According to Washington Post reporter, Mahvish Khan, who visited Taj Mohammed in detention with habeas counsel, he learned English during his four years of detention.[3]
Mohammed told his Tribunal: "I was a shepherd, and I never can even go out very much, and I was always with my goats on the mountain, These are all lies about me."[4]
On June 15, 2008, the McClatchy News Service published a series of articles based on interviews with 66 former Guantanamo captives.[5]
Taj Mohammed
was one of the former captives who had an article profiling him.[2]
Taj Mohammed reported being sexually harassed during his interrogations.[2]
He reported that guards desecrated the Quran.
According to his McClatchy interviewer, Taj Mohammed tried to retaliate:
I got into fights (with guards) because of bad meals, because of them abusing the Quran, because they didn't give us enough time in the shower," Mohammed said. "When they searched our cells the soldiers would flip through our Qurans. The detainees did not like this. We would throw water and shit on the soldiers; we would spit at them. If we could reach the soldiers we would punch them.
According to the McClatchy profile of him, Taj Mohammed was radicalized in Guantanamo and said he beat less religious captives.[2]
The article said his lawyers, Paul Rashkind, was taken aback when told of these assertions, and questioned whether the McClatchy interviewer may have been taken in by an impostor.
According to the McClatchy interviewer, Taj Mohammed was mentored and given lessons in Arabic and the Quran by Yemeni captive Ali Abdullah Ahmed—one of the three men camp authorities reported committed suicide on June 10, 2006.[2]
According to the McClatchy interviewer Taj Mohammed spent nine months in Camp four in 2005, the camp where "compliant" captives were allowed to mingle with other captives. He was, however, demoted when he slapped a female doctor.[2]
ABC News reported on February 22, 2010, that Taj Mohammed was employed by the Agribusiness Development Team, a Provincial Reconstruction Team development project with participation from the US military.[6]
He worked as a translator. He was reported to be surprisingly fluent in both English and Spanish—learned in Guantanamo.
^
Karen Russo (2010-02-22). "Exclusive: Former Gitmo Detainee Now Working for U.S."ABC News. Retrieved 2010-02-22. Mohammed, a sheep herder from Kunar Province, was imprisoned for nearly four years at Gitmo. He said he doesn't harbor hard feelings about his four years of captivity, suggesting it was his destiny. He used the time praying and learning about the Koran. He also worked on his English and learned Spanish, he says, from members of the Puerto Rican National Guard assigned to Gitmo.
