Guantánamo Diary Paperback – December 1, 2015

Whether it's called torture or enhanced interrogation the purpose of the treatment is to make a misery of life for war-on-terror prisoners: 70 days without "the sweetness of sleep," ice-cold rooms, a "water diet" of 25 oz. bottle of water every l of 2 hours "depending on the moods of the guards," being able to tell night from day only through the changes in the bottom on the toilet from bright to dark, sexual molestation, food jerked away after half a minute of eating or given too much food and forced to eat it all, screamed at constantly especially if caught praying, deprived of "comfort items" like soap and toilet paper.And it works. Apparently every person can be scared and broken to a place where they are willing to cooperate with their tormenters. And for Mohamedou Ould Slahi, the writer of this diary, because his captors never had any concrete evidence against him (although they considered him the #1 prisoner at GITMO), cooperation by Mohamedou consisted of fabricating stories.Mohamedou had over 100 different interrogators in a period of 6 years and there's a pattern to the sessions. No one can ever tell him what crime he is accused of. He asks how he is "worse than the people you captured with guns in their hands?"The interrogators respond: "You're very smart!...you meet all the criteria of a top terrorist....[on the] terrorist check-list, you pass with a very high score." What is the checklist?""You're Arab, you're young, you went on jihad [in Afghanistan in 1992 to fight Russians], you speak foreign languages, you've been in many countries, you're a graduate in a technical discipline."Mohamedou asks, "And what crime is that?" The response: "Look at the hijackers; they were the same way." And there's no evidence because according to the interrogators "smart people don't leave any traces."Mohamedou sees that because his interrogators deal with "what ifs" they are free to "interpret the information [received] as they pleased." Thus, though he spent less than 2 months in Canada, and the Canadians could say only that he was in the company of x or y who were "bad people," or frequented a certain mosque, the Americans said they had "tons of information" on Mohamedou that showed he was the Mastermind of the Millenium Plot.Mohamedou suggests that the Canadians were anxious to be helpful after letting the people with explosives cross the border. Thus they edited transcripts of Mohamedou's conversations in Canada which leads the U.S. interrogators to keep trying to find out what Mohamedou meant by "tea and sugar" in one conversation. This goes on for 4 years.When Mohamedou decides to cooperate he knows what the interrogators want so he confesses: "I came to Canada with a plan to blow up the CN Tower in Toronto...supposed to buy a lot of sugar to mix with the explosives..."It is either tragic or farcical to watch the Americans in their hall of mirrors, creating images, distorting them, bending reality and believing they are being successful.As Mohamedou's confessions start to give the interrogators the "information" they wanted, when this information confirmed what they believed of Mohamedou, the interrogators become visibly relieved and happy (and the miseries in Mohamedou's life lessen). The interrogators' superiors also become satisfied and happy. It's easy to imagine how as the news spreads all the way to Cheney and Rumsfeld and Bush, these policy setters become smugly satisfied that their methods (call them what you will) were justified.There's a lot of redaction in the text. It doesn't distract at all from the reality of GITMO Mohamedou shows us. "You're holding me because your country is strong enough to be unjust." he says to interrogators.At the conclusion of the diary Mohamedou says the U.S. government at first "thought it had managed to gather all the evils of the world in GTMO....so it would perform it's revenge." But then it realized it had gathered "a bunch of non-combatants...and is stuck with the problem."The U.S. owning up to the problem it created does not seem likely any time soon. Mohamedou was taken by the CIA in 2001; in 2010 the Obama administration appealed a U.S. District Court's ruling that Mohamedou be released. That case is still pending and Mohamedou is still a prisoner.

Reminder about redaction: the full-page redactions (little black squares all over the page) jammed my kindle. For the first time in five years, I had to reboot my kindle when several of these pages appeared consecutively. Otherwise, working links and footnotes showed careful documentation and cross referencing by Larry Siems.The six-plus years of "interrogation" of Mohamedou Ould Slahi (MOS) included time in his home country Mauritania, Jordon, Afghanistan, and Cuba/GITMO. After September 11, 2001, the USA pursued terrorists with many interrogation "plans" carried out by multiple agencies. As I finished reading this book, two significant news items (ten years after MOS' experiences) appeared on TV. 1) The Jordanian pilot captured by ISIS was burned alive. 2) Since 2002, 649 GITMO detainees were released and 30% were re-engaging in terrorism. Now I must question the usefulness of brutal interrogation, especially if detainees have time and means to tell what happened at GITMO. Up until now, I had seen TV images of detainees walking in chain-link kennels with armed guards on each side. I had not thought about other kinds of "housing" or torture.As MOS described his survival as a detainee, three stories stood out for me. 1) Female interrogators engaged in sexual abuse and assault of MOS.. What red-blooded USA woman, employed by the government, would expose herself, whisper, and touch a male prisoner? I am disgusted. 2) At one time, interrogators took MOS (hooded and confined) on speed boat rides, apparently to give the impression that MOS was being moved to a new and worse location. Actually, he returned to a different room/chamber at GITMO. This reminded me of fraternity hazing. Why didn't the interrogators simply prepare a bowl of skinned grapes, blindfold MOS, place MOS' hand in the bowl, and tell him these were the eyeballs of other detainees who had been untruthful? 3) Medical doctors repaired and medicated MOS after beatings and starvation. What red-blooded USA doctor would allow the torture to continue?The diary included descriptions of MOS' life other than prison. For example, he helped prepare a family wedding celebration and described the local traditions. Another time, MOS describes his work of installing telecommunications equipment in the presidential offices in Mauritania. These placed MOS in a broader context of his reality. Most important for MOS was his memorization of the Koran early in life. With or without a printed Koran, with or without a clear direction to Mecca, MOS describes his constant faith and trust in Allah. This seems similar to the Christians who memorize the Bible and hymns, so that if they are ever persecuted and deprived of printed materials, the Christians have a clear direction to God.Will look for followup work by Larry Siems, et. al.

