Arrested in the night, two Afghan clerics taken to Guantanamo

Associated Press Newswires | 07/07/2002 | By KATHY GANNON

[TheOtherOne]

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - It was shortly before midnight when the knock on the door came. It was the Pakistani secret service, and the agents took Abdul Ahad's father and two uncles, all Afghans sheltering in Pakistan.

One uncle was quickly released. But the whereabouts of the others remained a mystery until a postcard arrived at the family residence in Peshawar nearly six months later. The return address was Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo, Cuba.

Ahad's uncle, Badruzzaman Badr, and his father, Haji Rahim Muslim Dost, were in American custody at Guantanamo, along with several hundred suspected Taliban and al-Qaida.

The postcard was written by Ahad's uncle on what appeared to be a U.S. military standard issue, no pictures form that was labeled DA Form 2668-R. The card was addressed in English and dated May 13.

In the brief note, written in the Pashto language, the uncle said he and his brother were together, healthy and being well-treated. He said their captors told them they would be released after an investigation is completed.

"We are not suffering," said the message, written in Persian-based Pashto script. "We are OK. We are not having any difficulties."

Badr was described as Detainee: JJEEI. The camp name was Guantanamo and the return address was: 160 Camp X-Ray, Washington, DC 20355, USA.

"They tell us the investigation is continuing and we should wait for their decision," Ahad's uncle said. "God willing, we will be released because we have not committed any crime."

Ahad's father is an Islamic scholar with Jamia al-Dawa, whose members follow the austere Wahhabist version of Islam which is practiced in Saudi Arabia. Ahad said his father has no connection to al-Qaida, although his home in Peshawar was frequented by several Middle Eastern men who have been arrested here for suspected links to Osama bin Laden.

Among those who came to his home were 14 men, all of whom are now in police custody, Ahad said. They all worked for the Kuwait-based aid organization, the Protection of Islamic Heritage. At least two of the 14 men are believed to have links to bin Laden and his al-Qaida network.

"Our home has a big library and Muslims from all over would come to our home. We did not know who they were or what their affiliations," Ahad said in an interview in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad. "Afghans, Pakistanis and Arabs would come to our house to study, to look at our books. My father never asked 'why are the Arabs coming here?' Everyone comes here."

Ahad's father attracted the attention of Pakistani authorities last December because of a fatwa, or religious edict, that he issued attacking moderate Afghan leader Pir Sayed Ahmed Gailani.

Gailani organized a council to look for alternatives to the Taliban, who were at the time under attack by the U.S.-led coalition for failing to hand over bin Laden and shut down his terrorist training camps.

"All people who support the United States and who wish to form a government under the umbrella of the United States are non-Muslim and have no respect for Islam," the edict said.

[TheOtherOne]

Badr was described as Detainee: JJEEI. The camp name was Guantanamo and the return address was: 160 Camp X-Ray, Washington, DC 20355, USA.

Anyone looking for a terrorist pen-pal?

[per loin]

Wahhabis? Sounds like sufficient proof. Hang 'em. If they later are proven to be innocent, we can send their surviving kin an apology wrapped in a nice fresh twenty dollar bill. That way everybody comes out ahead.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

.

[gov_bean_ counter]

Ahad's father is an Islamic scholar

On a busy night, this comment would get nuked.

[piasa]

This is the woman whose father had the fatwa issued against him by the guy in your article:

Afghanistan: Despite Optimistic Talk, Role Of Women Remains Unclear
By Alexandra Poolos

UN officials and Western leaders say the plight of women in Afghanistan must be strongly considered by Afghan delegates now in Bonn for talks on an interim government. Only four women are participating in the UN-sponsored conference. RFE/RL correspondent Alexandra Poolos speaks with one of them about what changes the talks may bring for women in Afghanistan.

Bonn, Germany; 28 November 2001 (RFE/RL) -- The stakes are high for this week's Afghan conference in Bonn.

Billions of dollars in international aid are riding on whether the four Afghan factions attending the conference can hammer out an agreement on an interim government to succeed the Taliban militia. A development conference is currently underway in Islamabad to discuss the country's rebuilding. A second donor's conference has already been scheduled for next week in Berlin.

But as Afghan delegates hold their talks in a luxury hotel overlooking the Rhine River, UN officials and Western leaders are reminding them that any successful interim government must also address the concerns of those in Afghanistan without a voice -- most notably, the country's women.

