WASHINGTON, June 5 (UPI) -- Arabs captured with Taliban and al Qaida forces were freed for ransom by a U.S.-backed Afghan warlord following the bitter siege of the last Taliban holdout in Northern Afghanistan last year, lawyers and government officials told United Press International Wednesday.
Officers under Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, currently deputy defense minister of the U.N.-backed interim Afghan government, sought $1 million in ransom to free selected Arab prisoners, according to Dr. Najeeb bin Al Nauimi, a lawyer acting for relatives of dozens of men detained by U.S. forces at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Pakistani and Arab officials in Islamabad confirmed that thousands of dollars were paid by families terrified their relatives would be slaughtered by the notorious warlord, leader of the second-largest party in the Northern Alliance.
Nauimi said that a consortium of wealthy Muslims, whom he declined to identify, told him they had been negotiating with two Dostum lieutenants to free certain Arab prisoners from the Qala-i-Jangi prison outside his stronghold of Mazar-i-Sharif when the deal fell through.
He said the same Muslims were able to save many Arabs by paying ransom of between $10,000 and $30,000.
"I know because I met one who had been freed," Nauimi said, saying that the men were allowed to escape to Pakistan.
But Pakistani officials said the going rate was $5,000-$10,000 for Arabs and $3,000 for Pakistanis. They were allowed to send representatives -- mainly Pashtun tribal elders -- to bargain directly with Dostum's men. Representatives also secretly carried messages from Arab families to their relatives, officials said. After Arab prisoners were released, they traveled to Pakistan, hiding among Pakistani prisoners also freed by Dostum's commanders after their families had paid ransom, officials said.
Nauimi, a lawyer and former Minister of Justice of Qatar, said he has formed an international committee of lawyers to provide legal representation for the some 384 detainees being held in Cuba and for Yaser Esam Hamdi, a detainee who was moved from Guantanamo to Norfolk, Va., after it was learned he had been born in the United States.
He came to Washington Monday to seek an opportunity to talk to the detainees about legal representation.
Nauimi said that after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, Hamdi and many other Arabs who he claimed were not involved with al Qaida or the Taliban were trapped in Afghanistan when Pakistan closed the border. Rumors circulated in Afghanistan that Northern Alliance troops under Dostum's command would kill any Arabs they caught in revenge for the slaying of Ahmed Shah Masud, a Northern Alliance leader who was assassinated by Arab suicide bombers two days before Sept. 11, Nauimi said.
Pakistani officials and Arab diplomats in Islamabad said -- and Nauimi confirmed -- that many of the Arabs freed by Dostum fought in Taliban and al Qaida units during the battle for Konduz, the last Taliban stronghold in Northern Afghanistan. Nauimi said that Hamdi, though not a fighter, had sought refuge with the Taliban in Konduz and was captured there.
Following the fall of Konduz, the defeated Taliban and al Qaida prisoners were taken to Dostum's notorious jail at Qala-i-Jangi -- the Fort of War. Human rights groups say that dozens -- maybe more -- perished en route.
Qala-i-Jangi was in the news after a swift and bloody confrontation between its inmates and Dostum's troops, backed by U.S. air power. The clashes ended with hundreds of prisoners dead, CIA agent Mike "Johnny" Span killed, and "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh in U.S. custody.
Nauimi said that following the fighting at the prison, international television showed photos of Arabs at the Qala-i-Jangi fort shot to death with their hands tied. He said Arab sources have also told him that the so-called uprising at the fort may have been provoked by the Northern Alliance, who gave the prisoners guns and then killed them.
At the time, the U.S. government said the uprising was the work of hardcore Taliban and al Qaida fighters, apparently provoked by the presence of Americans.
Nauimi said that the consortium of Arabs, afraid there would be a massacre of their people, hurriedly tried to buy their freedom. Nauimi confirmed that there may have been members of the al Qaida among those whose freedom was bought.
According to Nauimi, many fervently Islamic young Arabs went to Afghanistan each year during school holidays to live in villages and do social work -- a type of missionary experience. Hamdi was one of them. Hamdi was fearful that he would be killed by Northern Alliance forces and joined up with the Taliban for protection, Nauimi said.
"He was not a military man," Nauimi said.
Hamdi was taken to Qala-i-Jangi, where he was awaiting interrogation in a cell when the uprising occurred. He was later turned over to the United States, as was Lindh.
As many as 200 more detainees may be awaiting transfer from Afghanistan to Guantanamo Bay, Nauimi said.
He said that his research through family members and Arab sources has convinced him that of the 384 detainees in Guantanamo, some 24 may actually be al Qaida or Taliban.
The men's relatives are frightened and perplexed, Nauimi said. They do not understand why their loved ones have been held so long without any charges being leveled against them or their being released.
With Nauimi's help, Hamdi's father in Saudi Arabia was able to get help from the U.S. Public Defender's office. A lawyer from the U.S. Public Defender's office won a District Court order to allow him to meet with Hamdi, but the government appealed. Tuesday the case was argued before the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va.
Frank W. Dunham, Jr. chief of the federal public defender's office in Virginia said, "We're only in this to give this person the rights the Constitution gives to every U.S. citizen." The government opposes giving Hamdi representation by the Public Defender's office because they have no prior relationship with the detainee.
The appeals court may rule as early as Wednesday.
