Monday, February 20, 2006

The uprising at Qala-e-Gangi: Al Ansar prisoner testimony

This post is one in a series on the lessons of the Afghan War.  The posts are indexed in this post of 02/20/06.

In this post, I'm going to address some issues very specific to the pirson uprising at Qala-e-Gangi and the death of CIA covert operations officer Mike Spann.

In my post of 12/08/04, I cited this article by Richard Serrano of the Los Angeles TimesAfghan prisoners told FBI about death of CIA officer: Captives said Spann may have sparked riot that killed him San Francisco Chronicle 12/08/04 (original in the Los Angeles Times is behind the paid archive wall now). In that article, Serrano drew from reports on prisoners interrogated at Guantánamo who were among the al-Ansar foreign fighters imprisoned at the Qala-e-Gangi fortress during the prison uprising of 11/25/01-12/01/01. Basing his story on those interviews, Serrano wrote:

A group of captives from Afghanistan has told FBI agents that CIA Officer Johnny "Mike" Spann became the first American to die in a clash in Afghanistan after he shot to death a prisoner who was attempting to attack him, possibly sparking the prison riot that claimed his life. ...

The newly public FBI reports, released Tuesday along with several hundred pages of other documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union in a lawsuit against the federal government seeking information on the treatment of detainees, do not indicate whether the accounts of the detainees were considered believable by U.S. officials. Four prisoners now being held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were interviewed by the FBI. Their accounts describe Spann as wearing blue jeans, with an AK-47 rifle slung over his back and a pistol on his hip, trying to interview Taliban captives - including Lindh - when he was attacked by a prisoner and shot him.

Spann, one captive told the FBI, "was jumped by an Arab or Pakistani male, but the armed man (Spann) shot the prisoner. People began running, and chaos ensued."

The idea that the CIA men set off the riot/uprising by their questioning was a common speculation in early reporting on the event.

After seeing my post of 12/08/04, Mike Spann's father Johnny Spann contacted me and generously provided me faxed copies of the FBI reports on the interviews referenced in the Serrano article.  I also interviewed him by telephone.  Here, I'm going to discuss those reports in some detail.

Serrano in his article mentions some appropriate cautions about the documents as sources in the passage quoted above and also here: "The FBI interviews with the detainees were conducted months later, after the prisoners were flown to Guantanamo Bay".

In addition, we don't have the names of the prisoners, which are blocked out in the documents released publicly.  No details are provided about the exact dates of the interviews or the names of the FBI agents preparing to reports. The dates on the interview summaries I have are all from december 2003. So presumably they were conducted no later than that time.

The reports are in English; not even the languages in which the interviews were conducted are specified. They are not verbatim translations of the interrogations, but rather written as 3rd-party reports. And there are significant reductions of the content of each report released.

And, of course, as historical documents, any interrogation results obtained at Guantánomo may be tainted by the practice of torture there. There is no indication of what the conditions were in which the interviews were conducted. And no information on whether the prisoners involved were tortured during their confinement.

However, there is a considerable amount of independent evidence against which some of the facts they describe can be checked. I could not identify any obvious signs of confabulation. And we can also look at Serrano's use of the documents themselves, independent of the cautions on their content which must be taken into account.

The documents I received are labeled in handwriting with letters and numbers. I will use those as identifiers here since no names are provided.

Prisoner G-164 describes how the prisoners were put into "the basement of one of the buildings," after which there was "a grenade explosion in the basement". He saw "3 dead Uzbek" being carried out. This would have been on November 24.

He describes the scene on the following  day when "two American looking males" were interviewing prisoners in the open. One of them he  describes a "having a fair complexion, wearing jeans and carrying a pistol on his right side".  This man in jeans "spoke [redacted] well and was talking to some of the prisoners".  According to Johnny Spann, Mike spoke no  foreign languages, so by G-164's account, the man in jeans would have had to be Dave Tyson.  G-164 describes the other American as having "a small automatic weapon slung over his shoulder".

G-164 said that :

While in the courtyard, there was an explosion which [redacted] believes was from a grenade. The American male wearing jeans then ran away from the lines of prisoners. One of the prisoners ran after him. The American turned and fired his pistol shooting the prisoner in the head. The guards above began firing into the courtyard. The American ran in the direction of the building where [redacted] had been held in the basement. [redacted] saw several prisoners run after the American, an [sic] ramming him with their bodies [redacted] was shot [redacted] and did not see what happened to the American

Prisoner G-169's report is long but also heavily redacted. His account of the events in the courtyard on November 24 is as follows:

[redacted] explained the next morning (the day after the arrival at Mazar-e-Shanf) the prisoners were being led out of  the basement by ethnicity  [redacted] advised that he thought the Arabs were led out first then the Pakistanis  [redacted] indicated the Uzbeks were the last group to come out [sic] the basement   When [redacted] was led out of the basement, he estimated that there were approximately 100-150 Uzbeks still in the basement. [redacted] recalled that when he came out of the basement, some of the soldiers looked amazed by the number of prisoners that remained in the basement.  [redacted] was led out of the basement and placed on his knees in the field (courtyard) approximately 25-30 meters away from  the entrance/exit to the basement of the prison  [redacted]  explained  the explosion in the basement  occurred approximately 15-20 minutes after he was brought out to the field ...

