The Mauritanian (Guantánamo Diary)

Content Warning: This section references torture, graphic violence, sexual assault, racism, and Islamophobia.

After the polygraph test, SSG Mary introduced Slahi to a new female interrogator. By then, the author and the other detainees knew that all interrogators used the same methods: “[Y]ou can tell they were all graduates of the same school” (305). Slahi repeatedly heard all the same lines, such as, “I have nothing against Islam, I even have many Muslim friends” (306). The interrogators “were literally taught to hate us” (307) as if the detainees were “their worst enemies” (308). At the same time, some guards developed amicable relationships with detainees. Slahi himself questioned the empathy he felt toward his captors: “How could you cry for somebody who caused you so much pain and destroyed your life?” (308).

Slahi divided his detention at Guantanamo into four phases. The first phase involved questioning whether his experiences were real or a nightmare. The second phase “is when you realize for real that you’re in jail and you possess nothing but all the time in the world to think about your life” (309). The third phase brings the realization that the guards and interrogators comprise “your new home and family” (310).