Nationality: Afghan
Age: 49
In Afghanistan, there’s a
fable about those who have been falsely accused.
A king had 20 prisoners
who were chained together. Guards were walking the prisoners to their execution.
One prisoner bribed a guard and was set free. Another guard asked, “Where is prisoner
number 20?” The guard who had taken the bribe grabbed a random person and said,
“Here is number 20.”
Haji Wali Mohammed said he is like the innocent person who was chosen to take the place of the 20th
prisoner.
The US military believes
Mohammed served as a high-ranking financial manager for Al Qaeda and the
Taliban. Mohammed, however, said he only handled a single investment for a bank
associated with the Taliban, which ended very badly.
The Allegations
According to the Pakistani
Intelligence Bureau, Mohammed was a wealth money changer who worked with Hezb-e-Islami,
a militant group that fought against the US and its allies in Afghanistan. Pakistani
intelligence also reported Mohammed was very close to Mohammad Omar, the supreme
leader of the Taliban, and to Mohammad Rabbani, a senior Taliban official.
An unspecified foreign
government service claimed Mohammed was an associate of Osama Bin Laden who did
business with the Taliban.
Jordanian intelligence
reported Mohammed was Al Qaeda’s primary financial manager. They also said
Mohammed financed the bombings of two US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in
1998, which killed and wounded over 200 people. They also reported Mohammed
financed an Al Qaeda cell in Jordan, which planned to conduct terrorist
operations in the country on New Year’s Eve in 1999.
Qari Hasan Ulla Peerzai
(AF-562), an Afghan previously imprisoned at Guantanamo, said Mohammed was a
financial manager for Osama Bin Laden.
According to sensitive
reporting, Mohammed facilitated the financing of the purchase of shoulder-fired
surface-to-air missiles for Al Qaeda. The terrorist group reportedly bought the
weapons for fighters in Chechnya.
It is unclear what,
exactly “sensitive reporting” means in Bush-era national security documents. It
could refer to intelligence derived from the torture of high value detainees. I
first made this guess when I profiled Sufyian Barhoumi, an alleged Al Qaeda explosives expert imprisoned at Guantanamo.
However, the phrase could mean something else entirely.
According to an informant,
Mohammed was involved in three large money transfers that were suspicious
because of their large size and possible connection to individuals involved in
terrorist activity. The transfers ranged from $45,000 to $70,000.
Mohammed’s Defense
The story provided by
Mohammed himself, however, is far different.
As a child, he said he
fled with his family to Pakistan in 1978 or 1979, following the Soviet invasion
of Afghanistan. His family started a business that sold clothing, jewelry and
exchanged money between currencies. Eventually, Mohammed made a lot of money in
the currency exchange business.
In 1991, Mohammed
completed the Hajj, a religious requirement in Islam, by traveling the Mecca.
That is why he was given the nickname “Haji” Wali Mohammed.
In 1996, he obtained a
loan for $1.5 million from Abdul Rahman Zahid, the director of the Bank of
Afghanistan. Mohammed planned to use the money to purchase gold in Dubai to
sell at a profit in Afghanistan. The bank was to receive 75 percent of the
profit and Mohammed would receive the rest.
However, things didn’t go
as planned.
Due to fluxuations in
exchange rates, Mohammed lost $500,000 during the endeavor.
Mohammed’s cousin, who
managed a business with him, was arrested by the Taliban to ensure he would
return to the country. Upon Mohammed’s return, he was arrested and told he had
to pay back the entire loss by himself. Mohammed agreed and both he and his cousin
were released.
The Taliban, who were in
control of Afghanistan at the time, said the arrangement was an example of
embezzlement because the government hadn’t approved the deal. As a result,
Zahid was fired from his job as director of the bank.
Abdul Salam Zaeef, a
former Guantanamo prisoner, supported
Mohammed’s claim that he lost a substantial amount of money he borrowed from
the central bank. Zaeef said he was a member of the Economic Council of
Afghanistan and Minister of Transportation at the time.
After his release,
Mohammed created several businesses that failed. By the time of his capture, he
said he owed $1.1 million to about 40 people.
Mohammed said he first
heard about Al Qaeda after it was reported on TV that the organization had
attacked the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.
He transported gold and
jewelry from Dubai for customers in Pakistan. In January 2002, he was arrested
by soldiers working for the Inter-Services Intelligence Agency, a powerful
branch of Pakistan’s military.
Mohammed was told to pay a
bribe or be sent, “to an unknown place that you will never know.” He said
another ISI agent told him to sell his house and give them half the money, “to
save yourself from the bad ending.” He said he refused to pay the bribe.
Pakistani forces turned
Mohammed over to US custody in February 2002, claiming he was a suspected drug
smuggler. He was sent to Guantanamo in April 2002.
Conclusion
The cover stories of many
prisoners at Guantanamo are laughably
implausible.
Mohammed’s, on the other hand, is incredibly detailed, specific and believable.
He told a consistent story
to both his 2004 Combatant Status Review Tribunal and his 2005 Administrative
Review Board. These were both committees created by the Bush Administration to
determine whether prisoners at Guantanamo should continue to be detained.
However, the allegations
against Mohammed from other sources, which said he was a key money manager for Al
Qaeda and the Taliban, are also consistent.
The Transcript of his 2006
Administrative Review Board is classified
because the US government said its disclosure would, “constitute a clearly
unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.”
In January 2010, Mohammed
was recommended for continued detention by Obama’s Interagency Guantanamo Task
Force. While Mohammed is eligible for a Periodic Review Board to reconsider his
status, he has not yet received one.
UPDATE:
Written and Published on Dec. 19, 2024
On Sept. 26,
2016, a Periodic Review Board recommended
Haji Wali Muhammed be transferred, “preferably to a country with reintegration
support and the capacity to implement robust security measures, including
monitoring and travel restrictions.”
On Barack
Obama’s final
day as President of the United States, Jan. 19, 2017, the Defense Department announced
Muhammed had been transferred to the custody of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Muhammed had
been imprisoned at Guantanamo for 14 years and nine months, from May 2002 to
January 2017.
In the UAE, Muhammed
was detained at a facility where he participated in a secretive
rehabilitation program.
Muhammed was
repatriated
in January 2020, according to “The Guantanamo Docket,”
a database of information about Guantanamo prisoners maintained by the New York
Times.
While the Times
doesn’t specify where Muhammed was repatriated to, it was most likely to his
home country of Afghanistan.
