In the past 13 months, two high-ranking Afghan prison officials who came to Colorado to receive correctional tactical training fled from the program and disappeared. One was caught trying to sneak into Canada, but the other remains at large.
“There is absolutely no reason to believe they would be involved in any terrorist activity or any wrongdoing at all,” said Adrienne Jacobson, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Corrections.
The two men walked away from the International Correctional Management Training Center in Cañon City in September 2013 and in February 2014, according to CDOC records obtained by The Denver Post.
Jacobson said U.S. State Department authorities conducted background checks and thoroughly vetted both men. They were in the United States on temporary visas.
State and federal officials refused to release the names of the men, citing concerns for the safety of the men and their families in Afghanistan.
“DOC’s primary concern with the missing participants is for their safety, as would be the case with any guest in our country,” Jacobson said in an e-mail to The Post.
A state prisons document said the men were to be accompanied by an “escort required at all time.” But both men sneaked away while claiming to go for cigarettes.
Prisons officials notified the State Department and local law enforcement authorities. A State Department official said he could not immediately answer questions about the disappearances.
Colorado’s response was much different than one taken by Massachusetts authorities under a similar situation in September, when three Afghan soldiers went missing during an excursion to the Cape Cod Mall during a “cultural exercise.”
Police publicly released pictures and names of the men — Maj. Jan Mohammad Arash, Capt. Mohammad Nasir Askarzada and Capt. Noorullah Aminyar — and Massachusetts law enforcement officers investigated their disappearances as a missing persons case. The soldiers were caught trying to enter Canada illegally near Niagara Falls.
The soldiers were in Massachusetts for a U.S. Army-sponsored training exercise for foreign soldiers, which is intended to strengthen ties between nations.
Jacobson said participants in the Colorado training program, which has been attended by prison officials from 18 countries, are high-ranking prison officials. She said they and their families could face repercussions in Afghanistan for seeking to influence prison reform.
“Disclosure of the names and likenesses of any of the participants is denied,” she said in response to a public records request. “Such disclosure could result in their being harassed, threatened, intimidated, and/or could otherwise compromise their safety and the safety of their families.”
Copies of e-mail exchanges indicate top prisons administrators, including prisons chief Rick Raemisch, were notified. Inspector General Jay Kirby supervised efforts to track the men down.
The first man was last seen running west on Grandview Avenue in Cañon City at about 5:45 p.m. Sept. 30, 2013. When contacted by a CDOC staff member, he said he was exercising.
Later that night, when other members of the 17-man Afghan training group were questioned, they told investigators through three interpreters that they didn’t know why the men had left.
“The group states that (redacted) was not a very social person and kept to himself,” one report says. “The group did show concern, but immediately went to their rooms when we were done talking in the classroom. This was the first time anyone from the group walked outside the center.”
Two training center staff members searched for the first man, who had turned off his cellphone and had an unknown amount of money. E-mails suggest he was the man caught trying to enter Canada.
The second man fled around 7:15 p.m. Feb. 6 during the visit of a second group of Afghan administrators. When Colorado officials checked surveillance video, they saw him leaving the center at 3:43 p.m. wearing a dark jacket and pants. He left behind a suitcase and clothes.
“The last person who left had contacts in an adjoining state. It’s interesting the last time this happened, it was during the scheduled Walmart run also,” said a message from Kirby to State Department officials and CDOC administrators.
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206, kmitchell@denverpost.com or twitter.com/kirkmitchell, denverpost.com/coldcases
