Hiwa Abdul Rahman Rashul
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On June 17th, 2004, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld acknowledged holding, in extrajudicial detention, an Iraqi named Hiwa Abdul Rahman Rashul.[1] He was of the category called "ghost prisoners", whose detention was not made public or reported to relevant governments. [2] He is an Iraqi Kurd who was suspected of membership in Ansar al-Islam, an Iraqi terrorist group with links to the late Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who is believed to be responsible for beheading American Nicholas Berg and for attacks on coalition forces.[3] The CIA had transported him to covert detention in Afghanistan. However Jack Goldsmith, Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel, at the Department of Justice, advised the CIA that he was protected by the Geneva Conventions, and covertly transporting him out of Iraq was a violation of the Geneva Conventions.[4] Rashul was the first ghost detainee to be publicly acknowledged by American authorities, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld acknowledged that he ordered Rashul to be imprisoned, off the books, at the request of Director of Central Intelligence|DCI George Tenet. [4] His current whereabouts and status is not known; he is not among the 14 High Value Detainees acknowledged to be transferred from CIA custody. [5] References
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