The Best-Selling Prisoner of Guantánamo

[jimmy olsen]

Aboslutely outrageous that the administration has ignored the order of a Federal judge to release him.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/foreigners/2015/03/guantanamo_detainee_mohamedou_ould_slahi_can_t_have_a_copy_of_his_best_selling.html

The Best-Selling Prisoner of Guantánamo

Mohamedou Ould Slahi's attorney traveled to the island prison to tell him his book was a smash hit. She couldn't even give him a copy.

By Linda Moreno

It has become a rite of passage for new authors in the digital age to obsessively check Amazon to track book sales and tweet positive reviews in the hopes of picking up new readers. But for one author, whose book was on the New York Times best-sellers list for three weeks, this isn't possible. He doesn't know how well his book is doing or even what the book looks like. He lives in the informational black hole that is Guantánamo.

Tens of thousands of people have now read the harrowing story of ISN 760, the number our client, Mohamedou Ould Slahi, was assigned when he was rendered to Guantánamo Bay in August 2002. On Nov. 20, 2001, Mohamedou complied with a request from the Mauritanian police to answer some questions. He has not been home since but has spent the past 14 years imprisoned. The United States has never charged Mohamedou with any crime. In April 2010, a federal judge granted his habeas petition, ordering his release. But the government appealed, and he is still there. His telling of his story first appeared in Slate in 2013, and his book, Guantánamo Diary, which he wrote by hand three years into his captivity, was published in January and has become an unexpected literary sensation.

Last month, I traveled to Guantánamo Bay to deliver the news to Mohamedou in person—practically, the only way his lawyers can communicate with him—that his book had been translated into dozens of languages to international acclaim. I was able to tell him that nearly 50,000 people had signed an American Civil Liberties Union petition asking for his immediate release. He learned that people from all walks of life, including former government prosecutors, schoolteachers, singers, and poets, were moved by his story and came forward with support.

I told him that celebrities and artists such as Colin Firth, Benedict Cumberbatch, Brian Eno, and others have recorded passages from his book, which are posted on a special section of the Guardian's website. I hoped this news would give Mohamedou some comfort.

I also wanted to show Mohamedou a copy of his book. I wanted him to see the power of its cover, which features the black bars of the government's redactions, with just the title, his name, and his editor's name peeking through, as if gasping for air. The cover's background is Mohamedou's own handwriting from his manuscript, fragmented words, censored because the United States claimed they were classified. But the rules governing what detainees are allowed to receive at Guantánamo prohibited me from giving him a copy of his own book. I couldn't bring it in.

Even though Mohamedou is the author, the book contains an introduction and footnotes that he did not write. Before seeing my client, the Guantánamo authorities asked me to certify in writing that none of the items I was bringing contained any classified material—a new requirement in the ever-changing rules for prisoner visits at Guantánamo. Because I could not say for certain that the author of the introduction and the footnotes had not included something that is classified, even if that information was already in the public domain, I couldn't show Mohamedou a copy of his book.

I was able to show him color copies of the international book covers of Guantánamo Diary and a photo of the U.S. edition as well as the front page of the Albuquerque Journal, which had a photograph of two of his other attorneys. But if an article about WikiLeaks or Chelsea Manning or anything else the government deems classified had also appeared on that page, it would likely have been prohibited. I know Mohamedou would have liked to study these items, looking at them over and over, but due to the rules governing detainee access to materials from counsel, I had to take them with me when I left at the end of the day.

For the past several years, prison officials allowed Mohamedou to keep books and a few other possessions in his cell. A few months before the release of his book, Mohamedou was moved to a different cell in Guantánamo. Nearly every single thing he owned for the past 13 years was taken from him. Among the seized property were his books, including one that had been given to him by a guard, whom Mohamedou had described in his memoir. In the book, the guard wrote:

Over the past 10 months I have gotten to know you and we have become friends, I wish you good luck, and I am sure I will think of you often. ... I hope you think of us as more than just guards. I think we all became friends.

The only book he was allowed to keep was his copy of the Quran. We haven't been told why.

