The Ambassador drove him to Tehrans international airport in a diplomatic vehicle, and accompanied him through the diplomatic channel, through airport security and immigration, right up until the moment he got on the plane. One day in the spring of 2012, Abu Hafs slipped out of custody during a visit to the gym. 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. They drove to the airport in silence, in Abdellahis black Mercedes. He let you down! An interrogation memo listed plans to shave Salahis head and beard, dress him in a burqa, and make him bark and perform dog tricks, to reduce the detainees ego and establish control.. Striking horror, panic, and fear in the hearts of the enemies of Allah is a divine commandment. He added that American citizens should blame their law-enforcement and intelligence agencieswith their satellites, ground stations, millions of spies, and huge budgetsfor the fact that the hijackers had found a security breach as big as a whole fleet of hijacked civilian aircraft, and managed to shove Americas nose into the ground.. (All charges were later dropped, and Yee was honorably discharged. The document he signed listed one aim of the abuse as to replicate and exploit the Stockholm Syndrome, in which kidnapping victims come to trust and feel affection for their captors. In July, 2001, according to Scott-Clark and Levy, the authors of The Exile, Abu Hafs handed bin Laden his resignation letter. Guantnamo Diary and the American Slave Narrative. It was such a good feeling.. Mauritanian immigration officials detained him for an hourhere was a giant American, all muscle and veins, saying that he had met Salahi in Guantnamo Baybut eventually one of Salahis nephews persuaded them to let Wood in. When he refused to back out of the interview, Wendy insisted that he wear an on-camera disguise. But Mohamedou Ould Slahi, who spent almost 14 years at Guantnamo and says he was brutally beaten and threatened with execution without ever being charged with a crime, has some advice for his onetime captors: Come clean about what was done to the detainees there, and transfer those accused of committing the Sept. 11 attacks to the United . The anteroom was filled with Mauritanian dignitaries and lites, all men, sitting on couches that lined the perimeter. I had started to lose feeling and it would have made no difference anyway.. See if you think his captivity was just. Taliban fighters walked the streets, confident in the support they received from Pakistans intelligence service. As the result of a recent court ruling, Guantnamo detainees had access to legal representation, and so, during the next several months, Salahi drafted a diary of his detention as a series of harrowing letters to his lawyers, Nancy Hollander, Sylvia Royce, and Theresa Duncanfour hundred and sixty-six pages, sealed in envelopes and mailed to a classified facility near Washington, D.C. No guards or interrogators were allowed to read Salahis work. Soon afterward, they travelled together to Sudan, where bin Laden ran a construction company and a jihadi training camp, and sped around Khartoum in bin Ladens white Mercedes. But, when the list of detainees finally arrived, he recalled, my reaction was, What the fuck? The lesson seemed to be that the right mix of atonement and seniority in a terrorist organization can give the kind of leverage that is unavailable to men like Salahi. In September, 2002, Army officers started referring to Guantnamo as Americas Battle Lab., Early in the afternoon of October 2, 2002, a group of interagency lawyers and psychologists met to come up with a framework that used psychological stressors and environmental manipulation to foster dependence and compliance. The C.I.A. This is enough money to take care of your family, your village, your tribe for the rest of your life. A common bounty was five thousand dollarsfar more money than most Afghans earned in a yearand the result was an explosion of human trafficking by various armed groups, Mark Fallon, the deputy commander of Guantnamos Criminal Investigation Task Force, wrote in his memoir, Unjustifiable Means, which was heavily redacted before being published, in 2017. In 1999, shortly after graduating from high school, Wood started a job at the local sawmill. TV crews were present at meals, and an interviewer showed up at Salahis apartment, recorder in hand, and asked Wood, who still hadnt told his brothers that he is a Muslim, to comment on his favorite Quranic passages, and to share his thoughts on the legacy of the Prophet Muhammad. Not yet released in France, this film, which tells the story of this man's . Twenty-hour interrogations. But sometimes, after coperating, hed get depressed and anxious, and say, Im a bad Muslim, Wood told me. The night terrors kept coming. Soon afterward, Steve and Wendy separated. He began to notice surveillance everywhere. Its not looking good, the presiding military officer replied. During the next several days, Abu Hafs travelled toward the Pakistani province of Balochistan. The 2021 legal drama follows the true story of the aforementioned protagonist (played by Tahar Rahim), a man who was arrested, taken from his . 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. Force-feeding during the daylight hours of Ramadan, when Muslims are supposed to fast. The plane landed at sunset. In 2006, Wood removed his shoes at the entrance to the Masjid As-Saber, Portlands largest mosque. In his home country, Neely said, this man had seen some of his friends and family members executed on their knees. The mans response was hardly unique; a military document, drafted ten days later for the base commander, noted that the detainees think they are being taken to be shot., Officially, the job of the Internal Reaction Force was to restrain unruly detainees, to prevent them from injuring themselves or the guards. I think we all became friends. But he wasnt sure that Salahi believed him. According to interrogation memos, they decorated the walls with photos of genitalia, and set up a baby crib, because he was sensitive about the fact that he had no children. 