Guantanamo’s alleged Kurdish prisoner says he isn’t a Kurd
GUANTANAMO BAY — US prosecutors in Guantanamo seek life imprisonment for Nashwan Al-Tamir, a member of al-Qaeda identified as a Kurd and accused of plotting to attack coalition forces and civilians in Afghanistan. Al-Tamir denies the charges and says he is not a Kurd.
Al-Tamir was unable to attend his hearing on September 28 for health reasons. Prior to his arrest he had degenerative disk disease and has undergone five back surgeries in prison. He is one of 40 “high value” detainees at Guantanamo.
Lt. Col. Michael Libretto, the judge, proceeded with the hearing where both the prosecution and the defense teams presented their arguments on the defendant’s refusal to attend the hearing. Prosecution argued the court should not be held “hostage” by Al-Tamir, while his defense argued that traveling to and sitting at court for hours caused him pain and therefore knowingly subjecting him to such conditions would amount to “torture".
His charges aside, something else stands out in Al-Tamir’s story. Multiple media outlets and books have described him as Kurdish, an identity he “adamantly rejects”, Navy Commander Aimee Cooper, a former attorney for Al-Tamir told Rudaw in a phone call.
Other sources close to Al-Tamir confirmed that not only he rejects this alleged Kurdish identity, it in fact “bothers him”.
The story of Al-Tamir being a Kurd dates back to November, 25th 2014 when Turkish journalist Rusen Cakir published an article in which he wrote, “To replace al Zarqawi, Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden appointed one his most trusted men Abdul Hadi al Iraqi, a Kurd who was born in Mosul.”
There is no proof of the prisoner’s Kurdish identity, said Cakir when three members of Al-Tamir’s defense team traveled to Istanbul in March 2017 looking for evidence on his ethnic background. The “story would sell better” if Al-Tamir was identified as a Kurd, Cakir had said, according to members of the defense team.
Cakir’s first attempt at publishing his story came to naught. Then realizing that the ongoing hostilities in Turkey may increase interest in his story he edited the piece and was able to publish it with the allegations. Multiple news organizations, including Foreign Policy, picked up the article assuming Cakir had exercised due diligence in writing his article.
Abd al Hadi al Iraqi, who says his name is Nashwan Al-Tamir, poses for the International Red Cross in 2014 , and provided by his attorneys.
Al-Tamir, now 57, was born in the Iraqi city of Mosul to a Sunni Muslim family and is an Iraqi citizen.
His Iraqi national identity card known as jinsya could help settle the dispute over his identity, but a request to see the card was turned down as it is categorized by the US military as “For Official Use Only”.
Hoping to get a clue about his ethnic background I began searching for the name of Al-Tamir’s tribe which more often than not in Iraq would give you a good idea about someone’s ethnic or religious identity.
“Al-Tamir is not his given name, it is a tribe name (or is similar to a name given by ones tribe - I will have to clarify that information),” The Navy Cmdr Cooper wrote back in response to my question. “It is given by "the work you do" His great great grandfather was a trader of dates and that is literally what al-Tamir means "trader of dates”.”
The 'Shahada Jinsyiay' (Iraqi national identity card) of Nashwan Abdulrazzaq.
Al-Tamir’s CIA profile maintains that he “Spent more than 15 years in Afghanistan. Before September 11, 2001 he was a member of al-Qaida’s ruling shura council” and that he was a member of the al-Qaeda throughout the 1990s until his arrest in October 2006.
He is charged with plotting attacks in the 1990s, 2002-2004, including “Denying Quarter, Attacking Protected Property, Using Treachery or Perfidy, and Attempted Use of Treachery or Perfidy in a series of attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan between about 2003 and 2004, and Conspiracy to commit law of war offenses.”
Al-Tamir denies the charges. He claims that he enlisted in the Iraqi army at a young age and later lived an ordinary life in Mosul.
He "completed about two years of Secondary school in Iraq before he was drafted as an enlisted soldier in Saddam Hussein's Army. He served in the army as an enlisted soldier (non-commissioned officer) until he was released in 1988. After being released, he returned to Mosul where he lived with his parents - he sold dates and drove a taxi” Navy Cmdr Cooper told Rudaw.
On my visit to Guantanamo, I spoke with a number of individuals who cannot be identified or their positions and affiliation disclosed, but who are closely aware of Al-Tamir’s case. They speculated that the story of him being a Kurd might have surfaced due to his first name, Nashwan, which is a common Kurdish name.
One individual thought the claim may stem from a mix-up with another al-Qaeda operative who was in Afghanistan around the same time as Al-Tamir.
The other Al-Qaeda operative was known to intelligence agencies as Hadi, and Al Tamir was arrested as Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi in Gaziantep, Turkey.