspected of working with Mohammad on plans to poison water reservoirs throughout the United States, and plans to assassinate Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.
- Office of the Director of National Intelligence. August 31, 2009. Archived from the original(PDF) on September 1, 2009.
- ^ "Khan v. Bush / Khan v. Gates". Center for Constitutional Rights. Archived from the original on April 22, 2008. Retrieved February 29, 2008.
- ^ "Bush administration: Ex-CIA prisoner shouldn't speak to attorney". CNN. November 4, 2006. Archived from the original on November 5, 2006.
- The Jurist, November 13, 2006
- Reggie B. Walton (January 31, 2007). "Gherebi, et al. v. Bush" (PDF). United States Department of Justice. Archived(PDF) from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved May 19, 2007.
- ^ Pantesco, Joshua (February 1, 2007). "Federal judge halts Guantanamo habeas cases pending appeals ruling". Jurist. Archived from the original on May 8, 2009. Retrieved February 26, 2008.
- The International News. Archived from the originalon April 16, 2009.
- ^ a b Michael Melia (April 16, 2007). "Father of Pakistani Alleges U.S. Torture". Associated Press. Retrieved April 18, 2007.[permanent dead link]
- The Jurist. Archived from the originalon January 30, 2008. Retrieved April 18, 2007.
- ^ Ali Khan (April 16, 2007). "Statement of Ali Khan" (PDF). Center for Constitutional Rights. Archived (PDF) from the original on June 19, 2009. Retrieved June 19, 2009.
- ^ a b c "New testimony on Majid Khan's torture submitted to Guantanamo Combatant Status Review Tribunal: Khan forced to sign confession he had not read". Center for Constitutional Rights. April 16, 2007. Archived from the original on May 23, 2007. Retrieved April 18, 2007.
- OARDEC. March 28, 2007. Archived(PDF) from the original on June 13, 2007. Retrieved May 15, 2007.
- OARDEC. April 15, 2007. Archived(PDF) from the original on June 13, 2007. Retrieved May 15, 2007.
- ^ Guantánamo Prisoners Getting Their Day, but Hardly in Court Archived 2015-09-26 at the Wayback Machine, The New York Times, November 11, 2004 – mirror Archived 2007-09-30 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Inside the Guantánamo Bay hearings: Barbarian "Justice" dispensed by KGB-style "military tribunals" Archived 2016-03-09 at the Wayback Machine, Financial Times, December 11, 2004
- ^ "Annual Administrative Review Boards for Enemy Combatants Held at Guantanamo Attributable to Senior Defense Officials". United States Department of Defense. March 6, 2007. Archived from the original on September 29, 2007. Retrieved September 22, 2007.
- Time magazine. Archived from the originalon October 19, 2012. Retrieved May 25, 2022. mirror
- ^ Sergeant Sara Wood (June 4, 2007). "Charges Dismissed Against Canadian at Guantanamo". Department of Defense. Archived from the original on March 16, 2008. Retrieved June 7, 2007.
- ^ Sergeant (June 4, 2007). "Judge Dismisses Charges Against Second Guantanamo Detainee". Department of Defense. Archived from the original on June 13, 2007. Retrieved June 7, 2007.
- ^ Gitanjali S. Gutierrez (October 15, 2007). "Opinion: Going to See a Ghost: Majid Khan and the Abuses of the 'War on Terror'". The Washington Post. p. A15. Archived from the original on November 3, 2012. Retrieved October 16, 2007.
- ^ a b David McFadden (December 11, 2007). "US Court Grants Motion on Gitmo Suspect". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on November 4, 2012. Retrieved January 25, 2008.
A U.S. appeals court said it had ordered the preservation of evidence so that it can have "sufficient opportunity to consider the merits of the motion" by the defense seeking a ruling on preserving evidence in Khan's case. It should not be construed as a ruling on the motion's merits, the court said in its written order.
