Hiwa Abdul Rahman Rashul
On June 17th, 2004, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld acknowledged holding, in extrajudicial detention, an Iraqi named Hiwa Abdul Rahman Rashul.[1] He was of the category called "ghost prisoners", whose detention was not made public or reported to relevant governments. [2] He is an Iraqi Kurd who was suspected of membership in Ansar al-Islam, an Iraqi terrorist group with links to the late Abu Musab Zarqawi, who is believed to be responsible for beheading American Nicholas Berg and for attacks on coalition forces.[3] The CIA had transported him to covert detention in Afghanistan. However Jack Goldsmith,Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel, at the Department of Justice, advised the CIA that he was protected by the Geneva Conventions, and covertly transporting him out of Iraq was a violation of the Geneva Conventions.
Rashul was the first ghost detainee to be publicly acknowledged by American authorities, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld acknowledged that he ordered Rashul to be imprisoned, off the books, at the request of DCI George Tenet. [4]
References
- ↑ Donald Rumsfeld. Presenter: Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and General Peter Pace, Vice Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, United States Department of Defense, June 17, 2004. Retrieved on 2008-05-17.
- ↑ Josh White. Army, CIA Agreed on 'Ghost' Prisoners, Washington Post, March 11, 2005, p. A16. Retrieved on 2008-05-17.
- ↑ Iraq's invisible man: A 'ghost' inmate's strange life behind bars, US News and World Report, June 28, 2004. Retrieved on 2008-05-17.
- ↑ Dana Priest (October 24, 2004), "Memo Lets CIA Take Detainees Out of Iraq: Practice Is Called Serious Breach of Geneva Conventions", Washington Post