Shawali Khan

Shawali Khan is a citizen of Afghanistan, who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. Shahwali Khan's lawyer Leonard C. Goodman, who has reviewed Shawali's confidential file says he was simply a merchant, denounced for a bounty.

Shawali arrived at Guantanamo on February 7, 2003, and was repatriated on December 20, 2014. In 2004, the United States Supreme Court ruled, in Rasul v. Bush, that Guantanamo captives were entitled to being informed of the allegations justifying their detention, and were entitled to try to refute them.

Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held in a 3x5 trailer where the captive sat with his hands and feet shackled to a bolt in the floor. Three chairs were reserved for members of the press, but only 37 of the 574 Tribunals were observed.

Following the Supreme Court's ruling the Department of Defense set up the Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants.

Shawali Khan was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges ... are associated with both Al Qaeda and the Taliban."

Guantanamo Review Task Force

On January 21, 2009, the day he was inaugurated, United States President Barack Obama issued three Executive orders related to the detention of individuals in Guantanamo. He established a task force to re-review the status of all the remaining captives. Where the OARDEC officials reviewing the status of the captives were all "field grade" officers in the US military (Commanders, naval Captains, Lieutenant Colonels and Colonels) the officials seconded to the task force were drawn from not only the Department of Defense, but also from five other agencies, including the Departments of State, Justice, Homeland Security. President Obama gave the task force a year, and it recommended the release of Shawali Khan and 54 other individuals.

Repatriation and identity confusion After Mullah Abdul Rauf was reported killed incompetent intelligence officials published this photo of Shawali Khan as an image of him.

Shawali Khan was finally repatriated to Afghanistan on December 20, 2014. Khan had opposed the dismissal, arguing that, unless his detention was declared illegal, the Afghan government would continue to seize his land, deny him a passport, and prevent him from obtaining treatment for hearing loss he said he suffered from the loud music used in CIA interrogations.