In 2005, during the military hearing, Salahi had urged the presiding officer not to send him back to Mauritania. And now he belongs to the Americans.. Mohamed Elmoustapha Ould Badre Eddine, a left-wing member of the Mauritanian Parliament, conducted inquiries of his own, but made no progress. The next time the Red Cross delegation visited Guantnamo, a representative reported that medical files are being used by interrogators to gain information in developing an interrogation plan., Female interrogators groped him. In Nouakchott, Abdellahi and his subordinates began to map out the network, detaining people close to Abu Hafs and soliciting the names of other jihadis. They took off from Uzbekistan and flew into northern Afghanistan, over the snow-capped mountains of the Hindu Kush. I want to be able to show bin Ladins head to the President. Black added that he and Bush wanted to avoid the spectacle of a courtroom trial. This is my daughter. They look like a prison uniform with stripes! Ahmed is a camel herder, as his father was before him and as his young son Abdullahi will be after him. Summer/Autumn 2015. Abdellahi had bought him a new outfit, but Salahi had refused to eat, and the fabric was loose on his shoulders. custody, bin al-Shibh named Salahi as the man who had arranged his travel to Afghanistan and his introduction to bin Laden. Steve Wood was elated when he heard the news. The Mujahideen are committed to not carry out any military activity in Mauritania, the letter saysas long as the Mauritanian government released imprisoned fighters, abstained from attacking Al Qaeda cells abroad, and paid the group between ten and twenty million euros per year, to compensate and prevent the kidnapping of tourists. (The Mauritanian government has denied that it negotiates with terrorist groups.). The United States released Mohamedou Ould Slahi, the author of a renowned prison memoir, after he was detained for more than 14 years in Jordan, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo, and returned him. I want to go to a country where I can enjoy my freedom, he said. [4] Slahi traveled from his home in Germany to Afghanistan in December 1990 "to support the mujahideen." Mohamedou Ould Slahi spent 14 years of his life as a detainee in the United States military prison at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. In Arabic countries there are oodles, but in Europe and Canada one is very rare.. By the spring of 2003, Salahi had been visited in Guantnamo by investigators from Canada and Germany, and questioned by various U.S. government agencies. In 2006, Wood removed his shoes at the entrance to the Masjid As-Saber, Portlands largest mosque. One day, German officers questioned one of Salahis friends. In 1988, the Saudi ideologue Osama bin Laden announced the formation of Al Qaeda. Sometimes the sessions veer into his own coping mechanismsthe routines he made up to fill his days in Guantnamo, for example, when we had nothing to look forward to except the world we created inside my cell., Earlier this month, Amanda gave birth to a son. 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. But, hey, I have to cope with it. You must forget your fear to achieve anything., Last summer, Salahi completed an online course to become a certified life coach. . Ressam told investigators that he had planned to detonate suitcases in a crowded terminal at Los Angeles International Airport. How did they do it?. No prayers, no information about the direction of Mecca. For the first time, Salahi was in the custody of uniformed American soldiers. T ahar Rahim plays Mohamedou Ould Slahi, who is arrested in 2001 in his native Mauritania with the connivance of his own government, and eventually spirited to the US prison camp on the Cuban . It became fashionable for high-profile corporate-law firms to represent Guantnamo clients, pro bono, but many detainees rejected representation, because they thought it was a ploy to lend legitimacy to an unjust detention. Salahi came to think of his interrogators as acting out a Mauritanian folktale in which a blind man is given the gift of a single, fleeting glimpse of the world. I think we all became friends. But he wasnt sure that Salahi believed him. His friend, Hosni Mohsen, introduced him to the imam at the Al Sunnah mosque. Id come home and iron my uniform, and my roommates didnt know a thing, he said. ), Later that month, a military lawyer named Diane Beaver drafted a legal justificationdescribed later by a congressional inquiry on torture as profoundly in error and legally insufficientfor a set of abusive interrogation techniques. During a lull in conversation, he turned to Salahi and, gesturing toward Wood and me, said, So, you studied in the United States?. This winter, Steve Wood set off for Mauritania. Still, Salahi found his Jordanian interrogators to be highly knowledgeable, and they developed a kind of mutual respect. Allah! . 2023 Cond Nast. Then the men were loaded onto an airplane. Under the new regime, Abdellahi, the spy chief, was demoted, and given the task of investigating corruption and malfeasance within the security services; the standard path for accountability required Abdellahi to investigate himself. I went back to my tent and laid down to go to sleep. He did not respond to requests for comment.) 