Undated photo of Mohamedou Ould Slahi taken by the ICRC at Guantánamo.
PHOTO: INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE RED CROSS
The first book published by a longtime Guantanamo Bay inmate that describes torture, humiliation and despair during 13 years in captivity is drawing hard-won attention to his case.
Mohamedou Ould Slahi - or prisoner 760 - wrote an account from the US naval base in Cuba, "Guantanamo Diary" which was published on Tuesday after a seven-year legal battle.
The 44-year-old describes how he was told he would be taught about "great American sex" and then he was tortured and forced to have sexual intercourse with female interrogators.
Slahi’s Guantanamo Diary, is the only account written by a detainee still held in the controversial American military prison in Cuba.
He describes being subjected to brutal treatment that included being kept in a “frozen room” for hours on end, forced to drink salt water, and being repeatedly beaten.
"I started to hallucinate and hear voices as clear as crystal. I heard my family in a casual familial conversation…. I heard Qur’an readings in a heavenly voice", wrote Slahi. "I heard music from my country. Later on the guards used these hallucinations and started talking with funny voices through the plumbing, encouraging me to hurt the guard and plot an escape.
"I was on the edge of losing my mind."
Slahi also added that he was denied sleep for more than two months. “For the next 70 days I wouldn’t know the sweetness of sleeping: interrogation 24 hours a day, three and sometimes four shifts a day.”
Slahi's 466-page handwritten manuscript was initially classified by the US government and heavily redacted before publication.
The detainee's lawyer, Nancy Hollander, explained that her client has never been charged with any crime.
"It's not that they haven't found the evidence against him - there isn't evidence against him," she said. "He's an innocent man. He's being detained unlawfully and he should be the one telling his story. Without censorship,"
Slahi's accounts of psychological and physical torture come just weeks after a US Senate report revealed the widespread use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” by the CIA.
When US President Barack Obama took office in 2008 he promised to close Guantanamo, but as he enters his seventh year in the White House 122 prisoners remain. At its peak there were more than 700.
Guantanamo Bay was established in January 2002 and remains open today. In Tuesday's State of the Union address Obama said his administration will work to finally "finish the job" and close it down.
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Ex president Musharraf exported 1000's of Pakistani's for cash. Pakistan's daughter in law Dr,Aafia is one of them.
@John B: Not sure why rape of detainees by female wardens is so hard for you to believe.
http://www.cbs8.com/story/24017707/male-inmate-claims-he-was-raped-by-female-guards-at-miramar-brig
Those in a position of power can coerce the detainees in many different ways.
Yeah right .. this suppose to be a deterrent or an incentive to get imprisoned in Guantanamo?
@John B: A man has been unlawfully / illegally kidnapped, detained and tortured in a US torture chamber for 13 years (!!) by American terrorists.. and you find issue with his description of the torture he endured during those 13 years?? Theres no evidence against him. His life has been ruined. Imagine that being you. You and i should be demanding that those responsible for this crime should be thrown into the same dungeons where he was caged. This poor man's statements should be the least of your concern!
@Onyx: I am not the proponent of activities of Gitmo and I find that facility repugnant to the American value I hold dearly. Yes, rape happens in prisons, all over the world, and jail authorities either cover it up or could not prevent them.
In this particular case, his accusations is that he had been forced to have sex with interrogating CIA / Military female military personnel. My logical mind needs proof for that accusation. It is incomprehensible how that can even be arranged and who will volunteer for that.
If he had accused that a male military jail guard raped him, I will believe that accusation instantly.
@John B: Rape goes on in US prisons all the time. Both men and women are exploited and this is all done under wraps and kept out of official records. For us to assume that such things did not happen at GITMO is nothing but selective denial. Records have been expunged, deleted, omitted and voided at GITMO repeatedly. There is disgusting photographic evidence of sexual abuse in the possession of the US DoD which is deemed too dangerous to the lives of US citizens if it is released publicly. Yet we have silly denials that such things are unlikely. Perhaps he was sexually violated on his way to Gitmo or at the prison. In the initial period after 9/11, people were ruthlessly treated because anyone caught was considered to be from OBL's inner circle. Hundreds of people who happened to get caught by the Afghan Northern Alliance were shipped to the US as high value detainees when the reality was that these people were nobodies. None of this is unbelievable.
Actor Shia labeouf said he was forced by a woman and the Western media called it rape. But if it happens to a brown man then it is not rape.
@John B:
"It is what he thinks happened to him.
Sex always sells a story, but I don’t buy that it happened. If a female detainee claimed rape happened, anywhere I will believe to start with and look for evidence. "
That's because you don't understand the Islamic definition of rape.
If a woman seduces a man, and then the man has intercourse on his own volition, the blame goes to the seductress.
@John B: yeah offcourse he is lying..Guatanamo is a holiday island..and usually people have alot of fun there...!!!!
It is what he thinks happened to him.
Sex always sells a story, but I don't buy that it happened. If a female detainee claimed rape happened, anywhere I will believe to start with and look for evidence.
There are chain of documents, personnel, logs during his stay in Gitmo including army personnel male and female assigned to the station.
Of all the different aspects of the story, ET chose the forced sex part as the headline. Talk about attracting hits
Hmmm if its true then its scary .