The Mauritanian (Guantánamo Diary)

The third chapter provides additional context about what led to Slahi’s detention at Guantanamo. The narrative in the “BEFORE” section displays rising action through the escalating extrajudicial measures such as Slahi’s kidnapping to Jordan and the worsening nature of his interrogations. This escalation highlights two related minor themes: international cooperation under the US pressure to detain Slahi and the US reliance on third-party governments using extrajudicial measures such as torture. Mauritania took Slahi in at the behest of the US government but found no evidence against him and received no evidence from the US, so Mauritanian officials released him. Then, under additional US pressure, Slahi was detained again. This measure highlights one of the book’s primary themes—The Absurdities of Life as a Detainee (absurdities that increase in subsequent chapters)—as well as the lack of Mauritian sovereignty (in Slahi’s view): “[K]idnapping me from my house in my country and giving me to the U.S., breaking the constitution of Mauritania and the customary International Laws and treaties, that is not OK” (126). During Slahi’s initial detention by the Mauritanian authorities, the US agent threatened him with torture. Such threats highlight the thin layer of civilization in Western democracies willing to rely on third-party states in the Middle East, North Africa, and Central and South Asia—and extrajudicial methods of torture without dirtying their own hands—to attain their goals.

Guilt by association is another subject area the author explores. The previous chapter revealed the Canadian and US governments’ suspicions about the nature of Slahi’s relationship with his cousin Abu Hafs—and their suspicion that Slahi was an accomplice of Ahmed Ressam because they lived in Montreal around the same time and attended the same place of worship. In this chapter, the authorities question Slahi about his German friends, Karim Mehdi, and Christian Ganczarski. Ganczarski, for instance, was of Polish descent and converted to Islam. In the 1990s and early 2000s, Ganczarski was suspected of having al-Qaeda links. In 2009, he was convicted in France for a 2002 attack on a Tunisian synagogue. The US government suspected that because Slahi knew “bad people” like Abu Hafs and Ganczarski, he must have been involved in terrorist activities. However, for years neither Germany, Canada, nor the US found any evidence that Slahi was involved in anything illegal. Nevertheless, he was profiled as a suspected terrorist.

Stylistically, Slahi continues to rely on the folktale motif. In this chapter, he tells the story of a camel that “rests in two steps” (121). A Bedouin sat in front of the camel’s hump, while an urbanite sat behind it. When the camel stopped and bent its two front legs, the Bedouin fell off. The urbanite laughed until the camel did the same with the two hind legs. The moral of the story—“Too soon to be happy: the camel rests in two steps”—is akin to “Trouble comes in twos (threes).” The author uses this tale to highlight his premature happiness about being released by the Mauritanian authorities for the first time because he was soon arrested by them for the second time thanks to the US government’s pressure.

In addition, the folktales provide an occasional glimpse into Mauritanian culture. Likewise, Slahi describes the traditional courtship and weddings in his home country. These customs highlight the close-knit society from which he came. For example, Slahi appears to have had some familiarity with the Mauritanian authorities; the arresting police officer worked for him on a job. Being arrested by one’s own people without evidence must have felt even more devastating. The narrative indicates his culture’s traditional gender roles and attitudes toward sex. As the memoir later reveals, Slahi was sexually abused at Guantanamo, a traumatizing experience, especially in the context of his culture and religion.