View source for Abdul Razaq (Guantanamo detainee 356)

{{Short description|Afghan Guantanamo detainee (born 1971)}}
{{Other uses|Abdul Razak (disambiguation)}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{Cleanup rewrite|date=December 2019}}
{{BLP sources|date=December 2019}}
}}
{{Infobox War on Terror detainee
| name        = Abdul Razaq
| birth_date       = {{Birth year and age|1971}}
| birth_place      = [[Tashkent]]
| place_of_release    = Afghanistan
| detained_at         = [[Guantanamo Bay detention camp|Guantanamo]]
| id_number           = 356
| alias               = Abdul Razeq
| charge              = No charge
| status              = Repatriated
}}
'''Abdul Razaq''' (born 1971), a young [[Afghanistan|Afghani]] man, was the first detainee to be released from the U.S. military detention facility at [[Guantánamo Bay, Cuba|Guantanamo Bay]], [[Cuba]].
Razaq was released after four months when officials determined that he was of no further intelligence value, nor a threat to the United States, and was affected by [[schizophrenia]].<ref name="MSNBC">{{cite news
|url         = http://www.nbcnews.com/id/3067217
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150512203219/http://www.nbcnews.com/id/3067217/
|url-status  = dead
|archive-date = May 12, 2015
|title       = The One That Got Away: A former Gitmo Bay prisoner talks about his experience from his new home in a heavily-guarded Kabul hospital room
|work   = [[NBC News]]
|author      = Roy Gutman, Sami Yousafzai
|year        = 2003
|access-date  = 2012-07-08
|quote       = But in early May, Washington acknowledged that it was willing to release one prisoner: a 25-year-old Afghan held for four months at Camp X-ray. It turns out that the man was not actually a terrorist, but a schizophrenic sufferer.
}}
</ref><ref name=DoDList2>
{{cite web
| url=http://www.dod.mil/news/May2006/d20060515%20List.pdf
| title=List of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from January 2002 through May 15, 2006
| author=OARDEC
| author-link=OARDEC
| publisher=[[United States Department of Defense]]
| date=2006-05-15
| access-date=2007-09-29
| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070930184034/http://www.dod.mil/news/May2006/d20060515%20List.pdf| archive-date= 30 September 2007 | url-status= live}}</ref>
Razaq was repatriated on May 11, 2002. Newsweek conducted an interview with Razeq in a high security mental institution on May 20, 2002.
Razaq, a member of the [[Uzbek people|Uzbek]] ethnic group, said that he was captured because American authorities did not believe he was not a foreigner. Razak told U.S. military personnel on the day he was released that he was a heroin addict on the streets of Kandahar after the [[September 11 attacks|attacks of September 11, 2001]], and that to support his habit he picked up an AK-47 for the Taliban. Once captured and brought to Gitmo, he became a cold turkey heroin addict in forced recovery, and off of his schizophrenia medication. These two facts led to his bizarre behavior at Camp X-Ray, and the nickname, "Wild Bill." Razaq was prone to "wild" behavior prior to his diagnosis and treatment before his release. He was observed eating his flip-flops, hanging objects from his genitals, causing verbal disruptions and throwing urine, feces and other bodily fluids at and on U.S. military police guards. This story is corroborated and discussed in the nonfiction autobiography, "Saving Grace at Guantanamo Bay: A Memoir of a Citizen Warrior,<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://smile.amazon.com/dp/1618979639/|title=Saving Grace at Guantanamo Bay: Books|website=www.amazon.com|date=10 May 2012 |publisher=Strategic Book |isbn=9781618979636 |access-date=2017-06-10}}</ref>" by Maj. (Ret.) Montgomery J. Granger. Granger was one of a small liaison detachment of the Joint Detainee Operations Group at Gitmo who were selected for Razaq's repatriation. Granger drove the HMMWV that took Razaq to his freedom bird, and spent several hours with Razaq, his colleagues, a psych nurse and interpreter prior to the arrival of his exit plane and had conversations with Razaq about his activities before being captured.
Razaq reported observing a [[Guantanamo hunger strike|hunger strike]], and a detainee who tried to commit suicide.  But he also reported that he was happy with the food he was served, and that the detainees were given Qu'rans and allowed to pray without interference.<ref name="MSNBC"/><ref name=Fox2002-05-05>
{{cite news
|url         = https://www.foxnews.com/story/mentally-ill-prisoner-flown-from-guantanamo-back-to-afghanistan
|title       = Mentally Ill Prisoner Flown From Guantanamo Back to Afghanistan
|date        = 2002-05-05
|publisher   = [[Fox News]]
|access-date  = 2009-07-20
|url-status     = live
|archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20121023012535/http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,51966,00.html
|archive-date = 2012-10-23
}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite news
|url         = http://www.pegc.us/archive/Press/Washington_Post/post_digest_2002.txt
|title       = Relatives of 11 Kuwaiti Detainees File Lawsuit
|date        = 2002-05-04
|page        = A16
|author      = John Mintz
|quote       = Meanwhile, one of the prisoners held at the U.S. detention facility has been flown back to Afghanistan because he is suffering from what appears to be an emotional breakdown, military sources said.
|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]
|access-date  = 2009-07-20
|url-status     = dead
|archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20110929195529/http://www.pegc.us/archive/Press/Washington_Post/post_digest_2002.txt
|archive-date = 2011-09-29
}}
</ref>
==See also==
{{Portal|Biography}}
*[[Geneva Conventions]]
*[[Human rights]]
==References==
{{Reflist|2}}
==External links==
*[http://www.newsweek.com/id/64619 The Madman Of Guantanamo]
*[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/dec/03/guantanamo.usa2 People the law forgot (part two)]
*[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4161/is_20020616/ai_n12844390/ War on Terror: The innocent victims: Mentally ill, but the US locked]
*[http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2008/02/26/the-guantanamo-files-alternet-interviews-andy-worthington/ The Guantánamo Files: AlterNet interviews Andy Worthington] Andy Worthington
{{WoTPrisoners|state=collapsed}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Razaq, Abdul}}
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Afghan extrajudicial prisoners of the United States]]
[[Category:Guantanamo detainees known to have been released]]
[[Category:People from Tashkent]]
[[Category:1971 births]]