Share this page!

Enter URL or ID to Unroll

You can paste full URL like: https://x.com/threadreaderapp/status/1644127596119195649
or just the ID like: 1644127596119195649

How to get URL link on X (Twitter) App

  1. On the Twitter thread, click on or icon on the bottom
  2. Click again on or Share Via icon
  3. Click on Copy Link to Tweet
  4. Paste it above and click "Unroll Thread"!
  5. More info at Twitter Help
Mansoor Adayfi 441 منصور الضيفي Profile picture
@MansoorAdayfi
Oct 9, 2021 • 9 tweets • 8 min read • Read on X
Scrolly
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]
Yes, there were some al Qaeda & Taliban, but most were not. As early as the summer of 2002, US leadership & intelligence officials knew this & referred to us in private as “dirt farmers” because we had so little intelligence value.
Even Donald Rumsfeld, in this April 2003 memo to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wrote, “We need to stop populating Guantanamo Bay (“GTMO”) with low-level enemy combatants.”
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…
But publicly, Rumsfeld & other govt officials continued to insist #Guantanamo held "the most dangerous, most vicious terrorists, trainers, bomb makers, recruiters, financiers & would-be suicide bombers." @SetonHallLaw reports document it all.

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…
Instead of releasing us, General Miller turned Guantanamo into a Battle Lab & model for interrogation that used torture, inhumane treatment, religious defamation & cruelty to extract intelligence we didn’t have. Miller brought that model to #AbuGhraib

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…
I survived 14 years at Guantanamo by fighting for what I knew was right and searching for humanity wherever I could, sometimes in art, sometimes in a kind gesture from a guard, sometimes in an iguana.
Almost 20 years after opening, 39 men are still held at Guantanamo, many have never been charged with a crime. It’s time to #CloseGuantanamo, #reckonwithtorture, and make sure this never happens again.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Mansoor Adayfi 441 منصور الضيفي

Mansoor Adayfi 441 منصور الضيفي Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @MansoorAdayfi

Mansoor Adayfi 441 منصور الضيفي Profile picture
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
Mansoor Adayfi 441 منصور الضيفي Profile picture
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
Mansoor Adayfi 441 منصور الضيفي Profile picture
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
Mansoor Adayfi 441 منصور الضيفي Profile picture
Oct 2, 2021
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.
Read 11 tweets
Mansoor Adayfi 441 منصور الضيفي Profile picture
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
Mansoor Adayfi 441 منصور الضيفي Profile picture
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

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

Send Email!

:(