It really comes down to two things; the perspective you
bring to the table and critical thinking, or a lack there of.
If you come to this book, Guantanamo Diary by Mohamedou Ould Slahi with editing help from Larry
Siems, from the perspective that Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld are war criminals
or that being forced to listen to heavy metal music at staggering volumes while
having the air conditioning or heat cranked up equates to torture, then this
book will confirm much of the simplistic, mind numbed liberal horse crap that
you have been fed about Gitmo.
Slahi, a Mauritanian by birth, has been in custody
since November of 2001 and housed for much of that time at the military prison
at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Slahi penned this tale during a period in 2005 and
2006 and after some time and legal wrangling was allowed to release a redacted
version of the story after some editing by Mr. Siems.
Magical
Liberal Thinking
It doesn’t take long for what I can only call magical
thinking to begin; in the preface of the book, Siems details some of the
background to Slahi’s story.
Slahi readily admits that he was a member of al Qaeda
in 1991 and 1992 when he traveled to Afghanistan and being trained in weapons
and tactics then joining the fight against the invaders from Soviet Union.
Magically you are supposed to believe that once that fight ceased with the
Soviet defeat, that Slahi severed all ties and dropped his allegiance to al Qaeda.
Then we must account for an ongoing, steady series of
coincidences that occurred in Slahi’s life.
·
Slahi was arrested in Mauritania in 2001 on
suspicion that he was involved in the foiled Millenium Plot to bomb the Los Angeles International Airport on New
Year’s Eve 1999. That plot was foiled by an alert border crossing agent at the
Seattle/Tacoma, U.S./Canada crossing point who took Ahmed Ressam into custody when
he attempted to smuggle explosives across the border. Magically Ressam had been
a member of the same mosque that Slahi had led prayers during Ramadan. Canadian
Security Intelligence Service agents had put Slahi under surveillance for
several weeks, suspecting his participation in the plot, but had not been able
to connect the dots to arrest him.
·
According to the 9-11 Commission Report Slahi was responsible for recruiting multiple
jihadists into the al Qaeda fold. In the book Slahi again readily admits
meeting with Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah while living in Germany, even
allowing them to stay with him. Magically al-Shehhi and Jarrah were among the
terrorists who flew hijacked planes into building on September 11, 2001,
killing nearly 3000 people in the process.
·
Slahi also admits in the book to crossing
paths with Ramzi bin al-Shibh, who intended to be a participant in the 9-11
attacks, but could not manage to get a U.S. Visa to enter the country. When bin
al-Shibh was arrested and taken to Gitmo he admitted to knowing Slahi and told his
interrogators that it was Slahi who directed him to an al Qaeda training camp. Bin
al-Shibh later helped to supply cash and other items to the 9-11 terrorists as
part of what would become known as the Hamburg (Germany) Cell that Slahi was
believed to be a key contact in.
·
Peter Finn, writing in the Washington Post,
hardly a outlet of conservative thought, described Slahi and fellow Gitmo
detainee Tariq al-Sawah as “two of the most significant informants ever to be
held at Guantanamo.” Finn went on to say that the pair had provided enough
reliable information to “help officials chart connections among Islamic
radicals across Europe.” So while Siems and other magical thinking liberals
would have you believe that Slahi simply told interrogator “what they wanted to
hear” this report clearly shows that hard intel that was garnered from Slahi.
·
Siems points to Marine Lt. Colonel Stuart
Crouch a military prosecutor assigned to Slahi’s case, who declined to bring a prosecution
against Slahi as evidence that there is no case to be made against him. To the
contrary, Couch as stated in an Atlantic Magazine article, again far from a
conservative outlet, that he chose not to prosecute Slahi on moral grounds,
because he believed that Slahi had been tortured, but he still believed that
Slahi was guilty of terrorist activities.
Where’s
Obama
If Mohamadou Ould Slahi is innocent as seems and many
other would lead you to believe it begs the question; why hasn’t President
Obama, who seems hell bent to release as many terrorists as possible from
Guantanamo and make good on his promise to close the facility, released Slahi
back into the world? With reports of upwards of 60 to 70 percent of those who
have been released from Gitmo taking up arms and returning to the Jihad, if
Slahi is is so innocent, then wouldn’t he be a poster child for the program to
release detainees?
Or could it be that all of these “coincidences” and the
magical thinking they spawn are nothing more than a bunch of bullshit and this
guy is a terrorist pure and simple. Was he on the receiving end of harsh
treatment at the hands of his interrogators? Without a doubt. Did it amount to
torture? All I ask is that you compare the treatment he received to that of
Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl or those taken prisoner by ISIS. Also
know that Slahi is reported to be spending his time at Gitmo in a special
compound, separated from other detainees for his own protection; tending his
personal garden, writing and painting.
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