The brother of a prominent Guantánamo Bay prisoner was denied entry to the United States this weekend as he attempted a trip to advocate for his brother’s release.
Mohamedou Ould Slahi is one of the most famous of the 80 men left at Guantánamo. Last year, Guantánamo Diary, his brutal memoir of imprisonment and torture by the United States and its counterterrorism allies, became a bestseller. Held in Guantánamo for nearly 14 years without being charged with a crime, Slahi is scheduled to go before the prison’s Periodic Review Board on June 2. The interagency panel will review his case and could possibly recommend his release.
Mohamedou’s younger brother, Yahdih Ould Slahi, lives in Düsseldorf, Germany, and has been trying to secure his brother’s freedom for years. He was planning to come to the United States to meet with journalists and attend a series of public events ahead of the review board hearing.
Yet when Yahdih, a German citizen, arrived at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York on Saturday, May 21, he was immediately taken into custody by Customs and Border Patrol. He was held overnight, questioned for hours, and then sent back to Germany on Sunday evening.
“He was asked questions about his family, his brother, and what he knew about why his brother was in Guantánamo,” said Hina Shamsi, director of the National Security Project at the American Civil Liberties Union. “It was a harrowing, stressful, and exhausting experience.”
(Disclosure: I am moderating a panel discussion with Yahdih in Washington, D.C., this week, at the invitation of the ACLU.)
Asked by The Intercept about the decision to refuse Yahdih entry, the CBP sent a boilerplate statement about its broad authority to control admission to the United States.
Now 45, Mohamedou Slahi was picked up in his native Mauritania in 2002 and held in Jordan and Afghanistan before being brought to Guantánamo later that year. In his memoir, Slahi describes being held in isolation, beaten, exposed to freezing temperatures, and subjected to sleep deprivation, sexual humiliation, and threats against his family. Much of his account has been substantiated by government investigations into detainee abuse.
Slahi has admitted that he went to fight in Afghanistan with al Qaeda against the communist government in 1990, but he maintains that he has had no connection to the group since 1992. One military official refused to participate in a prosecution of Slahi after learning about his torture, and a former prosecutor has said he could not find anything with which to charge him. A federal judge ordered his release in 2010, but the decision was vacated on appeal and the case has stalled.
“Yahdih wanted this chance to speak in person to Americans, to thank his brother’s American supporters, and to talk about the impact of his brother’s detention on his family and why they want him released,” said Shamsi, of the ACLU. “Yahdih’s perspective is one that Americans rarely get to hear.”
The Periodic Review Board that will evaluate Slahi’s case in June is a critical part of the Obama administration’s attempt to move as many people as possible out of Guantánamo before the end of this year, even as it looks increasingly unlikely that Obama will fulfill his longtime pledge to close the facility entirely.
Congress has barred detainees from being brought to the United States, even for continued detention, and restricted the countries to which they can be sent. The Guardian reported Monday that the administration had secured deals with about six countries to accept about two dozen men by the end of July.
If those transfers occur, it would leave only a handful of the men who have so far been cleared for release. Seven prisoners currently face charges in front of the military commissions, 21 have been referred for prosecution, and another 21, including Slahi, fall into the category of so-called forever prisoners: those the administration has determined it can’t charge with a crime, but who it still believes could pose a threat to the United States if released. Both the men referred for charges and the forever prisoners could have their cases re-examined by the review boards.
Top photo: Yahdih Ould Slahi holds a picture of his brother, Guantánamo detainee Mohamedou Ould Slahi.
I don’t have anything to say about this other than that I’m deeply saddened and ashamed, although not, of course, surprised.
This action by our government makes an absolute mockery of the principles we pretend to stand for and live by.
It,would seem to me that since our congress has the inability to do its job, perhaps out of fear of duty, need to have that fear released and send themselves to that little burp of pixels, near of all,places, CUBA, for about a 6 month all expense paid vacation and full prison benefits to pull their head from anal orifica. Better yet, why the neck do we even have or need a Congress since they do little but vacation, golf, fly around to where they want o, a whim and do nothing for huge pay…it is time we get the ‘congress lifers’ out so America’s word is good internationally. Really think it was a mistake to let Bush Baby off with all my stolen Wall Street stocks to make the Dynasty, while I, the owner of the money, let idiots get by with crap!
