'I Have Become a Body Without a Soul': 13 Years Detained in Guantánamo

A 36-year-old Yemeni man who has been detained in Guantánamo without charge since he was 22...

Promised review by the Obama administration never happens. Prisoners detained indefinitely, unlikely to be released, since this guy is in a nebulous middle category of people the Obama administration has determined it is not going to charge but doesn’t know if it is ever going to release.

Lofty ideals and concepts do not apply to humans outside the US, it would seem.

Land of liberty, freedom and democracy....what next, US?


Body without a soul

It is an interesting metaphor used in the title. Not to get all existential on you, but technically you are a soul with a body so you cannot have consciousness without the soul being present.

His situation definitely sucks, but I guess this should be a good lesson on not hanging out with terrorists. The guy may not be guilty, but I doubt he is innocent.

a reply to: Charismagic

I can't imagine the pain of his experience - it is beyond comprehension. Hope extinguished - he has nothing to lose.

Kafk a at Gitmo - Washington Post

For the 86 prisoners, it's a plight almost Kafkaesque in its cruel absurdity: though the United States believes they should be released from their concrete cells at Guantanamo Bay, they have stayed in prison, often for years, not because of any crime they committed or immediate threat they pose, but because of diplomatic and political hurdles out of their control.

For the Obama administration, it's a maze with no obvious exits: it doesn't want to keep these prisoners locked up in Gitmo, which is politically and diplomatically costly, not to mention antithetical to Obama's stated desire to close the prison, but Congress has forbidden the prisoners from being transferred to U.S. soil. Though the administration had searched for foreign countries to which the detainees could be released, it appears to have since given up, having closed the office responsible for finding those countries.

Thank you for bringing this back into our awareness. Time marches on for them, in infinite increments, eating their souls an hour at time. I really wish America was better than this.

- AB

I always appreciate a real reason to hate President Obama...

Thanks for the reminder.

I can't wait for Judgement Day.

a reply to: Metallicus

Who said he was hanging out with terrorists?

And you can doubt it, but he is innocent, until proven otherwise.

Apathy is a killer Metallicus.


If you're spiritual as you claim, you should be able to denounce this without a single if and or "but"...

Though the administration had searched for foreign countries to which the detainees could be released, it appears to have since given up, having closed the office responsible for finding those countries

So their own countries don't even want them.

That tells me all I need to know.

Screw-em.

a reply to: CharlieSpeirs

I can't do that without knowing what landed them there in the first place. I denounce that they are being held without charges, but something is up with these guys if their own countries don't want them back.

a reply to: Metallicus

That's fair enough but I'm of the belief that worse people govern those countries and they're just apathetic arseholes who don't want the public uprising with these warriors.

Not a fibre of my being thinks because Saudi Arabia or Syria or Yemen won't accept these people means they must be bad...
Because the bad guys control those places to begin with.

a reply to: CharlieSpeirs

Who said he was hanging out with terrorists?

actually the U.S. Department of Defense have determined that he is a member of al-Qaida.
if you click his name that is in blue in the first paragrah you will come to the JTF-GTMO Detainee Assessment pf him and the report of his capture.

2. (U//FOUO) Health: Detainee is in good health. 3. (U) JTF-GTMO Assessment: a. (S) Recommendation: JTF-GTMO recommends this detainee for Continued Detention Under DoD Control (CD). JTF-GTMO previously recommended detainee for Continued Detention Under DoD Control (CD) on 13 July 2007. b. (S//NF) Executive Summary: Detainee is assessed to be a member of al-Qaida who swore bayat (oath of allegiance) to Usama Bin Laden (UBL). Detainee is a veteran jihadist who participated in hostilities against US and Coalition forces in Afghanistan. Detainee served in a leadership combat position on the front lines and was also an instructor at the alQaida al-Faruq Training Camp, where he provided instruction in physical fitness, weapons, and explosives. Detainee is assessed to have received basic and advanced training, including explosives, at al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan. Detainee possessed phone numbers linked to al-Qaida facilitators, including a phone number recovered during the capture of senior alQaida operations planner Khalid Shaykh Muhammad, aka (KSM), aka (Mukhtar), ISN CLASSIFIED BY: MULTIPLE SOURCES REASON: E.O. 12958, AS AMENDED, SECTION 1.4(C) DECLASSIFY ON: 20330327

here is a link to the report.
The Guantanamo Docket

so he might not be the poor put upon Muslim their making him out to be in the article.

a reply to: hounddoghowlie

And yet they still haven't charged him?

I call BS on their assessment.


I don't care if he is a Muslim either, for all I know he is a backward Wahhabi woman stoner or an enlightened Sufi who is a political prisoner.

Innocent until proven.

a reply to: hounddoghowlie

Why hasn't he been charged with any of this?



Also where does it say his country won't have him back?

a reply to: CharlieSpeirs

read the report, i can't say why he wasn't charged.
it gives a list of things known about him and what he was caught with and what he admitted to.

who knows minds and actions of what a government does.

a reply to: Charismagic

Wait a second....!!! Obama lied about something?!??!?
In other news, water is wet and the sky is blue.
-Christosterone

originally posted by: Christosterone
a reply to: Charismagic

Wait a second....!!! Obama lied about something?!??!?
In other news, water is wet and the sky is blue.
-Christosterone

And Iraq is harbouring wmd's!

Crocodile tears for terrorists.
They lob off your head over there for mundane crimes such as being an antiquities custodian. But let's stare a big ole stink eye at the evil US for locking up enemy combatants.

a reply to: Metallicus

Detaining someone indefinitely without due process is terroristic.

Leave him there forever. How many innocents do these people have to kill before certain people understand they are our mortal enemies?
a reply to: hounddoghowlie

So why don't they just do the humane thing and kill these people? Why keep them lingering for decades in a life that is not worth living with no hope? I would definitely opt for death were it me.

originally posted by: rockintitz
a reply to: Metallicus

Detaining someone indefinitely without due process is terroristic.

Well its one reason we dont capture anymore. its easier to just kill them and cheaper. And Under the Geneva conventions he is a SPY/Un lawful combatant and therefore NOT GRANTED ANY RIGHTS except a BULLET TO THE HEAD in a summary execution if you want to get technical. NO charge? So what? HE gave up his rights when he took up arms and was captured not in a nations uniform.