Ghairat Baheer Explained
Ghairat Baheer is a citizen of Afghanistan who served as a Senator in the House of Elders of Afghanistan. He is also the Chairman of the Political Committee of Hezbi Islami in Afghanistan. Ghairat Baheer was held by American forces in extrajudicial detention for over six years.[1] The BBC News reported Pakistani officials took him into custody during a pre-dawn raid on his home in Islamabad on October 30, 2002.[2] The BBC said no reason was offered for his apprehension, and that there were rumors US security officials participated in the raid.
After his release in May 2008 Baheer asserted he had spent six months in the salt pit, one of the Central Intelligence Agency's network of clandestine interrogation centers.[3] [4] [5] [6] He spent the rest of his detention in the Bagram Theater Internment Facility in Afghanistan.
According to the Associated Press Baheer is a medical doctor, a son-in-law of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the leader of the Hezbi Islami Gulbuddin previously a militant group, and that he was captured with Gul Rahman, the only captive the CIA has acknowledged died in captivity.[3] In 2010 Baheer was a member of the Hezbi Islami Gulbuddin peace delegation to peace talks.
In an interview with the German news agency DPA Bahir said he spent most of his six years in captivity in chains, bombarded with disorienting music so loud his guards wore hearing protection.[6] He said they were fed an inadequate quantity of food, and he lost 40 kilograms, and he still hadn't fully recovered his strength.
In 2012 he served as the HiG's main negotiator with the United States.[7] [8] [9]
David Loyn, of the BBC News, quoting sources close to new President of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani, reported that Ghairat Baheer had been offered a position in his new cabinet.Baheer, former Taliban Minister of Foreign Affairs, Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil, and former Taliban Ambassador to Pakistan Abdul Salem Zaeef, were offered the Ministries of Minister of Rural Affairs, Minister of Border Affairs and Minister of Religious Affairs.
On June 14, 2018, Baheer addressed 180 members of the Hezbi Islami Party, who had just been released from prison, following the peace negotiations he had helped lead. He urged the men, on behalf of the party, to be peaceful, law-abiding citizens.
Ghairat Baheer was sworn in as a Senator and a member of the House of Elders on September 16, 2018. He was selected for the senate as part of the one third members that the President is entitled to appoint. He is also currently the Chairman of the Political Committee of Hezbi Islami in Afghanistan.
Notes and References
- News: Detained Canadian a 'casualty of war on terror': Questions raised about delay in consular help . . 2011-09-27 . 2011-09-27 . Amber Hildebrandt . A former detainee who knew the Canadian-Egyptian inside Bagram, Ghairat Baheer, said Ismail's Western attitudes and habits irritated other Muslim detainees. Baheer, who spent four years in the detention facility, said Ismail told him he was "not captured as a fighter or a warrior" and was travelling in Afghanistan at the time. . 2011-09-27 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110927215610/http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2011/09/26/canadian-egyptian-detainee-bagram.html . live .
- News: Afghan warlord's relative 'arrested' . . 2002-10-30 . 2012-08-28 . 2015-10-16 . https://web.archive.org/web/20151016144536/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/2375071.stm . live . Ghairat Baheer was taken from his house in Islamabad early on Tuesday, an unnamed Pakistani police officer told the Reuters news agency. It is not clear exactly why he has been detained. .
- News: Death shed light on CIA 'Salt Pit' near Kabul: Handling of terror suspect led to inquiry by agency's inspector general . https://web.archive.org/web/20171223181251/http://www.nbcnews.com/id/36071994/ . dead . December 23, 2017 . . 2010-03-28 . 2011-09-27 . Baheer, who said he spent six months in the Salt Pit during six years in Afghan prisons, said in an interview in Islamabad that he never learned what happened to Rahman. Rahman's family repeatedly pressed International Red Cross officials about his fate, Baheer said. "If he died there in interrogation or he died a natural death they should have told his family and ended their uncertainty," Baheer said. . Adam Goldman, Kathy Gannon .
- News: CIA prisoner said to have once rescued Karzai: Suspected insurgent froze to death while in U.S. custody in 2002 . . 2010-04-06 . 2011-09-27 . Rahman was captured about three weeks before his death in a raid in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad against Hezb-e-Islami, an Afghan insurgent group led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, which was believed to have ties to al-Qaida. Rahman was arrested along with Hekmatyar's son-in-law, Dr. Ghairat Baheer. . Adam Goldman, Kathy Gannon .
- News: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's spokesman and son-in-law freed in Kabul: He was taken for meetings with President Karzai . . 2008-05-30 . 2011-09-27 . 2012-10-01 . https://web.archive.org/web/20121001071404/http://www.rawa.org/temp/runews/2008/05/30/gulbuddin-hekmatyar-8217-s-spokesman-and-son-in-law-freed-in-kabul.html . live . Ghairat Baheer, also son-in-law of Hekmatyar, was kept in detention by Pakistan for two years and was later handed over to the Afghan authorities, Hizb-e-Islami sources said. .
- News: Afghan man recollects being chained in US "dark prison" . Monsters and critics . Nadeem Sarwar . 2011-09-01 . 2013-01-29 . https://archive.today/20130129022401/http://news.monstersandcritics.com/southasia/news/article_1660321.php/Afghan-man-recollects-being-chained-in-US-dark-prison . dead . 2012-08-28.
- News: Ice breaks between US, Hizb-i-Islami . . Zulfiqar Ali . 2012-02-01 . 2012-11-23 . https://web.archive.org/web/20121123195543/http://dawn.com/2012/02/01/ice-breaks-between-us-hizb-i-islami/ . live . Mr Baheer said that he met CIA chief Gen (retired) David Petraeus, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Nato Commander John R. Allen on recent visit to Kabul and discussed with them the situation in war-torn Afghanistan. .
- News: HIA will never make deal on Islamic identity . . 2012-04-19 . 2012-10-21 . https://web.archive.org/web/20121021044611/http://www.thefrontierpost.com/article/157703 . live . Terming their recently concluded five-day visit to Afghanistan successful, chairman of the political committee of the Hizb-i-Islami Afghanistan (HIA), Dr Ghairat Baheer Wednesday said they would never make any deal on the Islamic identity, independence and national integrity of Afghanistan. .
- News: Afghan reconciliation: Saudis spring into action in face of US-Taliban impasse . . Tahir Khan . 2012-08-24 . 2012-08-28 . 2012-08-26 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120826024914/http://tribune.com.pk/story/425491/afghan-reconciliation-saudis-spring-into-action-in-face-of-us-taliban-impasse/ . live . A Taliban delegation led by former Afghan consul-general in Peshawar, Maulvi Najibullah, and a three-member Hizb-e-Islami delegation led by Dr Ghairat Baheer, in charge of political affairs of Hizb-e-Islami, recently visited Saudi Arabia to hold informal talks with kingdom officials, diplomats familiar with the talks said, requesting anonymity. .
