Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #CloseGuantanamo
Most recents (10)
Thread 🧵 1
21 years ago today, I was sent to #Guantanamo gagged, hooded & shackled to the floor of a military plane. I remember the heaviness of the heat, the salty smell of the sea & the ISN they gave me as my name: 0441. I was 19 years old.
21 years ago today, I was sent to #Guantanamo gagged, hooded & shackled to the floor of a military plane. I remember the heaviness of the heat, the salty smell of the sea & the ISN they gave me as my name: 0441. I was 19 years old.
I’ve written about that first day so many times,thinking that if I write it maybe it will lose its power over me. Maybe that memory will let me rest.Although GTMO is a drak place, we managed to find beauty in among us,all of us Muslim men who were detained.hachettebooks.com/titles/mansoor…
3
Yes we were isolated and disconnected from our families and the rest of the world but even in America’s dark hole, life won, we created our world, yes we were tortured and abused but we also sang, danced, resist, and survived.
Yes we were isolated and disconnected from our families and the rest of the world but even in America’s dark hole, life won, we created our world, yes we were tortured and abused but we also sang, danced, resist, and survived.
🚨BREAKING: Oldest Guantánamo detainee released after almost 20 years detained without charge or trial.
This is a huge win but Saifullah Paracha, 75, returns to his family a frail old man, after being taken in the prime of his life. That injustice can never be rectified. 🧵
This is a huge win but Saifullah Paracha, 75, returns to his family a frail old man, after being taken in the prime of his life. That injustice can never be rectified. 🧵
Thank you to everyone who helped campaign for Saifullah’s release.
He once described life at Guantánamo as “being alive in your own grave”.
US embrace of indefinite detention without trial has done lasting damage. We can only begin to repair it when we #CloseGuantánamo
He once described life at Guantánamo as “being alive in your own grave”.
US embrace of indefinite detention without trial has done lasting damage. We can only begin to repair it when we #CloseGuantánamo
Saifullah was a successful businessman and philanthropist, kidnapped by US personnel while in Thailand on a business trip.
He was rendered to Bagram air base, a US black site notorious for horrific torture of detainees. A year later, he was flown to Guantánamo in shackles.
He was rendered to Bagram air base, a US black site notorious for horrific torture of detainees. A year later, he was flown to Guantánamo in shackles.
#CloseGuantanamo
16 years ago, 3 of my friends were “found” dead in their cages on my cell block, hanging by the neck, hands and feet bound, cloths shoved in down their throats. Their names were Yasser, Mana, and Ali. The #Guantánamo camp admin called them suicides.
رحمهم الله.
16 years ago, 3 of my friends were “found” dead in their cages on my cell block, hanging by the neck, hands and feet bound, cloths shoved in down their throats. Their names were Yasser, Mana, and Ali. The #Guantánamo camp admin called them suicides.
رحمهم الله.
This was 6/9/06 and we were in Camp 1’s Alpha block. Yasser, Mana, and Ali and I had been on hunger strike recently and were known by the camp for protesting our indefinite and arbitrary detention, constant harassment, and #torture.
Yasser was barely 17 when he was sent to #Guantánamo and had been sexually harassed by female guards and interrogators. He’d been told he was going to be released soon. He had the most beautiful singing voice.
#CloseGuantanamo
#Gitmo20
If you tuned into the Senate Judiciary hearing on closing #Guantanamo, led by Senator Dick Durbin in #December, you might have noticed that the word #Muslim was only mentioned once.
Thread & my op-ed in @MiddleEastEye below.
middleeasteye.net/opinion/us-gua…
#Gitmo20
If you tuned into the Senate Judiciary hearing on closing #Guantanamo, led by Senator Dick Durbin in #December, you might have noticed that the word #Muslim was only mentioned once.
Thread & my op-ed in @MiddleEastEye below.
middleeasteye.net/opinion/us-gua…
The failure to explicitly confront the role of #Islamophobia in the existence of Guantanamo Bay & the use of torture demonstrates a willful neglect of the fact that neither would have been possible without the dehumanizing logics of Muslims in the War on Terror.
Rather than exhibiting any concern for the Muslims lives that were destroyed by detention at the notorious prison that is Guantanamo, the mainstream discourse prioritizes closing Guantanamo in order to restore the US’ reputation as a country that adheres to the rule of law.
Today is the 20th anniversary of the opening of #GuantanamoBay prison, one of the oldest, most infamous relics of the #WarOnTerror, & an emblem of institutionalized Islamophobia. The following are key 2021 events related to Guantanamo.
