24.2.23
On Thursday, the US authorities confirmed that two Pakistani brothers in Guantánamo — Ahmed Rabbani, 53, and his elder brother Abdul Rahim, 55 — had been freed from Guantánamo and sent home to Pakistan.
Both men had been held by the US for over 20 years. Seized in their home city of Karachi in September 2002, they had been held and tortured in CIA “black sites” for 545 days before being sent to Guantánamo in September 2004, where they had been held ever since without charge or trial.
As Carol Rosenberg noted for the New York Times, which has just published the story of their release, a day after it was broken on social media by former prisoner Mansoor Adayfi, the US authorities claimed that it was holding the brothers “for helping to operate safe houses where suspected operatives of Al Qaeda holed up after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.”
That narrative, however, was rather fatally undermined in December 2014, when the unclassified summary of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report into the CIA torture program was released, which revealed that Ahmed Rabbani was a case of mistaken identity, confused with an Al-Qaeda operative named Hassan Ghul, who was seized in early 2004 in Iraq, held in CIA “black sites” for two years, then transferred to Pakistani custody. Freed in 2007, he was reportedly killed in a drone strike in October 2012.
Held without charge or trial
For five years the brothers were held without any effort made by the US authorities to ascertain, objectively, if there was any truth to their claims that they had been involved in any way with Al-Qaeda. When Barack Obama became president, in January 2009, he established a high-level review body to assess the cases of the 240 prisoners he had inherited from George W. Bush, and when that body, the Guantánamo Review Task Force, issued its recommendations in January 2010, the brothers were recommended for prosecution along with 34 others.
However, as the military commission trial system broke down (with some of its pitiful handful of convictions overturned on the basis that “providing material support for terrorism” had been invented as a war crime by Congress), the majority of the men recommended for prosecution were, instead, made eligible for another review process, the Periodic Review Boards. These were initially established to assess the cases of 48 men regarded by the task force as “too dangerous to release,” even though the task forces’s members acknowledged that insufficient evidence existed to put them on trial, but by the time they began their deliberations, in November 2013, just 41 men remained in that category, and 23 men recommended for prosecution had been added.
The Rabbanis had their cases reviewed in July 2016 (Abdul Rahim) and September 2016 (Ahmed), but both had their ongoing imprisonment without charge or trial upheld, and it was not until May 2021 that Abdul Rahim was recommended for release by a subsequent PRB under President Biden, with a similar decision in Ahmed’s case following in October 2021.
The US must free the 18 other men approved for release
Reassuring though it is that both men have finally been freed, it is both inexplicable and unacceptable that it took so long. As I explained in a recent article following the release of Majid Khan, another Pakistani, who was resettled in Belize, 337 days after his terrorism-related sentence came to an end, the Biden administration pulled out all the stops in securing his release, which was required by law, but was noticeably dragging its heels when it came to releasing the 20 other men, never even charged with a crime, who had been approved for release via the Periodic Review Boards (and, in three cases, via the Guantánamo Review Task Force).
This is because the PRBs are a purely administrative process, and have no legal weight, but in practical terms what was signified with Khan’s release was that, as I described it, “it is easier to resettle from Guantánamo someone convicted of terrorism but demonstrably remorseful [as Khan was] than it is to resettle someone never charged with a crime at all.”
As of February 10, when I published my article, the 20 men approved for release but still held had been held for between 140 and 4,767 days since review processes determined that they should no longer be held, with Abdul Rahim Rabbani having waited 638 days, and Ahmed Rabbani having waited 491 days (by the time of their release, 651 days and 504 days).
What this means, of course, is that the Biden administration urgently needs to secure the release of these 18 other men before anyone in the US government congratulates themselves on the release of Ahmed and Abdul Rahim Rabbani. The hard work, to put it bluntly, still lies ahead.
Celebrating the Rabbanis’ release
Despite this, the release of the Rabbanis is a cause for celebration for the brothers themselves, for their families, and for those who worked so hard to secure their release — in particular Clive Stafford Smith, the founder of Reprieve, who now runs an organization called 3DC, whose mission is “to open doors to the next generation of justice advocates to better their own communities and wider society.”
As Ahmed’s attorney, Clive has been tireless in promoting his case, securing numerous op-eds in which Ahmed discussed the hunger strike that he had embarked on in 2013, reflected on the world outside Guantánamo, and lamented the life he had lost with his son Jawad, who was born after his capture. Now 20, he first spoke to his father by Skype, when he was seven or eight years old, in a call facilitated by members of the International Red Cross, as he recalled when talking to Alice Speri for The Intercept back in 2021. “He told me he’s in jail, and I asked him, ‘Why? Bad guys are supposed to be in jail,’” Jawad recalled, adding, “He laughed and didn’t answer me.”
