Guantánamo Diary: The Fully Restored Text

This is a very remarkable book. Unlike many of the reviews on this Amazon page, my review is of the fully restored version first published in 2017.Slahi is a very remarkable man, and if you believe him, which I do, (partly because his testimony is believable and partly because relentless interrogation over many years failed to produce any evidence whatsoever contradicting him), his book reveals a man of great strength and a wonderful spirit of forgiveness, although he is also very sparky and stands up for himself but always with humour and a shrewd understanding of the situation he is in, which given the way he was treated is almost beyond belief.It’s a great story but for me the most interesting thing, for me as a person who has tended to avoid reading about Guantanamo because frankly it is an unpleasant subject, the most interesting thing is what it reveals about the political background in various Arab countries who have slavishly gone along with the Americans, acting as their jailers and torturers, and also within the USA – the way the different military and intelligence agencies relate with each other and also the American government and justice system.It is also interesting that Slahi thought the Jordanians, although callous, did a much better job as interrogators than the Americans, because they arrived at a judgment about Slahi quickly and easily.Throughout the book Slahi remains vitally interested in his captors and torturers as people and remains open to them. It is this which makes their characters come alive, through Slahi’s compassion for them.

Should be compulsory reading - how, because of your past associations you can be judged guilty until you are proved innocent and how the US will use any means to get a conviction they want.

Bought this after watching The Mauritanian, I found it very moving. In spite of everything that the largest democracy in the world threw at him the shear humanity of Slahi triumphs. What didn’t come through so much in the book was the support he received from people in the US who were prepared to take on the system. Excusable really as it is written from his experiences

Arrived fast and in good condition but the WHOLE BOOK is completely censored, black lines on every page. I can’t even be bothered to read this if I can’t read everything. Very disappointed.

Bought this after I saw the film but didn't really differ from the film so waste of my money