Guantánamo Diary Quotes

“Whenever I realized that a guard was mean I pretended that I understood no English. I remember one cowboy coming to me with an ugly frown on his face: “You speak English?” he asked. “No English,” I replied. “We don’t like you to speak English. We want you to die slowly,” he said. “No English,” I kept replying. I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction that his message arrived. People with hatred always have something to get off their chests, but I wasn’t ready to be that drain.”
― Mohamedou Ould Slahi, The Mauritanian

“We human beings take everything into consideration except for death; hardly anybody has death on his calendar.”
― Mohamedou Ould Slahi, Guantánamo Diary

“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, The Mauritanian

“So why was I so scared? Because crime is something relative; it's something the government defines and redefines whenever it pleases.”
― Mohamedou Ould Slahi, Guantánamo Diary

“A Mauritanian folktale tells us about a rooster-phobe who would almost lose his mind whenever he encountered a rooster. “Why are you so afraid of the rooster?” the psychiatrist asks him. “The rooster thinks I’m corn.” “You’re not corn. You are a very big man. Nobody can mistake you for a tiny ear of corn,” the psychiatrist said. “I know that, Doctor. But the rooster doesn’t. Your job is to go to him and convince him that I am not corn.” The man was never healed, since talking with a rooster is impossible. End of story. For years I’ve been trying to convince the U.S. government that I am not corn.”
― Mohamedou Ould Slahi, The Mauritanian

“You know that I know that you know that I have done nothing,” I said. “You’re holding me because your country is strong enough to be unjust. And it’s not the first time you have kidnapped Africans and enslaved them.”
― Mohamedou Ould Slahi, The Mauritanian

“I wrongly believed that the worst was over, and so I cared less about the time it would take the Americans to figure out that I was not the guy they are looking for. I trusted the American justice system too much, and shared that trust with the detainees from European countries. We all had an idea about how the democratic system works. Other detainees, for instance those from the Middle East, didn’t believe it for a second and trust the American system. Their argument lay on the growing hostility of extremist Americans against Muslims and the Arabs. With every day going by, the optimists lost ground. The interrogation methods worsened considerably as time went by, and as you shall see, those responsible for GTMO broke all the principles upon which the U.S. was built and compromised every great principle such as Ben Franklin’s “They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
― Mohamedou Ould Slahi, The Mauritanian

“As the just, legendary Arabic King Omar put it, “I would rather release a criminal than imprison an innocent man.”
― Mohamedou Ould Slahi, The Mauritanian

“I don’t understand why people hate us. We help everybody in the world!” he stated once, seeking my opinion. “Neither do I,” I replied. I knew it was futile to enlighten him about the historical and objective reasons that led to where we’re at, and so I opted to ignore his comment; besides, it was not exactly easy to change the opinion of a man as old as he was.”
― Mohamedou Ould Slahi, The Mauritanian

“I was in a worse situation than a slave: at least a slave is not always shackled in chains, has some limited freedom, and doesn’t have to listen to some interrogator’s bullshit every day. I often compared myself with a slave. Slaves were taken forcibly from Africa, and so was I. Slaves were sold a couple of times on their way to their final destination, and so was I. Slaves suddenly were assigned to somebody they didn’t choose, and so was I. And when I looked at the history of slaves, I noticed that slaves sometimes ended up an integral part of the master’s house.”
― Mohamedou Ould Slahi, The Mauritanian

“Confessions are like the beads of a necklace: if the first bead falls, the rest follow.”
― Mohamedou Ould Slahi, Guantánamo Diary: Restored Edition

“Because crime is something relative; it’s something the government defines and re-defines whenever it pleases. The majority of people don’t know, really, where the line is that separates breaking the law from not breaking it.”
― Mohamedou Ould Slahi, The Mauritanian

“I always told the guards, “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

“I was just wondering at how narrow-minded human beings can be. When people look at one thing from one perspective, they certainly fail to get the whole picture, and that is the main reason for the majority of misunderstandings that sometimes lead to bloody confrontations.”
― Mohamedou Ould Slahi, Guantánamo Diary

“Many young men and women join the U.S. forces under the misleading propaganda of the U.S. government, which makes people believe that the Armed Forces are nothing but a big Battle of Honor: if you join the Army, you are a living martyr; you’re defending not only your family, your country, and American democracy but also freedom and oppressed people all around the world. Great, there is nothing wrong with that; it may even be the dream of every young man or woman. But the reality of the U.S. forces is a little tiny bit different. To go directly to the bottom line: the rest of the world thinks of Americans as a bunch of revengeful barbarians.”
― Mohamedou Ould Slahi, The Mauritanian

