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It was January 11, 2019exactly seventeen years since the first detainees had arrived at Guantnamo Bay. They went through checklists of questions that had been developed by their superiors, and seemed impervious to nuance, or to the notion that some detainees may have been sent there in error. Mohamedou Ould Slahi Born: December 21, 1970 Birthplace: Rosso, Mauritania Jodie Foster Born: November 19, 1962 Birthplace: Los Angeles, California, USA Nancy Hollander Born: March 10, 1944 Benedict Cumberbatch Born: July 19, 1976 Birthplace: Hammersmith, London, England, UK Lt. Col. Stuart Couch Born: April 20, 1965 Canadas Security Intelligence Service began a surveillance operation focussing on Salahi and his associates, but Salahi noticed two pinhole cameras poking through his apartment walls and left the country. The U.S. government concluded that he was the leader of the Montreal-based al-Qaida cell., In Guantnamo, Salahi admitted to this and other allegations. He thought, It must be somebody really importantthe most dangerous person in the world, perhapsto have this special attention, a guard force just for him. We got to the site at sunrise; the sky was a hazy, muted orange, from wildfires burning to the south. February 27, 2019. A similar phone call, followed by a second transaction, took place in December, 1998. Its hard to sit there and laugh and chat with the guy, if hes actually that bad, Wood told me. But two months later, when Salahi returned to Mauritania and described his experience of the jihad, Walid resolved to set off on his own for Afghanistan. Summer/Autumn 2015. Having accepted his guards, Salahi wrote, the next phase of captivity was getting used to the prison, and being afraid of the outside world.. He wanted no part of a system in which he might have control over another persons liberty. I was forbidden from seeing the light of the day; every once in a while they gave me a rec-time at night to keep me from seeing or interacting with any detainees. Salahi generally avoids Abu Hafsthey have fundamentally different views of Islam, and he worries that any association could further complicate his life. Comments. Badre Eddine had spent some four decades organizing grassroots campaigns against the practice of slavery and other human-rights violations, and for this he had spent years in remote detention sites, under a succession of authoritarian regimes. Thank you for a wonderful evening!, Ive done it, Igor! After a hustled day of tackling a myriad of issues and directly contributing to the global war on terrorism, it reads, fun awaits. Officers could partake in pottery classes, paintball, rugby, tennis, and softball, or exercise in several pools and gyms. Mauritania is much bigger than Guantnamo Bayyou can move around. But I insist on freedom., Another liberty Salahi identified as having been taken from him is that of expressing the full range of human feelings. He was driven around for three hours, to make him think that he was being transported to a different facility. Meanwhile, his subordinates continued to collect bribes from Salahis family. But, when he wanted to engage, he spoke with a worldly, provocative humor that Wood found appealing. guard Steve Wood and director Kevin Macdonald. Wood compliedhe felt that it was the least he could do for Salahi. Soon afterward, in a room at the same hotel, the U.S. State Department hosted a training session for Mauritanias security-intelligence apparatus, on Interdiction of Terrorist Activities. Salahi suffered night terrors, and Wood suffered a splitting headache from caffeine withdrawal. See what it did to his family., A job posting depicts life as an intelligence officer in Guantnamo Bay as a rewarding challenge with incredible surroundingssunsets, beaches, iguanas, pristine Caribbean blue. In June, 2004, the Supreme Court ruled that Guantnamo detainees could challenge the grounds for their detention. So, when Abu Hafs called Salahi for assistance a third time, in early 1999, Salahi refused, and hung up. The sessions Wood witnessed were calm and courteous, with Salahi attempting to answer everything asked of him. In a newly published journal he reveals allegations of torture and sexual abuse. had been torturing detainees at black sites for several months; now the Guantnamo leadership wanted to understand the legal gymnastics that would be required to implement a program of their own. At the time, Slahi had been in captivity for two years, accused of acts of terrorism. I pictured my family already having prepared the Iftar fast-breaking food, my mom mumbling her prayers while duly working the modest delicacies, everybody looking for the sun to take its last steps and hide beneath the horizon, Salahi wrote. I arrived just before the sunset prayers. Outside of the political discussions, he and Salahi passed the hours playing rummy, Risk, and chess. Salahi, I wish I were not part of this shit, he said. I keep thinking, Here it comesI am fixing to see what a terrorist looks like face to face, Neely, who was twenty-one at the time, said. Fmr. Eventually, Salahi understood that bin al-Shibh was one of the three men who had stayed at his apartment in Germany for a night, in October, 1999; the other two had become 9/11 hijackers. Abdellahis men confiscated his passport, once again citing a request by the Americans. As he was led away for questioning, he said: "Don't worry mom, I'll be back soon." He has been charged with no crime, but Slahi never returned. But he did not consider himself a member of Al Qaeda, or a facilitator of its operations. We had done all our investigations, and we found nothing against Salahi, Abdellahi told me. The Mauritanian, Kevin Macdonald's movie based on