Gitmo Renaissance Man's Memoir Published

[georgephillip]

Mohamedou Ould Slahi learned his fourth language, English, from his torturers while confined among the "worst of the worst" at Guantanamo Bay since 2002. In 2005 Slahi finished a handwritten manuscript documenting his treatment during his first few years in captivity.
"In a new book Guantánamo Diary, Slahi paints a horrifying picture of life at the hands of interrogators in the notorious U.S. military prison in Cuba. The book depicts long days in isolation, sometimes chained to the floor in agonizing positions, held in extreme temperatures, often deprived of food and sleep. On multiple occasions he describes being beaten and humiliated by his questioners. He says he was left 'shaking like a Parkinson's patient' and felt one of his interrogators 'was literally executing me but in a slow way.'"

The 44-year-old electrical engineer, originally from Mauritania, has been held in Guantánamo Bay since 2002. He was accused of being a member of al Qaeda and of recruiting three of the hijackers in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, as well as being involved in other terror plots in Canada and the United States.

"He's never been charged and his lawyers say there is very little evidence against him.

"Slahi admits to traveling to Afghanistan to fight in the early 1990s, when the U.S. was supporting the mujahedeen in their fight against the Soviet Union. He pledged allegiance to al Qaeda in 1991 but claims he broke ties with the group shortly after."

Four years ago a US judge ruled Slahi should be released.
Guantanamo Diary was published this week and serves as the first published account from a detainee who is still confined in the American Gulag.

Inmate s book exposes horrors of Gitmo - CNN.com

 

[georgephillip]

"Read the first chapter of the book, 'Guantánamo Diary,' written by Mohamedou Ould Slahi.

"It is the first and only public account written by a still-imprisoned Guantánamo detainee.

"Slahi has been imprisoned since 2002.

"The United States has never charged him with a crime.

"A federal judge ordered his release in 2010, but he remains in custody."
READ Guant namo Diary The Only Public Account by a Still-Imprisoned Tortured Detainee Democracy Now

 

[jwoodie]

LOL, an unbiased review of an unbiased book written by an unbiased author?

 

[Claudette]

Yup. You can bet your ass he told nothing but the truth.

You can also bet your ass he's lived better than he ever did it whatever shithole he calls home.

As for torture? I doubt it.

As for his crime? Being on a battlefield shooting at US soldiers or being behind the scenes funding jihadists are crimes. I'd bet the dude did one or the other.

Those shitbags at Gitmo are living better than they ever did at their shithole homes.

For my money they can shoot em all.

 

[georgephillip]

LOL, an unbiased review of an unbiased book written by an unbiased author?

Read the first chapter without your biases, and then decide whether the author deserved what the mad doctors of DC have inflicted on him.
""A vision of hell, beyond Orwell, beyond Kafka: perpetual torture prescribed by the mad doctors of Washington."
—John le Carré -"
Little Brown.com - GUANT NAMO DIARY

 

[georgephillip]

As for torture? I doubt it.

Colonel Morris Davis, the former chief military prosecutor at Gitmo doesn't.
"I thought Slahi would be transferred out when President Obama took office. It seemed likely in 2010 when US district court judge James Robertson ordered him released after finding that incriminating statements he made were obtained by coercion, and that other evidence only proved there was smoke but no fire.

"But instead of transferring Slahi, the Obama administration appealed and the US court of appeals proved to be an impenetrable barrier, just as it has in every case where a detainee won a habeas challenge at the district court level.

"It has been four and a half years since Slahi’s release was ordered and he is still within sight of where he and I shook hands for the last time in 2007.

"We were told that all the men at Guantánamo were the “worst of the worst”. In my job as chief prosecutor, where my focus was on reviewing cases for potential criminal prosecution, it was obvious the label was mostly hype. While the label fits a few – like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed – fewer than 4% of the 779 men ever sent there have or will face charges.

Where is justice for those still abandoned in Guant namo Bay Morris Davis Comment is free The Guardian

 

[Skylar]

Yup. You can bet your ass he told nothing but the truth.

You can also bet your ass he's lived better than he ever did it whatever shithole he calls home.

