Home > Author > Mohamedou Ould Slahi
101 " But I found in chess a very interesting game, especially the fact that a prisoner has total control over his pieces, which gives him some confidence back. "
― Mohamedou Ould Slahi , Guantánamo Diary: Restored Edition
102 " He would make me pass through the torture row so I would hear the cries and moans and the shouting of the torturers. I was blessed because the guards kept me blindfolded so I couldn’t see the detainees. I was not supposed to see them, nor was I interested in seeing a brother, or actually anybody, suffering. "
103 " E assim por diante, na ladainha sem fim que todos os interrogadores recitavam quando viam pela primeira vez seus detentos. Muitos detentos não conseguiam deixar de rir ao ouvir esse absurdo mais próprio do Feitiço do Tempo [Groundhog Day]; na verdade, era o único entretenimento que tínhamos na câmara de interrogatório. Quando o interrogador disse a um dos detentos “Sei que você é inocente”, ele riu com vontade e respondeu: “Preferia ser um criminoso e estar em casa com meus filhos”. Acho que qualquer coisa perde força por ser muito repetida. Quando uma pessoa ouve pela primeira vez uma expressão como “Você é o pior criminoso da face da Terra”, o mais provável é que fique assustadíssima. Porém, quanto mais ouve isso, mais o medo vai diminuindo, e chega o momento em que não tem efeito nenhum. Soa mais como um bom-dia. "
104 " We need only circumstantial evidence to fry you. "
105 " we don’t expect other countries to pry Intels off detainees as we do,” ■■■■■■■■ said once. The Americans obviously were not satisfied with the results achieved by their “torture allies. "
106 " Sometime during the processing we got a cavity search, to the laughter and comments of the guards. I hated that day when I started to learn my miserable English vocabulary. In such situations you’re just better off if you don’t understand English. The majority of the detainees wouldn’t speak about the cavity searches we were subject to, and they would get angry when you started to talk about them. I personally wasn’t ashamed; I think the people who did these searches without good reason should be ashamed of themselves. "
107 " Yet I provided you everything (almost) in my book, which the government denies you the access to. I was going to go deeper in details, but I figured it was futile. To make a long story short, you may divide my time in two big steps. (1) Pre-torture (I mean that I couldn’t resist): I told them the truth about me having done nothing against your country. It lasted until May 22, 2003. (2) Post-torture era: where my brake broke loose. I yessed every accusation my interrogators made. I even wrote the infamous confession about me planning to hit the CN Tower in Toronto, based on SSG ■■■■■■■■■ advice. I just wanted to get the monkeys off my back. I don’t care how long I stay in jail. My belief comforts me.2 "
108 " Uma lenda popular mauritana conta a história de um homem que tinha fobia de galos e quase perdia a razão sempre que se deparava com um galo.“Por que você tem tanto medo do galo?”, perguntou-lhe o psiquiatra.“O galo pensa que eu sou milho.”“Você não é milho. Você é um homem muito grande. Ninguém pode confundir você com um pequeno grão de milho”, disse o psiquiatra.“Eu sei disso, doutor. Mas o galo não sabe. Seu trabalho é ir até ele e convencê-lo de que eu não sou milho.”O homem nunca ficou curado, uma vez que falar com um galo é uma coisa impossível. Fim da história.Há anos venho tentando convencer o governo dos Estados Unidos de que eu não sou milho. "
109 " Olhe! Se eu tentei matar meu presidente em meu país, isso não é da sua conta, nem da conta dos americanos. Apenas me entregue ao meu país e deixe que eles tratem de mim.” Eu estava ao mesmo tempo zangado e esperançoso, zangado porque os Estados Unidos queriam me atribuir qualquer crime, não importa qual, e esperançoso porque eles iriam me entregar a meu país para sofrer a pena de morte. Os americanos não poderiam ter sonhado com uma opção melhor. Mas os jordanianos estavam tentando pescar algo por conta dos americanos, e sempre que você percebe que seu interrogador está pescando algo, pode ter certeza de que ele não tem nada. "
110 " When people look at one thing from one perspective, they certainly fail to get the whole picture, and that is the main reason for the majority of misunderstandings that sometimes lead to bloody confrontations. "
111 " they missed that the number of U.S. casualties is negligible compared to the Somalis who were attacked in their own homes. "
112 " The law of war is harsh. If there's anything good at all in 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 minimum. "
― Mohamedou Ould Slahi
113 " The interrogation methods worsened considerably as time went by, and as you shall see, those responsible for GTMO broke all the principles upon which the U.S. was built and compromised every great principle such as Ben Franklin’s “They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. "
114 " In GTMO, interrogators are taught more about the potential behavior of detainees than about their actual Intelligence value, and so the U.S. Interrogators consistently succeeded in missing the most trivial information about their own detainees. I’m not speaking about second hand information; I’m speaking about my own experience. "
115 " The interrogation methods worsened considerably as time went by, and as you shall see, those responsible for GTMO broke all the principles upon which the U.S. was built and compromised "
116 " You can’t come in here on Sunday, and as a Christian, subscribe to this belief of dignity of every human being and say I will seek justice and peace on the earth, and continue to go with the prosecution using that kind of evidence. "
117 " You could clearly tell that the country had no sovereignty: this was still colonization in its ugliest face. In the so-called free world, the politicians preach things such as sponsoring democracy, freedom, peace, and human rights: What hypocrisy! Still, many people believe this propaganda garbage. "
118 " Stop the fuck praying! You’re having sex with American ■■■■■■■ and you’re praying? What a hypocrite you are!” said ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ angrily, entering the room. I refused to stop speaking my prayers, and after that, I was forbidden to perform my ritual prayers for about one year to come. I also was forbidden to fast during the sacred month of Ramadan October 2003, and fed by force. "
119 " But in the secret camps, the war against the Islamic religion was more than obvious. "
120 " But the U.S. government bets its last penny on violence as the magic solution for every problem, and so the country is losing friends every day and doesn’t seem to give a damn about it. "