German Held by US Military in Afghanistan/German government asks US for access to detained citizen in Afghanistan/Gimmie Shelter supports Viva House

SPIEGEL ONLINE

01/26/2011 02:40 PM

Joining the Jihad?

German Held by US Military in Afghanistan

US forces are holding a German citizen of Afghan descent at Bagram prison outside of Kabul. The man's family insists he was merely in Afghanistan to visit his father -- and says German officials were complicit in his arrest.

The arrest took place in the middle of the night. In early January, US troops in Afghanistan stormed a house in Kabul and detained 23-year-old Haddid N., according to the Süddeutsche Zeitung on Wednesday. He is now being held at the Bagram Airforce Base on the outskirts of the Afghan capital.

Such arrests, of course, are not an uncommon occurrence in the war-torn country. But Haddid N. is a German citizen. And, despite claims from his family that he was in Kabul to visit his father, officials appear to suspect him of seeking to join the jihad.

The case, though, is sensitive. Haddid N.'s sister, a lawyer in Frankfurt, has accused German security officials of passing on information as to N.'s whereabouts to the US military. She claims that police in Frankfurt questioned her about her brother in early January and asked for the address of Haddid N.'s father in Kabul. Three days later, she said, her brother was arrested.

Lack of Evidence

It wasn't the first time German authorities had shown an interest in Haddid N. He was briefly detained in 2009 before he could board a flight to Pakistan -- to visit his grandmother, he insisted. Officials, though, feared that he planned to travel to a terrorist training camp in the region. For lack of concrete evidence, however, N. was soon released and the case against him was dropped, the Süddeutsche reported. His passport was returned to him last summer.

The US has so far refused to comment on the reasons for Haddid N.'s arrest. Furthermore, the German Embassy has not yet been allowed to visit him at Bagram. Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office has insisted that no details on N. were handed over to American authorities which might have led to his arrest.

Several German jihadists have either been arrested or killed by US drone attacks in Waziristan in recent months. Just last week, an Internet posting attributed to the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan announced the death of the German-Moroccan jihadist Bekkay Harrach, who had been raised in Bonn.

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URL: http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,741787,00.html

RELATED SPIEGEL ONLINE LINKS:

       German Jihadists: Al-Qaida Fighter from Bonn Believed Dead (01/19/2011)
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,740326,00.html

       Pakistan's Labyrinth of Terror: International Jihadists Use Karachi as Hub (11/25/2010)
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,730976,00.html

       Disillusionment in Afghanistan: The Fate of 11 Aspiring Jihadists from Germany (10/18/2010)
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,723640,00.html

       9/11 Terror Mosque Shut: Hamburg Officials Raid Alleged Islamist Recruiting Site (08/09/2010)
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,710845,00.html

       Suspected Jihadist Nabbed: Police in Pakistan Arrest German Islamist (06/22/2010)
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,702217,00.html

© SPIEGEL ONLINE 2011

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/world/breakingnews/german-government-asks-us-for-access-to-detained-citizen-in-afghanistan-114641034.html

The Canadian Press - ONLINE EDITION

German government asks US for access to detained citizen in Afghanistan

By: The Associated Press

Posted: 01/26/2011 8:24 AM |

 

BERLIN - The German government has asked U.S. authorities in Afghanistan to grant its diplomats access to an imprisoned German citizen.

 

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle confirmed Wednesday that a German-Afghan citizen was in U.S. custody in Afghanistan and that officials were trying to get in contact with the man, who has been identified by German media as Haddid N. from Frankfurt.

 

Newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung first reported that the 23-year-old student was arrested at his father's home in Kabul earlier this month and was in custody at Bagram Air Field military base.

Germany's foreign ministry could not confirm Haddid's exact whereabouts and also didn't know of any concrete accusations against him.

 

Sueddeutsche said Haddid had been under surveillance for alleged ties to Islamist circles.

 

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/world/breakingnews/german-government-asks-us-for-access-to-detained-citizen-in-afghanistan-114641034.html

 

As president of a group of performance artists and performance poets who do fund raising/consciousness raising for the homeless and the shelters that serve them I am publicly instructing all members in good standing of Gimmie Shelter Productions to act in unity with our sisters and brothers of Viva House. That means no member of Gimmie Shelter Productions is to sign any statement or make any public statement that members of Viva House wouldn¹t sign or make. As of today January 19th 2011 no member of Gimmie Shelter will sign any statement that is in fact a loyalty oath in order to receive any funding of any kind. Our First Amendment rights are more important than the thirty pieces of silver these charitable institutions may offer us. If anyone needs to renounce terrorism let it be the ones that wage wars of terror all over this globe. Four days after the birthday of Martin Luther King who said that this government was the biggest terrorist the world has seen let us join hands in unity with the peace makers of Viva House to denounce this resurrection of McCarthyite thought control.

 

En Lucha/In Struggle

Alan Barysh President Gimmie Shelter Productions Day Phone 443-794-1541 Home 410-532-0193

 

Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218.  Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net

 

"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs