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Mohamedou Ould Slahi QUOTES

Mohamedou Ould Slahi QUOTES

141 " ...crime is something relative; it's something the government defines and re-defines whenever it pleases. "

― Mohamedou Ould Slahi

142 " The second or the third night ■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​ pulled me out of my cell himself and led me to an interrogation, where the same ■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​ Arabic already had taken a seat. ■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​. You could tell he was the right man for the job: he was the kind of man who wouldn’t mind doing the dirty work. The detainees back in Bagram used to call him ■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​; he reportedly was responsible for torturing even innocent individuals the government released.* "

― Mohamedou Ould Slahi , Guantánamo Diary: Restored Edition

143 " Al Qaeda is using our liberal justice system,” he continued. I really don’t know what liberal justice system he was talking about: the U.S. broke the world record for the number of people it has in prison. Its prison population is over two million, more than any other country in the world, and its rehabilitation programs are a complete failure. The United States is the “democratic” country with the most draconian punishment system; in fact, it is a good example of how draconian punishments do not help in stopping crimes. Europe is by far more just and humane, and the rehab programs there work, so the crime rate in Europe is decisively lower than the U.S. But the American proverb has it, “When the going gets rough, the rough get going.” Violence naturally produces violence; the only loan you can make with a guarantee of payback is violence. It might take some time, but you will always get your loan back. "

― Mohamedou Ould Slahi , Guantánamo Diary: Restored Edition

144 " Had I done what they accused me of, I would have relieved myself on day one. 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. "

― Mohamedou Ould Slahi , Guantánamo Diary: Restored Edition

145 " I felt ashamed that my people were being used for this horrible job by a government that claims to be the leader of the democratic free world, a government that preaches against dictatorship and “fights” for human rights and sends its children to die for that purpose: What a joke this government makes of its own people! "

― Mohamedou Ould Slahi , Guantánamo Diary: Restored Edition

146 " And if Americans are willing to stand for what they believe in, I also expect public opinion to compel the U.S. government to open a torture and war crimes investigation. "

― Mohamedou Ould Slahi , Guantánamo Diary: Restored Edition

147 " Americans are just big babies. In my country it’s not appropriate for somebody my age to sit in front of a console and waste his time playing games. "

― Mohamedou Ould Slahi , Guantánamo Diary: Restored Edition

148 " Of course I didn’t want to involve myself in devastating crimes I hadn’t done—especially under the present circumstances, where the U.S. government was jumping on every Muslim and trying to pin any crime on him. "

― Mohamedou Ould Slahi , Guantánamo Diary: Restored Edition

149 " And you have detainees who typically were captured and turned over to U.S. forces without any proper judicial process. After that, they experienced heavy mistreatment and found themselves incarcerated in another hemisphere, in GTMO Bay, by a country that claims to safeguard human rights all over the world—but a country that many Muslims suspect is conspiring with other evil forces to wipe the Islamic religion off the face of the earth. "

― Mohamedou Ould Slahi , Guantánamo Diary: Restored Edition

150 " The beating party would go on for the next three or four hours before they turned me over to another team that was going to use different torture techniques. "

― Mohamedou Ould Slahi , Guantánamo Diary: Restored Edition

151 " He has no qualification besides his luck of having been born a white guy in the U.S. "

― Mohamedou Ould Slahi , Guantánamo Diary: Restored Edition

152 " كان الإنجيل مفيدٌ جداً في فهم المجتمعات الغربيّة، ومع ذلك فإنّ الكثيرين منهم ينكرون تأثّرهم بالكتب الدينية المقدّسة. "

― Mohamedou Ould Slahi , Guantánamo Diary: Restored Edition