What kind of fascist regime would prohibit a best-selling author from reading his own book?
So anyone can be held forever, based on someone else’s BELIEFS!
What happened to EVIDENCE and DUE PROCESS?
This isn’t the America I was born and raised in, it’s become a disgrace.
Never better said!
President Obama sold US short. He gave up. HE LOST FAITH.
The treatment of Guantanamo Bay detainees and others in the shadow system is an utter disgrace. Nonetheless, there is a fair chance the man talked to or visited his brother while he actually was, by his own admission, associated with al-Qaida. In all honesty, Homeland Security wouldn’t be doing a very good job of “vetting” Muslims or other entrants if they allowed someone who had had a direct personal relationship with an al-Qaida member to come into the country. I mean, maybe that isn’t fair per se – maybe the people of the world would be better off questioning whether there is really such a thing as “vetting” or if it is all dowsing hocus-pocus – but, as this man knows, it could be worse. A lot worse.
The DHS and another 16 US Intelligence Agencies and burgeoning militarized public and privatized Law Enforcement Industrial Complex who “Collect It All” right down to your genome Wnt can’t track one guy for a few days with his no doubt insanely well detailed electronic dossier, cell number and travel itinerary?
Yeah, you’d think… still, as long as cowardice is such a public virtue that people make a point of being afraid of a couple of knife attacks, what are they supposed to do? Let him in the country but ban him from steak houses and the kitchen aisle at the supermarket?
Why would Obama’s administration want this guy barred from the U.S.?
Political strategy, is why – Obama doesn’t want more people reminded of the fact that his 2008 election campaign promise to shut down Gitmo and have the prisoners tried under domestic U.S. criminal jurisdiction (which is how other terrorists have been successfully tried, from the architects of the 1993 attacks on the World Trade Center to Timothy McVeigh) was, well, a lie.
Obama’s reponse to the Gitmo problem was to end rendition to Gitmo in favor of drone strikes – if the targets are killed by drones, messy problems related to innocent people being imprisoned at Gitmo go away, and he can still claim he’s ‘fighting terrorism’ – and the bystanders and family members who get blown to bits can be classified as ‘enemy combatants’ so no problems there, as long as the corporate media outlets cooperate with him.
Because his brother MAY have told him about SOME of the as yet undisclosed “special things they’ve been doing to special people in special places” down Gitmo way.
Submitted a comment that hasn’t yet appeared. I wonder how often this happens?
If you’re a new poster, it will stop happening very soon — unless you’re an obvious troll or spammer.
If your comment contained multiple links, it may never stop happening — one of the many ways TI forum software is badly broken. ;^(
It happens brother. Sometimes, on occasion, it even feels to me like they may be doing it for our own good. Other times as long as 36 hours later your post may magically appear. Your submissions have been helpful to everyone on this list for whom Monas, Jacob Appelbaums and Julian Assanges TAO implanted souped up “Angry Neighbor” retroreflectors used HUGO CHAVEZ as a vessel for…
That he was turned away, after being harassed, should come as no surprise to anyone who understands how things operate in the U.S. — a country that allows the stalking and torture of its own citizens. No one will seriously touch the topic and many law-abiding American citizens continue to suffer. It’s an outrage and when it eventually comes to light the press will share the blame for failing to help expose it.
Talk to Joe Trento (https://dcbureau.org/staff). Maybe he’ll “share”, but no one seems able to get this to the fore, so I have my doubts.
Best of luck to all, if this practice is permitted to continue.
The US has a disease, profits before people as policy. Thus when situations such as the Challenger happen, the very visible confrontation between the consensus and the canary play out as we fail to allow the canary to veto the consensus. Like the seals on the Challenger, this is an achilles heel.
