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Abdul Rahim Ghulam Rabbani was a citizen of Pakistan who was held in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.

American Intelligence analysts estimated that Rabbani was born in 1967.

Abdul Rahim Ghulam Rabbani arrived at Guantanamo on September 19, 2004, and was held at Guantanamo for over 18 years, until his release on February 23, 2023.

Detention in "the salt pit"

According to Laid Saidi, Rabbani, and his brother, Mohammed Ahmad Ghulam Rabbani, were being held in the CIA black site known as "the salt pit" at the same time as him. He was born in a Pakistani family that migrated from India to Karachi following the partition in 1947. The family lived in Saudi Arabia for many years.

Official status reviews

Originally, the Bush Presidency asserted that captives apprehended in the "war on terror" were not protected by the Geneva Conventions, and could be held indefinitely, without explanation. However, in 2004, the United States Supreme Court ruled, in Rasul v. Bush, that the captives were entitled to hear the allegations that justified their detention, and to try to refute those allegations.

Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants

In 2004, in response to the Supreme Court's ruling in Rasul v. Bush, the Department of Defense set up the Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants. Documents from those reviews were published in response to Freedom of Information Act requests.

Scholars at the Brookings Institution, led by Benjamin Wittes, listed the captives still held in Guantanamo in December 2008, according to whether their detention was justified by certain common allegations:

• Abdul Rahim Ghulam Rabbani was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges ... are members of Al Qaeda."
• Abdul Rahim Ghulam Rabbani was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges ... stayed in Al Qaeda, Taliban or other guest- or safehouses."
• Abdul Rahim Ghulam Rabbani was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges ... took military or terrorist training in Afghanistan."
• Abdul Rahim Ghulam Rabbani was listed as one of the captives who was an "al Qaeda operative".
• Abdul Rahim Ghulam Rabbani was listed as one of the captives who worked directly for "Khalid Sheikh Mohammad".

Habeas petition

A habeas submission was submitted on his behalf to US District Court Judge Ricardo M. Urbina. In response, on December 13, 2005, the Department of Defense published a fourteen-page dossier of unclassified documents arising from his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.

His Summary of Evidence memo was drafted on November 10, 2004.

The documents indicate a USAF Major, his Personal Representative, recorded on the detainee election form that they met for half an hour on 17 November 2004 to discuss his upcoming Tribunal. His Personal Representative's notes state he chose not to attend his Tribunal.

Tribunal panel 21 convened 23 November 2004 and confirmed his "enemy combatant status". The decision memo drafted by the Tribunal states it reached this conclusion based on classified evidence. Unusually this Tribunal was not convened in Guantanamo, and the Personal Representative who met with him was not present. The Department of Defense has not offered an explanation as to why this Tribunal was not convened in Guantanamo.

His name is spelled both as "Abdul Al-Rahim Ghulam Rabbani" and "Abu Rahim Moulana Gulam Rabbani" in the document.

Formerly secret Joint Task Force Guantanamo assessment

On April 25, 2011, whistleblower organization WikiLeaks published formerly secret assessments drafted by Joint Task Force Guantanamo analysts. His assessment was twelve pages long, and recommended his continued detention. It was signed by camp commandant David M. Thomas Jr. and was dated June 8, 2008.

Joint Review Task Force

When he assumed office in January 2009 President Barack Obama made a number of promises about the future of Guantanamo. He promised the use of torture would cease at the camp. He promised to institute a new review system. That new review system was composed of officials from six departments, where the OARDEC reviews were conducted entirely by the Department of Defense. When it reported back, a year later, the Joint Review Task Force classified some individuals as too dangerous to be transferred from Guantanamo, even though there was no evidence to justify laying charges against them. On April 9, 2013, that document was made public after a Freedom of Information Act request. Abdul Rahim Ghulam Rabbani was one of the 71 individuals deemed too innocent to charge, but too dangerous to release. Although Obama promised that those deemed too innocent to charge, but too dangerous to release would start to receive reviews from a Periodic Review Board less than a quarter of men have received a review. Rabbani was approved for transfer on May 13, 2021.

Hunger strike

Rabbani and his brother participated in the hunger strike that started on August 8, 2005.

Release

Rabbani and his brother were transferred to Pakistan on February 23, 2023.

Death

Rabbani died of a stomach illness on November 1, 2024.

