Guantanamo prisoner returns to Afghanistan, and is arrested again in another dubious U.S. raid

[bigtree]

Feb. 8, 2009

KABUL, Afghanistan -

The first time Hafizullah Shahbaz Khiel was seized, in 2002, he spent five years at Guantanamo. In legal documents, the U.S. cites a source saying he helped al-Qaida and planned to kill a government official. But Hafizullah says he was turned in by a corrupt police chief as revenge, and the Afghan government cleared him of all charges in December 2007.

{snip}

Upon Hafizullah's release in 2007, the Afghan government held him for three months and then cleared him of all charges. But in the September raid, Hafizullah and 13 others were arrested, including his brothers and three sons. The others were later released.

Hafizullah's U.S. lawyers are now challenging his detention at Bagram. Family members fear a decades-old feud involving a distant cousin, Fazle Rabi, may have been behind the nighttime raid on Hafizullah's home.

Zormat elders, leading clerics, the provincial governor, the National Reconciliation Bureau and two members of Parliament have signed documents attesting to Hafizullah's innocence. Armed with the documents, Hafizullah's brothers and young nephews are trying to get him released.

So far, they have had no luck, says Rafiullah Khiel, an English-speaking nephew who works in the finance ministry.

"No one is listening to our voice," he says.


read: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29070215/

[DesertFlower]

1. OMG. nt

[ddeclue]

2. Perhaps instead of arresting him and holding him in Guantanamo we ought to be offering him asylum?

:shrug:

[anonymous171]

3. lol Tribalism

Why are we even over there again?

[bigtree]

4. that's it

Our troops used as pawns in decades-old rivalries in the interest of nation-building.

[Solly Mack]

5. K&R

shakes head