Nationality: Afghan
The following is a summary of the allegations against Bostan
Karim found in publicly available US military documents. If US military
documents about this prisoner are inaccurate or misleading then this summary
will be as well. The introduction to this set
of summaries explains some of the terms used below.
In 2002 an informant told
the US military that 18 IEDs had been prepared for use against US and Coalition
forces. The source said that two of the IEDs were stored in a house belonging
to a person named Karim. The source believed Karim and a person named Obaidullah
were working together to plan the attacks.
This tip-off lead to
Obaidullah’s capture on July 20, 2002 at his home. Active mines were found at
Obaidullah’s house.
In subsequent
interrogations, Obaidullah
said that Bostan Karim recruited him to join his Al Qaeda cell. Obaidullah said
that Bostan gave him the mines and that three days before he was arrested,
Bostan drew schematics showing how to detonate the mines in Obaidullah’s
notebook. Bostan did not tell Obaidullah when the landmines would be used or
who they would be used against, but did tell him that they would be used to
kill people Bostan did not like.
On August 13, 2002
Pakistani police stopped a bus carrying Bostan Karim and Abdallah Wazir. The police
asked Abdallah to step outside the bus to see if he was carrying contraband.
Abdallah then attempted to hand a satellite phone to Bostan without the police
noticing. The police saw the exchange and detained both men.
Pakistani police later realized
Bostan matched the description of an al Qaeda bomb cell leader and formally
arrested both men. Bostan spent about 6 months in a prison in Islamabad before
being handed over to US forces in February 2003.
Bostan told his
CSRT that while he was in US custody at the US military prison at Bagram, he
was not allowed to sleep for 15 days.
Bostan Karim was sent to
Guantanamo on March 6, 2003.
Bostan told US
interrogators that from 1995 until his capture he owned two stores. He said one
store sold plastic flowers and the other rented furniture and dishes for
special occasions.
Bostan denied being a part
of Al Qaeda or the Taliban.
Bostan said that he was a
member of Tablighi Jamaat and that he joined the organization in 1996. Tablighi
Jamaat means Group for Preaching.
According to Stratfor,
Tablighi Jamaat, “sends missionaries across the globe on proselytizing missions
intended to bring wayward Muslims back to more orthodox practices of Islam.”
Bostan’s DAB said that
affiliation with JT has been identified as an Al Qaeda cover story and that Al
Qaeda is known to have used the JT to facilitate and fund the international
travel of its members.
Stratfor says that, “Although
the TJ organization unintentionally serves as a front for, or conduit to,
militant organizations such as al Qaeda, there is no evidence that the
Tablighis act willingly as a global unified jihadist recruiting arm.”
Adel Al Zamel, another
Guantanamo prisoner, said that Obaidullah told him that Bostan, Obaidullah, and
5 others placed 30 anti-tank mines along a road to attack an American convoy. Zamel
said the mines were set up so they could be triggered remotely.
Al Zamel also said that
Bostan told him that Bostan was a member of an Al Qaeda cell.
At his 2004 CSRT,
Bostan said that Obaidullah had been his business partner. Bostan said that
they parted ways because Obaidullah owed him money.
At his CSRT, Bostan said
that when he was captured he had been traveling to Pakistan to buy merchandise.
He requested Obaidullah and Abdullah as witnesses. Although both were at
Guantanamo, his request was denied.
At his 2005 ARB
Obaidullah said that he falsely incriminated Bostan at US military prisons in
Afghanistan because he was tortured.
“The first time when they
[US soldiers] captured me and brought me to Khost they put a knife to my throat
and said if you don’t tell us the truth and you lie to us we are going to slaughter
you […] There were a lot of things they made me say.”
The Unclassified summary
provided to Bostan at his 2005 ARB
showed that Obaidullah had recanted his allegations against Bostan. At his ARB
Bostan said, “The one that really has punished me is Obaidullah.”
Adel Al Zamel was released
in November 2005. In an interview
he gave after his release he said that when he was walked to his interrogations
at the US military prison in Bagram, “the guards would continuously hit me on
my head with sticks, and every time I denied their accusations during
interrogations (of being tied to Al-Qaida) the guards would hit me even more.”
Zamel also said interrogators
intimidated him by placing a gun on the table during an interrogation.
At his 2006 ARB
Bostan said that Obaidullah, “is my enemy.”
Bostan said, “I asked the
interrogators to have him face me… This is a very important thing. Even if we
go back home, I will not let it go. He said to Americans that I am involved.
When I came here, he is hiding from me.”
Bostan also said that
Obaidullah, “damaged me, he has been cruel to me. I want Obaidullah to tell the
truth and the facts. Whether he does it today, tomarrow, 10 days later, I just
want to face him. I know that, when we got back home, he will tell everybody
where he got the bombs, the booklets, and everything, but it will be useless at
that time. So I want him to tell the truth now because it will help me out.”
Obaidullah’s 2008 DAB
says that Obaidullah made statements that show he is afraid of Bostan.
In January 2010 Obama’s
Guantanamo task force recommended Bostan for continued detention.
In 2011 Obaidullah’s
defense team sent a military investigator
to Afghanistan. The military investigator confirmed Obaidullah’s claims that he
had been tortured. Obaidullah had been sleep deprived and struck in the back of
the head with a rifle. The investigator found that the mines at his house had
been left by a communist military commander who used Obaidullah’s house during
the Soviet war in Afghanistan.
Later in 2011 Bostan lost
his habeas
corpus case. Judge Reggie Walton wrote
that the most likely explanation for Bostan taking Abdullah Wazir’s phone on
the bus in Pakistan, “was his knowledge that the telephone could be used to
detonate explosive devices.”
Why did Abdullah hand his
phone to Bostan? Bostan didn’t know why. Abdullah was imprisoned at Guantanamo
from June 2003 through December 2007.
Abdullah told his 2004 CSRT
that he left his phone on the bus because he feared that if the Pakistani
authorities saw the phone, they would take his money because they were corrupt.
Boston Karim remains at
Guantanamo to this day.
