This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/03/us/guantanamo-detainee-held-since-2001-presents-case-for-release.html

The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
Guantánamo Detainee, Held Since 2001, Presents Case for Release One Guantánamo Detainee Pleads for Release, but Another Does Not Appear
(about 4 hours later)
WASHINGTON — A detainee at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, whose best-selling memoir detailed how American interrogators beat him and threatened to gang-rape his mother, got his first chance on Thursday to make the case for why he should be released after nearly 14 years of imprisonment. WASHINGTON — Two longtime detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, made rare public appearances in separate military hearings on Thursday, including Mohamedou Ould Slahi, whose memoir recounting abuse by American interrogators became a best-seller last year after he waged a yearslong battle with the government for permission to publish it.
Despite the mistreatment, the detainee, Mohamedou Ould Slahi, 45, did not appear embittered or angry during the equivalent of a parole hearing on Thursday. The impression that emerged was of an engaging and intellectually curious man who is eager to reconnect with the world. But the expected first public appearance of an even more prominent Guantánamo captive, Abu Zubaydah, was abruptly postponed. Mr. Zubaydah is one of three terrorism suspects the Central Intelligence Agency is known to have tortured through a technique called waterboarding.
Mr. Slahi, said one of his American military representatives at the hearing, is a model prisoner, and he “is uniquely talented, and speaks multiple languages, including English.” Mr. Slahi learned English, his fourth language, after being sent to Guantánamo Bay in 2002. The day began with a hearing for Mr. Slahi before a Periodic Review Board, offering him his first chance to make the case for why he should be released after nearly 14 years of imprisonment. Mr. Slahi, 45, has not been charged with a crime, and the review board is considering whether to recommend that he be released.
Wearing glasses and a white shirt, Mr. Slahi did not speak during the 17-minute portion of the hearing, which was not classified and was streamed to the Pentagon for reporters to observe. There was no word on when a decision would be made on whether to free Mr. Slahi, who would prefer to be sent to Germany or Mauritania, where he was born, according to his lawyers and representatives. Wearing glasses and a white shirt, Mr. Slahi did not speak during the part of the hearing that was not classified and was streamed to the Pentagon for reporters to observe. There was no word on when a decision would be made on whether to free Mr. Slahi, who would prefer to be sent to Germany or Mauritania, where he was born, according to his lawyers and representatives.
Mr. Slahi was arrested in Germany in 2001, swept up in the global hunt for operatives of Al Qaeda that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. He had joined Al Qaeda in the 1990s and fought Afghanistan’s Communist government alongside Osama bin Laden. Mr. Slahi fought with Al Qaeda in the 1990s against Afghanistan’s Communist government and later ended up in Germany, where he was arrested after crossing paths with one of the planners of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
In Germany, he crossed paths with one of the planners of the Sept. 11 attacks, and he had contact with other members of Al Qaeda while living in Montreal. In his book, “Guantánamo Diary,” Mr. Slahi says he was deprived of sleep for long stretches at the prison, shackled for days at a time in a freezing cell, beaten, doused with ice water and threatened by interrogators who said they could make him disappear. Interrogators also threatened to have his mother arrested and gang-raped, he wrote.
The United States determined that Mr. Slahi was a senior recruiter for Al Qaeda, and for some time it considered him the most dangerous person imprisoned at Guantánamo Bay. Despite the mistreatment, the impression that emerged of Mr. Slahi during the hearing was of an engaging and intellectually curious man who is eager to reconnect with the world. Mr. Slahi, said one of his American military representatives, is a model prisoner, and he “is uniquely talented, and speaks multiple languages, including English.”
The military representative, who was not identified, said he believed that Mr. Slahi genuinely intended to live a peaceful life and posed no threat to the United States if released.
A government-written profile of Mr. Slahi said that if freed, he would most likely reunite with his family and travel the world to promote his book. But it also warned that releasing him was not without risks, given his old “terrorist contacts.”
The United States determined years ago that Mr. Slahi was a senior recruiter for Al Qaeda, and for some time it considered him the most dangerous person imprisoned at Guantánamo Bay.
A federal judge saw the case differently, and ordered Mr. Slahi released in 2010, concluding that the government’s evidence against him was marred by coercion and mistreatment, or was “so classified” that it could not be used in court. But the Obama administration challenged the decision, which was overturned on appeal, leaving Mr. Slahi in legal limbo.A federal judge saw the case differently, and ordered Mr. Slahi released in 2010, concluding that the government’s evidence against him was marred by coercion and mistreatment, or was “so classified” that it could not be used in court. But the Obama administration challenged the decision, which was overturned on appeal, leaving Mr. Slahi in legal limbo.
His memoir, “Guantánamo Diary,” which was published last year and is based on a handwritten diary he composed in 2005, details much of the treatment that tainted the government’s case, including an account of a “special interrogation” that lasted for months.