- ^ a b c d e f "Ex-Md. resident writes from Guantanamo about CIA torture". The Baltimore Sun. January 22, 2008. Archived from the original on June 20, 2021. Retrieved February 5, 2023.
- ^ "Redacted Motion to Declare Interrogation Methods Used on Majid Khan Are Torture Cleared By CIA". Center for Constitutional Rights. December 2007. Archived from the original on August 26, 2011. Retrieved February 26, 2008.
- ^ "CCR Attorneys Release Revelations of Torture of Former Ghost Detainee Majid Khan". Center for Constitutional Rights. December 2007. Archived from the original on August 26, 2011. Retrieved February 26, 2008.
- ^ a b J. Wells Dixon, Gitanjali S. Gutierrez, Shayana D. Kadidal (July 22, 2008). "Guantanamo Bay Detainee Litigation: Doc 175" (PDF). United States Department of Justice. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 9, 2012. Retrieved September 30, 2008.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ J. Wells Dixon (August 1, 2008). "Guantanamo Bay Detainee Litigation: Doc 238 – Motion for Order directing the Court Security Office to file supplemental status report" (PDF). United States Department of Justice. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 20, 2012. Retrieved April 14, 2010.
- ^ a b "The Guantánamo Docket". The New York Times. May 18, 2021. Archived from the original on March 9, 2022. Retrieved July 25, 2022.
- ^ ""These are War Crimes": Shocking Details Emerge of U.S. Resident Majid Khan's Torture by CIA". Democracy Now!. Archived from the original on June 5, 2015. Retrieved June 4, 2015.
- ^ RAPHAEL, SAM (July 10, 2019). "CIA Torture Unredacted - The Rendition Project" (PDF). Rendition Project. p. 32. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 4, 2019. Retrieved November 3, 2019.
- ^ a b c Rich, Eric (January 18, 2007). "Detainee's Letters Give Peek at Life At Guantanamo: Bush Named Ex-Maryland Man One of 14 'High-Value' Prisoners". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on October 26, 2012. Retrieved January 18, 2007.
- ^ a b Scott Shane (January 19, 2008). "Detainee's Lawyers Rebut C.I.A. on Tapes". The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 19, 2016. Retrieved January 18, 2008.
- ^ "2 Pakistanis in Guantanamo Bay should be released, rights group says" Archived 2006-11-24 at the Wayback Machine, International Herald Tribune, November 23, 2006
- ^ Carol D. Leonnig; Eric Rich (November 4, 2006). "U.S. Seeks Silence on CIA Prisons: Court Is Asked to Bar Detainees From Talking About Interrogations". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on July 31, 2009. Retrieved October 21, 2009.
The battle over legal rights for terrorism suspects detained for years in CIA prisons centers on Majid Khan, a 26-year-old former Catonsville resident who was one of 14 high-value detainees transferred in September from the "black" sites to the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
- ^ "Maryland Man Named As High-Value Terror Suspect"[permanent dead link], WBAL-TV, September 11, 2006
- ^ "CSRT censorship". American Civil Liberties Union. June 15, 2009. Archived from the original on June 17, 2009. Retrieved June 15, 2009.
- OARDEC (April 15, 2007). "Verbatim Transcript of Combatant Status Review Tribunal Hearing for ISN 10020" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. pp. 1–50. Archived(PDF) from the original on June 17, 2009. Retrieved June 15, 2009.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 2, 2023.
- ^ Rosenberg, Carol (June 9, 2022). "Guantánamo Prisoner Who Completed War Crimes Sentence Sues for Release". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 5, 2022. Retrieved October 5, 2022.
External links
- "Guantánamo's tangled web: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Majid Khan, dubious U.S. convictions, and a dying man", Andy Worthington, 14 July 2007
- UN Secret Detention Report (Part One): The CIA's "High-Value Detainee" Program and Secret Prisons, Andy Worthington, 15 June 2010