Jawed started working as a tailor's apprentice at twelve years old. Jawed earned 75 cents a day. He used the money he earned to pay for schooling. His education, and language skills, allowed him to start working as a translator for United States forces shortly after the overthrow of the Taliban. Jawed was later to work for independent security firms. In 2006 Jawad started working as a translator and "fixer" for Canadian journalists.
Capture
Jawed was captured on October 26, 2007. Jawed reported on his release that he was captured after receiving a request to come to Kandahar Air Field to complete a survey on opinion survey of Afghan journalists from a GI who represented himself as a Public Affairs Officer. American officials claimed the 22-year-old native of Kandahar was carrying phone numbers and videos of Taliban officials. He appeared before a military review, which determined there was "credible information" and is held at Bagram Airbase. His brother, Siddique, has been in contact with him during his detention, due to the efforts of the International Red Cross. According to his brother, he has been beaten since being detained. Captives in the Bagram Theater Detention Facility do not have Combatant Status Review Tribunals convened to confirm their combatant status. According to Eliza Griswold in The New Republic their status is determined by the base commander, who may convene a more secret, less formal, less thorough procedure called an "Enemy Combatant Review Board". According to Grizwold: The Washington Post reported on June 29, 2008 on comments Tina Monshipour Foster made about Jawed Ahmad's detention in Bagram.
Release
Jawad Ahmad was released, without explanation, on September 22, 2008. He credited the help of friends and supporters for his relatively early release, and said guards had told him that many people were lobbying on his behalf. Jawad said he had seen the documentary filmThe Road to Guantanamo and said he was subjected to the same kind of treatment as the captives whose homicides in US custody were described in the film. He described being hooded, bound, slammed into walls and beaten. One of the beatings broke two of his ribs. Jawad said he was subjected to sleep deprivation. In an interview with the BBC he states "When I landed first of all they stood me in snow for six hours, it was too cold - I had no socks, no shoes, nothing. I became unconscious two times.". Jawad said his interrogators insisted he was a spy for the Taliban, Iran and Pakistan, that his family had all been captured and had already confessed, and that he was being held because his Canadian employers had insisted on it. After his release, Jawad told journalists that he was told he was going to be sent to Guantanamo. Jawad reported that Koran desecration remained routine at Bagram.
Death
On March 10, 2009, Reporters Without Borders issued a statement saying Jawad was killed by being "gunned down.... by two men in a vehicle as he was getting out of his own car in the centre of the southern city of Kandahar." The statement said, "Several Afghan journalists told Reporters Without Borders they suspected the murder may have been ordered by the Taliban," but a Kandahar provincial government spokesman "offered no details." The statement also said Ahmad's brother "did not rule out any hypothesis" regarding a motive for the shooting.