The interrogation was personally approved in 2003 by Donald H. Rumsfeld, then the defense secretary, and during it Mr. Slahi was deprived of sleep for long stretches, shackled for days at a time in a freezing cell, beaten, doused with ice water and threatened by interrogators who said they could make him disappear. The interrogators also threatened to have his mother arrested and gang-raped.
Yet Mr. Slahi also recounts in the book, parts of which were redacted by government censors, how he read “The Catcher in the Rye” in prison, and how it “made me laugh until my stomach hurt.” He also wrote about the friendships he struck up with guards and interrogators.
On Thursday, the American military representative said he believed that Mr. Slahi genuinely intended to live a peaceful life and posed no threat to the United States if released.
“Ever since he arrived at Guantánamo Bay, Mohamedou has been an advocate for peace,” said the representative, a uniformed service member who was not identified in accordance with ground rules that the military makes reporters agree to before observing the review hearings.
Mr. Slahi, the representative added, wants “to live a life free of violence where he can be a provider for his adopted children and teach them not to make the same transgressions he had made.”
Mr. Slahi’s lawyer, Theresa Duncan, said in her opening statement that her client had never taken any hostile action against the United States, noting that when he joined Al Qaeda in the early 1990s, the Islamist militants “and the United States were aligned.”Mr. Slahi’s lawyer, Theresa Duncan, said in her opening statement that her client had never taken any hostile action against the United States, noting that when he joined Al Qaeda in the early 1990s, the Islamist militants “and the United States were aligned.”
Mr. Slahi, she said, played no part in Al Qaeda’s transformation later in the decade into the group that attacked American interests overseas before launching the Sept. 11 attacks, she said. In his memoir, which was based on a handwritten diary he composed in 2005, Mr. Slahi details much of the treatment that tainted the government’s case, including an account of a “special interrogation” that lasted for months. The interrogation was personally approved in 2003 by Donald H. Rumsfeld, then the defense secretary.
She then added: “Mohamedou has had no disciplinary infractions at Guantánamo. None.” Separately on Thursday, a pretrial hearing was convened in a high-security courtroom at Guantánamo in the yearslong effort to use a military commission to prosecute five detainees accused of aiding the Sept. 11 attacks. Reporters could watch a video feed of that hearing at Fort Meade, Md.
“But perhaps what is most striking,” Ms. Duncan continued, “are meaningful relationships he developed with individual people. Over the years, military personnel have given him books, movies, clothing and other souvenirs to mark those relationships.” The session focused on long-running complaints by one of the defendants, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, who says guards are making banging noises and making his cell vibrate so that he cannot sleep. The military has denied Mr. Bin al-Shibh’s allegations. In November 2015, the judge overseeing the case, Col. James Pohl of the Army, issued an order not to harass him, but Mr. Bin al-Shibh says the issues have continued.
She cited a letter from a former guard, who wrote that he “would be pleased to welcome” Mohamedou into his home. Mr. Bin al-Shibh lives in Camp 7, a part of the prison complex where former C.I.A. “black site” prisoners are housed and which reporters are not permitted to visit. His lawyer, James Harrington, called as a witness another Camp 7 resident, Gouled Hassan Dourad, a Somali man who has been accused of being a member of Al Qaeda’s affiliate in East Africa and who had not been seen publicly since his capture.
The government view of Mr. Slahi, while less generous, was not far from that offered by his lawyers and representatives. According to a profile of Mr. Slahi that was read aloud at the start of the hearing, the prisoner would most likely reunite with his family if freed and start a business to support them, perhaps using the computer skills he learned at Guantánamo Bay. Mr. Dourad, bearded and dressed in white clothing and a checkered kaffiyeh, swiveled in the witness chair as he testified that he, too, had been subjected to continuous floor vibrations, bangs and bad smells since 2009. He said he had complained about the disruptions for a time, but had stopped because no one cared.
If allowed to travel internationally, Mr. Slahi would probably “promote his book” around the world. “We have mental torture in Camp 7,” he said.
But the profile also warned that releasing Mr. Slahi would not be without risks. He developed a broad network of “terrorist contacts” while living in Germany, Canada and Mauritania, according to the profile. The contacts could “provide him with an avenue to re-engage” — with Islamist militants, that is — “should he decide to do so.” During cross-examination, a prosecutor, Edward Ryan, accused Mr. Dourad of lying. Saying that he wanted to establish that the witness was biased, Mr. Ryan grilled him about alleged Qaeda activities like evaluating a military base in Djibouti for a potential suicide bombing, which Mr. Dourad denied.
Mr. Harrington had intended to call Mr. Zubaydah, who was once viewed as the first “high value” terrorism suspect captured by the C.I.A. after the Sept. 11 attacks but whose significance was later downgraded.
However, as Mr. Zubaydah prepared to take the stand — he was said to be waiting outside the door — a lawyer representing him told the judge that he would object if questioning went beyond the conditions of confinement in Camp 7 and reached potentially incriminating topics. Mr. Ryan said he did intend to ask about his alleged terrorist activities, and the testimony was postponed.