Abdul Zahir

ISN: 753

Nationality: Afghan

The following is a summary of the allegations against Abdul Zahir 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.   

Abdul told US interrogators he worked as a translator for Abd al Hadi al Iraqi. Abdul says that he worked for money, not for political views or purpose.

According to his DAB Abdul told US interrogators that he was in a car when one of his friends threw a grenade at a vehicle carrying two journalists and their translator in Afghanistan in March 2002. Abdul’s DAB says that he was aware of Bilal’s possession of the grenades and his intentions and did not attempt to stop the attack or turn him in after the attack.

Abdul told his CSRT that he played no role in the attack and that he simply told his interrogators the names of the people involved in the attack.

Abdul was charged for his alleged role in the attack in the first version of the military commissions. The charges were dropped after that version of the military commissions was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld in 2006. He has not been charged since.

His DAB says that Abdul wrote a letter to a released Guantanamo prisoner saying that, “we will die as martyrs we will have fun (going touring) during our freedom.” His DAB also says he wrote in a book at Guantanamo that, “The Almighty said ‘fight the unbelievers-they have no faith.’ When we fight America the head of the unbelievers, we destroy the decay in earth; we hit the head of the sneak to kill the whole body.”

Abdul was captured when US forces raided his home in Afghanistan in July 2002. He was later transferred to US custody. He arrived at Guantanamo in October 2002.

Abdul was recommended for prosecution by Obama’s Guantanamo task force in January 2010.