He has continued to talk to his father regularly, although, as Alice Speri explained, “It often takes a while to break the ice on their calls,” which “start with small talk and awkward silences.” As Jawad described it, “By the time you start enjoying the conversation, the time is up.” Recalling his childhood, Jawad added, “I didn’t have much of a childhood that I could remember, any memories to be nostalgic about. I never think about my childhood, I don’t have anything to look back to.”
Ahmed was also one of eight current and former Guantánamo prisoners whose art was featured in an exhibition at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York in 2017, which prompted an authoritarian clampdown from the Pentagon, under Donald Trump — an outrageous ban on any prisoners giving artwork to their lawyers or leaving the prison with their work, which has only just been overturned, following pressure exerted by two UN Rapporteurs. It is very much to be hoped that Ahmed has been allowed to leave Guantánamo with what Carol Rosenberg described as “the more than 100 paintings he had amassed in his years of detention.”
Much less is known about Abdul Rahim Rabbani, although his attorney, Agnieszka Fryszman, who has represented him since 2006, told a Periodic Review Board panel that “he has kept himself busy with simple pursuits. He sweeps and cleans his block, for example, and stays away from conflict.”
Speaking after the men’s release was announced, Clive Stafford Smith told the Times that Ahmed was “very damaged” from the long years of his hunger strike, and “has a hard time holding food down,” although he added that “he is getting better on that front.” As he also explained, “The irony is that today, and all through his hunger strike, when they were in communal living, he would cook for the other men.” Cooking has always been a passion of Ahmed’s, and as Stafford Smith also explained, Ahmed “wants to run a restaurant after he is reunited with his family.”
A fundraising appeal
Unlike Majid Khan, however, whose resettlement costs were funded by the US government, Ahmed and Abdul Rahim Rabbani will have been left to their own devices when the US cargo plane carrying them from Guantánamo landed in Pakistan, and, as a result, if anyone can help them out, 3DC launched a fundraiser prior to their release, hoping to raise money to support their reintegration into society.
As 3DC explained, “Only three things are certain in life: Death, Taxes, and that when someone is released from 20 years of wrongful and torturous detention in Guantánamo Bay, the US will send him home with not so much as an apology.”
They added, “We have to find them a place to live with their families. It is not expensive compared to UK rates, but far beyond anything they can afford after losing 20 years of their lives. We need to raise £15,000 which will cover the deposit, 12 months rent as well as other expenses during their first year of returning home.”
Over £10,000 has so far been raised, so if you can help 3DC reach their £15,000 target, please do.
And after you’ve done that, please help myself and other campaigners to keep putting pressure on the Biden administration to move swiftly to release the 18 other men approved for release but still held.
POSTSCRIPT Feb. 28: See below for photos taken in Karachi and posted on social media by Clive Stafford Smith, of Abdul Rahim, Ahmed and Saifullah Paracha (released last October), and of Ahmed with his son Jawad.
