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Amid Fears of Releases, U.S. Cedes Prison to Afghanistan Amid Fears of Releases, U.S. Cedes Prison to Afghanistan
(about 3 hours later)
BAGRAM, Afghanistan — The American military formally transferred all but “a small number” of the Afghan prisoners at the Bagram Prison to the Afghan government on Monday in a ceremony that almost, but not quite, marked the end of the American involvement in the long-term detention of insurgents here. idsrc="nyt-classifier" value="automobiles,business,college,dealbook,dining,education,fashion,garden,giving,health,jobs,magazine,movies,multimedia,nyregion,obituaries,realestate,science,sports,style,technology,theater,travel,us,washington,weekinreview,world:::More articles about Bagram Air Base (Afghanistan).:::http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/b/bagram_air_base_afghanistan/index.html" class="Topic" type="Topic">BAGRAM, Afghanistan — Within hours of the American military formally transferring all but a “small number” of the Afghan prisoners at the Bagram Prison to the Afghan government, President Hamid Karzai held a friendly news conference with Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday that stood in stark contrast to his recent acrimonious tone toward the United States.
The transfer, in which the Americans were ceding control to the Afghan government over which Taliban will be released, was a choice of long-term influence in Afghanistan — by trying to improve the chances of negotiating an American presence here after 2014 — over holding firm in a thorny disagreement. The apparent rapprochement, which the Americans worked hard to achieve, was a product in part of policy turnarounds on detention and on the deployment of Special Operations forces in a crucial province.
The Bagram commander, Gen. Ghulam Farouk Barakzai, said that the Americans had given the Afghans control of a total of 4,000 prisoners in the last year since the transfer began but that a small number still remained in American custody. He would not say how many or for how long they might be held by the Americans. In both cases, the Americans appeared to choose long-term influence in Afghanistan over holding firm on thorny issues. On detention, American officials had long feared that the Afghans might release dangerous Taliban prisoners. But the Obama administration has made a priority of reaching an agreement on an American military presence here after 2014 that will allow the United States to keep tabs on Iran and Pakistan and contain extremists in Pakistan’s ungoverned tribal areas.
If recent history is any guide, the decisions the Afghans make on Taliban releases after taking control are not likely to reassure the American military. None of the tension that marked Mr. Karzai’s recent meeting with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel was on display Monday evening.
Among those released in recent years by Afghan officials or Afghan courts were most of the 46 Taliban prisoners who had been returned from the Guantánamo Bay prison camp. One became the top insurgent commander in southern Afghanistan: Maulavi Abdul Qayum Zakir, whose real name is Abdullah Ghulam Rasoul. He was released from an Afghan prison in late 2008, just before the American troop surge was to start. Another was the suicide bomber who in December very nearly killed Asadullah Khalid, the head of the Afghan intelligence service. The attacker had previously been freed by a presidential pardon, according to officials of that agency. Two weeks ago, the news conference with Mr. Hagel was canceled and he and Mr. Karzai had tense closed-door discussions about the Bagram prison handover and alleged abuses by special forces in Wardak Province.
Keenly aware of such cases, American military commanders had stubbornly insisted that they retain some control over decisions about releasing prisoners, which in turn led to a toxic, protracted dispute with the government of President Hamid Karzai. This time, the news conference with Mr. Kerry ran for nearly an hour as he and Mr. Karzai lavished praise on each other.
Now, however, the Americans have given in, their eyes on a post-2014 security deal seen as critical to keeping insurgents from returning and keeping tabs on two of Afghanistan’s worrisome neighbors, Iran and Pakistan, officials said. Western and Afghan officials interviewed about the issue spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive negotiations. The handover ceremony came just hours before the new American secretary of state, John Kerry, arrived in Kabul for talks with President Karzai. Mr. Karzai expressed his thanks both to the American people and the American government. And he blamed the news media for misinterpreting his earlier inflammatory comments that the United States was supposedly colluding with the Taliban to keep Afghanistan weak. In making those remarks, Mr. Karzai asserted, he was speaking only to the Taliban and telling them that their bomb attacks were merely giving the Americans a reason to prolong their stay in Afghanistan.
“It’s all part of the bilateral security agreement; it’s about a shift that’s going on in how the U.S. is looking at what’s important,” said one American official knowledgeable about detention issues. “We have to look at the larger picture: What’s the U.S. strategic interest here?” “We talked about the ups and downs of our relationship,” Mr. Karzai said of his talks with Mr. Kerry. “I am very happy about this transfer of Bagram to Afghan control. It was very important for the people of Afghanistan.”
The decision was said to have been eased in part by “private assurances” from Afghan officials not to release “enduring security threats,” as they call the most dangerous prisoners. They are believed to number no more than 50 among the nearly 4,000 prisoners at Bagram, in the sprawling prison compound connected to the American air base north of Kabul. Mr. Kerry, who has known Karzai for years and met with him five times while he was a senator from Massachusetts, even persuading him to proceed with an Afghan election runoff in 2009, was equally effusive.
