I Cogitate

A Friend in Need
The proud Afghan risked all to save a Navy SEAL. Now, feeling abandoned, he is facing death threats.
By Ron Moreau and Sami Yousafzai
Newsweek

April 17, 2006 issue - Even with all the troubles that followed, Mohammad Gulab says he's still glad he saved the U.S. Navy SEAL. "I have no regrets for what I did," the 32-year-old Afghan told NEWSWEEK recently. "I'm proud of my action." Nevertheless, he says, "I never imagined I would pay such a price." Last June, foraging for edible plants in the forest near his home in the Kunar-province village of Sabray, Gulab discovered a wounded commando, the lone survivor of a four-man squad that had been caught in a Taliban ambush. Communicating by hand signs, Gulab brought the injured stranger home, fed and sheltered him for two days and helped contact a U.S. rescue team to airlift him out.

Gulab has been paying for his kindness ever since. Al Qaeda and the Taliban dominate much of Kunar's mountainous backcountry. Death threats soon forced Gulab to abandon his home, his possessions and even his pickup truck. Insurgents burned down his little lumber business in Sabray. He and his wife and their six children moved in with his brother-in-law near the U.S. base at Asadabad, the provincial capital. Three months ago Gulab and his brother-in-law tried going back to Sabray. Insurgents ambushed them. Gulab was unhurt, but his brother-in-law was shot in the chest and nearly died. The threats persist. "You are close to death," a letter warned recently. "You are counting your last days and nights."

With Friends Like These...

Update: An Afghan who risked all to rescue a wounded Navy SEAL finds trouble with the Taliban­and the U.S. military

Newsweek Web Exclusive
By Sami Yousafzai
May 13, 2006

Death threats from the Taliban aren't Mohammad Gulab's only worry. As reported in NEWSWEEK's April 17 issue, the Afghan villager has been pursued by Al Qaeda's local partners ever since June 2005, when he rescued a wounded U.S. Navy SEAL in the mountains of Kunar province, east of Kabul. Vengeful jihadists burned down his village lumber business and forced him and his family to flee for their lives, abandoning their home and possessions. The Americans never delivered on promises Gulab says they made to relocate the family to a safe place, so they moved in with Gulab's brother-in-law near the U.S. base at the provincial capital, Asadabad. But Gulab never expected that the American military would target him next.

Late on Friday, April 14, ­the week NEWSWEEK's story appeared, ­Gulab's phone rang. The caller told him to come to the U.S. base at 11 the next morning, and Gulab barely slept that night, thinking the Americans were going to relocate him and his family out of danger. When he reported to the main gate on Saturday, he found a pair of U.S. soldiers waiting for him. They checked his name ­and then handcuffed and blindfolded him, hauling him off to an unlit room in a remote corner of the base. There, he says, he was placed in a cage so cramped that he could neither stand up nor lie down.

Hours later, two Americans and an interpreter entered the room and began interrogating him. Most of the questions were about his life and his family, although Gulab couldn't imagine why. He was sure his captors knew exactly who he was, he says. They inquired about ties to al Qaeda, a question he considered insulting. Hadn't he saved an American commando's life? And the interrogators kept returning to the subject of his contacts with NEWSWEEK. They had searched him and found a NEWSWEEK reporter's business card with an Islamabad address. The interrogators kept asking when he had been to Pakistan and where had gone, although he told them he had not traveled to the Pakistani capital. 

Gulab says the session lasted more than an hour. It was only the first in a series that continued until the afternoon of the fourth day. Then the Americans told him he was free to go home. He had trouble walking after spending so much time locked up in a cramped cage. His captors never told him why he had been detained, he says, but before his release, one of the interrogators offered some advice: "Stay away from reporters. It will be in your best interest."

NEWSWEEK has repeatedly asked the U.S. military to clarify the incident. Lt. Col. Paul Fitzpatrick, a public-affairs officer at U.S. headquarters in Bagram, sent this reply via email: "Mr. Gulab was detained and questioned by coalition forces and released. I can't discuss any details of why he was questioned but it was not related to his interview with Newsweek." The Pentagon has not responded to several requests for comment. The Taliban and its friends are not so reticent. After word got out that the Americans had locked up Gulab, someone left a message affixed to the wall of his brother-in-law's house. "This is your punishment from God in this world," the note said, "and a taste of what you will get on the day of judgment." Gulab continues to believe he did the right thing by saving the SEAL.

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