Taub at New Yorker: One who made it out of Guantanamo, and the prison guard who converted to Islam.
"In time, Wood began to think of everything he had known before meeting Salahi as a narrow-minded myth of American superiority, notable for its omissions of overseas misadventures. Meanwhile, the Bush Administration’s pretext for invading Iraq was collapsing, and so was Wood’s trust in government. It was the spring of 2004. There were no weapons of mass destruction. The “mission” had not been “accomplished.” When Wood watched the evening news, he saw photographs of American M.P.s torturing and sexually humiliating Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib. He began to wonder whether the case against Mohamedou Salahi was as flimsy and politically motivated as that for the invasion had been. “I was, like, What else have they lied about?” he said."
"he began to wonder whether what he was actually protecting at Guantánamo was one of the government’s darkest secrets: that its highest-value military detainee was being held essentially by mistake"
"the lead Senegalese officer was convinced that there was no reason to hold Salahi"
“We had done all our investigations, and we found nothing against Salahi,”
"Abdellahi’s men detained Salahi again in the fall of 2001, at the request of the Americans. “I really have no questions for you, because I know your case,” Abdellahi told him. "
"Salahi found his Jordanian interrogators to be highly knowledgeable ... they understand this whole concept of terrorism much better than the average American interrogator ... they were very reluctant to torture me. It was not every day, the torture—I would say maybe twice a week "
"an intelligence officer, known among the detainees as William the Torturer, forced Salahi into stress positions that exacerbated his sciatic-nerve issues."
"One day, after an interrogator kicked a Quran across the floor, detainees organized a mass suicide attempt. “Once every fifteen minutes, a prisoner tried to hang himself by tying his sheet around his neck and fastening it through the mesh of the cage wall,” ... The protest lasted for several days as twenty-three prisoners tried to hang themselves."
"Yee came to believe that “Islam was systematically used as a weapon against the prisoners.” "
"after McFadden visited the detention camp, he concluded that the detainees were “essentially nobodies.” He told me, “There was not anyone approaching even the most liberal interpretation of a ‘high-value detainee.’ ” "
"In Afghanistan, the U.S. military was inadvertently presiding over a kidnapping-and-ransom industry. "
“What better way to enrich yourself, while resolving old grudges, than to finger a neighbor who was your enemy, regardless of his support for either Al Qaeda or the Taliban?”
" detainees would stop coöperating and start chanting or praying; in an attempt to reassert control, Fallon wrote, “the interrogators would duct-tape their mouths, further guaranteeing that they wouldn’t get any information—and so it would go.” "
" each failed interrogation “was taken as proof that the detainees were both Al Qaeda and trained to resist these methods.” "
"If the detainee dies, you’re doing it wrong."
"Beaver endorsed “the use of scenarios designed to convince the detainee that death” was “imminent.” "
" “We’re gonna feed you up your ass,” an interrogator said."
"One day they would deprive him of food, and the next they’d force him to drink water until he vomited. "
" He was forced to swallow salt water, and, every few minutes, the men packed ice cubes between his clothes and his skin. When the ice melted, they punched him, then repacked the ice to freeze him again. By the end of the boat ride, Salahi was bleeding from his ankles, mouth, and wrists. Seven or eight of his ribs were broken."
"Salahi wrote in his diary. “But the problem is that you cannot just admit to something you haven’t done; you need to deliver the details, which you can’t when you hadn’t done anything. It’s not just, ‘Yes, I did!’ No, it doesn’t work that way: you have to make up a complete story that makes sense to the dumbest dummies. One of the hardest things to do is to tell an untruthful story and maintain it, and that is exactly where I was stuck.” "
“I took the pen and paper and wrote all kinds of incriminating lies about a poor person who was just seeking refuge in Canada and trying to make some money so he could start a family. Moreover, he is handicapped. I felt so bad, and kept praying silently, ‘Nothing’s gonna happen to you dear brother.’ ”
"Salahi voluntarily sat for a polygraph test. The examiner described Salahi, whose answers contradicted everything he had confessed to Zuley in the preceding weeks, as “eager to prove that he is providing accurate information.” The results were decisive: “No deception indicated.” "
"While Salahi was being tortured, James Yee, the Muslim military chaplain, discovered that he and the interpreters at Guantánamo—many of whom were Muslim Americans, with Middle Eastern backgrounds—were being spied on by law-enforcement and intelligence officers. When Yee went on leave, he flew to Jacksonville, Florida, where he was interrogated and arrested, then blindfolded, earmuffed, and driven to a Navy brig in South Carolina. For seventy-six days, he lived in solitary confinement, in a cold cell with surveillance cameras and the lights always on ... All charges were later dropped, and Yee was honorably discharged."
"More detainees have died at Guantánamo than have been convicted of a crime."
"The prosecutor assigned to Salahi’s case was a lieutenant colonel named Stuart Couch ... he became suspicious that Salahi’s confessions had been elicited through torture ... he resigned from the case."
"The government no longer attempted to prosecute Salahi ... but it argued that he should nevertheless be detained indefinitely."
"Amanda gave birth to a son ... Amanda is an American, and so their son is now a citizen of the country whose purported values Salahi wants to believe in but has never seen. "
Read the whole thing, if you have the stomach:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/04/22/guantanamos-darkest-secretsidd