The US, in its brash arrogant manner, will challenge China to a showdown at the OK Corral. China learned what the US did to Japan in the 30’s. China certainly has to be preparing for this eventuality. The US has failed in every way under the weight of its own arrogance and defensiveness and reckless policies. The US has allowed wallstreet to engage in value counterfeiting operations since the murder of JFK and the death of executive order 11110.
When the showdown between the US and China happens, China will begin the slaughter of the US by first dumping treasuries. What follows next will depend on whether we come to our senses or flounder in our usual insanity.
What a disgrace. What a bunch of assholes we have in the US government and its sprawling military industrial security complex. His brother flies all the way over here from Germany, where he is evidently a law abiding Germany citizen to advocate his brother’s release and the CPB scum not only treat him like a criminal and interrogate him overnight–but then send him back to Germany! Was he deemed ‘too dangerous’? Did they think he too was an al Quaida evildoer? The US government could not look more pathetic, more dysfunctional, or more repulsive in this instance. Imagine, to keep a person for 14 years without a charge, wasting his life away? What kind of country does this? Obviously not a country which values habeas corpus, right to a fair and speedy trial, due process, or human rights. What a monstrosity the USA has become.
The black stain of the Guantanomo gulag and the tragic ‘war on terror’ have eliminated any moral credibility or world standing the USA ever had. The world should definitely look elsewhere for leadership. None to be found here, just a lot of war criminals and torturers walking around freely. Very sad country, has totally lost its way.
Scahill’s book Dirty Wars taught me the executive order for beginning US renditions to foreign countries specifically for the torture of terrorism suspects was signed and the practice begun by Bill Clinton in the ’90s, well before 9/11.
I’m voting Green in 2016 but have trouble understanding why anyone believes Trump would be more evil than returning to the Clinton / Bush years – just because he’s rude to women and racist. So are most white male politicians. Those were years that brought us the insane war on Terra, war crimes of foreign invasion / torture / drone murder, a Big Brother NSA, severe militarization of domestic police, the death of 800yo habeas corpus, quantum expansion of the prison industrial complex – and leaders that just exactly like Trump worship Wall Street money more than life on Earth. Most of the [establishment] media perpetually hating on Trump alone will probably cost Queen Hillary her coronation, because the last time Americans saw elections this rigged GWB was installed as president, twice. So I’m fine with an already failed war criminal system producing a President Trump. Even that war criminal putz GWB loved to say, “Fool me once, shame on you.” He never got the “shame on me” part right though.
How stupid can you be? Trump is already making nice with Kissinger: http://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2016-36318446 He has already proudly promised “helluva lot worse” than water boarding!
I was one of the idiots under the pox-on-both-their-houses banner in 2000. But at least in my defense I can say that Baby Bush didn’t promise to torture people. True, I had no ral excuse for ignoring Reagan’s backing of out and out terrorism in Nicaragua. But with a minimum of suggestion and a maximum of wishful thinking I bought into “oh, this is the end of history, and that Cold War stuff is over with.”
But believing in Trump? There I have no straw of a suggestion to clutch at, and my wishful thinking is maxxed out. You’re stupid to flock to his banner, even by proxy, and you will have frequent occasion to regret it.
I wrote a comment here a week or so ago about Trump and meeting with Kissinger, and that once in office he’d be no different than his war criminal predecessors – or Hillary. The machine will run him. Your intentionally ignoring “I’m voting Green in 2016″ means you somehow blindly equate not supporting Hillary with supporting Trump, and that makes you as stupid as they come.
In this most dismal of elections cycles that I have ever witnessed, I’m for Trump and here is why. He is no more to the right of the spectrum than I and after 8 years of stonewalling by our so called legislative branch I’m for four more years of it rather than eight years of this disgusting woman, a Republican that keeps telling the world,(thank you, MSM) that she is a Democrat. After that we’ll see how rotten the kettle of fish in Washington can turn.
@John K –
I will agree this is indeed a dismal election cycle. But I find the main reason is the supposed candidate you support. Please don’t be fooled. He’s not for anyone but himself and his 1% croniues.