I cannot now write about what Mohamedou Slahi said to me during the visit because it is deemed presumptively classified—at some point in the future, a government censor will review my notes and determine what I can and cannot share from that conversation. That is the reality of representing a client in Guantánamo. But what I can say is that Mohamedou is deeply moved by all of the attention his story has received and appreciative for the efforts of all the people, worldwide, who care about his story. I can also say that while he is hopeful, he is fragile, debilitated, and he wants to be free. 

He wants to go home.

Linda Moreno is a nationally prominent defense attorney and one of Mohamedou Ould Slahi's habeas attorneys.

[The Minsky Moment]

Aboslutely outrageous that the administration has ignored the order of a Federal judge to release him.

Not exactly
The crackerjack Slate reporter forgot to mention that the order was vacated by the DC court of appeals.

[Eddie Teach]

It's outrageous, regardless. The man has been held for 14 years without trial and without even being charged with a crime.

[The Minsky Moment]

PW I basically agree,
However, it should be pointed out that the Slate article really glosses over both the legal timeline and the reasons for detention.

In the DC circuit case that vacated the habeas grant, the opinion explained as follows:

According to the government, however, the record contains significant evidence that Salahi recruited for al Qaida and provided it with other support after his alleged withdrawal in 1992. For example, the district court found that Salahi sent a fax to al-Qaida operative Christopher Paul in January 1997, asking for his help in finding "a true Group and Place" for "some Brothers" interested in fighting jihad. Salahi, 710 F. Supp. 2d at 11 (quoting Salahi's fax to Paul). Salahi admitted to interrogators that he knew Paul to be a "man of great respect in Al-Qaida" and that he sent the fax to "facilitate getting the [aspiring jihadists] to fight." Id. (internal quotation marks omitted).

As the district court recognized, "[t]he most damaging allegation against Salahi is that, in October 1999, he encouraged Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Marwan al-Shehhi, and Ziad Jarrah to join al-Qaida." Id. at 10. Bin al-Shibh helped coordinate the September 11 attacks, and al-Shehhi and Jarrah were two of the September 11 pilots. Nat'l Comm'n on Terrorist Attacks Upon the U.S., The 9/11 Commission Report 225, 434–35, 437 (2004) [hereinafter 9/11 Commission Report]. The government contends that while bin al-Shibh, al-Shehhi, and Jarrah had originally intended to travel to Chechnya to wage jihad against Russian forces, Salahi convinced them to travel instead to Afghanistan to receive military training. According to the government, the three men followed Salahi's advice and with his assistance traveled to Afghanistan, where they were recruited by al-Qaida into the September 11 plot. But the district court, having discounted portions of the government's evidence as unreliable and inconsistent, found only that "Salahi provided lodging for three men for one night at his home in Germany, that one of them was Ramzi bin al-Shibh, and that there was discussion of jihad and Afghanistan." Salahi, 710 F. Supp. 2d at 11.

In addition to Salahi's connection to bin al-Shibh, the district court found that Salahi "had an ongoing and relatively close relationship" with Abu Hafs al-Mauritania, who "is believed to be one of [Usama] bin Laden's spiritual advisors and a high-ranking leader of al-Qaida." Id. at 12, 14.

It goes on from here, one could I suppose argue more smoke than fire, but there is an awful lot of smoke.

[Ed Anger]

[Admiral Yi]

 

Is Tim an outrageaholic?

[Syt]

Timmay needs stuff to do, and soon, considering how he's gone on a spamming spree since he returned from Gor Korea.

[Caliga]

Is Tim an outrageaholic?

Tim!  He's truly outrageous!  Truly, truly, truly, outrageous!

[The Brain]

The only book he was allowed to keep was his copy of the Quran. We haven't been told why.

Yeah that doesn't make any sense at all. No murder manuals please.

[Siege]

Who cares. He is a terrorists. Better in gitmo than killing people.

[Eddie Teach]

He is a terrorists.

You are a murderer. Victim: the English Language.

[jimmy olsen]

Timmay needs stuff to do, and soon, considering how he's gone on a spamming spree since he returned from Gor Korea.

I've back in Korea since the 25th

[Valmy]

The 25th of what? February?

[jimmy olsen]

The 25th of what? February?

If I don't specify a month, isn't normal to presume the last one? So, yes, February.

[Eddie Teach]

The 25th of what? February?

If I don't specify a month, isn't normal to presume the last one? So, yes, February.

Normal is to presume it's this one.