Khandan Kadir - McClatchy Interview

McClatchy Interview

On June 15, 2008 the McClatchy News Service published articles based on interviews with 66 former Guantanamo captives. McClatchy reporters interviewed Qadar Khandan.

The McClatchy report quoted a local security official named Ismail Khosti, who asserted that Qadar Khandan was a low-level commander in Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's forces.

"He was a commander for them in this province, not the top commander, but a commander. When the Taliban left Khost, there was a mujahedeen (holy warriors) council formed, and Khandan was the only representative of Hezb-e Islami on that council."

Qadar Khandan reports being beaten and subject to abusive interrogation in both the Kandahar detention facility and the Bagram Theater Internment Facility. He described being held in isolation, and suspended by his hands round the clock, for twenty days—a technique Bagram staff had used that killed two captives in December 2002.

"My heels weren't touching the ground, only my toes, and I had on earphones, goggles and a hood. Three or four times I became unconscious. The guards would open the gate and come in and punch me in the stomach."

In Guantanamo he reports interrogators had him sent to spend much of his time in solitary confinement—including two periods of seven months straight. The rules for humane treatment in US domestic prisons never allow prisoners to be left in solitary for more than thirty days.