References

1. "JTF- GTMO Detainee Assessment" (PDF). US Department of Defense. 2008-06-09.
2. "GUANTANAMO DETAINEE PROFILE Detainee ISN: PK-1460" (PDF). Periodic Review Secretariat. 2016-03-21. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-12-23.
3. OARDEC (2006-05-15). "List of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from January 2002 through May 15, 2006" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. Archived (PDF) from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 2007-09-29.
4. ^ "Guantanamo Bay Detainee Transfer Announced". defense.gov. Retrieved 2023-03-10.
5. "Measurements of Heights and Weights of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (ordered and consolidated version)" (PDF). Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas, from DoD data. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2010-06-13.
6. Margot Williams (2008-11-03). "Guantanamo Docket: Abdul Rabbani Abd al Rahim Abu Rahman". New York Times.
7. Craig S. Smith; Souad Mekhennet (2006-07-07). "Algerian Tells of Dark Term in U.S. Hands". New York Times. Algiers. p. A1. Archived from the original on 2015-06-19. Mr. Masri and Mr. Saidi said they got to know other prisoners, including two Pakistani brothers from Saudi Arabia, whose phone number Mr. Masri also memorized. Using that number, The New York Times reached relatives of the brothers, Abdul al-Rahim Ghulam Rabbani and Mohammed Ahmad Ghulam Rabbani, who said they had heard from the Red Cross two years ago that the brothers were being held in Afghanistan. Pentagon documents show that two men with those names are now detainees at Guantánamo Bay.
8. Akbar, Mirza Shahzad (16 February 2015). "Will the PM fight for Pakistanis in Guantanamo?". Express Tribune. Retrieved 17 February 2015.
9. ^ Benjamin Wittes; Zaathira Wyne (2008-12-16). "The Current Detainee Population of Guantánamo: An Empirical Study" (PDF). The Brookings Institution. Archived from the original on 2013-06-01. Retrieved 2010-02-16. Al Sani said he traveled to Afghanistan shortly before September 11 and trained on a Kalashnikov. "I felt it was important in coming of age," he said. "I went to Afghanistan for weapons training, not to fight anyone."{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
10. ^ "Abdul Al-Rahim Ghulam Rabbani v. George W. Bush -- Civil Action No. 05-1607 (RMU)" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. 2005-12-13. pp. 55–67. Archived (PDF) from the original on 7 August 2008. Retrieved 2008-08-18.
11. Christopher Hope; Robert Winnett; Holly Watt; Heidi Blake (2011-04-27). "WikiLeaks: Guantanamo Bay terrorist secrets revealed -- Guantanamo Bay has been used to incarcerate dozens of terrorists who have admitted plotting terrifying attacks against the West – while imprisoning more than 150 totally innocent people, top-secret files disclose". The Telegraph (UK). Archived from the original on 2012-07-15. Retrieved 2012-07-13. The Daily Telegraph, along with other newspapers including The Washington Post, today exposes America's own analysis of almost ten years of controversial interrogations on the world's most dangerous terrorists. This newspaper has been shown thousands of pages of top-secret files obtained by the WikiLeaks website.
12. "WikiLeaks: The Guantánamo files database". The Telegraph (UK). 2011-04-27. Retrieved 2012-07-10.
13. "Guantanamo Bay detainee file on Abdul Rahim Ghulam Rabbani, US9PK-001460DP, passed to the Telegraph by Wikileaks". The Telegraph (UK). 2011-04-27. Retrieved 2012-07-14.
14. David M. Thomas Jr. (2008-06-08). "Recommendation for Continued Detention Under DoD Control (CD) for Guantanamo Detainee, ISN US9PK001460DP" (PDF). Joint Task Force Guantanamo. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-05-09. Retrieved 2012-07-14. Media related to File:ISN 01460, Abdul Rabbani Abu Rahman's Guantanamo detainee assessment.pdf at Wikimedia Commons
15. Peter Finn (January 22, 2010). "Justice task force recommends about 50 Guantanamo detainees be held indefinitely". Washington Post. Archived from the original on 2015-05-04. Retrieved July 21, 2010.
16. Peter Finn (May 29, 2010). "Most Guantanamo detainees low-level fighters, task force report says". Washington Post. Archived from the original on 2015-05-10. Retrieved July 21, 2010.
17. Andy Worthington (June 11, 2010). "Does Obama Really Know or Care About Who Is at Guantánamo?". Archived from the original on 2010-06-16. Retrieved July 21, 2010.
18. "71 Guantanamo Detainees Determined Eligible to Receive a Periodic Review Board as of April 19, 2013". Joint Review Task Force. 2013-04-09. Archived from the original on 2015-05-19. Retrieved 2015-05-18.
19. "Unclassified Summary of Final Determination" (PDF). Periodic Review Secretariat. 2021-01-26. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2021-07-22.
20. "Justice detained at Guantanamo?", Denver Post, November 13, 2005 - - mirror
21. Rosenberg, Carol (2023-02-23). "U.S. Sends Home Brothers Held for Nearly 20 Years at Guantánamo Bay". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-02-25.
22. https://www.cage.ngo/articles/an-obituary-for-abdul-rahim-rabbani---an-innocent-man-who-lived-with-the-torture-of-guantanamo-after-release
23. https://www.arabnews.pk/node/2577787/pakistan

External links

• UN Secret Detention Report (Part Two): CIA Prisons in Afghanistan and Iraq Andy Worthington, June 16, 2010

• 1967 births
• 2024 deaths
• Prisoners and detainees held in the Salt Pit
• Muhajir people
• Pakistani expatriates in Saudi Arabia
• Detainees of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp
• People from Karachi