But how about the rest of us? He has shown disdain for almost every ethnic group there is, insults women, has NO respect for civil liberties, and thinks it’s ok to beat up other human beings. He is against EVERYTHINNG I stand for. The mentality that has surfaced strikes me as very ugly and scary.
Yeah, we have a big mess now. But diving for the bottom of the barrel is NOT the answer.
Hillary vs. Trump. . . Yes, this is an entirely dismal choice. What the public wants is to see Sanders vs. Trump, but the crooked DNC led by Debbie Wasserman Schultz rigged the election in Clinton’s favor; if she ends up as the candidate it will be a pyrrhic victory, as she will go down in flames in a general election against Trump, by most polls.
Are you sure this would be such a bad thing? Hillary is as bloodthirsty as Kissinger was in the Nixon era; she wants to expand foreign military spending in eastern Europe, fight more wars in the Middle East, raise military tensions with China and Russia, continue with the $1 trillion nuclear weapons program – and has no plan for a domestic jobs program, no plan for a domestic infrastructure program, no plan to relieve student debt – and as she relies on Wall Street money, no plan to overturn Citizens United. Clinton is also leaning toward a VP pick – Obama’s Labor secretary – who has cheerleader for the TPP trade deal. And recall when she praised the Reagans for ‘their action on AIDS? Where did that come from? Is she really a Trojan horse for a neocon agenda?
In contrast, Trump and Sanders both oppose expansion of NATO and more wars in the Middle East, I think that’s pretty clear. Trump’s negatives are his Republican social policy, demonizing immigrants and Muslims – but I think Congress and the courts will not go along with such projects (separation of powers, right?). Furthermore, if Trump beats Clinton, that will be the end for the corporate Democratic neoliberal agenda; the Debbie Wasserman Schultz types and other Wall Street loyalists will be booted from leadership in the DNC and we would end up with a Democratic party that actually supports American middle class interests, instead of one that promotes militarism abroad.
It’s a difficult question, but I think that strategically, in the case of Hillary vs. Trump, not voting for Hillary is the best move. I think she’s the more dangerous candidate on foreign policy, clearly closer to GW Bush neocons than any other candidate.
Four years of the Donald may just be the price we have to pay to reform the Democratic party.
You talk about Trump as if he were an individual. But among the Republicans there are no individuals, just stuffed shirts filling seats. Anybody like Arlen Specter who is even slightly independent gets purged.
The Republicans never hesitate to hurt America for even the smallest tactical advantage. Break the national credit rating to gain a political advantage? Not even a decision, just a reflex. Stand arm in arm with the Zika virus? Of course — Zippy the Pinhead has a low IQ, and studies have proved people with a low IQ usually vote Republican.
But even if I ignored that, I still have to deal with Trump’s lunacy about supporting torture. I don’t trust the courts to genuinely reserve their power – Republicans love “court stripping” provisions. And I certainly don’t trust a cowed and broken Democratic party to seriously stop a Republican juggernaut in House or Senate, no matter who has the nominal majority. Remember 2008? A Democratic majority isn’t one, because they don’t regiment their people on party lines as well as the Republicans do. They’re not quite all stuffed shirts, in other words.
So what’s your take on Hillary Clinton, then?
Great post nfjtakfa, you clearly know what’s going on. I really like the Green Party too, but of course the shitty duopoly dem/repub precludes any other party from having a chance in elections here. I mean, what a fucked up election system in USA: goofy primaries where every state has its own wack-ass quirky delegate voting process, and like Chomsky said you have actually one party, the business party to choose from: one side of this coin is dem; the other repub. Two shitty business parties for a country with 335 million people? How is that for no choice. The US government and election system is a broken, corrupt piece of shit and is way overdue for a major overhaul.
Just want to thank you, Ms. Currier for this. We need to keep up with all these developments. I hope more will find and comment on this article. Maybe when they’re done commenting on Brazil and the new whistleblower?
Blocked by .1,% Agency minions.
President Obama is as frightened of Yahdih Ould Slahi as Netanyahu is of Omar Barghouti.
