GTMO detainee calls out high US education costs

[GoodmanBrown]

---

Members don't see this ad.

There's a new memoir out by Mohamedou Ould Slahi, a Guantanomo detainee that's been held for 11 years. About 8 years ago he wrote a memoir about his time in detention. It's now been declassified. He writes in English (which he learned in detention), and he's pretty funny. One particular passage that I thought this forum could relate to:

[REDACTED] and I started to talk as if we knew each other for years. [REDACTED] studied biology and joined [REDACTED] recently as an enlisted person, most likely in order to pay her college credit. Many Americans do. College education in the U.S. is sinfully high.

 

[Idiopathic]

[REDACTED] indeed

 

[Gern Blansten]

College students are getting [REDACTED]

 

[pgg]

[REDACTED] and I started to talk as if we knew each other for years. [REDACTED] studied biology and joined [REDACTED] recently as an enlisted person, most likely in order to pay her college credit. Many Americans do. College education in the U.S. is sinfully high.

The Taliban has implemented an excellent plan for sparing girls like her the cost of an education. Thugs spray them with acid if they try to go to school.

 

[GoodmanBrown]

The Taliban has implemented an excellent plan for sparing girls like her the cost of an education. Thugs spray them with acid if they try to go to school.

Despite Slahi being in detention for 11 years and getting tortured in Gitmo and in Jordan, the US has no plans to try to convict him of anything. He was never in the Taliban. Dude was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He is no longer considered an intelligence asset. In Gitmo, he apparently has a small garden which you can find on Google Earth if you know where to look. I fail to see how his detention is furthering US interests or ideals at home or abroad.

Besides which, are you suggesting that it's the US's duty to police the world and ensure that no one is oppressing anyone?

 

[chessknt]

While I have not read it, I cannot imagine that he finds our educational system to be something to write home about after what he has been through. Beyond that, his home country would make a much easier target to criticize since it still has slavery and female genital mutilation and such. But yea, our college costs are high.

 

[deleted126335]

Despite Slahi being in detention for 11 years and getting tortured in Gitmo and in Jordan, the US has no plans to try to convict him of anything. He was never in the Taliban. Dude was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He is no longer considered an intelligence asset. In Gitmo, he apparently has a small garden which you can find on Google Earth if you know where to look. I fail to see how his detention is furthering US interests or ideals at home or abroad.

Besides which, are you suggesting that it's the US's duty to police the world and ensure that no one is oppressing anyone?

Only if they have oil.

 

[yappy]

There are two types of Taliban: those who admit to being Taliban; and, well disciplined Taliban.

Edit: he swore allegiance to UBL.

http://projects.nytimes.com/guantanamo/detainees/760-mohamedou-ould-slahi

What is the issue with his detainment?

Despite Slahi being in detention for 11 years and getting tortured in Gitmo and in Jordan, the US has no plans to try to convict him of anything. He was never in the Taliban. Dude was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He is no longer considered an intelligence asset. In Gitmo, he apparently has a small garden which you can find on Google Earth if you know where to look. I fail to see how his detention is furthering US interests or ideals at home or abroad.

Besides which, are you suggesting that it's the US's duty to police the world and ensure that no one is oppressing anyone?

 

[pgg]

Despite Slahi being in detention for 11 years and getting tortured in Gitmo and in Jordan, the US has no plans to try to convict him of anything. He was never in the Taliban. Dude was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He is no longer considered an intelligence asset. In Gitmo, he apparently has a small garden which you can find on Google Earth if you know where to look. I fail to see how his detention is furthering US interests or ideals at home or abroad.

Besides which, are you suggesting that it's the US's duty to police the world and ensure that no one is oppressing anyone?

IMO Gitmo is and has always been, at best, a strategic and ethical blunder. I've never argued otherwise. Legally it's not so gray - detaining enemy combatants until the end of hostilities is absolutely legal appropriate. Generally they are treated in accordance with the Geneva Convention, even though they are are very specifically excluded from such legal protection.

As for this guy specifically, let's not pretend he was a good guy. Maybe 11 years of Koran reading and reflection in captivity have softened him up, and maybe he's now growing some very nice tomatoes. He has well documented ties to AQ and has been personally involved in multiple plots to directly attack the United States. The fact that 11 years in he's no longer a useful intelligence source is not an argument for release. You tool around a war zone hang out with declared enemies of the United States **** happens.

I'm not particularly sympathetic to his plight. I'm certainly not about to take his social commentary on the US education system seriously.

 

[Gern Blansten]

If he is growing a "freedom garden," he can't be that bad of a guy. If you grow food, you cannot be a threat.
In fact, I think we should forgive him of any past indiscretions, release him to American soil, buy him his own plot of land, put him on $100K of welfare, and help him get a pilot's license so that he can crop dust his land.