Hearts and Minds: Mercenaries Lure Afghan Warlord to US; US to Charge him for Growing Poppies

By Chris Nolan, Majikthise
Posted on April 11, 2008, Printed on October 14, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/story/82043/

Note to Afghan warlords, if an American private security consulting firm promises you safe passage to the United States, don't just assume it's their promise to make:

Investigators' promises to an Afghan warlord of safe passage in America will not protect him from facing trial in Manhattan on heroin charges next month, a federal judge ruled yesterday.

Bashir Noorzai, the leader of a 1 million-person tribe in southern Afghanistan, had traveled to New York voluntarily in 2005, aiming to gain an audience with American diplomats who could help him shore up his power in Afghanistan. The trip had been organized by employees of a shadowy and short-lived security company, Rosetta Research & Consulting LLC, that was seeking to help the federal government conduct investigative work in foreign countries. Contractors at the firm had courted Mr. Noorzai, believing at one point that the warlord had information to offer about Osama bin Laden, according to transcripts of conversations involving the contractors as well as an interview with a former government official. [NY Sun]

According to the article, the DEA is trying to make a case against Noorzai for growing opium poppies on his land (in Afghanistan?). He has been held in solitary confinement for three years.

Here's the really interesting part:

In a court opinion yesterday, Judge Laura Taylor Swain rejected Mr. Noorzai's argument that he should be released because trickery was used to convince him to come to New York. Judge Swain's decision said that a foreign criminal suspect was entitled to release if both kidnapping and torture -- not just deceit -- were used to convey him here.

Mr. Noorzai's "allegations of deceit and government misconduct, which do not implicate physical abuse of any kind, are insufficient to provide any basis" for his release, Judge Swain wrote. [NY Sun]

So, if the US government were to transfer Guantanamo detainees to American soil, as Human Rights Watch fears it will, we'd have to let them go right?

[HT: TS of Instaputz.]

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