Mansur Ahmad Saad al-Dayfi explained

Mansur Ahmad Saad al-Dayfi
Birth Date:[1] [2]
Birth Place:Sanaa, Yemen
Date Of Release:July 11, 2016
Place Of Release:Serbia
Detained At:Guantanamo
Id Number:441
Charge:None; extrajudicial detention
Status:Released
Child:yes
Notable Works:Don't Forget Us Here

Mansur Ahmad Saad al-Dayfi (born 1979) is a Yemeni who was held without charge in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps in Cuba from February 9, 2002, to July 11, 2016.[3] [4] On July 11, 2016, he and a Tajikistani captive were transferred to Serbia. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 441.

According to a US government report, before his capture he "probably was a low-level fighter who was aligned with al-Qa'ida, although it is unclear whether he actually joined that group", and "traveled to Afghanistan in mid-2001, trained at an al-Qa'ida camp, [was] wounded by a coalition airstrike after the 9/11 attacks", and was captured by Afghan forces in late 2001.[5]

Al-Dayfi came to prominence in 2022 when he alleged that Florida governor Ron DeSantis oversaw beatings and force-feedings of detainees at Guantanamo.[6] [7] [8]

Official status reviews

Originally the Bush Presidency asserted that captives apprehended in the "war on terror" were not covered by the Geneva Conventions, and could be held indefinitely, without charge, and without an open and transparent review of the justifications for their detention.[9] In 2004, the United States Supreme Court ruled, in Rasul v. Bush, that Guantanamo captives were entitled to being informed of the allegations justifying their detention, and were entitled to try to refute them.

Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants

Following the Supreme Court's ruling the Department of Defense set up the Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants.[9] [10]

Scholars at the Brookings Institution, led by Benjamin Wittes, listed the captives still held in Guantanamo in December 2008, according to whether their detention was justified by certain common allegations:[11]

Formerly secret Joint Task Force Guantanamo assessment

Al-Dayfi's thirteen-page Joint Task Force Guantanamo assessment was drafted on June 9, 2008.[12] [13] It was signed by camp commandant Rear Admiral David M. Thomas Jr., who recommended continued detention.

Transfer to Serbia

Al-Dayfi was transferred to Serbia, which al-Dayfi describes as "Guantanamo 2.0".[14] He was transferred together with an individual from Tajikistan named "Muhammadi Davlatov".

PBS Frontline profile

On February 21, 2017, al-Dayfi was profiled in an episode of the PBS network's Frontline series. His habeas attorney, Beth Jacob, described how al-Dayfi was offered either Serbia or continued detention.

Jacob said that neither Serbia nor the US had provided him with any language training, or other support to help him adapt to civilian life, or adjust to living in a foreign culture, or help him find employment, and that he had started a hunger strike in consequence.

Al-Dayfi learned English in Guantanamo.

When Frontline visited al-Dayfi, his weight had dropped 18 pounds in 21 days. In Guantanamo, he had been continuously force-fed for over two years.

Frontline producers were intercepted by security officials.

During the course of their research al-Dayfi disappeared. Serbian security officials interfered with their access to him.

Art from Guantanamo

On September 15, 2017, the New York Times published an account al-Dayfi had written of how desperate the Guantanamo captives were to see the sea, and how an approaching hurricane, in 2014, finally gave them a view. The fences surrounding the camp had opaque screens hung from them. The screens were removed when the hurricane approached, to prevent the fences being blown away.

In 2021 he published Don't Forget Us Here: Lost and Found at Guantanamo, a memoir written in collaboration with Antonio Aiello and based on manuscripts he wrote while detained.[15] [16]

Open letter to President Biden

On January 29, 2021 the New York Review of Books published an open letter from al-Dayfi and six other individuals who were formerly held in Guantanamo to newly inaugurated US president Joe Biden, appealing to him to close the detention camp.