Finished reading it. So powerful. These passages really stuck out to me:Page 241"Oh, ALLAH help me. Oh Allah have mercy on me" SSG Mary kept mimicking my prayers, "ALLAH, ALLAH.... There is no Allah. He let you down!" I smiled at how ignorant she was, talking about the Lord like that. But the Lord is very patient, and doesn't need to rush to punishment, because there is no escaping Him.Page 270I gathered my strength, guessed the Kibla, kneeled, and started to pray to God. "Please guide me. I know not what to do. I am surrounded by merciless wolves, who fear not thee." When I was praying I burst into tears, though I suppressed my voice lest the guards hear me. You know there are always serious prayers and lazy prayers. My experience has taught me that God always responds to your serious prayers.

This is a very remarkable book. Unlike many of the reviews on this Amazon page, my review is of the fully restored version first published in 2017.Slahi is a very remarkable man, and if you believe him, which I do, (partly because his testimony is believable and partly because relentless interrogation over many years failed to produce any evidence whatsoever contradicting him), his book reveals a man of great strength and a wonderful spirit of forgiveness, although he is also very sparky and stands up for himself but always with humour and a shrewd understanding of the situation he is in, which given the way he was treated is almost beyond belief.It’s a great story but for me the most interesting thing, for me as a person who has tended to avoid reading about Guantanamo because frankly it is an unpleasant subject, the most interesting thing is what it reveals about the political background in various Arab countries who have slavishly gone along with the Americans, acting as their jailers and torturers, and also within the USA – the way the different military and intelligence agencies relate with each other and also the American government and justice system.It is also interesting that Slahi thought the Jordanians, although callous, did a much better job as interrogators than the Americans, because they arrived at a judgment about Slahi quickly and easily.Throughout the book Slahi remains vitally interested in his captors and torturers as people and remains open to them. It is this which makes their characters come alive, through Slahi’s compassion for them.

I came to read this book because I saw the trailer for the movie and it reminded me of someone so sharply that I cried, and when I looked for the movie I felt I should begin with the real story. This book has been a wonderful companion for the first week in Ramadan, unsurprisingly considering every word was conceived by a man isolated by the world imagining himself reaching out to every soul he could as an individual. I have learned as much about Islam, Mauritania, Arabs, forgiveness and humanity in general as about Guantánamo. One of my first thoughts was to hope that the person the movie trailer reminded me of so very sharply managed to read this book in 2015 simply because they would love it. Today I recommended it to another very dear friend who is trying to improve their understanding of forgiveness - but mostly I recommended it because they will love it too.Thank you Mohamedou ould salahi - and if I could ask a small personal favour please DO NOT EVER stop writing.

This is a great book. I was inspired to read it following the film. It is engaging and frustrating at the same time. It gives an insight into how he ended up and no doubt many others in Gitmo just because he knew them or mixed in same circle. Its also interesting to read how the red cross were not given access to him on the reason being he was an extremely dangerous terrorist. None of which they found any evidence of.Loved how he couldn't stop feeling emotions for his guards despite them having been involved in his torture and degrading treatment.

This is a brilliantly written and edited book describing the illegal detention and suffering of a remarkable individual over many years. He was made to suffer for no better reason than to attempt to find scapegoats in revenge for the atrocity of 9/11. Despite unbearable conditions including torture, no evidence was ever found against him. His whole story was kept secret for years until a judicial review found that he had been entirely truthful.This is the TRUE story of an innocent man who had been through unbelievable torments at the behest of the US government, under three Presidents, and yet maintained his religious faith. This Faith enabled him to endure, and forgive everyone involved in his torment. He holds no grudges and seeks no revenge.What an example to us all!

Clearly written by someone who doesn't write for a living. First chapter is full of sentencing errors and spelling mistakes. Also very lengthy and imprecise. Clearly not edited. After so many pages I skipped to chapter 2, read some more, then quit at 25% read. What I did read, reads like a school trip diary.