Since the transfer to the Afghans began last spring, they have released 1,376 of the prisoners, General Barakzai said. Those releases occurred when the Americans still had a veto and ran joint review boards with the Afghans to determine who could be released. “We are on the same page,” Mr. Kerry said. “I don’t think there is any disagreement between us, and I am very, very comfortable with the president’s explanation.”
Even those earlier prison releases led to the return to the battlefield of some high-level Taliban figures, a senior Afghan military official said. According to the senior Afghan military officer, among those confirmed to have returned to the fight include Maulavi Said Khail, who is now a Taliban commander in Wardak Province; Maulavi Shaheer, who turned formerly peaceful Badakhshan Province into a new war zone, where 17 Afghan soldiers were killed in a single battle this month and 10 more taken hostage on Monday; and Maulavi Raouf, who has become one of several new commanders in Helmand Province, where the insurgents are trying to regain control as American surge forces have pulled out. Mr. Kerry’s unannounced visit to Kabul was his first to the country as secretary of state. Mr. Kerry had initially wanted to also visit Pakistan, whose cooperation is vital in any effort at stabilizing Afghanistan, but he decided not to go now because of the elections there. But Mr. Kerry did meet Pakistan’s army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, for dinner in Amman, Jordan, on Sunday.
Afghan officials said the review boards will no longer exist and all prisoners at Bagram, present and future, will go straight into normal judicial proceedings. American officials, however, said they expected the Afghans to maintain review boards, but without American participation. The difference may be a semantic one, as Afghans expect teams of prosecutors to review which prisoners are released and which are prosecuted in court. For Mr. Karzai and Mr. Kerry, it seemed doubtful the harmony would endure. Regaining full control of his country from the Americans looms large for Mr. Karzai, who has chafed at being called a puppet ruler by his opponents. The Obama administration is prepared for further clashes ahead.
An American military official in Kabul insisted that the military has confidence that those insurgents whom the United States views as enduring security threats would not be released easily or quickly. “These people pose a threat to Afghan soldiers and Afghan civilians, too,” the official said. “We’re confident they will have appropriate measures in place to ensure dangerous detainees don’t pose a threat to Afghan and coalition forces.” "The process of winding down our current position and role in Afghanistan and stepping into more of a support role is not going to be a smooth process at all times,” said a senior State Department official traveling with Mr. Kerry. “Issues of sovereignty and security are always going to be difficult."
The Americans have long argued for a nonjudicial review process and a way to hold insurgent prisoners in long-term administrative detention, because of the difficulty of building criminal cases under battlefield conditions. Americans have argued that without such a system, soldiers in the field may be tempted to kill rather than capture insurgents. Afghan officials objected that administrative detention was unconstitutional. Bagram Prison was the most flagrant symbol of Mr. Karzai’s lack of control. Americans detained several thousand Afghans there, and Mr. Karzai had no power to release them. Mr. Karzai’s effort to wrest the prison from the Americans began in earnest more than year ago and nearly happened at least twice, most recently two weeks ago, a day before Mr. Hagel’s first visit.
In the past, most releases of Taliban prisoners have occurred from Afghan prisons; only prisoners captured by the Americans are taken to Bagram. In addition, prisoners for whom criminal court cases can be brought have been routinely transferred from Bagram into the Afghan penal system. Each time, American military commanders backed out because of worries that the Afghans might release Taliban prisoners, who would return to the battlefield and endanger American soldiers. This time, despite those concerns, the transfer went forward.
Many of those have been released by the courts, or through presidential pardons. One recent example was Maulavi Dastager, who was released from Pul-e-Charki Prison and immediately rejoined the Taliban in Badghis Province, where he was responsible for an attack that killed 14 Afghan soldiers and policemen, according to a police commander in Badghis, Col. Amir Shah Naybzada. “The government is always making mistakes by releasing Taliban commanders who go right back to the insurgency,” he said. “It’s about a shift that’s going on in how the U.S. is looking at what’s important,” said one American official knowledgeable about detention issues. “We have to look at the larger picture: What’s the U.S. strategic interest here?”
In Kunar Province, a troubled area in eastern Afghanistan, Afghan intelligence officials gave the names of three Taliban fighters who were released in the past year and rejoined the fight in Narai District. One has since been recaptured. The Bagram commander, Gen. Ghulam Farouk Barakzai, said Monday that the Americans had given the Afghans control of a total of 4,000 prisoners in the last year since the transfer began but that a small number still remained in American custody. He would not say how many were being held by the Americans, or for how long.
