Shaahwali had spent most of his adolscence and adulthood as a refugee in Pakistan, where he and his brother worked their way through College, becoming medical lab technicians.
Shahwali then worked his way through Medical school.
When Hamid Karzai's government replaced the Taliban it appealed to Afghan refugees, particularly those with professional skills to come home.
Shahwali and his brother borrowed money to set up a modern medical clinic in the area where their family was from.
Shahwali had agreed to accompany the first commander of a local American base, and introduce him to all the local tribal elders.
Subsequently the local elders saw Shahwali as the proper contact throu whom they should convey requests to the local American commander. Shahwali fulfilled the elders expectations by writeing the local commanders a series of notes.
When a new American commander replaced the original Shahwali continued to write notes, conveying requests from the elders.
Shahwali notes triggered the suspicions of the second commander of the local American base. He found them threatening. And the first time the base experienced a night rocket attack he seized Shahwali and his brother.
Shahwali and his brother were among the thirty-eight captives whose Combatatant Status Review Tribunal determined should not have been classified as "enemy combatants".
Mohammed Ali Shah chose to return to his family home, to pracice medicine when the Taliban was ousted.
Mohammed Ali Shah was accused of being a finacial courier for the Taliban, in spite of being a a Farsi speaking Shia, and, as such, would never have been trusted by the Pashtun speaking Sunnis in the Taliban.
