Mohamedou Ould Slahi has been detained in Guantanamo for 13 years
without ever facing trial. From his cell, he wrote "Guantanamo Diary," a
unique account of the conditions in the US detention centre.
The redactions are obvious and glaring. The nearly 2,600 black blocks which litter the text, aimed at concealing identities and forms of treatment, reveal the extent of US censorship. The French version of Slahi’s book, “Guantanamo Diary” – which was released this week in a dozen countries, including the US – appeared on the stands Thursday titled, “Les carnets de Guantanamo”.
The 100,000-odd declassified words give an account of life in the Guantanamo detention centre, a “no-go zone,” according to Amnesty International. While details of the CIA’s treatment of detainees are available on the public record in the US Senate Intelligence Committee report, Slahi’s book is a personal account of his experiences not only at the hands of CIA officials, but also with members of the US military.
A Mauritanian national, his book is also the first prisoner account to be published while the author is still in detention.
It took six years of negotiations for the US government to authorise the publication of his diary. The resulting text is a product of series of compromises: words, names, facts, dates, places, entire passages have been deleted to protect classified information. While the US treatment of detainees is no secret, the United States continues to cite security concerns to prevent the disclosure of documents proving tortu
Read more: Americas - A voice from Guantanamo: ‘I can’t breathe...’ - France 24
The redactions are obvious and glaring. The nearly 2,600 black blocks which litter the text, aimed at concealing identities and forms of treatment, reveal the extent of US censorship. The French version of Slahi’s book, “Guantanamo Diary” – which was released this week in a dozen countries, including the US – appeared on the stands Thursday titled, “Les carnets de Guantanamo”.
The 100,000-odd declassified words give an account of life in the Guantanamo detention centre, a “no-go zone,” according to Amnesty International. While details of the CIA’s treatment of detainees are available on the public record in the US Senate Intelligence Committee report, Slahi’s book is a personal account of his experiences not only at the hands of CIA officials, but also with members of the US military.
A Mauritanian national, his book is also the first prisoner account to be published while the author is still in detention.
It took six years of negotiations for the US government to authorise the publication of his diary. The resulting text is a product of series of compromises: words, names, facts, dates, places, entire passages have been deleted to protect classified information. While the US treatment of detainees is no secret, the United States continues to cite security concerns to prevent the disclosure of documents proving tortu
Read more: Americas - A voice from Guantanamo: ‘I can’t breathe...’ - France 24
