In the summer and early autumn of 2005, Mohamedou Ould Slahi
handwrote a 466-page, 122,000 word draft of his book in his single-cell
segregation hut in Camp Echo, Guantánamo. He wrote it in instalments,
starting not long after he was finally allowed to meet with Nancy
Hollander and Sylvia Royce, two attorneys from his pro-bono legal team.
Under the strict protocols of Guantánamo’s sweeping censorship regime,
every page he wrote was considered classified from the moment of its
creation, and each new section was surrendered to the US government for
review.
On December 15, 2005, three months after he signed and dated the
manuscript’s last page, Mohamedou interrupted his testimony during an
Administrative Review Board hearing in Guantánamo to tell the presiding
officers:
“I just want to mention here that I wrote a book recently while in jail here about my whole story, OK? I sent it for release to the District [of] Columbia, and when it is released I advise you guys to read it. A little advertisement. It is a very interesting book, I think.”
But Mohamedou’s manuscript was not released. It was stamped “SECRET”,
a classification level for information that could cause serious damage
to national security if it becomes public, and “NOFORN”, meaning it
can’t be shared with any foreign nationals or intelligence services. It
was deposited in a secure facility near Washington DC, accessible only
to those with a full security clearance and an official “need to know.”
For more than six years, Mohamedou’s attorneys carried out
litigation and negotiations to have the manuscript cleared for public
release. Mohamedou’s manuscript was finally cleared for public release,
and a member of his legal team was able to hand it to me on a disk
labelled “Slahi Manuscript – Unclassified Version,” in the summer of
2012. By then, Mohamedou had been in Guantánamo for a decade. A federal
judge had granted his habeas corpus petition two years before and
ordered him released, but the US government had appealed, and the
appeals court sent his petition back down to the federal district court
for rehearing. That case is still pending.
Mohamedou remains to this day in the same segregation cell where he
wrote his Guantánamo Diary. I have, I believe, read everything that has
been made public about his case, and I do not understand why.
FROM HIS DIARY, ARE BELOW A FEW OF HIS SHARING ON THE TORTURE HE WENT THROUGH:
"I
had a mask over my mouth and my nose, not to mention the tight belt
around my stomach: breathing was impossible" - "The only way to survive
was to convince the brain to be satisfied with the tiny bit of air it
got"
"Around 4pm, the transport to the airport started. By then, I was a
“living dead”. My legs weren’t able to carry me any more; for the time
to come, the guards had to drag me all the way from Bagram to GTMO ..."
"‘If
he wants a confession, I already provided one. Does he want me to
resurrect the dead?" - "I hoped I was involved in something so I could
admit to it and relieve myself of writing about every Muslim I ever met"
"‘They made me drink salt water. The chains stopped the circulation to my hands and feet"
""Blindfold the motherfucker if he tries to look …” One of them hit me
hard across the face, and quickly put the goggles on my eyes, ear muffs
on my ears, and a small bag over my head. I couldn’t tell who did what.
They tightened the chains around my ankles and my wrists; afterwards, I
started to bleed. All I could hear was _____ cursing, “F-this and
F-that!” I didn’t say a word, I was overwhelmingly surprised, I thought
they were going to execute me."
"Thanks to the beating I wasn’t able to stand, so _____ and the other
guard dragged me out with my toes tracing the way and threw me in a
truck, which immediately took off. The beating party would go on for the
next three or four hours before they turned me over to another team
that was going to use different torture techniques."
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