Mohamedou Ould Slahi Quotes

#1. But in the secret camps, the war against the Islamic religion was more than obvious.

Mohamedou Ould Slahi

#2. 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

#3. We need only circumstantial evidence to fry you.

Mohamedou Ould Slahi

#4. But I found in chess a very interesting game, especially the fact that a prisoner has total control over his pieces, which gives him some confidence back.

Mohamedou Ould Slahi

#5. The Doctor once more gave me a bunch of medication and checked on my ribs. "Done with the motherfucker," he said, showing me his back as he headed toward the door.

Mohamedou Ould Slahi

#6. But has there ever, in all of recorded human history, been an interrogation that has gone on, day in and day out, for more than six years?

Mohamedou Ould Slahi

#7. I figured the guy was completely blinded by the rich world that deliberately shows us poor Africans a "paradise" we cannot enter, though he had a point.

Mohamedou Ould Slahi

#8. Of course I didn't want to involve myself in devastating crimes I hadn't done - especially under the present circumstances, where the U.S. government was jumping on every Muslim and trying to pin any crime on him.

Mohamedou Ould Slahi

#9. 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

#10. I'll never forget the moans and cries of the poor detainees in Jordan when they were suffering torture. I remember putting my hands over my ears to stop myself from hearing the cries, but no matter how hard I tried, I was still able to hear the suffering. It was awful, even worse than torture.

Mohamedou Ould Slahi

#11. I hate waiting on torture; an Arabic proverb says, "Waiting on torture is worse than torture." I can only confirm this proverb.

Mohamedou Ould Slahi

#12. I've been interrogated throughout the last six years by over a hundred interrogators from different countries, and they have one thing in common: confusion. Maybe the government wants them to be that way, who knows?

Mohamedou Ould Slahi

#13. If people in the Arab world knew what was happening in this place, the hatred against the U.S. would be heavily watered, and the accusation that the U.S. is helping and working together with dictators in our countries would be cemented.

Mohamedou Ould Slahi

#14. But the U.S. government bets its last penny on violence as the magic solution for every problem, and so the country is losing friends every day and doesn't seem to give a damn about it.

Mohamedou Ould Slahi

#15. The law of war is harsh. If there's anything good at all in a war, it's that it brings the best and the worst out of people: some people try to use the lawlessness to hurt others, and some try to reduce the suffering to minimum.

Mohamedou Ould Slahi

#16. And if Americans are willing to stand for what they believe in, I also expect public opinion to compel the U.S. government to open a torture and war crimes investigation.

Mohamedou Ould Slahi

#17. Of course, in the U.S. the government and politics are gaining more and more ground lately at the cost of the law. The government is very smart; it evokes terror in the hearts of people to convince them to give up their freedom and privacy.

Mohamedou Ould Slahi

#18. they missed that the number of U.S. casualties is negligible compared to the Somalis who were attacked in their own homes.

Mohamedou Ould Slahi

#19. 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

Mohamedou Ould Slahi

#20. I was like, what the heck is going on, I've never been in trouble with the guards, and I am answering my interrogators and cooperating with them. But I missed that cooperation meant telling your interrogators whatever they want to hear.

Mohamedou Ould Slahi

#21. You think you're going to impress an American jury with [your] words? In the eyes of the Americans, you're doomed. Just looking at you in an orange suit, chains, and being Muslim and Arabic is enough to convict you.

Mohamedou Ould Slahi

#22. Aren't you ashamed to work for these evil people, who arrest your brothers in faith for no reason than being Muslim?

Mohamedou Ould Slahi

#23. African tribes sold their people to us," he replied. "I wouldn't defend slavery, if I were in your shoes." I said.

Mohamedou Ould Slahi

#24. The beating party would go on for the next three or four hours before they turned me over to another team that was going to use different torture techniques.

Mohamedou Ould Slahi

#25. as of April 1, 2010, the U.S. government had lost thirty-four out of forty-six habeas cases. In appeals of several of those cases,

Mohamedou Ould Slahi

#26. You can't come in here on Sunday, and as a Christian, subscribe to this belief of dignity of every human being and say I will seek justice and peace on the earth, and continue to go with the prosecution using that kind of evidence.

Mohamedou Ould Slahi

#27. Colonel Davis said in that interview, "which meant we had to find something we could charge him with, and that was where we were having real trouble.

Mohamedou Ould Slahi

#28. You could clearly tell that the country had no sovereignty: this was still colonization in its ugliest face. In the so-called free world, the politicians preach things such as sponsoring democracy, freedom, peace, and human rights: What hypocrisy! Still, many people believe this propaganda garbage.

Mohamedou Ould Slahi