Critics of Mr. Karzai were alarmed recently when he appointed a prominent cleric in Kabul, Maulavi Enayatulah Balegh, to review the cases of 700 mullahs and religious officials who are in Afghan prisons, mostly because of suspected insurgent activity. Known for his anti-American sentiments, Mr. Balegh recommended the release of hundreds of the Taliban clerics in a meeting earlier this month with Mr. Karzai. If recent history is any guide, any decisions the Afghans make on Taliban releases after taking control are not likely to reassure the American military.
In an interview, Mr. Balegh said he had determined that 100 to 150 of the imprisoned clerics were merely members of the Taliban but had not committed any crimes. Many of the others should be released as well, he said. “There are those who have served several years of their sentences; they need to be released,” he said. “Those who tried to carry out a bombing or an assassination but didn’t succeed, they need to be released. This is our goal: to empower the peace process.” Among those released in recent years by Afghan officials or Afghan courts were most of the 46 Taliban prisoners who had been returned from the prison camp in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. One became the top insurgent commander in southern Afghanistan — Maulavi Abdul Qayum Zakir, whose real name is Abdullah Ghulam Rasoul. He was released from an Afghan prison in late 2008, just before the American troop surge was to start. And the suicide bomber who in December nearly killed Asadullah Khalid, the head of the Afghan intelligence service, had been freed by a presidential pardon, according to officials of that agency.
Mr. Balegh dismissed American concerns that released prisoners would return to the war. “We Afghans are the ones who face the most danger from these people who are released, not the Americans,” he said. The Americans also agreed with Mr. Karzai’s demands that they withdraw special operations forces from a district of Wardak Province, which abuts Kabul, after accusations of abuse by the special operations troops even though the Americans believe that the accusations were inaccurate. The special operations forces are expected to leave in the next two to three weeks, military officials said.
Opposition leaders in Afghanistan have complained that Mr. Karzai has repeatedly released high-level Taliban prisoners without getting anything from the Taliban in return, since they have so far refused to participate in peace talks with the Afghan government, dismissing it as a puppet of the Americans. The decision to hand over the Bagram Prison was said to have been eased in part by “private assurances” from Afghan officials not to release “enduring security threats,” as officials call the most dangerous prisoners. Those high-security inmates are believed to number no more than 50 among the nearly 4,000 prisoners at Bagram, which is connected to the American air base north of Kabul.
“What Karzai is doing is making random decisions on releasing the Taliban without getting any assurances from them,” said Abdullah Abdullah, who ran against Mr. Karzai in the 2009 elections. “In most cases they have rejoined the battlefield.” Since the transfer to the Afghans began last spring, the Afghans have released 1,376 prisoners, General Barakzai said. Those releases occurred when the Americans still had a veto and ran joint review boards with the Afghans to determine who could be released.
One of the most notorious such cases took place last year, when Afghan intelligence agents captured two would-be suicide bombers, both aged about 12. One of them, Nasibullah, was among a group of children who had been arrested the year before in an earlier attempted suicide bombing. Mr. Karzai publicly forgave and pardoned the youth. Even those earlier prison releases led to the return to the battlefield of some high-level Taliban figures, a senior Afghan military official said. Among those confirmed to have returned to the fight, the official said, were Maulavi Said Khail, who is now a Taliban commander in Wardak Province; Maulavi Shaheer, who turned formerly peaceful Badakhshan Province into a new war zone, where 17 Afghan soldiers were killed in a single battle this month and 10 more were taken hostage on Monday; and Maulavi Raouf, who has become one of several new commanders in Helmand Province, where the insurgents are trying to regain control as American surge forces have pulled out.
Mr. Karzai has repeatedly made gestures to reach out to the Taliban even as he has undercut efforts by the international community to start talks with the insurgents separately, which the Taliban have favored. On Sunday, the Afghan Foreign Ministry announced that Mr. Karzai would travel later this week to Qatar, where he would discuss the possibility of that Gulf state’s serving as a site for the Taliban to open an office to be used in peace negotiations. An American military official in Kabul insisted that the military had confidence that those insurgents whom the United States views as enduring security threats would not be released easily or quickly. “These people pose a threat to Afghan soldiers and Afghan civilians, too,” the official said. “We’re confident they will have appropriate measures in place to ensure dangerous detainees don’t pose a threat to Afghan and coalition forces.”

Contributing reporting were Michael R. Gordon, Sharifullah Sahak and Sangar Rahimi in Kabul and an Afghan employee of The New York Times in Kunar.

Critics of Mr. Karzai were alarmed recently when he appointed a prominent cleric in Kabul, Maulavi Enayatulah Balegh, to review the cases of 700 mullahs and religious officials in Afghan prisons, mostly because of suspected insurgent activity. Known for his anti-American sentiments, Mr. Balegh recommended the release of hundreds of Taliban clerics this month.

Rod Nordland reported from Bagram, Afghanistan, and Michael R. Gordon and Alissa J. Rubin from Kabul. Sharifullah Sahak and Sangar Rahimi contributed reporting from Kabul, and an Afghan employee of The New York Times from Kunar.