In the courtyard,[redacted] explained that he noticed a tall, fair (light) complexioned male standing int he center of the courtyard, in front of the prisoners [redacted] stated this individual had an assault rifle with a strap hanging over his shoulder  [redacted]  further described this individual as wearing blue jeans, a short dark colored jacket, 28-30 years of age, no facial hair, and short hair  [redacted] stated he did not hear this individual speak  [redacted] stated that he  noticed another individual talking to the Uzbeks.  The Uzbeks were telling this individual  they were "Tartars" and that they would tell him anything he wanted to know  [redacted] described this individual as follows.  tall, muscular build, jeans, short jacket, pistol on his hip, no rifle, and this individual spoke fluent [redacted]  When [redacted] was shown the CNN video of the prison uprising at Mazar-e-Sharif, he could not identify the individual identified as [redacted] but he indicated that the person identified in the video as Mike "Johnny" Spann looked similar to the guy he described as holding the assault rife. [redacted] could not say for certain if it was the same person he described. In the video, Spann was shown holding an assault type rifle across his shoulder  [redacted] advised that he thought these two individuals were Russians  [redacted] did not know these two individuals were Americans until he arrived at Camp Delta, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

When the explosion in the basement occurred, [redacted] stated people on the roof started shooting into the field. [redacted] stated that two Tajiks seated beside him were shot  [redacted] explained that the individual that was speaking [redacted] was jumped by an Arab or Pakistani male, but the armed man shot the prisoner. People began running and chaos ensured. [redacted] indicated that he noticed the other individual (the man with the rifle across this shoulder) running towards the building (prison) through some of the prisoners  [redacted] claimed that some of the prisoners jumped toward the man and others tripped the man when he was running. [redacted] stated that he [redacted] was shot, while seated on the ground, and susequently lost consciousness. Upon gaining consciousness, [redacted] indicated that he crawled towards the basement and noticed the man that had the assault rife, lying on the ground near the entrance of the basement, tangled with a prisoner as if they had been fighting  [redacted] assumed the man was dead

Most of the document for prisoner G-172 is redacted. He describes being taken out of the basement to "the field" (courtyard).  The summary says:

He then heard an explosion and gunfire. During the fighting, he stated that he was shot  He indicated that he was able to push himself back to the building and seek shelter in the basement.  After several days in the basement everyone surrendered and they were then taken, in large metal containers, to Shebergan by Dostum's Forces  Just prior to the Kala Jangi prison uprising, [redacted] indicated that he did observe Dostum's Forces shooting injured men who were still alive.  He stated that he did not observe anyone get shot while at [redacted]  He was then taken to Kandahar via airplane and then to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The entire unredacted part of the report on the interrogation of prisoner G-174 is:

On [redacted] was interviewed at Camp Delta, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba [redacted] provided the following information [redacted]

He surrendered to Dostrum's soldiers and was later placed in prison.  He was there for the prison up rising and witnessed Dostoms soldiers kill other men.  He was shot during this moment

Prisoner G-175 described the situation at Qala-e-Gangi as follows:

[redacted] stated he saw two Americans at Mazar-e-Sharif.  [redacted] stated one of the Americans wore a black jean outfit, had dark hair, and appeared to be in his 30's.  [redacted] stated he did not remember what armament the Americans were equipped with

[redacted] stated he knew they were Americans because they spoke English.  [redacted] stated he could not describe the other American, but that both were wearing dark clothing

[redacted] stated the first group that was led out of the basement a Mazar-e-Sharif was the Pakistanis, then the Arabs, and that the last group was the Uzbeks

[redacted] stated he was brought out and sat down on his knees [redacted] stated he was outside about 15 or 20 minutes when he heard a grenade go off behind him, near the basement entrance  [redacted] stated he heard some people panic and some people  scream.  [redacted] did not see anything, and just sat there because he did not feel like he was in danger.  Approximately two minutes after the grenade went off he heard some shooting, and saw men shooting from the wall.  Some people behind him began to shoot the prisoners.  [redacted] state he did not turn around or look left or right because he did not think that he could because it was dangerous

[redacted] stated he was placed approximately 100 meters from the basement.  [redacted] stated there were about 100 Uzbeks, some to his left and right  He did not know the nationality of the prisoners in front of the Uzbeks.

[redacted] stated he was shot [redacted] stated he laid out in the field and crawled for three or four hours to the basement, because it was hte closest place  [redacted] stated that people were shooting into the stronghold, and there were no other buildings for cover  [redacted] stated he crawled to the stairs of the basement, and was then carried away.  [redacted] stated there were lots of wounded men, and he heard lots of voices but did not understand the language.

Curiously, prisoner G-201 clearly describes two Americans among the prisoners.  So far as I'm aware, no other American among the Al Ansar group has ever been identified.  His document provides little detail on the start of the prison uprising. But it does say:

[redacted] stated that he did remember 2 American soldiers that spoke to him asking him if he spoke English  [redacted] advised that [redacted] told them that only the people that spoke [redacted] would be let out, so nobody admitted to speaking English (or any other languages).  The taller of the two Americans was over six foot [sic] tall, "older" with lite colored hair, wearing civilian clothes.  [redacted] observed this American speaking with [redacted]  The other American was less than 6 feet tall and carried an AK-47 machine gun  During the prison riot, [redacted] observed the Americans returning fire at the Uzbek soldiers ...

[redacted] advised that he was extremely scared during the prison riot and was wounded (shot in [redacted]

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