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. Bin Laden, wary of Al Qaedas fragility, urged him not to speak publicly of his departure. 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. Where is Osama bin Laden? They shouted and threw objects against the wall. But he subsequently forgot the log-in information, and so he never saw a reply. Man, youve had a really tough time of it, he said. He wanted no part of a system in which he might have control over another persons liberty. Bet youll think twice next time about saying you know me, he said, laughing. While in custody, Salahi had befriended Yacoub, the intelligence officer who had been one of his guards. The devotion, the routine of the five daily prayersthat kept Mohamedou going, Wood told me. But he derived immense satisfaction from the work, and saw in it the kind of moral clarity that Guantnamo had lacked. And I knew that the request was justified, because he had connections in this milieu, these Islamo-terrorist circles, and he might be able to give his captors some ideas of how to improve security. Abu Hafs was back in Afghanistan, living with his family in Kandahar. For seventy-six days, he lived in solitary confinement, in a cold cell with surveillance cameras and the lights always on. After roughly three weeks, F.B.I. The Pentagon had reported that he was dead. When I heard him say that, I knew the truth wouldnt set me free, because Arbeit didnt set the Jews free, Salahi recalled. He gently held Salahis shoulder, and said, Everythings O.K. Salahi shook his head, and clicked his tongue in disagreement, but refused to speak. Mohamedou Ould Sah es uno de tantos casos que estn sufriendo en una prisin, acusados de delitos que no cometieron. Slahi's rare contacts with the cousin, and an occasion in which he allowed travelers from near his hometown to stay the night only to learn they were Al Qaeda soldiers were among the . Several young men mentioned Salahi as a contact in Germany. In 1967, Martin Seligman, a twenty-four-year-old Ph.D. student in psychology, conducted an experiment that involved delivering electric shocks to dogs in various states of restraint. Every time there was a hurricane warning in Guantnamo Bay, Salahi dreamed that the storm had wiped away the prison camp, and everyone, detainees and captors alike, was fighting side by side to survive, he wrote. . He and Abdellahi knelt on the runway, and prayed together. In Amman, Jordan, Salahi was hooded and taken to a detention facility in the headquarters of the countrys General Intelligence Directorate. But it wasnt until two years later that bin Laden shared with the Shura Council the broad outlines of the attack: four planes; two civilian targets; two government targets. Then he was prescribed antidepressants. Assalaamu alaikum, he said to Mohamedou. Thirty-five years later, the United States government drew inspiration from this experiment in its approach to interrogating terror suspects. M Despite the Covid pandemic, which postponed its initial release by one year, the biopic "Designated Guilty" (The Mauritanian), adaptation by director Kevin MacDonald of the memoir "Les carnets de Guantanamo" by Mauritanian Mohamedou Ould Slahi, has finally been released. There, Schroen contacted the leaders of the Northern Alliance, an armed group that had spent years fighting the Taliban, with little external support. Salahi was no dirt farmer. But Wood spent his days in the base library, researching topics that Salahi had brought up in the cell. But the Germans saw no reason to detain or question him. Several of his co-workers were missing fingers, and the manager took every opportunity to denigrate the staff. This friendship is real., Salahi saw no path out of Guantnamo. Mohamedou Ould Slahi: I always told myself, at the end of the day, I didn't do wrong to anyone. His proximity to so many events and high-level jihadi figures could not be explained by coincidence, they thought, and only a logistical mastermind could have left so faint a trail. smaller?, One of the F.B.I. But the call to jihad interrupted his studies. In the restored edition, Salahi added, I want to repeat and affirm this message here, and to say that now that I am home, that dream is also an invitation. Salahi generally avoids Abu Hafsthey have fundamentally different views of Islam, and he worries that any association could further complicate his life. Wahrheit macht frei, the officer saidthe truth sets you free. black sites and military facilities. And now he belongs to the Americans.. Eventually, Salahi would be allowed access to a small patch of soil outside his trailer, where he tended sunflowers, basil, sage, parsley, and cilantro. Its so empty, now that Steve left, he said to me. For Wood, the trip became something more complicated than a visit to a friend. After that, whenever anybody tried to explain anything to the guy, he always asked, Compare it with the rat: Is it bigger? The journey to Nouakchott took almost three days, with long layovers in New York and Casablanca. The interrogator added that, if Salahi didnt start talking, he would be buried on Christian, sovereign American soil., On August 2nd, military records show, an interrogator told Salahi that he and his colleagues are sick of hearing the same lies over and over and over and are seriously considering washing their hands of him. Finally, when Slahi and his wife moved to Montreal, in 1999, they attended the al Sunnah mosquethe same mosque attended by Ahmed Ressam, a member of Al Qaeda who had been arrested, shortly. His heavily redacted book about his time in the U.S. facility was published in January 2015. In Islam, the Quran is considered the transcribed word of God; some Muslims keep the book wrapped in cloth, never letting it touch unclean surfaces. I just remember being super excited, because I thought, Im going to be doing something important, Wood told me. Ahmed is a camel herder, as his father was before him and as his young son Abdullahi will be after him. When my turn came, two guards grabbed me by the hands and feet and threw me toward the reception