the true story of Mohamedou Ould Slahi, a Mauritanian man . The doors of my house are open.. While Salahi was being tortured, James Yee, the Muslim military chaplain, discovered that he and the interpreters at Guantnamomany of whom were Muslim Americans, with Middle Eastern backgroundswere being spied on by law-enforcement and intelligence officers. Since then, I have received it, eaten it, and paid for it! In 2012, Salahis lawyers won a seven-year legal battle to declassify his diary. Slahi says his interrogator could not sell his false confessions up the chain of command. But by then the Soviet Union had collapsed, and, while Salahi was in training, the Afghan government lost its Russian support. Ressam told investigators that he had planned to detonate suitcases in a crowded terminal at Los Angeles International Airport. Assalaamu alaikum, he said to Mohamedou. He wore a broad smile and a white jumpsuit, and moved cautiously toward Wood. When I heard him say that, I knew the truth wouldnt set me free, because Arbeit didnt set the Jews free, Salahi recalled. When they asked whether Salahi was involved in any terrorist activities, the friend laughed. Salahi saw a mentally ill old man subjected to this method. Where is Mullah Omar? they asked. (For the first several weeks of the invasion, Donald Rumsfeld, the Secretary of Defense, believed that everyone spoke Afghan.) In a rush to leave Kandahar, two dozen senior Al Qaeda officials boarded a bus, but Abu Hafs, fearful that a single air strike could decapitate the jihadi movement, urged them to disperse. Salahi had spent the morning reviewing a speech he had prepared for events hosted by Amnesty International and Physicians for Human Rights. The decision to keep his conversion a secret from everyone in his life made him feel at times as if being Muslim were wrong, even though, in his heart, he still believed. He couldnt stop talking because he didnt know where he was, nor why, Salahi wrote. In Mauritania, Abdellahis men detained Salahis wife and brothers and interrogated them about the Millennium Plot. But I changed my mind after Guantnamo, he told me. Zuley read Salahi a letter, later shown to be forged, stating that his mother was in U.S. custody and might soon be transferred to Guantnamo. I think he still sees any baby in my family as a future inmate. Brahim Ebety, Salahis Mauritanian lawyer, told me that he is considering a lawsuit against the Mauritanian government. He denied involvement with terrorism and was never charged with a crime. Salahi had been living in a cell practically since the beginning of the invasion, nine months earlier. I thought it was a new U.S. method to suck intels out of your brain and send them directly to a main computer which analyzes the information, he wrote. In response, detainees would stop coperating and start chanting or praying; in an attempt to reassert control, Fallon wrote, the interrogators would duct-tape their mouths, further guaranteeing that they wouldnt get any informationand so it would go. Nevertheless, he recalled, each failed interrogation was taken as proof that the detainees were both Al Qaeda and trained to resist these methods. In 2000, investigators in northern England had discovered a jihadi field manual that included advice on lying to captors. According to government records, the letter referred to the administrative and logistical difficulties her presence would present in this previously all-male prison environment, implying that she would be raped. By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. It had been five years since the Taliban had taken over most of the country, and televisions were banned. They really know who is who, and, as a result, they were very reluctant to torture me. Salahi underwent daily interrogations. They were everywhere in the mosque, in the police car, twenty-four hours. Among the targets of the investigation was Mohsen, Salahis friend and host. A week after Salahi began leading prayers at the Al Sunnah mosque, Ressam drove a rental car onto a U.S.-bound ferry in Victoria, British Columbia. They must no longer be denied the right to family. As they left baggage claim, Salahi later wrote in his diary, my hands were shackled behind my back and I was encircled by a bunch of ghosts who cut me off from the rest of my company. The examiner described Salahi, whose answers contradicted everything he had confessed to Zuley in the preceding weeks, as eager to prove that he is providing accurate information. The results were decisive: No deception indicated.. By the time Salahi arrived at Guantnamo, on August 5, 2002, Fallons lite interagency criminal-investigation task force had been sidelined, and Lehnert had been replaced. Abu Hafs spent the next decade in relative luxury, exercising alongside foreign diplomats in one of Tehrans swankiest gyms, and looking after bin Ladens sons along with his own. It is a fact that they understand this whole concept of terrorism much better than the average American interrogator, Salahi said, in his military hearing. But the problem is that you cannot just admit to something you havent done; you need to deliver the details, which you cant when you hadnt done anything. Another dissonance was that Salahis eloquent orations on fundamental human rights stopped short of confronting a reality that Wood noticed on the second day: as guests of Mauritanian lites, they were served lavish meals by people who appeared to be slaves. But he subsequently forgot the log-in information, and so he never saw a reply. Over a three-way Anglo-French-African video call, Mohamedou Ould Slahi and Tahar Rahim are exchanging hearty greetings. For some thirty hours, Salahi was strapped to a board. The journey to Nouakchott took roughly an