This has to be read by as many people as possible. Mohamedou Ould Slahi has written a diary about his time in custodies in Jordania and Bagram and most importantly his time in Guantánamo. It's a heart-wrenching, terrifying and well-written story by a man with a huge dose of humour considering what he has been victim of. He has been tortured with sleepdeprivation, beating, kept in cold spaces and so on. Still he gives a non-exaggerated description of what Guantánamo is and the horrible reality for the people living there. Sometimes it was hard to read because it's partly censured by the American government so at times I got a little bit lost when I had to start over where the censur ended not knowing what happened in between. A really really interesting and engaging read though. It definitely got me interested in human rights, not only in the US but in the whole world.

Not Redacted

"The Law of war is Harsh, If there's anything good at all on a war, it's that it brings the best and the worst out of people: some people try to use the lawlessness to hurt others, and some try to reduce the suffering to the minimum."

Putting aside political, cultural and spiritual preferences I personally found this book to be thought provoking, eyeopening, candid read, filled with humor. I'm always skeptical about autobiographies as I find them firstly Boring and Unnecessary. This book broke all my preconceived prejudices and I am extremely please that I picked it up. I'm not going summarize what this book is about because you can do so from it's Goodreads Page but what I will say is this. While reading this book about Mohamedou Ould Slahi experiences and the things that he pass through,( ie. from the perspective of who he is and what religious faith he ascribed too ) it has me firstly examining myself. Whether I too hold ( knowingly or unknowingly ) prejudices and or fixed thought patterns ( that I don't even question if they are right or wrong ) about people, cultures and religion that I have never taken the time to really know. This book left me asking myself a lot of hard questions. Oh Boy...That's always a good think.

Still Thinking, but here's some quotes that are on replay in my head from the book

"All of this shit happens because of hatred, Hatred is the reason for all Disasters."

Dictatorship is governed Chaos

Read This Book

THis is a hard book to review. There is no denying that what Mohamedou went though was awful and shocking, however I not sure I understand why the diaries started in Guantanamo then when back to the beginning before returning to Guantanamo. It didn’t add anything to the story, if anything it made if feel like there was a gap later on in the story even though I had read it earlier, and I doubt this is how he wrote his diaries. Also I couldn’t understand the blanking out (not his fault but the person with the big old marker pen) in some cases it would scrub out the description of the guard and the few instances of the he or she in the sentence, to leave it in the following sentence. That said to be held for so long with no charge is unbelievable and shocking and although he suffered some awful torture techniques he seems to really play them down. I’m not sure I would want to meet them for a chat and a cup of tea.

Slahi is an extremely competent writer, his style draws you in completely. I sometimes forgot I was reading his letters written inside the camp, it all seemed too extreme and horrible. This is a book I think everyone should read, I hadn’t even heard of Guantanamo Bay before this. Still cannot believe the prison is still open in 2021 after all the information coming out.

When you read this you quickly realise that Mohamedou Ould Slahi is as entertaining a writer as orator. I was first introduced to him and his story in a live CAGE event during one of the lockdowns we had, his ability to make light and humour of struggle struck me. And then I saw his story in The Mauritanian, which is very visually graphic and feels more traumatic than this book. And finally, I got to this book.

I don't have a lot to say on this except that you should read this, I cannot express what he had written in his diary during his time in prison any better than he has. You'll find it easy to read because of his style, I should tell you this book is entirely intense but it often feels light, I suspect only because of Slahi's style or writing, yet it captures the most important facts and emotions that we must all take from this book. Guantanamo Bay remains open and many still face this and many others faced it.

You'll also see quite an odd choice in the redaction process in this book, it is surprising that the US thought necessary to redact mostly names and pronouns but left in more explicit mentions of torture and abuse.

A stunning & shocking book that should be required reading for Americans. Quite a few of Slahi's accounts have since been corroborated by declassified reports & documents, as well as various legal actions to bring some of these activities to light (which lends weight to him being a fairly reliable narrator). Slahi's diary shines a bright & damning light on the fundamental shift in American thinking that took place after 9/11 when America walked away from many of its previously-held, basic principles including due process, humane treatment, and justice.

The account becomes more powerful when you realize that Slahi wrote this diary while living under torturous conditions in an isolated & very small bubble (no contact or knowledge of what was going on in the world outside of his cell). Picking up English as his fourth language while imprisoned & using it for his diary, he recounts his background, arrests, tortures, & 'world travels' (being taken to Jordan, Afghanistan, & then Guantanamo) with intelligent observations & an unerring faith in God, while maintaining his humanity in spite of decidedly inhumane treatment.