1/2021: @Amnesty report + UN press release
1/2021: @Amnesty report + UN press release
3/2021: Lufti bin Ali's death
4/2021: Camp 7 closed + Abu Zubaydah's UN case
Buckle up, friends. Tomorrow, Jan. 11, is the 20th anniversary of the prison at Guantanamo Bay. In 2022, torture endures, arbitrary detention is the norm, and 39 men remain illegally held by the USG. (THREAD)
👇🏿I took this photo of Camp X-Ray yrs ago. #CloseGuantanamo #GITMO20
👇🏿I took this photo of Camp X-Ray yrs ago. #CloseGuantanamo #GITMO20
In light of this grim anniversary, and the continuing humanitarian crisis at Guantanamo, here are 20 Gitmo resources that I personally recommend, including firsthand accounts from its victims. #CloseGuantanamo @WhiteHouse you may find these useful.
1. My first deep dive into post-9/11 Gitmo, then just over 10 yrs old. H/t to colleagues @krhawkins5, @kenteiler, leader @nelewi. Our investigation spanned continents, and I still consult interviews we conducted of former prisoners/foreign govt officials. opensocietyfoundations.org/publications/r…
On 10/7/01, when the US launched the #WarOnTerror w/ Operation Enduring Freedom, they littered Afghanistan with Tomahawk missiles, cluster bombs, and pamphlets like this offering $$$$ for al Qaeda & Taliban fighters.
Like thousands of others, I was sold to the US for bounty money, sent to a black site where I was tortured & then sent to Guantanamo. I was only 18 years old. I wasn’t a fighter. I wasn’t al Qaeda leader or Taliban.
At Guantanamo, I met farmers who were sold by neighbors who wanted their land. I met charity workers, teachers, engineers, all kinds of men who were sold as fighters.
[Me at #Guantánamo Camp 6 2012]
[Me at #Guantánamo Camp 6 2012]
(cw: torture)
The Biden White House is going to the Supreme Court to stop Abu Zubaydah, a man who's been imprisoned in Guantánamo 15+ years, and waterboarded 83 times, from making details of a US torture program public. democracynow.org/2021/10/7/supr…
Indefensible. Unspeakable. (1/3)
The Biden White House is going to the Supreme Court to stop Abu Zubaydah, a man who's been imprisoned in Guantánamo 15+ years, and waterboarded 83 times, from making details of a US torture program public. democracynow.org/2021/10/7/supr…
Indefensible. Unspeakable. (1/3)
President Biden pledged he would #CloseGuantanamo. It remains open, while his administration does this.
The US military prison at Guantanamo turns 20 in a few months. The US war in Afghanistan, now officially over (though we know drone warfare continues), turned 20 yesterday.
The US military prison at Guantanamo turns 20 in a few months. The US war in Afghanistan, now officially over (though we know drone warfare continues), turned 20 yesterday.
It's never too late to end an atrocity. It's not enough to just #CloseGuantanamo. But we can't end any of the worst parts of forever wars and imperialism if we don't at least do that: mpowerchange.org/closegitmo (3/3)
#Thread 1/8
20 years ago today, just 6 days after 9/11, George W. Bush gave the CIA broad powers to "Capture and Detain" anyone in what would become the #WarOnTerror
20 years ago today, just 6 days after 9/11, George W. Bush gave the CIA broad powers to "Capture and Detain" anyone in what would become the #WarOnTerror
2/8
Weeks later, I was sold to the CIA and sent to a black site in Afghanistan where I was tortured along with many others until I confessed that I was someone I wasn't just to stop the pain. This is what I wrote in my book
Weeks later, I was sold to the CIA and sent to a black site in Afghanistan where I was tortured along with many others until I confessed that I was someone I wasn't just to stop the pain. This is what I wrote in my book
3/8
I was then sent to #Guantánamo, where I spent over 14 years as a prisoner of the US. I didn't have rights, I didn't have an attorney or legal representation until 2009. I was never charged with a crime. I was never told why I was being held. I was only detainee ISN 441.
I was then sent to #Guantánamo, where I spent over 14 years as a prisoner of the US. I didn't have rights, I didn't have an attorney or legal representation until 2009. I was never charged with a crime. I was never told why I was being held. I was only detainee ISN 441.
1/8
20 years ago, I heard about 9/11 on the radio in Afghanistan. At 18, I couldn’t imagine buildings so tall or why someone would kill so many people. Soon after, I was sold to the US & sent to #Guantanamo. 8 years later, when I saw video of 9/11 for the first time,
20 years ago, I heard about 9/11 on the radio in Afghanistan. At 18, I couldn’t imagine buildings so tall or why someone would kill so many people. Soon after, I was sold to the US & sent to #Guantanamo. 8 years later, when I saw video of 9/11 for the first time,
2/8
I wept for all the innocent lives that lost since 2001.
I never could have imagined that this tragedy would be used to justify keeping me and hundreds of others locked up and tortured for nearly 15 years.
I wept for all the innocent lives that lost since 2001.
I never could have imagined that this tragedy would be used to justify keeping me and hundreds of others locked up and tortured for nearly 15 years.
3/8
This is what I wrote about the day in my book, DON'T FORGET US HERE, LOST AND FOUND AT GUANTÁNAMO.
This is what I wrote about the day in my book, DON'T FORGET US HERE, LOST AND FOUND AT GUANTÁNAMO.
