Aamer took his family to Afghanistan in 2001, where he was working for an Islamic charity when the U.S. invaded the country later that year.[1] The Northern Alliance took him into custody in Jalalabad in December 2001, and passed him to the Americans. The US routinely paid ransom for Arabs handed over to them.[2] They interrogated Aamer at Bagram Theater Internment Facility and transported him to Guantanamo on 14 February 2002.