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. Assalaamu alaikum, he said to Mohamedou. Allah! Their questions were much the same, Salahi wrote, but the whole environmental setup made me very skeptical toward the honesty and humanity of the U.S. interrogators. Mohamedou Ould Slahi, who underwent brutal interrogations while he was held at Guantnamo Bay, is a free man in Mauritania after nearly 15 years as a detainee. His diary is not merely a vivid record of a miscarriage of justice, but a deeply personal memoir terrifying, darkly humorous, and surprisingly gracious. 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. The cellbetter, the boxwas cooled down to the point that I was shaking most of the time. At an event, I exchanged phone numbers with an extremely submissive server who was dressed in ragged clothes and had a cloudy, damaged eye. I stand for 8-10.. Thank you for a wonderful evening!, Ive done it, Igor! 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. All his friends and family knew him as the guy who was guarding a high-value detainee, and really proud of it, Wood told me. Never turn your back, the sergeant major warned him. But the C.I.A., which spent the next few years shuffling its high-value detainees among so-called black sites in Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe, had seen fit to transfer him into military custody. WASHINGTON - The U.S. government has transferred Mohamedou Ould Slahi to his native Mauritania, where he is to be reunited with his family. It takes a lot of prep to start the job, but, when youve done your bit, youre leaving things better than when you arrived, he said. Now, faced with their own incompetence, Fallon wrote, interrogators were quick to blame classic Manchester resistance tactics!. But he thought, What the fuck is this? At first I thought it was an armed robbery, but, when the airport police approached, the guy behind me flashed a magic badge, which immediately made the policemen retreat. Salahi and his brothers were thrown into the back of a van and driven to a detention site. 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. The Corrupt World Behind the Murdaugh Murders. You know, when you just fall asleep and the saliva starts to come out of your mouth? Salahi said. Salahi generally avoids Abu Hafsthey have fundamentally different views of Islam, and he worries that any association could further complicate his life. "And then what they -- pretty much told him, 'This is a bunch of B.S.'" Slahi's life changed . The mosque had thousands of attendees, a few of whom belonged to an Algerian jihadi group that had come to the attention of the French and Canadian intelligence services. . By now, Salahi was under surveillance by German intelligence. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. Youve still got, like, a solid eight inches.. 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.. Military police officers put blackout goggles over their eyes and mittens on their hands, then hooded them, lined them up, and tied each detainee to the one in front of him and the one behind him. Everyone on the team was dressed entirely in black, their faces obscured by balaclavas. He didnt harbor any particular animosity toward Muslims, but he had absorbed his mothers belief: If its not from Jesus then it must be from the Devil. After completing the requirements to become an M.P., Wood enrolled in a criminal-justice program at a nearby community college. I just kind of shrugged it off, like, What does it matter? They decided to get a divorce. Every time a good member of my present family leaves it feels as if a piece of my heart is being chopped off.. He was terrifiedhe wanted to go back to Canada, where interrogators behaved within the bounds of the law. How does he behave? At the beginning, Mohamedou wanted to be docile and sweet, he said. It was Ramadan again. He alleges Canadian officials made false claims about him that . But, with every day going by, the optimists lost ground, he wrote. (Abdellahi says that, after Salahi disappeared, the family never contacted him.) The devotion, the routine of the five daily prayersthat kept Mohamedou going, Wood told me. It was the spring of 2004. At a Pakistani Army checkpoint, he slipped a wad of bills into his passport, and went through unquestioned. It was silly, but if you get scared you are not you anymore. They were afraid that I would kill some people.. . She is my life. But a friend helped him find work installing Internet routers for a telecommunications company. By now, Wood was no longer dating Summers mother. He was a tall, regal businessman, and wore Ted Baker sunglasses and a Rolex. Each time, the minister liedeven after the Red Cross had started delivering Salahis letters from Guantnamo to his family. When he learned that a military review board would consider releasing Salahi, he wrote a letter saying that, based on my interactions with Mr. Slahi in Guantnamo, I would be pleased to welcome him into my home, and offering to testify in person. Neuer Kurator des African Book Festival Berlin" wird Mohamedou Ould Slahi Houbeini. 