Mohamedou Ould Slahi.
A detainee at Guantanamo who recently published a critically acclaimed book on his life in captivity will not have the opportunity to read his own book, and neither will 121 of his fellow inmates.
Jason Leopold at VICE News reports that Guantanamo spokesman Captain Tom Gresback told VICE News that “at this time” the detainee library has no intention of purchasing Mohamedou Ould Slahi’s memoir Guantánamo Diary. The book cracked Amazon’s top 100 best-sellers.
“The detention center library at Guantanamo has more than 19,000 titles,” Gresback said. “Books are provided as a means of intellectual stimulation. All titles available are culturally sensitive, non-extremist in nature and generally non-controversial.”
Slahi’s lawyer, Nancy Hollander, told VICE News that her client “has not seen Guantanamo Diary and I don’t know if he will.”
The book, portions of which are heavily redacted — pages 302 to 307 are entirely blacked out — recounts in vivid and harrowing detail the Mauritanian’s rendition, his torture by interrogators, and the grave conditions of his confinement at the detention facility where he has been held, without charge, since August 2002. The book has been translated into 20 languages.
Guantanamo’s Detainee Library Won’t Carry a Guantanamo Detainee’s Acclaimed New Book [VICE]
Here’s the New York Times review: “From Inside Prison, a Terrorism Suspect Shares His Diary.”