team, Salahi wrote. The Senegalese did the talking, but the Americans provided the questions and reported back to D.C. And, by the way, I pay my boy, he added, unprompted. All afternoon, guards screamed at the detainees to shut up and walk faster, called them sand niggers, and said that their family members and countries had been obliterated by nuclear bombs. Ahmed is a camel herder, as his father was before him and as his young son Abdullahi will be after him. They were told not to wait for Salahi. He no longer derived much solace from Islam, and rarely prayed. with you, and that is to tell me five things that you are grateful for today, he told one of them. Yacoub had a large family and a small salary, so, when Salahi was released, he started paying Yacoub to do occasional tasks. He grabbed his shortwave radio. ), Each detainee was given a number, and, on August 4th, thirty-four of those numbers were called, including Salahis. (The phrase Work sets you free appeared on the gates of Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration camps. From the floor of Parliament, Badre Eddine noted that Mauritania has no extradition treaty with the United States. If you say that you are angry, it is understood as an emotion, he said. For some thirty hours, Salahi was strapped to a board. After 14 years. After three months, he left Afghanistan and returned to Duisburg, where he worked in a computer-repair shop while he finished his degree. Around that time, Abu Hafs explained, it became clear to him that the Mauritanian President would be open to his return from Iran. Mauritania is an Islamic republic, with rich traditions in poetry and recitation that belie its dismal rates of literacy and economic growth. Although he towered over Salahi, he hesitated before taking his hand, and when he did he noted how delicate Salahi was. In 2004, Steve Wood was deployed to Guantnamo Bay, as a member of the Oregon National Guard. special agent, was eager to receive the flight manifest. 17k Followers, 1,031 Following, 371 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Mohamedou Ould Salahi (@mohamedououldsalahi) He and his family had spent almost ten years under the protection of the Revolutionary Guard, but, with talk of the Obama Administrations thaw in relations with Iran, Abu Hafs began to worry that he could be traded into U.S. custody. Wood stayed with Salahi for four days. In Kandahar, Abu Hafs felt the Americans closing in. Each government claims that it has come to the rescue of the population, which had been neglected and abused by the previous government, Badre Eddine told me. So far, so good.. There are so many Ahmeds that itll be difficult for them to put him on the no-fly list, Salahi joked. 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. He grew up measuring political eras by military coups1978, 1979, 1984changes in power that did little to alter the ways in which Mauritanians experienced power. Government officials suggested that Yee was running an elaborate spy ringthat he and other Muslims had infiltrated the military, and represented the gravest insider threat since the Cold War. Salahi was terrified. But I give him advice, and he takes it., Mauritania was the site of regular jihadi violence in the second half of the aughts, while Abu Hafs was living in Iran. What if he is, like, I hate these sons of bitches for locking me up? For many years, Mohamedou Slahi was considered one of the most dangerous terrorists in the world. Soon afterward, Wood learned that the imam, a Somali immigrant who practiced a conservative strain of Islam known as Salafism, had been the subject of F.B.I. Abu Hafs ascended to Al Qaedas Shura Council, where he served as bin Ladens personal adviser on Sharia law. In the U.S., it was morning. No one will know what happened to him, and eventually, no one will care.. detainees were whisked to the cellar, to be hidden from view. Then Abu Hafs greeted Wood, who, appearing paralyzed by confusion, coldly took his hand. And then it behaves the same way as the last. When he asked the new regime about Salahi, he said, they just replied, We didnt kidnap himit was the previous government that did it. Mohamedou Salahi spent more than fourteen years in detention at Guantnamo Bay, where he was repeatedly tortured. One day they would deprive him of food, and the next theyd force him to drink water until he vomited. Even if the military believed he was innocent, he figured that he knew too much about classified torture programs to be let out into the world. Slahi told me he is hearing voices now, the interrogator wrote. Soon afterward, in Guantnamo Bay, Salahi saw his own face on a TV screen. Now bin al-Shibh, who was being tortured in C.I.A. His family moved to the capital of Nouakchott when he was a child, where he excelled in school and earned a scholarship to study electrical engineering at Gerhard-Mercator University in Duisburg, Germany. I want to go to a country where I can enjoy my freedom, he said. Thirty or forty of Abu Hafss followers filled a small wooden shack next to his home, spilling into the street, while he led prayers through a microphone. 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. During the next few months, Wood showed up between prayer times, to avoid any pressure to participate. On February 14, 2004, Salahi received a short letter from his mother in Mauritania, informing him that her health situation is OK. It had been eight hundred and fifteen days since he had seen heran ailing woman in the rearview mirror, waving from the street as he drove to Deddahi Abdellahis intelligence headquarters. He was belted so tightly that he struggled to breathe, but he didnt have the English vocabulary to tell the guards. Katja's life collapses after the deaths of her husband and son in a bomb attack. At other times, the questions originated from material on his hard drive, which the F.B.I. The room was large and well-furnished, Salahi wrote, with a portrait of the President conveying the weakness of the law and the strength of the government. 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