U.S. releases man from Guantanamo
The United States on Friday complied with a federal court order and released a former Afghan militiaman from detention in Guantanamo Bay.
Assadullah Haroon Gul, who is in his 40s, was held for 15 years at the military prison under the name Haroon al-Afghani and was never charged with any war crimes.
A U.S. Air Force plane carrying Haroon departed Thursday from Guantanamo Bay and delivered him to Qatar, which has long served as a go-between on U.S. interests with the Taliban.
Qatari officials then handed Haroon over to Taliban government representatives in Doha, according to a senior U.S. official. Soon after, Afghan government media released images of Taliban officials in Qatar greeting Haroon.
When Afghan forces allied with the United States captured Haroon in 2007, he was considered a commander of the Hezb-i-Islami militia, which fought alongside the Taliban and al-Qaida against the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. Then, in 2016, the militia made peace with the government of President Ashraf Ghani, a U.S. ally, casting doubt on whether Haroon could legally be held as part of an enemy force at Guantanamo Bay.
By last year, the Ghani government had filed a petition in U.S. court seeking his return.
But by the time a federal judge, Amit Mehta of the U.S. District Court in Washington D.C., ruled that his continuing detention was unlawful, the Taliban had ousted the Ghani government, leaving the Biden administration with the conundrum of how to get Haroon home.
In most instances, the law requires the secretary of defense to certify to Congress his satisfaction with the security arrangements, which typically require monitoring of the former detainee, restricting his travel and sharing intelligence with American counterterrorism officials. But when a court orders a release, as in Haroon's case, no such certification is required. Instead, the transfer was approved by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who sent notice to Congress of the pending release last month.
Still, some security guarantees were obtained, said J. Todd Breasseale, the acting Defense Department press secretary.
“They largely mirror those arrangements for other court-ordered repatriations to their home nation,” he said. A State Department official declined to provide specifics but said the repatriation of Haroon “does not convey recognition of the Taliban.”
Republican members of Congress decried the release.
Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida called Haroon's release “reckless” and “unconscionable.” Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma accused the Biden administration of “repopulating the terrorists' ranks” by repatriating Haroon.
Seven senators proposed legislation that would block further transfers of detainees from Guantanamo to Afghanistan.
The transfer reduced the number of detainees at Guantanamo Bay to 36, 20 of whom could be released if the State Department finds nations to receive them.
Two other citizens of Afghanistan are currently held at Guantanamo Bay.
Haroon was born to an Afghan family that fled to a refugee camp in Pakistan during a civil war, according to court filings.
He is married and has a daughter, who was born after he was captured. They live in Afghanistan. A brother and his mother live in Peshawar, Pakistan.
Last year, Tara Plochocki, one of Haroon's lawyers, described her client as “desperate to get home” to make sure his daughter gets an education. The Taliban barred women and girls from going to school the last time they were in power.
On Friday, Plochocki credited State Department efforts “over the past two months” for arranging the transfer and said the decision in this case “shows that no one, not even the U.S. government, and not even in war, is above the law.”