life after guantanamo a tale of two afghan friends
Last Updated : GMT 06:49:16
Arab Today, arab today
Arab Today, arab today
Last Updated : GMT 06:49:16
Arab Today, arab today

Life after Guantanamo: A tale of two Afghan friends

Arab Today, arab today

Arab Today, arab today Life after Guantanamo: A tale of two Afghan friends

The governor of Bati Kot District of Nangarhar Province Haji Ghalib, who was imprisoned for
Bati Kot, Afghanistan - Arab today

Two Afghan friends were incarcerated together at Guantanamo Bay, but they chose starkly divergent paths after release — one became Daesh militant, the other joined the US-led government fight to crush the group.

Haji Ghalib and Abdul Rahim Muslim Dost, whose friendship coalesced around a shared love for poetry, were scooped up in the post-9/11 American dragnet and shipped off to the prison camp in Cuba.

Their journey encapsulates Guantanamo’s failed legacy in the fight to expunge radicalism, as President Donald Trump appears set to reverse previous US efforts to scale it back.

“Guantanamo is the worst place on Earth,” said Ghalib, who estimates he is 49, deep creases lining his gaunt face.

“Every day I ask myself the same questions: ‘Why was I taken? Why did they ruin five years of my life? Why is there no justice, no compensation?’

After burnishing his reputation as a fearsome commander against the Soviets and the Taliban, Ghalib was serving in the Afghan police in 2003 when he was unexpectedly accused of insurgent links.

Authorities ignominiously stripped him of his post, tore his uniform off publicly, and sent him to Guantanamo until the American military concluded in 2007 that he was “not assessed as being a member of Al Qaida or the Taliban”.

When freed, Ghalib channelled his resentment to fight not the Americans but those he calls the “real enemies of Afghanistan” — the Taliban and, recently, Daesh militants, who are making inroads into the country.

That includes his former friend Muslim Dost, who Western and Afghan officials describe as a top Daesh commander in eastern Nangarhar province, and who was released from Guantanamo two years before Ghalib.

A gifted demagogue, Muslim Dost spent his time inside Guantanamo praying and preaching to other inmates about militancy alongside 9/11 accused Khalid Shaikh Mohammad.

“When he preached the inmates wept,” Ghalib recalled. “They were left shaken by his loud, mesmerising voice.”

Muslim Dost scribbled poems on drinking cups for lack of writing material.

One verse published in the book “Poems of Guantanamo” by US law professor Marc Falkoff reads:

“Consider what might compel a man to kill himself, or another //

“Does oppression not demand some reaction against the oppressor?”

“Guantanamo is a seedbed of terrorism,” said Kako, 35, who was imprisoned along with his cousin Ghalib and returned to be a corn farmer. “It gave legitimacy to fanatics like Muslim Dost.”

Guantanamo, opened in 2002, remains a lightning rod for anti-American sentiment.

Nearly a quarter of the total number of detainees were Afghans, most later found to be non-combatants who were mistakenly apprehended or wrongfully turned over by local bounty-hunters or personal rivals.

“Arbitrary detention was a powerful factor driving some Afghans to insurgency, helping spark a new phase in a long and bitter conflict,” said “Kafka in Cuba”, a recent report from the Afghanistan Analysts Network.

The report by AAN analyst Kate Clark revealed that eight of the longest-serving Afghan detainees were held on “vague accusations, rife with hearsay, gross errors of fact and testimony obtained under duress and torture”.

“It is now 16 years since the US began its intervention in Afghanistan and 15 years since it sent the first Afghans to Cuba. Yet the conflict, like America’s dilemma of what to do with its legacy of war on terror detainees, shows no sign of ending.”

Barack Obama, who sought to shut down Guantanamo, shipped detainees out until the last days of his presidency. But Trump may be set to bar the transfers and bring in new detainees, US media have said, citing a draft executive order.

“America may consider Guantanamo a necessity, but they need to differentiate between fundamentalists and patriots,” Ghalib said.

Ghalib, seen as a loyal US ally, is the district chief of Bati Kot in Nangarhar, a patchwork of rolling hills and orange and melon farms sandwiched between Taliban and Daesh bastions.

His loyalty is undergirded partly by personal tragedy. In 2013, the Taliban killed his brother guarding a highway project in Nangarhar.

Just weeks later, the Taliban dug explosives at the grave site where Ghalib’s extended family had gathered to mourn, killing 18 people including his two wives and grandchildren.

His eldest son brought more sobering news, a walkie talkie snatched from the Taliban dangling from his chest, as Ghalib spoke to journalists inside his fortified base.

A close relative, who had poured him tea just minutes earlier, had been killed in a hit-and-run shooting as he stepped out of the base.

Ghalib turned pensive, his face dropping into his hands.

“People like Muslim Dost are fighting foreigners but mostly killing Afghans,” he said as he composed himself. “If I ever see him on the front line I won’t let him go alive

source : gulfnews

arabstoday
arabstoday

Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

life after guantanamo a tale of two afghan friends life after guantanamo a tale of two afghan friends

 



Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

life after guantanamo a tale of two afghan friends life after guantanamo a tale of two afghan friends

 



GMT 10:10 2017 Thursday ,09 February

3 Important Elements You Have to Consider

GMT 04:03 2017 Monday ,24 April

Bella Hadid ‘dying’ to visit Palestine

GMT 19:25 2016 Wednesday ,25 May

The Brooklyn Desk by Oeuf NYC

GMT 07:49 2018 Friday ,05 January

2 Russian servicemen killed

GMT 07:58 2018 Monday ,01 January

Italy orders N. Korea's envoy to leave

GMT 08:45 2017 Wednesday ,20 December

US military imagines war without GPS

GMT 17:26 2017 Sunday ,17 December

Putin thanks Trump for help in foiling attack plot

GMT 22:19 2017 Monday ,16 October

Cairo-hosted Fatwa conf. new contribution

GMT 02:27 2016 Friday ,10 June

Video hints Japan abetting illegal ivory trade

GMT 07:04 2017 Wednesday ,19 April

1,883 Bahrainis found jobs in March

GMT 14:24 2016 Tuesday ,22 November

Citi and JPMorgan top list of ‘globally banks’

GMT 21:43 2017 Friday ,01 September

People question Nazaruddin`s repatriation expenses

GMT 09:41 2017 Wednesday ,19 April

OIC concerned over violence in Mali

GMT 01:30 2017 Friday ,27 October

May22/Jun21

GMT 05:38 2016 Friday ,30 December

Dubai Airports divert 13 flights due to heavy fog

GMT 11:38 2017 Saturday ,14 January

Mexico names new ambassador to US

GMT 12:03 2017 Wednesday ,22 March

Kuwait to mark World Water Day

GMT 15:00 2017 Wednesday ,27 September

HM King receives invitation from Egyptian President

GMT 02:45 2017 Tuesday ,05 December

President Bashir arrives in Chad

GMT 02:45 2017 Wednesday ,16 August

Turkmen President Visits Pakistan
Arab Today, arab today
 
 Arab Today Facebook,arab today facebook  Arab Today Twitter,arab today twitter Arab Today Rss,arab today rss  Arab Today Youtube,arab today youtube  Arab Today Youtube,arab today youtube

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday
arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday
arabstoday
بناية النخيل - رأس النبع _ خلف السفارة الفرنسية _بيروت - لبنان
arabstoday, Arabstoday, Arabstoday