Oddly, Yahdih lives in Dusseldorf and the residents there have not fleed for their lives.
That could be some real american entertain for fear reality show.. Who scares easier, Barack or Bibi?
@Barabbas –
Intneresting thoughts. My take: why be frightened of the TRUTH? “And Ye shall know the Truth and the truth will make you free” (or something like that)
If we really want to stop this bit about torture and truly put it behind it, we shouldn’t be afraid. So that has to make one think – whatever can they be afraid of?
good question-
Neither has a plan for success. All these political fraudsters do is apply patches to the breaks in a system that doesn’t work. Since they are not interested in doing what works, they get fearful of having to tackle a problem they havent the courage to confront and solve. PURE COWARDICE.
Bernie Sanders knows this. I am crossing Donald off my list.
OT – hillary barack & company who want to bail out Puerto Rico is a complete fraud. It amouts to a bailout of hedgefundies – just like the bank thieves! If we want to save Puerto Rico, we let them file bankruptcy against the hedgies then, we can help PR.
Re PR: As a territory, they are unable to avail themselves of the option of filing for bankruptcy that is available to the 50 states and all the municipalities. There is a bill in Congress to allow them to do so, but it is being lobbied against by the financial community and the repubs. Here in the DC area they are running disinformation ads on TV saying that if the bill is passed, cities like Chicago and states like CA will file and cause a burden on the taxpayers. And of course the ignorant masses eat it up.
I saw that — that’s stupid for stupid.
If the U.S. had any wit at all for strategy, they’d offer big bribes for everybody from Puerto Rico to Palau to join up as states, including bankruptcy and bailout provisions. They’d pass a big omnibus laying them all out and pre-approving them so the independent countries could join at any time. Instead, they’re going to do more business as usual, fail to notice that their laxity regarding Yap Island caused the biggest disease outbreak of the decade, and when Marshall Islands decides to leave in 2022 or so and eventually enter a military association with China, they’ll have absolutely no clue what hit them.
@Barabbas –
I think you have something here: “All these political fraudsters do is apply patches to the breaks in a system that doesn’t work. Since they are not interested in doing what works, they get fearful of having to tackle a problem they havent the courage to confront and solve. ”
Yes, for too long, we’ve been doing patches to appease folks, I guess. And it’s really starting to come apart. I was so blessed that m y parents could build on what my grandparents did, and I could build on what they did. I think you said elsewhere each generation now seems to be having more and more trouble rising. It tears at folks’ hopes and dreams.
I’m old enough (yup – went to school when dinosaurs roamed the Earth) to remember when things were tumultuous at times, but hopeful. Folks had a sense of a real possibility of things like progressing economically and socially. We so need to get that back somehow!
@feline16
@24b4Jeff
Folks had a sense of a real possibility of things like progressing economically and socially. We so need to get that back somehow!
The US was founded about 1776 not by a war, which just freed the US, but by DECLARATION and PRESCRIPTION.
The electeds will not redeclare nor prescribe what works. We the people have to assemble and do that ourselves. IT IS DOABLE.
My theory is that they are not afraid of anything other than losing power – Obama at least; Bibi is a true zealot. One important element of getting into and staying in power is motivating the population, and fear is an excellent tool (so is hate). In this country fear has been employed to some extent as a tool for getting elected at the national level since LBJ used the famous nuclear ad against Goldwater. Fear that the opponent will get us into a nuclear war. Fear that an oppressed minority will become equals with the rednecks (motivating the current anti-immigrant fervor). Fear of communism. And, over the last four presidential election cycles, fear of terrorists. One cannot allow one’s self to be portrayed as being on soft on terrorists, or on communists, or on illegal aliens, or on refugees from the Middle East.
It is now impossible for me to imagine a person like FDR or JFK getting elected in the US. Our population has largely been reduced to a cowering herd of cowards, unable to rationally evaluate the situation we find ourselves in. Above all, afraid of change, and so inherently unwilling to abandon failed policies.