* * * * *
See the following for articles about the 142 prisoners released from Guantánamo from June 2007 to January 2009 (out of the 532 released by President Bush), the 196 prisoners released from February 2009 to January 2017 by President Obama, the one prisoner released by Donald Trump, and the first six prisoners released by President Biden, whose stories are covered in more detail than is available anywhere else – either in print or on the internet – although many of them, of course, are also covered in The Guantánamo Files, and for the stories of the other 390 prisoners released by President Bush, see my archive of articles based on the classified military files released by WikiLeaks in 2011: June 2007 – 2 Tunisians, 4 Yemenis (here, here and here); July 2007 – 16 Saudis; August 2007 – 1 Bahraini, 5 Afghans; September 2007 – 16 Saudis; 1 Mauritanian; 1 Libyan, 1 Yemeni, 6 Afghans; November 2007 – 3 Jordanians, 8 Afghans; 14 Saudis; December 2007 – 2 Sudanese; 13 Afghans (here and here); 3 British residents; 10 Saudis; May 2008 – 3 Sudanese, 1 Moroccan, 5 Afghans (here, here and here); July 2008 – 2 Algerians; 1 Qatari, 1 United Arab Emirati, 1 Afghan; August 2008 – 2 Algerians; September 2008 – 1 Pakistani, 2 Afghans (here and here); 1 Sudanese, 1 Algerian; November 2008 – 1 Kazakh, 1 Somali, 1 Tajik; 2 Algerians; 1 Yemeni (Salim Hamdan), repatriated to serve out the last month of his sentence; December 2008 –- 3 Bosnian Algerians; January 2009 – 1 Afghan, 1 Algerian, 4 Iraqis; February 2009 — 1 British resident (Binyam Mohamed); May 2009 —1 Bosnian Algerian (Lakhdar Boumediene); June 2009 — 1 Chadian (Mohammed El-Gharani); 4 Uighurs to Bermuda; 1 Iraqi; 3 Saudis (here and here); August 2009 — 1 Afghan (Mohamed Jawad); 2 Syrians to Portugal; September 2009 — 1 Yemeni; 2 Uzbeks to Ireland (here and here); October 2009 — 1 Kuwaiti, 1 prisoner of undisclosed nationality to Belgium; 6 Uighurs to Palau; November 2009 — 1 Bosnian Algerian to France, 1 unidentified Palestinian to Hungary, 2 Tunisians to Italian custody; December 2009 — 1 Kuwaiti (Fouad al-Rabiah); 2 Somalis; 4 Afghans; 6 Yemenis; January 2010 — 2 Algerians, 1 Uzbek to Switzerland; 1 Egyptian, 1 Azerbaijani and 1 Tunisian to Slovakia; February 2010 — 1 Egyptian, 1 Libyan, 1 Tunisian to Albania; 1 Palestinian to Spain; March 2010 — 1 Libyan, 2 unidentified prisoners to Georgia, 2 Uighurs to Switzerland; May 2010 — 1 Syrian to Bulgaria, 1 Yemeni to Spain; July 2010 — 1 Yemeni (Mohammed Hassan Odaini); 1 Algerian; 1 Syrian to Cape Verde, 1 Uzbek to Latvia, 1 unidentified Afghan to Spain; September 2010 — 1 Palestinian, 1 Syrian to Germany; January 2011 — 1 Algerian; April 2012 — 2 Uighurs to El Salvador; July 2012 — 1 Sudanese; September 2012 — 1 Canadian (Omar Khadr) to ongoing imprisonment in Canada; August 2013 — 2 Algerians; December 2013 — 2 Algerians; 2 Saudis; 2 Sudanese; 3 Uighurs to Slovakia; March 2014 — 1 Algerian (Ahmed Belbacha); May 2014 — 5 Afghans to Qatar (in a prisoner swap for US PoW Bowe Bergdahl); November 2014 — 1 Kuwaiti (Fawzi al-Odah); 3 Yemenis to Georgia, 1 Yemeni and 1 Tunisian to Slovakia, and 1 Saudi; December 2014 — 4 Syrians, 1 Palestinian and 1 Tunisian to Uruguay; 4 Afghans; 2 Tunisians and 3 Yemenis to Kazakhstan; January 2015 — 4 Yemenis to Oman, 1 Yemeni to Estonia; June 2015 — 6 Yemenis to Oman; September 2015 — 1 Moroccan and 1 Saudi; October 2015 — 1 Mauritanian and 1 British resident (Shaker Aamer); November 2015 — 5 Yemenis to the United Arab Emirates; January 2016 — 2 Yemenis to Ghana; 1 Kuwaiti (Fayiz al-Kandari) and 1 Saudi; 10 Yemenis to Oman; 1 Egyptian to Bosnia and 1 Yemeni to Montenegro; April 2016 — 2 Libyans to Senegal; 9 Yemenis to Saudi Arabia; June 2016 — 1 Yemeni to Montenegro; July 2016 — 1 Tajik and 1 Yemeni to Serbia, 1 Yemeni to Italy; August 2016 — 12 Yemenis and 3 Afghans to the United Arab Emirates (see here and here); October 2016 — 1 Mauritanian (Mohammedou Ould Slahi); December 2016 — 1 Yemeni to Cape Verde; January 2017 — 4 Yemenis to Saudi Arabia; 8 Yemenis and 2 Afghans to Oman; 1 Russian, 1 Afghan and 1 Yemeni to the United Arab Emirates, and 1 Saudi repatriated to Saudi Arabia for continued detention; May 2018 — 1 Saudi to continued imprisonment in Saudi Arabia; July 2021 — 1 Moroccan; March 2022 — 1 Saudi (Mohammed al-Qahtani); April 2022 — 1 Algerian; June 2022 — 1 Afghan; October 2022 — 1 Pakistani (Saifullah Paracha); February 2023 — 1 Pakistani to Belize (Majid Khan).
