This week I graduated w/ excellence from college, at the very top of my class and student of the year. 20 years ago this week, I was kidnapped by warlords in Afghanistan and later sold to the US for bounty. I was 18 yrs old.
Education has always been important to me and to my family. My father insisted my sisters go to school and expected US ALL to get top marks. I left my village at 13 for high school in Sana’a. I knew I wanted to go to college.
When I was sent to #Guantanamo, I protested our inhumane treatment w/ hunger strikes and block riots, I refused to talk to interrogators. For this I was stripped of all “comfort items” including books, pens, paper.
I didn’t have an attorney for more than 8 years, until Andy Hart. We became good friends and he encouraged me to learn English and pursue my college education. He brought me a dictionary and books.

( My lawyer and best friend Andy Hart, died in 2013)
I learned English by reading Around the World in 80 Days, and helped bring classes to #Guantanamo. The classes were terrible and the teachers were told they couldn’t teach us. But it was a start. I wrote this about it my book.
I got so good at English, Andy Hart found a US college that would let me enroll in classes remotely, BUT the US government refused to approve it. I guess it was too dangerous to educate.
The best class at #Guantanamo was taught by a prisoner and my mentor (name?). It was a business class where we wrote a feasibility study and business plan for a business. I wrote about it in my book:
miamiherald.com/news/nation-wo…
When I was released from #Guantanamo in 2016 and sent to Serbia, the tribunal recommended I be able to pursue my higher education. The first university in Belgrade to accept me, unenrolled me because I was held at Guantanamo.
The second one enrolled me, but they were afraid I was a terrorist. Once they got to know me, they understood who I was. Even though I couldn’t pay my tuition, they let me stay. When I graduated, my professors cried they were so proud of me.
I would like to thank all those who helped: Andy Hart, Aunt Beth Jacob @bdjacob13, Antonio Aiello @ar_aiello, Erin Thompson n @artcrimeprof, my thanks to the names on last page of my thesis presentation)... and to you all for your help and support.
I want to also congratulate my little sister, who got high marks this week. I am so proud of you.
مبارك لك أختي الكريمة.

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More from @MansoorAdayfi

Feb 9, 2023
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. My photo in camp 6 Guantánamo 2011,
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.
Read 7 tweets
Jun 10, 2022
#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.
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.
Read 11 tweets
Jan 10, 2022
#GITMO20
Thread 1/
20 years ago, I was sent to #Guantánamo after being sold to the US for bounty. I was 19 years old and didn’t know much about the US. What I learned, I learned at Guantánamo.
2/
The Bush administration said that prisoners held at Guantánamo were all illegal combatants and weren’t covered under the Geneva Conventions.
3/
We lived in dog kennels at Camp X-Ray for the first months, where we weren’t allowed to talk, stand, or pray together. We weren’t told where we were or why we were being detained.
Read 11 tweets
Oct 9, 2021
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]
Read 9 tweets
Sep 25, 2021
Hunger Strike Thread:
1/8
We had no rights at #Guantanamo. We had no power. We had nothing but our bodies and our lives and we had to use them to bring about change. Going on #hungerstrike is like entering a dark tunnel & the light at the end is death.
#artfromguantanamo
2/8
In the beginning, your stomach growls & begs for food. You dream of food. I dreamed of meals my father made after Ramadan--lamb mandi that melted in my mouth. I regretted every grain of rice left uneaten.
3/8
Days later, your stomach shuts down. Your body consumes your fat, then muscle. You feel pain in every cell consumed. You don’t sleep. You can’t concentrate and feel confused. Your vision blurs. Your heart beats so fast it’s hard to breathe.
Read 8 tweets
Sep 18, 2021
#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
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
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.
Read 8 tweets

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