In his opening address yesterday, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer told the delegates that the international community expects human rights to be a key focus of the new government: "Respect for and protection of human rights -- that includes, first and foremost, guaranteeing the rights and dignity of women. Their active participation in the social and political life of the nation is essential for the country's peaceful future."

Fischer said that a significant portion of the $70 million in aid money pledged by Germany would be geared towards improving education for Afghan women and girls.

But despite such prominent voices of support, it's unclear what role Afghan women will have in their country's future government. Only four women are present in an official capacity at this week's conference, with only two working as actual delegates.

Some 30 Afghan women demonstrated yesterday at the foot of the hill leading up to the conference area in Petersberg, saying the lack of representation at the talks reflects the oppression of women in Afghanistan.

But Fatima Gailani, an adviser to the exile Peshawar group who lives in Providence, Rhode Island, dismissed criticism of the lack of women representatives at the conference. Wearing a loose green scarf over her hair -- attire that had been strictly banned by the Taliban, which flogged women for showing their face in public -- Gailani spoke with our correspondent yesterday on the sidelines of the Petersberg talks.

Gailani -- whose father, former guerrilla commander Pir Sayed Ahmed Gailani, is the nominal head of the Peshawar group -- said the talks mark the beginning of a new future for women in Afghanistan, one that would approach the standards of life under former Afghan King Zahir Shah, which she described as a time of "democracy" and equal rights.

"I think we [are getting] what we didn't -- I didn't -- dream [of]. I thought we would go through all the process of years and years to get what we had in the time of democracy [under the king]. But now I can see that maybe, inshallah [Allah willing], we will get it much sooner than that."

Women were once a vital presence in Afghanistan's working world. In 1977, some 15 percent of the country's legislators were women. Up to the early 1990s, women comprised 70 percent of all teachers, 50 percent of government workers, and 40 percent of medical doctors. But in 1990, Afghan leaders issued a fatwa decreeing that women should not attend school or become educated. The decree -- signed by some 200 mullahs and political leaders -- was only the first of many restrictions placed on the freedom of Afghan women.

The situation deteriorated further in 1992, when the Northern Alliance seized control of the country and forced women out of a number of jobs and required them to wear the veil. In 1996, the year the Taliban came to power, an already desperate situation became intolerable, with the radical Islamic group institutionalizing the total oppression of women. In addition to enforcing use of the head-to-toe burqa that became the most visible symbol of Taliban tyranny, the hard-line Islamic militia also closed down schools for girls, banned women from working altogether, and severely limited their access to health care.

Gailani said she believes delegates are serious about ensuring women's rights in Afghanistan are restored: "You will see. You will see that it was so specifically and clearly spelled [out] by all. That women will have what they had during democracy, which for me is enough. They will be able to have the equal opportunity of education, equal opportunity of work, equal opportunity of political participation to vote and to be nominated as candidates in the parliament. And I hope I will be one."

Despite her apparent optimism, Gailani knows how difficult it is for Afghan women to be taken seriously on the political stage. Gailani, a former spokeswoman for Afghanistan's National Islamic Front, recalls her human rights work in the early 1990s, saying it was impossible for civilians to find representation among the mujahedin military rulers.

"I remember that when there were only a few hundred thousand refugees in Peshawar, my father was insisting that they should have an election and they should learn how to elect their representatives and those representatives should come and sit with the mujahedin leaders so their will be a link between the people of Afghanistan and the politicians and fighters. Unfortunately, this was also not taken seriously."

For now, the Northern Alliance and other Afghan groups say they will guarantee the rights of women. In his opening talks yesterday, Northern Alliance Interior Minister Yunus Qanooni promised the "just" participation of women in Afghanistan's political life.

"We want national unity and the formation of a system in which all different ethnic groups, including women and men, could participate in the political life of Afghanistan in a just manner."

But action for women is not likely to happen fast. Rona Mansoury, a member of the former king's Rome delegation, told journalists that years of oppression have "left their mark in the heads of the men" in Afghanistan, meaning that men are not likely to be comfortable with women sharing equal rights.

Mansoury's words are echoed by life today in Kabul, the capital city now under control of Northern Alliance troops. Last week, the Alliance prevented hundreds of women from marching for their rights, saying they had been given no warning and postponing the march.

[elfman2]

"the return address was: 160 Camp X-Ray, Washington, DC 20355, USA. Anyone looking for a terrorist pen-pal?"

LOL!