One of the prisoners who has been held at Guantanamo Bay the longest has been given the all-clear for release by a U.S. government review panel.
In its “final determination” from July 19, the Periodic Review Board stated that there was no longer justification to keep Khalid Ahmed Qasim detained at the base.
The board recommended that Qasim be released into a nation “with a good rehabilitation and reintegration programme” after spending more than 20 years in the prison camp.
In his twenties when he landed in Afghanistan in 2000, Qasim was one of the so-called “forever inmates” at Guantanamo. He had never travelled outside of his home Yemen before.
He went to work helping those in need, according to statements he and his attorneys have made over the course of the subsequent 20 years.
The Northern Alliance, a coalition of Uzbek, Tajik, and Hazara warlords who opposed al Qaeda and the Taliban and became important allies of U.S. forces in the country, increased its efforts to capture anyone of Arab descent in Afghanistan after the attack on the USS Cole and the assassination of Afghan leader Ahmed Shah Massoud by al Qaeda.
They turned over their prisoners to American forces and, in accordance with testimony from the prisoners themselves and Gary Schroen, a former CIA intelligence officer who assisted in the hunt for Osama bin Laden, frequently paid sizeable bounties.
According to Qasim’s attorneys, he chose to turn himself in out of fear for the worst because he had no involvement in any attacks and was confident he would be freed.
Instead, he asserts that he was subjected to a cruel interrogation, torture, and coercion that led to a false confession of having trained with al Qaeda.
In the end, he was given to American forces, who in May 2002 transferred him to Guantanamo Bay.
As “prisoner 242,” Qasim has now spent half of his life there. He was never tried or accused of any wrongdoing.
He alleges that the first nine years of his imprisonment were spent in solitary confinement, that he was tortured physically and mentally, and that he went on a seven-year hunger strike.
Qasim’s “low level of training and lack of leadership in al Qaeda or the Taliban” had previously been acknowledged by the periodic review board, a parole mechanism set up by the Obama administration specifically to assess Guantanamo cases.
However, up until last week, the board had maintained that he was ineligible for release due to a “inability to manage his emotions and actions” and his “lack of plans for the future if released.”
His attorney contests that conclusion.
Qasim and a few other Guantanamo detainees are represented by Mark Maher, a British charity “Reprieve” lawyer located in the United States, who told CBS News that Khalid is still young and eager for the prospects that lie ahead of him.
Qasim has learned himself English and Spanish while he has been detained. In addition to beginning to write poetry, he has also developed into a skilled artist.
In 2020, the CUNY Law School in New York organised an exhibition where some of his works were on show.
In an open letter to President Joe Biden in January 2022, Qasim stated, “Painting has been my solace.” “I’m proud of my creativity.
When they were on display in New York, I imagined the people in their wonderful metropolis looking in on the paintings as they looked out onto the opulent streets and tall buildings, and how they couldn’t possibly understand what our lives were like.”
In 2016, when Margaret Brennan of CBS News visited the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, Qasim saw her team through a perimeter fence and was eager to share his artwork with them.
He held it out for the cameras to see.
He shouted descriptions of each painting in a mix of English and Arabic from behind the barrier.
The Yemeni has plans for the future, according to Maher, who said he hadn’t had a chance to communicate with Qasim since the board’s decision last week.
These ambitions include returning to school, pursuing a profession as an English or Arabic tutor, and honing his artistic abilities.
His desire to depart with his artwork is his first priority, Maher added.
As you may be aware, the Biden administration did not change the policy that forbade detainees from sending their artwork outside of the jail as the Trump government did.
As of Monday, neither the precise date nor the nation with whom the United States might negotiate Qassim’s transfer were known.
It won’t be Yemen, where he is from, as domestic U.S. law forbids the transfer of Guantanamo captives to that violent nation, according to his attorney.
Only that he be transported to “a country with a solid rehabilitation and reintegration programme and necessary security assurances as agreed to by the relevant USG (U.S. government) departments and agencies)” is specified in the board’s directives.
The U.S. Secretaries of State and Defense are still in charge of his future.
Finding eligible nations to transfer some other released Guantanamo detainees took the U.S. government years.
Khaled is multilingual, therefore there are many nations in which I believe he could easily assimilate, Maher said CBS News.
“We hope this government is sincere about releasing detainees from Guantanamo, and immediate action is required to keep that pledge,” the statement reads.
According to the prisoner’s letter to Mr. Biden in January, he is eager to leave Guantanamo Bay behind and begin life anew.
Then he remarked, “There is another life for me outside this prison, but I don’t know where I will go or what I will do.