Allegations regarding Ron DeSantis

In a November 2022 interview, al-Dayfi stated that current Florida governor Ron DeSantis, during his time as a JAG lawyer at Guantanamo Bay detention camp, oversaw beatings and force-feedings of detainees.[17] [18]

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: JTF- GTMO Detainee Assessment. nyt.com. 19 May 2024.
  2. Web site: JTF- GTMO Detainee Assessment. prs.mil. 19 May 2024.
  3. Web site: "One of the Worst Places on Earth": Mansoor Adayfi on the 20th Anniversary of Guantánamo Bay Prison. March 24, 2022 .
  4. News: He Spent 14 Years at Guantánamo. This Is His Story.. The New York Times . August 17, 2021 . Hubbard . Ben .
  5. https://int.nyt.com/data/documenttools/abdul-rahman-ahmed-isn-441/349c30001a9767a7/full.pdf Guantanamo Detainee Profile: YM-441 (Mansur Ahmad Saad al-Dayufi)
  6. News: February 17, 2023 . See No Evil: The business of books and the merger that wasn't . en . March 2023 . Harper's Magazine . March 8, 2023 . 0017-789X.
  7. News: Wilner . Michael . March 7, 2023 . 'Very Intimate Knowledge': What Ron DeSantis saw while serving at Guantanamo . .
  8. News: Hall . Richard . March 17, 2023 . Former Guantanamo prisoner: Ron DeSantis watched me being tortured . en . . March 17, 2023 . The United Nations has characterised the force-feeding of hunger strikers at Guantanamo Bay as torture. The US government has denied that the practice amounts to torture, and it has been used against prisoners over successive administrations during hunger strikes..
  9. News: U.S. military reviews 'enemy combatant' use . . October 11, 2007 . October 23, 2007 . https://web.archive.org/web/20071023220558/http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-10-11-guantanamo-combatants_N.htm . live . Critics called it an overdue acknowledgment that the so-called Combatant Status Review Tribunals are unfairly geared toward labeling detainees the enemy, even when they pose little danger. Simply redoing the tribunals won't fix the problem, they said, because the system still allows coerced evidence and denies detainees legal representation..
  10. News: Q&A: What next for Guantanamo prisoners? . . January 21, 2002 . dead . July 11, 2016 . November 23, 2008 . https://web.archive.org/web/20081123204530/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1773140.stm.
  11. News: The Current Detainee Population of Guantánamo: An Empirical Study . . December 16, 2008 . Benjamin Wittes, Zaathira Wyne . dead . July 11, 2016 . June 1, 2013 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130601150504/http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/reports/2008/12/16%20detainees%20wittes/1216_detainees_wittes.pdf.
  12. News: Abd Al Rahman Ahmed Said Abdihi. The Telegraph (UK). April 27, 2011. July 11, 2016.
  13. Web site: WikiLeaks: The Guantánamo files database. The Telegraph (UK). April 27, 2011. July 10, 2012. June 26, 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150626204100/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wikileaks-files/guantanamo-bay-wikileaks-files/8476672/WikiLeaks-The-Guantanamo-files-database.html. dead.
  14. Meet Mansoor Adayfi: I Was Kidnapped as a Teen, Sold to the CIA & Jailed at Guantánamo for 14 Years . https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/riUg6LQCeEY . 2021-12-11 . live . YouTube.
  15. Web site: Currier . Cora . 2021-08-17 . "They Believed Anything but the Truth" — 14 Years in Guantánamo . 2022-06-23 . The Intercept . en.
  16. News: Hubbard . Ben . 2021-08-17 . He Spent 14 Years at Guantánamo. This Is His Story. . en-US . The New York Times . 2022-06-23 . 0362-4331.
  17. Web site: Wilner . Michael . March 7, 2023 . What's known about Ron DeSantis' time in the Navy at Guantanamo Bay . April 30, 2023 . Tampa Bay Times.
  18. Web site: Stanton . Andrew . March 7, 2023 . Ron DeSantis' Superior Speaks Out Amid Guantanamo Torture Accusations . April 30, 2023 . Newsweek.