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 As the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan winds down, the White House
will soon provide Congress a dossier on about 50 non-Afghan
detainees in a U.S. military prison north of Kabul. Their uncertain
fate presents sensitive security and legal problems for the Obama
administration in an echo of Guantanamo Bay.
As with Guantanamo, some prisoners at the Parwan detention center
are considered by the U.S. government too dangerous to be freed.
Others have unclear links to the Afghan conflict, including a Yemeni
arrested in Bangkok and moved to the prison.
The classified dossier could provide U.S. lawmakers a more detailed
look at the secretive military detention system and the detainees
that have been kept hidden from public view during the
nearly 13-year U.S.-led war. And it could raise difficult questions
over where and how to resettle them.
If Washington does not, or cannot, keep Parwan open after this year,
U.S. officials say prisoners might be detained or tried in the
United States, held at sea, repatriated or transferred to third
countries, or released when "hostilities" in Afghanistan are over.
When U.S. officials would consider hostilities to be concluded
remains unclear.
The fate of wartime detainees in Afghanistan underscores the
challenges the White House faces as it struggles to end the wars of
the post-September 11 era. It needs to deal with them without
exposing itself to criticism that it is jeopardizing U.S. security
by freeing dangerous prisoners.
"We're concerned that the administration can move some of these
really dangerous guys, frankly without any kind of public
knowledge," a House of Representatives aide said on condition of
anonymity, referring to the 50 detainees at Parwan.
U.S. lawmakers reacted angrily after the Afghan government released
in February 65 Afghan prisoners who had been transferred from U.S.
to Afghan custody, despite U.S. warnings that many of the men had
clear links to the Taliban.
LIFTING THE VEIL
Lawmakers, in a little-noticed section of a giant defense spending
bill passed late last year, required the Pentagon in a classified
report due this month to provide biographical and other information
on many of the non-Afghan detainees in Parwan.
The report must specify whether detainees at Parwan who are
considered to be "enduring security threats" are believed to have
taken part in attacks against Americans and provide other
information about their suspected militant links and histories.
"The (Defense) Department is aware of our reporting requirements and
is working diligently to provide the information required as
expeditiously as possible," said Lieutenant Colonel J. Todd
Breasseale, a Pentagon spokesman.
Lawmakers also required the Pentagon to issue a declassified version
of the new report, but how much of that information will ultimately
be made public remains unclear.
The Parwan detainees' identities — and the transfer of some of them
in the past to other countries — have remained largely a mystery to
the public in the United States and Afghanistan.
Their fate takes on new urgency as foreign troops steadily depart
Afghanistan ahead of a year-end deadline to end the U.S.-led mission
that began in 2001. The White House has said it might leave a modest
force to train Afghan soldiers and pursue al Qaeda if the Afghan
government will sign a bilateral deal.
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IRAQ FLASHBACK?
For many lawmakers, the situation is reminiscent of Iraq, where U.S.
officials handed Ali Mussa Daqduq, a Lebanese-born suspected
Hezbollah militant, to the Iraqi government shortly before the U.S.
withdrawal in 2011. Officials in Washington were enraged when Daqduq
was released in 2012.
The detainees at Parwan, say U.S. and foreign officials, and legal
advocates, include more than 30 Pakistanis, two Yemenis, and others
with Russian, Tunisian, Jordanian or other nationalities. They have
not been charged with any crimes. According to U.S. court
documents, Tunisian Redha al-Najar is believed to have been captured
in Pakistan in 2002 and brought to Afghanistan. A Pakistani named
Amanatullah was brought there after being captured by British forces
in Iraq in 2004 or 2005.
Amin Al-Bakri, a Yemeni merchant, was detained in 2002 in Thailand
and brought to Afghanistan, while the other Yemeni, Fadi al-Muqaleh,
was a fighter captured in Afghanistan in 2002,
an official at the Yemeni Human Rights Ministry said.
U.S. defense officials declined to publicly discuss the detainees'
identities, their alleged crimes, or details of the conditions in
which they have been held at Parwan.
CONUNDRUM
Another aide in Congress, which has periodically been briefed by
U.S. officials about the detainees, said some of the men were
"clearly associated" with the Taliban, while others were believed to
have links to al Qaeda or other groups.
"There's an effort to wrap our heads around what do we do with these
guys," the aide said.
The White House has said it does not plan to send new inmates to
Guantanamo Bay, which President Barack Obama has been seeking
unsuccessfully to close since he took office.
It may be difficult, however, for the United States to transfer
prisoners to Yemen or other countries with a history of prison
breaks or release of transferred detainees.
Some prisoners have already been repatriated, including a small
number sent back to Pakistan in recent years. The United States does
not make such transfers public.
Eleven of 36 Pakistani prisoners believed held in Afghanistan are
being processed for repatriation, said Tasnim Aslam, a spokeswoman
for Pakistan's Foreign Office. Others could be repatriated later.
"Most of them were people who were just working there and were
arrested. There isn't any hardcore evidence about them being
militants," she said.
Returned detainees would be kept under surveillance to make sure
they had no militant links, she said. Prisoner advocates there,
however, say at least some returned detainees have been held in
secret prisons in Pakistan before being released.
(Additional reporting by Katharine Houreld in Islamabad, Sami Aboudi
in Dubai, Mohamed Ghobari in Sanaa, and Patrick Markey in Tunis;
editing by Jason Szep and Ross Colvin)
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