Email from JoAnn Dolan to Brian Leventhal concerning a CBS Evening News segment that highlighted the release of a 90 year-old Afghani man being released from detention at Guantanamo. The report stated that the man was mistakenly pick up during a clash in Afghanistan and sent to Guantanamo under suspicion of being a Taliban fighter. His release was considered a positive thing, but the segment suggested that there are more innocent men being detained at Guantanamo and this was a rare release based on actual innocence. The report stated “In fact, Guantanamo Bay detention camp appears to host a significant number of people who have no reason to be there.”
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UNCLASSIFIED RELEASED IN PART BS (p0
Leventhal, Brian H
From: DOLANJA@ms.state.gov .
Sent: Sunday, October 13, 2002 3:35 PM
To: LeventhalBH2@STATE.GOV ; BrinkBA@STATE.GOV
Subject: FW: CBS News Report on GTMO and potential releases
In case you missed Friday's CBS Evening News (as I did), you will be
B5
interested in this report. ICIon impending releases and'an
"enemy combatant" who is over 90 years old.
Innocent Afghan Detainees At Gitmo?
Oct. 11, 2002
On April 10th this year, a 21-year-old student earning extra money for his
family drove a taxi out of a stand in Kabul.
As CBS News Correspondent Allen Pizzey reports, three hours later he
rolled up to a roadblock outside the town of Gardez and then disappeared.
A few days later, his father, Sayed Roshan, learned he had been handed
over to U.S. troops. And then heard nothing more.
Then, Roshan tells Pizzey, "Suddenly I got the first message from Cuba."
So aftertwo months of trying to find out what had happened, he suddenly
discovered his son was in Cuba.
Abassin Roshan is now Detainee "JJJFGA" at Camp X-Ray, Guantanamo Bay.
Apparently, Abassin and another taxi driver were picked up in the middle
of clashes between a local warlord and pro-American militiamen and handed
over to U.S. Special.Forces in the camp.
-Within days, the Americans were told the two men were innocent, according •
to the local governor at the time.
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Taj Mohammed Wardak, Minister of the Interior, claims the two men, one of
them being Abassin Sayed Roshan, were not guilty of anything. They were
taken by mistake.
Says Wardak bluntly, "They were not guilty."
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In fact, Guantanamo Bay detention camp appears to host a significant
number of people who have no reason to be there.
According to Pentagon sources, Abassin Roshan is one of about 60 detainees
whose release is "under consideration"..
CBS News has also learned that among those held at Camp X-ray as "enemy
combatants" are several men over the age of 66, and one man who is more
than 90 years old. ,
Sayed Roshan says he was beaten by the Taliban.
He is certain his son hated the fundamentalist regime and has repeatedly
asked the U.S. embassy here to discuss his case.
"Please come in from the embassy," Roshan asked them, "You call me. This
is my contact, this is my fax, this is my telephone."
But no one ever contacted him.
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF STATE
DOS-001145
REVIEW AUTHORITY: ARCHIE M BOLSTER
-CNCLASSIFIED
DATE/CASE ID: 16 DEC 2004 200303827
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UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy officials have refused to comment, saying all questions on
.detainees are handled by the International Red Cross.
In brief messages Abassin has said he is in good health and well-treated,
but it doesn't help his father.
"Everything is, I think is damaged. My mind also is not normally,
twenty-four hours I'm thinking about my son," Roshan says.
Amazingly, Sayed Roshan expresses hope that his son will be able to study
in America. But first, America has to set him free.
c MMII, CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved.