The CIA Detained an Innocent Man for a Year Because He Owned a Satellite Phone

Is getting a phone call from an Arabic speaker on a satellite phone proof that you're a terrorist? The CIA thinks so.

The argument for the US government's foreign surveillance infrastructure is simple: The more communication American analysts can access, ​the easier time they'll have identifying and detaining terrorists.

But in actuality, the barrier for detention is much lower. In one case, the CIA accidentally detained the wrong man for up to six months—not because of incriminating phone transcripts, but simply because he owned a satellite phone. And when the CIA finally released the man, the agency lied about its mistake.

Today the US Senate Intelligence Committee ​released the executive summary of its four-year investigation into the US government's use of torture in the War on Terror, which is filled with stories of individuals captured, renditioned to CIA-controlled secret prisons, and detained, interrogated, and tortured for lengthy periods of time.

One of the individuals named in the report is Ali Jan, who the CIA described as "the most trusted bodyguard of Jaluluddin Haqqani (a top [Al Qaeda] target of the [US government])." The only problem is the CIA detained at least two men named Ali Jan, according to the Senate report.

​

One Ali Jan was "captured in the village of [redacted] on June 2002," and in March 2004, when the CIA transferred 18 detainees to US military custody for eventual release, the agency claimed that this Ali Jan was the one captured in 2002, and described him as indeed Haqqani's bodyguard.

The Senate investigation found that to be incorrect. The Ali Jan that the CIA released in 2004 was actually captured in 2003 during a US military operation in Zormat Valley, Paktia Province, Afghanistan. According to the report, the Ali Jan caught in 2003 was held in custody for at least 340 days. (The last digit of the number is redacted.)

So how did a random guy named Ali Jan end up in CIA custody for a year? His satellite phone rang while being interrogated by the military.

"CIA records indicate that Ali Jan was transferred to CIA custody after his satellite phone rang while he was in military custody, and the translator indicated the caller was speaking in Arabic," reads the report. Subsequent investigations into his call behavior "revealed no derogatory information."

Using a modern piece of technology in your native language? In the War on Terror, that's all it takes to get detained and disappeared to a CIA black site (location redacted). After being transferred back to military custody, Ali Jan was released in July 2004. The report does not make clear what happened to him during that time, or what happened to the other Ali Jan in custody.