* * * * *
Andy Worthington is a freelance investigative journalist, activist, author, photographer (of an ongoing photo-journalism project, ‘The State of London’), film-maker and singer-songwriter (the lead singer and main songwriter for the London-based band The Four Fathers, whose music is available via Bandcamp). He is the co-founder of the Close Guantánamo campaign (and see the latest photo campaign here) and the successful We Stand With Shaker campaign of 2014-15, and the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison and of two other books: Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion and The Battle of the Beanfield. He is also the co-director (with Polly Nash) of the documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (available on DVD here, or you can watch it online here, via the production company Spectacle, for £2.50).
In 2017, Andy became very involved in housing issues. He is the narrator of the documentary film, ‘Concrete Soldiers UK’, about the destruction of council estates, and the inspiring resistance of residents, he wrote a song ‘Grenfell’, in the aftermath of the entirely preventable fire in June 2017 that killed over 70 people, and he also set up ‘No Social Cleansing in Lewisham’ as a focal point for resistance to estate destruction and the loss of community space in his home borough in south east London. For two months, from August to October 2018, he was part of the occupation of the Old Tidemill Wildlife Garden in Deptford, to prevent its destruction — and that of 16 structurally sound council flats next door — by Lewisham Council and Peabody. Although the garden was violently evicted by bailiffs on October 29, 2018, and the trees were cut down on February 27, 2019, the struggle for housing justice — and against environmental destruction — continues.
To receive new articles in your inbox, please subscribe to Andy’s RSS feed — and he can also be found on Facebook (and here), Twitter, Flickr and YouTube. Also see the six-part definitive Guantánamo prisoner list, The Complete Guantánamo Files, the definitive Guantánamo habeas list, the full military commissions list, and the chronological list of all Andy’s articles.
Please also consider joining the Close Guantánamo campaign, and, if you appreciate Andy’s work, feel free to make a donation.
Investigative journalist, author, campaigner, commentator and public speaker. Recognized as an authority on Guantánamo and the “war on terror.” Co-founder, Close Guantánamo and We Stand With Shaker, singer/songwriter (The Four Fathers).
Email Andy Worthington
Please support Andy Worthington, independent journalist:
7 Responses
Andy Worthington says...
When I posted this on Facebook, I wrote:
Celebrating the release from Guantanamo of two brothers, Ahmed and Abdul Rahim Rabbani, who were held without charge or trial for over 20 years, first in CIA “black sites,” and, since September 2004, at Guantanamo, where they were finally approved for release by Periodic Review Boards in 2021.
With their release, just 32 men are still held at Guantanamo, although, crucially, 18 of these men have also been approved for release, and yet are still held. This is because, as with the Rabbani brothers, the process by which they were approved for release was purely administrative, and has no legal weight, meaning that there is no mechanism that can oblige the government to release them with any sense of urgency.
As the Rabbinis finally taste freedom once more, the Biden administration needs to make the release of these other 18 men an urgent priority.
...on February 24th, 2023 at 8:45 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Dorian Haqmoun wrote:
Thank you, Andy.
...on February 25th, 2023 at 10:54 am
Andy Worthington says...
Thanks for your interest, Dorian!
...on February 25th, 2023 at 10:55 am
Andy Worthington says...
Natalia Rivera Scott wrote:
Happy news!!!
May life give them all the love, health and happiness that has been denied to them all these years.
...on February 25th, 2023 at 10:55 am
Andy Worthington says...
Absolutely, Natalia. Good to hear from you.
...on February 25th, 2023 at 10:56 am
Andy Worthington says...
Kevin Hester wrote:
You’ve dedicated a large part of your life to the human rights of these detainees.
Huge respect Andy.
Every patriot is entitled to protect their country. Whether these men resisted the empire or not is irrelevant.
The blame for the conflict lies with the occupier.
...on February 25th, 2023 at 10:56 am
Andy Worthington says...
Thanks for the wonderful supportive words, Kevin. What’s particularly noticeable about the “war on terror” and Guantanamo, however, is how few of the men held were actually seized in countries with which the US was at war. Far more men were seized in Pakistan than in Afghanistan, for example, and others were seized in dozens of countries worldwide. The US seems somehow to have normalized the frankly unacceptable concept that, after 9/11, the entire world was a battlefield.
...on February 25th, 2023 at 10:57 am