Express Tribune, 27 February 2017
In this article about two former Afghan inmates of Guantanamo who, after their release, chose divergent paths – one became an Islamic State jihadist, the other joined the US-led government fight to crush the group – quotes some passages from Kate Clark’s AAN dispatch about Afghans mistakenly apprehended or wrongfully turned over to US detention:
“Arbitrary detention was a powerful factor driving some Afghans to insurgency, helping spark a new phase in a long and bitter conflict,” said “Kafka in Cuba”, a recent report from the Afghanistan Analysts Network.
The report by AAN analyst Kate Clark revealed that eight of the longest-serving Afghan detainees were held on “vague accusations, rife with hearsay, gross errors of fact and testimony obtained under duress and torture”.
“It is now 16 years since the US began its intervention in Afghanistan and 15 years since it sent the first Afghans to Cuba. Yet the conflict, like America’s dilemma of what to do with its legacy of war on terror detainees, shows no sign of ending.”
Revisions:
This article was last updated on 9 Mar 2020