@24b4Jeff –
Yes, fear of losing power – they don’t want their own faults exposed… yes, I think you’re on the right track.
Your last paragraph is particularly telling. Yes, I can barely imagine a good candidate getting elected either. And yes, the population is swift to cower whenever “fear of terrorism” is invoked. Yup, no rational nor critical thought is given. No matter that most investigations don’t disclose terror threats, etc..
We’ve GOTTA break through that fog!!!
Bad enough to hold people for several years without charges, but utterly dishonourable to not have the collective integrity to allow the family of Gitmo detainees into the U.S.
Shame on our govt for behaving like a three year old child closing his eyes and thinking that makes him invisible.
You have no idea how clueless the average American is. Most of my classmates haven’t heard of the Panama Papers. Some haven’t even heard of Snowden or know what a whistleblower is. Their censorship and disinformation actually works for the overall American population.
@JDawg –
May I ask – are you a student? Kudos for being so aware. I notice with my family and acquaintances that although most are at least aware of Snowed, trying to talk about any issue related to something like privacy, especially can make eyes glaze over at the least. I think some are more sympathetic about stuff like torture, they make NO effort to read or look past some big headlines. This should be a concern for all of us.
BTW – any ideas on how to reach people – students, especially?
Try telling them that their future has been sold off. There is none except what they can navigate at great risk which will put their children on thinner ice than they’re on. And that is all because of these things –
1. they do not own a life support guarantee because wallstreet owns their life support as a dependency relationship
2. every american generation loses ground in terms of rights, ownership, buying power and return on productivity
3. the characterisation of the US economy as capitalism is a ruse because the real in-place system is the currency system. It’s the currency system – the source method of getting cash into the economy by the private company that owns it. And there is a better more just system in design but the owners of the fed will oppose it to no end.
Growth is a fraud.
@Barabbas –
More very interesting thoughts. It does seem as tough the future of our younger generations has been sold off – or buried in a mountain of debt.
With regard to #3 – not being an economist, I can’t totally agree or disagree with your statement. I will say that what we have now is as some folks have suggested a form of a sort of predatory “winner take all” capitalism. It’s a shame that more business folks – mainly the elite ones – don’t think anything like Henry Ford who said he wanted his workers to be able to afford the cars they were making. That sort of thinking is rare today – guess they think anyone who holds a job should be thankful for whatever crumbs they deign to throw out. Do we need a better system? Absolutely! Again, not being an economist, but having inherited a practical streak from Mom, I might just say that some sort of hybrid system might be a good idea. Like the musician from Los Lonely Boys who said he took some musical style from here, some from there and made his own taco.
Keep giving us stuff to think about!
Capitalism is a term that wallstreet and electeds toss like spaghetti and it is supposed to encompass all aspects of the economic spectrum – BUT THAT IS DECEPTIVE and A CON JOB.
Our system is composed of 3 systems; currency system, valuation system, circulation system.
By those 3 systems we are trapped into losing everything because essentially, all together, they culminate in an ever increasing pool of wealth that demands to be fed interest money and or valuation increases. The people are left with the circulation system that is being drained to feed the wealth monster. As cash leaves the circulation system, it is replenished by PAWNING YOUR FUTURE at ever increasing extents.
Essentially, you are a value of worth in a spectrum of time. And that spectrum is being MINED. It only gets worse unless the CURRENCY SYSTEM is replaced.
another pov is that people individually and as a whole have been monetised. The current system as a whole, puts those values ahead of humans. A NEW SYSTEM in design subscribes to HUMANS FIRST and leaves any profitting incentives as secondary thus preserving capital investment potential without the harm of mining people.
The new system will need a whole lot of popular exposure and support.
@Barabbas –
Well, certainly we need to put human values FIRST. Absolutely. People should not be monetized. Will we ever see such a system – or anything even approaching it? Not sure, but we should work toward it.
@JayHobeSound –
I totally agree. This is totally senseless. Don’t we have enough shame to at least release the victims we’ve tortured, which can’t now be denied? We need to start holding OURSELVES accountable for these nefarious actions.