hour, tracing the Mauritanian coastto the left the Atlantic, to the right the Sahara. International . In the U.S., it was morning. I just couldnt wait to see who the detainees were, he told me. He never told Wendy about his conversion. One of the seven authors was Mohamedou Ould Slahi, a Mauritanian man who was held without charge for 14 years, during which time he was repeatedly tortured, before his release in 2016. A fourth was Ramzi bin al-Shibh, the attack cordinator; while in C.I.A. Recently released "Guantnamo Diary" author Mohamedou Slahi gives a heartfelt thanks to his supporters in this moving new video, filmed where he belongs: at home with his family. His order for release in 2010 was appealed by the Obama administration, and resulted in another six years in the camp. For over 10 years, Mohamedou Ould Slahi, 51, was painted as one of the most dangerous terrorists in the world. To insure Salahis upkeep, the family regularly gave Abdellahis men money, food, clothes, and gifts. detainees were whisked to the cellar, to be hidden from view. Relaxing is easy., In practice, many military-police officers killed time by watching movies and getting drunk at the Tiki Bar; they also took flights to Afghanistan, to pick up more detainees. To be honest I can report very little about the next couple of weeks, Salahi wrote, because I was not in the right state of mind., Soon afterward, an interrogator e-mailed Diane Zierhoffer, a military psychologist, with concerns about Salahis mental health. I was happy because the one-ton stack of paper the U.S. government had provided the Senegalese about me didnt seem to impress them, Salahi wrote. Detainee Mohamedou Ould Slahi joined the terrorist organisation Al-. When Mohamedou Ould Slahi walked away, unshackled, from a U.S. military plane in Nouakchott, Mauritania, the author of Guantnamo Diary hoped he was finally free. Later, Salahi moved to Germany, where, the Americans assessed, his primary responsibility was to recruit for al-Qaida in Europe. Among his alleged recruits were three of the 9/11 hijackers, all of whom served as pilots on separate planes. . In Robertsons assessment, the governments evidence about Salahi was so attenuated, or so tainted by coercion and mistreatment, or so classified, that it cannot support a successful criminal prosecution. He concluded, Salahi must be released from custody.. Later that day, Neely and his partner brought an elderly detainee to the holding area and forced him to his knees. I was, like, What else have they lied about? he said. After. In 2006, Wood removed his shoes at the entrance to the Masjid As-Saber, Portlands largest mosque. The Ambassador called Nouakchott, and the foreign minister ordered the Embassy to fabricate a passport, using a fake name. Wood, who was twenty-three, had recently learned that his girlfriend was pregnant. During interrogations, an intelligence officer, known among the detainees as William the Torturer, forced Salahi into stress positions that exacerbated his sciatic-nerve issues. He slept in remote villages, and entrusted his life to Afghan sheepherders who were presumably unaware of the twenty-five-million-dollar bounty on his head. Soon afterward, Salahis brothers were released with instructions to return to Mauritania. There was no fanfare, no announcement. The Americans learned only that, as a condition for return, he agreed that he would renounce his former association and embark on a message of denouncing terrorism and preaching a more tolerant and pacifist message. I asked whether the United States, after learning of his return, had sought to detain or rendition him. Never turn your back, the sergeant major warned him. Meanwhile, the Bush Administrations pretext for invading Iraq was collapsing, and so was Woods trust in government. A few weeks later, Iranian spies told Abu Hafs to call other Al Qaeda officials and inform them that they would be welcome in Iranalthough, like him, they would live with their wives and children under a form of house arrest, sometimes in prisons, sometimes in lavish compounds and hotels, always in the company of the Revolutionary Guard. What followed was a period of experimentationoverseen by psychologists, lawyers, and medical personnelat C.I.A. I said, No. (Investigators later determined that Ressam had left Montreal for a safe house in Vancouver on November 17thnine days before Salahi arrived in Canada.) He tried to sleep, but his mind was racing with the expectation of torture at dawn. Yee, who had converted to Islam in the early nineties, sent a request up the chain of command, but was rebuffed. I want to see photos of their heads on pikes, Black said, according to Schroens memoir, First In, published in 2005. Mohamedou Ould Slahi or Salahi (Arabic language: ) (born December 31, 1970) is a Mauritanian who has been detained at Guantnamo Bay detention camp since August 4, 2002. You know, when you just fall asleep and the saliva starts to come out of your mouth? Salahi said. The 2021 legal drama follows the true story of the aforementioned protagonist (played by Tahar Rahim), a man who was arrested, taken from his . When they removed his shackles, the man, who was shaking with fear, suddenly jerked to the left. In time, Wood began to think of everything he had known before meeting Salahi as a narrow-minded myth of American superiority, notable for its omissions of overseas misadventures. Entrance to the left in 2010 was appealed by the Obama administration, and we found nothing against Salahi I... Secretary of Defense, believed that everyone spoke Afghan. everyone spoke Afghan ). Slept in remote villages, and medical personnelat C.I.A broad smile and a white jumpsuit, softball... 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