“Is it not the same, Bosnian and Arabic?” asked ■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​. That is just one example of how little Americans know about Arabs and Islam. ■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​ is a member of ■​■​■​■​■​ and not just anybody; ■​■​■​■​■​■​■​ is supposedly armed with basic knowledge about Arabs and Islam. But ■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​ and the other interrogators always addressed me, “You guys from the middle east…,” which is so completely wrong. For many Americans, the world comprises three places: The U.S., Europe, and the rest of the world, the Middle East. Unfortunately, the world, geographically speaking,”
― Mohamedou Ould Slahi, The Mauritanian

“The cultural barrier between the Christian and the Muslim world still irritates the approach of Americans to the whole issue considerably; Americans tend to widen the circle of involvement to catch the largest possible numbers of Muslims. They always speak about the Big Conspiracy against the U.S. I personally had been interrogated about people who just practiced the basics of the religion and sympathized with Islamic movements; I was asked to provide every detail about Islamic movements, no matter how moderate. That’s amazing in a country like the U.S., where Christian terrorist organizations such as Nazis and White Supremacists have the freedom to express themselves and recruit people openly and nobody can bother them. But as a Muslim, if you sympathize with the political views of an Islamic organization you’re in big trouble. Even attending the same mosque as a suspect is big trouble. I mean this fact is clear for everybody who understands the ABCs of American policy toward so-called Islamic Terrorism.”
― Mohamedou Ould Slahi, The Mauritanian

“The torture squad was so well trained that they were performing almost perfect crimes, avoiding leaving any obvious evidence. Nothing was left to chance. They hit in predefined places. They practiced horrible methods, the aftermath of which would only manifest later. The interrogators turned the A/C all the way down”
― Mohamedou Ould Slahi, The Mauritanian

“President Bush described his holy war against the so-called terrorism as a war between the civilized and barbaric world. But his government committed more barbaric acts than the terrorists themselves. I can name tons of war crimes that Bush’s government is involved in.”
― Mohamedou Ould Slahi, The Mauritanian

“Bring me to the court, and I’ll answer all your questions,” I would tell the team. “There will be no court!” they would answer. “Are you a Mafia? You kidnap people, lock them up, and blackmail them,” I said.”
― Mohamedou Ould Slahi, The Mauritanian

“For the next several nights in isolation, I got a funny guard who was trying to convert me to Christianity. I enjoyed the conversations, though my English was very basic. My dialogue partner was young, religious, and energetic. He liked Bush (“the true religious leader,” according to him); he hated Bill Clinton (“the Infidel”). He loved the dollar and hated the Euro.”
― Mohamedou Ould Slahi, The Mauritanian

“إنّ مشكلة الإرهاب بأكمله كانت نتيجةً للعدوان الإسرائيلي ضد المدنيين الفلسطينيين، ومساندة الولايات المتحدة العَلَنيّة للحكومة الإسرائيلية في عدوانها، وذلك عندما استولى الإسرائيليون على فلسطين بنيران المدافع البريطانية، مما سبب هجرةً جماعيةً للسكان المحليين، انتهى المطاف بالعديد منهم في البلدان المجاورة وكانت للأردن حصة الأسد؛ أكثر من خمسين بالمائة من الأردنيين هم من أصلٍ فلسطيني. بالنسبة لي، لم يناسب المحققين الثوب الذي يَلبَسونَه، يصعب عليك أن تفهم أن الفلسطينيين يعملون لصالح أمريكا من أجل إلحاق الهزيمة بالذين يساعدونَهم.”
― محمدو ولد صلاحي, Guantánamo Diary: Restored Edition

“كان الإنجيل مفيدٌ جداً في فهم المجتمعات الغربيّة، ومع ذلك فإنّ الكثيرين منهم ينكرون تأثّرهم بالكتب الدينية المقدّسة.”
― محمدو ولد صلاحي, Guantánamo Diary: Restored Edition

“They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
― Mohamedou Ould Slahi, The Mauritanian

“But how can you believe in something you don’t understand?”
― Mohamedou Ould Slahi, The Mauritanian

“How could you possibly be defending freedom, if you’re taking it away?”
― Mohamedou Ould Slahi, The Mauritanian

“But I realized he was in the Army for a reason: he was good at being inhumane.”
― Mohamedou Ould Slahi, The Mauritanian

“But revenge is always problematic—it ends up imprisoning you.”
― Mohamedou Ould Slahi, The Mauritanian

“The funny thing about mosquitos is that they're shy in small groups and rude in big ones.”
― Mohamedou Ould Slahi, Guantánamo Diary: Restored Edition

“Crisis always brings out the best and worst in people – and in countries, too.”
― Mohamedou Ould Slahi, Guantánamo Diary: Restored Edition