The diary mainly covers the years 2001-05. Ten years later, his diary has finally been published after years of legal wrangling. (It is almost certain that Slahi has no idea his diary has actually been published.) Although a federal judge ordered Slahi's release in 2010, the US government balked. Slahi remains in Guantanamo &, these many years later, still has not been charged with any crime.

We Americans, especially, need to read this & ask questions of ourselves, our government, our humanity, & our future.

Is this the America we once were? Is this the America we are now? Is this really the America we want to be?

Powerful & required reading.

This is a HEAVY book. Made lighter knowing Mohamedou has been free for six years now. Kidnapped and held without charges or evidence from 2001-2016, tortured, had his religion demonized and criminalized. He still manages to crack jokes and forgive his kidnappers. He is free from Guantánamo now, but still does not have all his freedoms and rights honoured. Slahi's passport has never been returned to him as promised. Though he committed no crimes and was wrongfully imprisoned for fourteen years, he is still not able to leave Mauritania for any reason. He has desires to leave to get medical treatment for health conditions and to visit his son in Germany.

It's important to note that Mohamedou Ould Slahi's diary has been re-released without redactions in a later published edition.

content warnings for: sexual threats, sexual harassment, physical and mental torture, wrongful imprisonment, racism, militarism, nationalism, homophobic comments.

This was a hard book to read. It is the heavily redacted diary of a man, Mohamedou Ould Slahi, whom the footnotes call MOS, we seized and tortured because we thought he was involved in the September 11, 2001 attacks. The habeas judge found the government did not prove that. The appeals court sent it back. MOS is still detained, living in a cottage in Guantanamo tending a small garden. The internet makes me think he is no longer being tortured. Just detained.

I want to believe we’re better than this. That we really are dedicated to the proposition that everyone is equal and posses unalienable rights. That everyone has recourse to the law. That we don’t torture. That we don’t seize people based on rumor and other people’s bad acts. That we don’t hide them in off book sites. That we don’t torture them.

I want to believe we’re better than this.

I know we’re not.

And I’ve known that since I was a child. It was one of the things that made me decide to be a lawyer; on the naïve hope I could help make us better. Darn other people.

I get why we were interested in MOS. He knew a lot of folks who did attack us. He fought against the communists with a Qaeda in the early 1990s. He went to the same mosque in Montreal as the Millennium Bomber, Ahmed Ressam, though Mohamedou moved away before Ressam got there. In 1999, he gave a place to crash for a night and made a phone call at least one man, and maybe for three (depending on whether we credit his confession under the torture; the habeas judge didn’t) who were looking to join al Qaeda and were in the plan to hijack planes on September 11, 2001. MOS was the brother in law and cousin of a guy, Abu Hafs, who used to be on al Qaeda’s ruling council and was for a time Osama bin Laden’s spiritual advisor. Hafs called Slahi once from bin Laden’s satellite phone, though the habeas judge seemed skeptical of that claim too. https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2005cv0569-319.

We were justified in interviewing him. But we were not justified in seizing him secretly or torturing him. The fact we did disgusts me. The fact a Chicago police officer who had gotten false confessions innocent people was brought in to help with the torture disgusts and nauseates and mystifies me. http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/feb/19/chicago-police-richard-zuley-abuse-innocent-man. What possible legitimate use is a false confession? I get – and heartily deplore – the incentive structure that makes false confessions useful locally. But if the powers that be really believed this man was implicated in ongoing plots against our nature, why on earth waste him on eliciting false confessions? All that does is justify our own evil. I want to believe we elect better people than that, even the ones I don’t vote for.

I recognize he might be smart enough to manipulate people like me. If so, he often does a good job. Right in the beginning, he reports that his interrogator said to him “Wahrleit macht frie, the trust sets you free.”
“When I heard him say that, I knew the truth wouldn’t set me free. “Arbeit didn’t set the Jews free. Hitler’s propaganda machinery used to lure Jewish detainees with the slogan, “arbeit macht frei,” Work sets you free. But work set nobody free.” (15)

That chills to the bone.

On the other hand, he has some pretty wacky ideas about Americans and sex, which did dim my sense of fellow feeling for him.

I am very glad I am a member of a profession who had members who stood up for this man, and very ashamed my country did this to him and so many others.

A hard book to read.



The trial court opinion granting his habeas petition is available at https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2005cv0569-319.


Interview with one of the prosecutors who declined to prosecute Slahi. http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/foreigners/2013/04/mohamedou_ould_slahi_s_guant_namo_memoirs_an_interview_with_colonel_morris.html



Great review in The Guardian, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/16/-sp-guantanamo-diary-exposes-brutality-us-rendition-torture.