This is to Whom it May Concern: A Guantánamo Narrative
DePaul Journal for Social Justice, Spring 2008
11 Pages Posted: 12 Nov 2009
Date Written: Spring 2008
Abstract
November 19, 2004. I am sitting in an interview cell - really, a retrofitted storage container - in Camp Echo at Guantánamo Bay. Across the table, Adnan sits with his arms crossed and his head down. The guards have removed his handcuffs, but when he shifts his weight, his leg-irons clang and echo in the bare room. The irons are chained to an eyebolt on the floor. Guards are stationed outside the door, and I can see a video camera in the corner. Adnan is a small, thin man with a scraggly beard. He looks pale. He looks weak. He is dressed in a pull-over shirt and cotton pants that are dyed iconic, Gitmo orange. “I see they're keeping you shackled,” I say, shaking my head, trying to communicate that the precaution is unnecessary. My interpreter translates my words into Arabic. Adnan looks up and smiles briefly, acknowledging the obvious. But he does not meet my eyes. *154 Adnan has been in this prison for nearly three years, since January 2002. He is only thirty, but he looks much older. He bows his head and stares at his ankle cuffs again. He doesn't trust me, I write in my notebook.
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