As for torture? I doubt it.

As for his crime? Being on a battlefield shooting at US soldiers or being behind the scenes funding jihadists are crimes. I'd bet the dude did one or the other.

So how many years was he sentenced to when convinced for his crime? There was a trial, right?

 

[georgephillip]

"Slahi was an exceptional student and he received a scholarship in 1988 from the Carl Duisberg Society to go Germany, where he earned an engineering degree from theUniversity of Duisburg.[2][5][16]

"In 1991, Slahi traveled to Afghanistan to join the mujahedin fighting against the communist central government. He trained for several weeks at the al Farouq training camp near Kandahar.[16] At the end of his training in March 1991, he swore bayat to al Qaeda and was given the kunya 'Abu Musab."[6][17]

"He then returned to Germany.

"In January 1992, Slahi traveled again to Afghanistan and was assigned to a mortar battery in Gardez. In March, the Mohammad Najibullah regime fell and he returned to Germany.[8](p12)

"In hearings in Guantanamo, Slahi has stated that he traveled to Afghanistan twice, attended the al Farouq training camp, and fought against the Afghan central government in 1992, but that he was never an enemy combatant against the United States.[6][10][18](pp2–4)[19](pp4–6)"

Mohamedou Ould Slahi - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia

 

[georgephillip]

So how many years was he sentenced to when convinced for his crime? There was a trial, right?

He has never been charged or tried.
He's existing in a legal limbo today much as he has for the last fourteen years.

"Guantánamo Diary[edit]
In 2005, Slahi wrote his memoirs while in prison, a 466-page manuscript in English. He had learned this language since being held at Guantánamo.[15] After litigation and negotiation, his lawyers achieved declassification by the US government six years later. Excerpts were published by Slate magazine as a three-part series beginning April 30, 2013.[14]

"On May 1, 2013, Slate also published a related interview with Col. Morris Davis, the military's chief prosecutor at Guantánamo from September 2005 to October 2007.[45]

"The book, Guantánamo Diary, was published in January 2015. It is the first work by a still-imprisoned detainee at Guantánamo. It provides details of his harsh interrogations and torture.[15]"

Mohamedou Ould Slahi - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia

 

[jwoodie]

So why hasn't Obama released him?

 

[georgephillip]

So why hasn't Obama released him?

That's a good question:

"NEW YORK, 12 Apr (IPS) - After nine years in captivity, a U.S. federal court has ordered the release of a Guantanamo prisoner once described as the 'highest-value detainee at the facility' - and set off a firestorm of protest from Republican lawmakers.

"Federal District Judge James Robertson ruled in Washington, D.C. that the U.S. could not continue to detain Mohamedou Ould Salahi (sometimes spelled 'Slahi'), a Mauritanian citizen who has been in U.S. custody since 2001.

"Judge Robertson's opinion, providing the reasons for the granting of Salahi's habeas corpus petition, was released last week after undergoing a classification review. Some portions were withheld as classified."

U.S. Guantanamo Detainee Ordered Freed

 

[georgephillip]

"While at Guantánamo, Salahi was held in total isolation for months, kept in a freezing cold cell, shackled to the floor, deprived of food, made to drink salt water and forced to stand in a room with strobe lights and heavy metal music for hours at a time.

"He was threatened with harm to his family, forbidden from praying, beaten and subjected to the 'frequent flyer' programme, during which he was awakened every few hours to deprive him of sleep.

"The government falsely told him that his mother had been arrested and was being sent to Guantánamo.

"Salahi's abuse was documented in a 2009 report by the Senate Armed Services Committee.

"Marine Corps Lt. Col. Stuart Couch, the military lawyer originally assigned to prosecute the case against Salahi in the military commissions, determined that Salahi's self-incriminating statements were so tainted by torture that they couldn't ethically be used against him.

"Couch told his supervisors that he was 'morally opposed' to Salahi's treatment and refused to participate in the prosecution. In his decision, Judge Robertson wrote that there is 'ample evidence in this record that Salahi was subjected to extensive and severe mistreatment at Guantánamo'".

U.S. Guantanamo Detainee Ordered Freed