Slah Muhamed Salih al Zabe

“ I am not a Taliban fighter. I did not have a weapon, I did not use a weapon against the United States or any of its coalition partners in any armed conflict, and I was not at any front line at any time. All my life I have never fought. I never met any Americans until my first interrogator in Karachi. My training was so long ago, I can't remember much about it, but this training was not illegal, so I did not think anything about it at the time. My trip to Afghanistan was done long before any of the events in the United States occurred. ”

“ So after the first trip, you went back to Yemen, and then back to Afghanistan in 1999, for good.
Detainee: Yes.
Tribunal President: In your summary, you made a statement that I did not understand, so I'm going to read it back. "When I left Afghanistan, it was Americans fighting in Afghanistan, with no one fighting against them."
Detainee: There was bombing from the sky by the Americans, and I did not see any fighters or anyone who was actually fighting in Kabul.
Tribunal Member: What is the nature of your job, your work?
Detainee: I am a worker. ”

“ I wasn't happy, so I left for Yemen. Yemen is a poor country and has a lot of problems. I sought a country to relocate to. The Taliban was a new government in Afghanistan and it was supposed to be a good government. There were a lot of advertisements and news articles about this. Many countries don't issue visas to people with Yemeni passports. But Afghanistan did. So I went to Afghanistan to see if 1 liked the country, The first of my two trips to Afghanistan was to explore the country. ”