31, January
2015
GITMO Diary
Following a seven-year legal battle,
the diary of a GITMO prisoner has finally seen the light of day - and has gone
viral. It chronicles, in eloquent style, the horrific torture that Mohamedou
Ould Slahi had to endure. Like many other prisoners, he has been held for more
than 14 years in an ‘ice box.’ Under extreme duress, which included the
threatened gang-rape of his mother, Slahi ‘confessed’ to a crime.
He was renditioned (kidnapped) in
2001 on direct orders from former Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld.
A new fuzzy word, ‘enemy combatants’ was construed to bypass troublesome Geneva
Convention laws.
So powerful is his written his
testimony that actors Colin Firth and Dominic West have published readings from
his diary.
Slahi’s lawyer, Nancy Hollander; book
editor, Larry Siems; and Col. Morris Davis, the former chief military
prosecutor at Guantánamo Bay, stated warily that Slahi is "no more a
terrorist than Forrest Gump." It is apparent that Slahi is collateral
damage from a war that has gone terribly awry. Much like Mandela, he bears no
resentment to his torturers and has forgiven them for inflicting such terrible
pain.
He was ordered released in 2010 but is
still languishing in prison. It is time to release this man and allow him to
return to his family in Mauritania, close Guantánamo and return it to its
rightful owners – the Cuban people!
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