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. Defense attorneys have accused the government of denying them access to evidence, leaving secret recording equipment in client meeting rooms, and infiltrating their legal teams; a few years ago, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, who may face the death penalty, recognized a linguist on his own defense team from a C.I.A. For over 10 years, Mohamedou Ould Slahi, 51, was painted as one of the most dangerous terrorists in the world. According to a senior U.S. diplomat, when the United States was negotiating the terms of his return, the Mauritanians did agree that they would not give him a passport for some x amount of time. Two and a half years later, Salahi and his lawyers have no clarity about the parameters of x, or about why the United States has any say in whether the Mauritanian government issues a passport to a Mauritanian. He left the Oregon National Guard, and started working night shifts at a twenty-four-hour gym near Portland. Every other week, when Red Cross representatives visited the prison, Salahi and a handful of other C.I.A. Because he had no experience with weapons, Al Qaeda personnel sent him to the Al Farouq training camp, near Khost, where he learned how to use a Kalashnikov rifle and launch rocket-propelled grenades. They drove to the airport in silence, in Abdellahis black Mercedes. Mauritanian hospitals dont have the capacitythey typically send such patients to Francebut what Salahi didnt know was that his repatriation would not amount to the restitution of his rights. 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. Salahi landed in Montreal on November 26, 1999. In Mauritania, Abdellahis men detained Salahis wife and brothers and interrogated them about the Millennium Plot. The 58-year-old actress, who won the Best Supporting Actress prize for her role in The Mauritanian, appeared on screen for the virtual ceremony with her wife Alexandra Hedison and their dog,. (He escaped through a kitchen door.) Fmr. His heavily redacted book about his time in the U.S. facility was published in January 2015. (In his diary, Salahi wrote, I was eager to let my predator know, I am, I am.) When the conversation was over, the Jordanians blindfolded Salahi and put a set of soundproof earmuffs on him. Mauritania is an Islamic republic, with rich traditions in poetry and recitation that belie its dismal rates of literacy and economic growth. 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. Outside Echo Special, Wood started reading about Guantnamo on activist Web sites, but a colleague warned him that Internet traffic was monitored on the base. . In a newly published journal he reveals allegations of torture and sexual abuse. In Amman, Jordan, Salahi was hooded and taken to a detention facility in the headquarters of the countrys General Intelligence Directorate. Then, he wrote, the plane landed, the doors opened, and the warm Cuban sun hit me gracefully. In public, the Bush Administration and its military leadership asserted that Guantnamo was filled with men who would stop at nothing to destroy the U.S. 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. After a near-fatal stabbingand decades of threatsthe novelist speaks about writing as a death-defying act. (ge) A man who is widely regarded as the most tortured prisoner in the history . Steve Wood with Salahi, his former prisoner, in Mauritania, in January. 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. When Wendy saw the post, she was outragedbut also somewhat relieved, since it partly explained his secretive behavior. An M.P. But, when he wanted to engage, he spoke with a worldly, provocative humor that Wood found appealing. Mohamedou Ould Slahi, a Mauritanian who lived briefly in Montreal, has launched a $30-million lawsuit against the federal government. 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. The point is to pave, seal, and waterproof it, to preserve its lifespan, he said. In mid-November, Salahi voluntarily sat for a polygraph test. The Pentagon had reported that he was dead. Yacoub had a large family and a small salary, so, when Salahi was released, he started paying Yacoub to do occasional tasks. They punched Salahi in the face and the ribs, then covered his eyes with blackout goggles, his ears with earmuffs, and his head with a bag. 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. I have contact with Osama bin Ladens operative, who was helping launder money. Btihal Remli for The New York. The cousins had married a pair of sisters, and so they were now also brothers-in-law. Wood walked through the camp to Echo Special proud to be part of a serious national-security operation. The Mauritanian is stunningly tragic and leaves audiences with a host of questions about how its events were allowed to take place, but another notable issue is why the Obama administration blocked Mohamedou Ould Slahi's release from Guantanamo Bay. The next morning, Salahi was led to the office of the Mauritanian intelligence chief, Deddahi Ould Abdellahi. 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. 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