Mohamedou Slahi was born in a small town in Mauritania in 1970. He won a scholarship to attend college in Germany and worked there for several years as an engineer. He returned to Mauritania in 2000. The following year, at the behest of the United States, he was detained by Mauritanian authorities and rendered to a prison in Jordan.
Later he was rendered again, first to Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan, and finally, on August 5, 2002, to the U.S. prison at Guant�namo Bay, Cuba, where he was subjected to severe torture. He was cleared and released on October 16th of 2016 and repatriated to his native country of Mauritania. No charges were filed against him during or after this ordeal.
Larry Siems is a writer and human rights activist and for many years directed the Freedom to Write program at PEN American Center. He is the author, most recently, of The Torture Report: What the Documents Say About America's Post-9/11 Torture Program. He lives in New York.
"Guant�namo Diary stands as perhaps the most human depiction of an
entire post-9/11 system."--Omar El Akkad, Globe and Mail
"Guant�namo Diary will leave you shell-shocked."--Vanity Fair
"A longtime captive has written the most profound and disturbing
account yet of what it's like to be collateral damage in the war
against terror."--Mark Danner, New York Times Book Review, Editors'
Choice
"A riveting new book has emerged from one of the most contentious
places in the world, and the U.S. government doesn't want you to
read it....You don't have to be convinced of Slahi's innocence to
be appalled by the incidents he describes."--Kevin Canfield, San
Francisco Chronicle
"A vision of hell, beyond Orwell, beyond Kafka: perpetual torture
prescribed by the mad doctors of Washington."--John le Carr�
"An historical watershed and a literary triumph....The diary is as
close as most of us will ever get to understanding the living hell
this man--who has never been charged with a crime, and whom a judge
ordered released in 2010--continues to suffer."--Elias Isquith,
Salon
"Anyone who reads Guantanamo Diary---and every American with a
shred of conscience should do so, now---will be ashamed and
appalled. Mohamedou Ould Slahi's demand for simple justice should
be our call to action. Because what's at stake in this case is not
just the fate of one man who managed, against all odds, to tell his
story, but the future of our democracy."--Glenn Greenwald, No Place
to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance
State
"Everyone should read Guant�namo Diary....Just by virtue of having
been written inside Guant�namo, Slahi's book would be a triumph of
humanity over chaos. But Guant�namo Diary turns out to be
especially human. Slahi doesn't just humanize himself; he also
humanizes his guards and interrogators. That's not to say that he
excuses them. Just the opposite: he presents them as complex
individuals who know kindness from cruelty and right from
wrong."--Joshua Rothman, The New Yorker
"Here, finally, is the disturbing and stirring story the United
States government tried for years to conceal. Mohamedou Ould
Slahi's ordeal shocks the conscience, to be sure. But on display in
these pages is something much deeper as well: an enduring faith in
our common humanity, and in the power of truth to leap prison walls
and bridge divides. With devastating clarity and considerable wit,
Guant�namo Diary reminds us why we call certain things human
rights."--Anthony Romero, Executive Director, American Civil
Liberties Union
"Literary history was made today with the publication of the
first-ever book by a still-imprisoned Guant�namo detainee....As
astonishing as the scope of the abuse is Slahi's enduring warmth,
even for his torturers and jailers."--Noa Yachot, Huffington
Post
"Once considered such a high-value detainee that former Secretary
of Defense Donald Rumsfeld designated him for 'special
interrogation techniques'....Slahi had been subjected to sleep
deprivation, exposed to extremes of heat and cold, moved around the
base blindfolded, and at one point taken into the bay on a boat and
threatened with death....Slahi faces no criminal charges."--Carol
Rosenberg, Miami Herald
"Slahi emerges from the pages of his diary...as a curious and
generous personality, observant, witty and devout, but by no means
fanatical....Guant�namo Diary forces us to consider why the United
States has set aside the cherished idea that a timely trial is the
best way to determine who deserves to be in prison.--Scott Shane,
New York Times
"Slahi is a fluent, engaging and at times eloquent writer, even in
his fourth language, English....Slahi's book offers a first-person
account of the experience of torture. For that reason alone, the
book is necessary reading for those seeking to understand the
dangers that Guant�namo's continued existence poses to Americans in
the world."--Deborah Pearlstein, Washington Post
"The tragedy of Slahi's memoir is not just his grave abuse at the
hands of U.S. officials. It is that....Slahi's account of life--if
it can be called that--at Guant�namo is not the exception. It is
the rule, and it continues today."--Alka Pradhan, Reuters
"This is an incredible document, and a hell of a story."--Steve
Kroft, correspondent for 60 Minutes
 |
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
