Bostan Karim

Originally the Bush Presidency asserted that captives apprehended in the "war on terror" were not covered by the Geneva Conventions, and could be held indefinitely, without charge, and without an open and transparent review of the justifications for their detention.^[5] In 2004 the United States Supreme Court ruled, in Rasul v. Bush, that Guantanamo captives were entitled to being informed of the allegations justifying their detention, and were entitled to try to refute them.

Following the Supreme Court's ruling, the Department of Defense set up the Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants.^[5][8]

Scholars at the Brookings Institution, led by Benjamin Wittes, listed the captives still held at Guantanamo in December 2008, according to whether their detention was justified by certain common allegations:^[9]

• Bostan Karim was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges ... took military or terrorist training in Afghanistan."^[9]
• Bostan Karim was listed as one of the captives who was a "Taliban fighters and operatives."^[9]

To comply with a Freedom of Information Act request, during the winter and spring of 2005, the Department of Defense released 507 memoranda. Each of the 507 memoranda contained the allegations against a single detainee, prepared for their Combatant Status Review Tribunals. The detainee's name and ID numbers were redacted from all but one of the memoranda. However, 169 of the memoranda had the detainee's ID hand-written on the top right hand of the first page corner. When the Department of Defense complied with a court order, and released official lists of the detainee's names and ID numbers it was possible to identify who those 169 were written about. Bostan Karim was one of those 169 detainees.^[10] The allegations against Karim presented to his Combatant Status Review Tribunal were:

a. The detainee is a member of the Taliban and al Qaida:

1. Detainee was possibly identified as an al Qaida associate, planning landmine attacks in Khowst [sic], Afghanistan.
2. Detainee was possibly identified as a person likely to have communicated with Arab al Qaida members operating in Peshawar, Afghanistan, and working directly for Arab al Qaida in the Knowst [sic] province.
3. The detainee recruited others to lay mines that would harm American and Afghan forces.
4. The detainee offered to pay others to lay mines that would harm American and Afghan forces.
5. The detainee was arrested by the Pakistani Police authorities on 13 August 2002 at the Khurgi, Pakistan checkpoint. In the detainee's possession was a Thuraya Satellite telephone, 2,700 United States Dollars, 3,600 Pakistan Rupees, and 70,000 Afghan Rupees.
6. A doctors examination of detainee’s hands indicated that extant scarring appeared to be caused by explosives.

Karim chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.^[11]

Karim began by asking why witnesses he had cited were disallowed. He was told that they were “Not reasonably available”. Other Tribunals have specifically asked detainees to explain what they think unavailable witnesses would testify to. Karim was not asked to explain what he thought his witnesses would testify to.

During his testimony, Karim repeatedly expressed his regret that his former business partner Obaidullah, and Abdullah Wazir were not present to testify on his behalf. Usually “Not reasonably available” meant that the witnesses were not in Guantanamo. But both Abaidullah and Abdullah Wazir were present in Guantanamo. Late, during the nine months it took to convene tribunals for the 558 detainees who remained at Guantanamo there was a policy change about allowing detainees to call other detainees as witnesses. Following the policy change, the Personal Representative would meet with the witness, and take a statement, if they were classified at a different level of compliance than the detainee who requested them. The detainee was only allowed to question their witness, live and in person, if they were classified at the same level of compliance as their witness.

Karim chose to have the allegations against him read out, one at a time, so he could respond to each one in turn. Karim denied being a member of the Taliban, or al-Qaeda. He denied knowing any Arabs. He denied having anything to do with landmines. He pointed out that he had to borrow money for the last buying excursion for his two stores.

Karim acknowledged that he was arrested at the border, when the minibus he was a passenger in was stopped. One of the other passengers was Abdullah Wazir, someone who had been a friend of his six years ago. When the van was stopped at the border, the border control agents asked three of the passengers to step out, including Wazir. When Wazir stepped out he unexpectedly handed Karim a package. Karim did not know what it was at first. He thought it might have been a camera. It was, in fact, Wazir's cell phone. Most of the money was Wazir's as well, except for 3,500 Rupees.

Karim said the burn scars on his hand and knee were from his childhood. His mother told him that when he was a toddler she had turned her back and he had tried to crawl on the cooking stove. He expressed skepticism that his pattern of burns, to two isolated parts of his body, could have been caused by an explosion.

Karim blamed the allegations against him on his former partner Abaidullah. He broke their partnership after a dispute over money. He felt Abaidullah owed him 80,000 Rupees. Abaidullah only acknowledged 60,000 Rupees. Karim suspected that Abaidullah may have drawn him into this trouble out of spite. Karim said that Abaidullah would not have known what caused the scars to his hand because he had never told him.

Karim acknowledged serving as a missionary. However, his missionary work was for a branch of Islam that preached peace and tolerance. They were suppressed by the Taliban because of their exposition of tolerance and unwillingness to engage in jihad.