Essay Questions

Why is Mohamedou Ould Slahi Jailed?

Mohamedou Ould Slahi is accused of being one of the masterminds of the USA 9th 2011 terrorist attack. The US government listed him as one of the Al Qaeda terrorists who were responsible for the Twin Towers terrorist attack in New York which left massive deaths and destruction of property. Slahi was detained by his government and then later taken to Guantanamo Bay. He spent over 14 years there and it is during this time that he wrote his biography. It is however unfortunate that he was wrongly accused and sentenced because he was not a member of Al Qaeda as claimed.

Is the US government legal system justified to detain Mohamedou Ould Slahi?

After reading Slahi’s diary, the reader notes that the US government detained him without any justification but on suspicion. Slahi spent fourteen years in prison without being charged. Slahi remained innocent all these years but he was not granted justice. The US law states that one is innocent until proven guilty. Since Slahi was not judged, he remained innocent to the day he was freed. This paints a bad picture of the US legal system because it goes against its own laws when trying criminal suspects.

How does the theme of cold-heartedness and torment manifest itself in Guantánamo Diary by Mohamedou Ould Slahi?

Slahi is one of the individuals who can assert that the US has a provocative history of tormenting innocent victims. Much of his narrations, he talks about how he was inhumanly tortured. His journey of anguish and cold-heartedness starts when he is arrested and taken to Jordan under the US government. He was mishandled in Jordan for eight months before being flown to a US military base in Afghanistan. It is unbelievable that he was flown to Afghanistan only wearing a diaper! From there he was taken to Guantanamo Bay where the inhumane handling continued for fourteen years.