The first book published by a long-time Guantanamo Bay inmate that describes torture, humiliation and despair during 13 years in captivity was selling briskly in the US on Wednesday and drawing hard-won attention to his case.
Guantanamo detainee Mohamedou Ould Slahi’s account from the US naval base in Cuba, Guantanamo Diary was published on Tuesday after a seven-year legal battle.
It recounts ice baths, degradation and myriad humiliations in a first-person telling of his interrogation during the US war on terrorism from a prisoner who has never been charged by the US with a crime and was ordered released by a US federal court in 2010. That order was later vacated and Slahi, 44, has continued to be held.
The book’s publication coincided with US President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address, seven years after the president vowed to close the prison in Cuba during his first year in office. Those efforts have been blocked by lawmakers who think the inmates pose a threat to US national security.
Slahi’s 466-page handwritten manuscript was initially classified by the US government and heavily redacted before publication.
“He’s an innocent man. He’s being detained unlawfully and he should be the one telling his story. Without censorship,” said Slahi’s lawyer, Hina Shamsi of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Guantanamo Diary was in the top 100 on Amazon’s bestsellers list and in Barnes & Noble’s top 50 on Wednesday.
“It’s only been on sale one day but my phone is ringing off the hook about it, so it’s obviously reaching people the way we want it to,” Hachette Book Group publicist Liz Garriga said.
Hachette is the parent company of the book’s publisher Little, Brown and Co.
Shamsi said Slahi’s ordeal is more proof that torture does not work. She cited an excerpt in which he describes his interrogators as telling him: “All you have to say is ‘I don’t know,’ ‘I don’t remember’ and we’ll fuck you.”
Slahi’s family held a news conference in London pleading for his release on Tuesday as the book came out in Britain. Several celebrities, including actors Stephen Fry and Colin Firth, recorded excerpts of the book that were posted online.
Fry read Slahi’s depiction of his treatment outside of the Guantanamo detention center at the hands of fellow Arabs following directions from the US: “They stuffed the air between my clothes and me with ice cubes from the neck to my ankles and whenever the ice melted, they put in new, hard ice cubes. Every once in a while one of the guards smashed me most of the time in the face.”
Slahi, of Mauritania, said he turned himself in to authorities there weeks after the 2001 attacks and was taken to Jordan, where he was interrogated for several months before being sent to Afghanistan and to Cuba, according to transcripts of his US military tribunal proceedings.
Slahi was described by the 9/11 Commission “a significant al-Qaeda operative” who helped arrange for the Hamburg cell members — including two Sept. 11 hijackers and the roommate of a third, Mohamed Atta, — to travel to Afghanistan for training.
Pentagon spokesman for Guantanamo affairs Lieutenant Colonel Myles Caggins said Slahi’s case is being relitigated.
In the book, Slahi describes his relief in July 2002, despite having been stripped naked, at the thought of a transfer to the US.
“Around my private parts, one of the team wrapped a diaper. Only then, I was dead sure that the plane was heading to the US. Now I started to convince myself that ‘everything’s gonna be alright,’” he wrote.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number