fiba Inmates Speak 2007

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Poems from Guantanamo:
the Detainees Speak
84-page anthology
to by published later this year by
The University of Iowa Press

HUMILIATED IN THE SHACKLES
by Sami al Hagg

When I heard pigeons cooing in the trees,
Hot fears covered my face.
When the lark chirped, my heights composed
A message for my son.
Mohammad, I am afflicted.
In my despair, I have no one but Allah for comfort.
The oppressors are playing with me,
As they move freely around the world.
They ask me to spy on my countrymen,
Claiming it would be a good deed.
They offer me money and land,
And freedom to go where I please.
Their temptations seize
My attention like lightning in the sky.
But their gift is an empty snake,
Carrying hypocrisy in its mouth like venom.
They have monuments to Liberty
And Freedom of opinion, which is well and good.
But I explained to them that
Architecture is not justice.
America, you ride on the backs of orphans,
And terrorize them daily.
Bush, beware,
The world recognizes an arrogant liar.
To Allah I direct my grievance and my tears.
I am homesick and oppressed.
Mohammad, do not forget me.
Support the cause of your father, a God-fearing man.
I was humiliated in the shackles.
How can I now compose verses? How can I now write?
After the shackles and the nights and the suffering and the tears.
How can I write poetry?
My soul is like a rolling sea, stirred by anguish,
Violent with passion.
I am a captive, but the crimes are my captors'.
I am overwhelmed with apprehension.
Lord, unite me with my son Mohammad.
Lord, grant success to the righteous.
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An Al-Jazeeera cameraman, Sami al Hajj, a Sudanese, was visiting his brother in Damascus after the 11 September attacks when he got a call asking him to go to Pakistan to cover the impending war in Afghanistan. Instead, he ended up in Guantanamo where he claims he has been severely and regularly beaten, scaring his face.



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DEATH POEM
by Jumah al Dossari

Take my blood.
Take my death shroud and
The remnants of my body.
Take photographs of my corpse at the grave,
lonely.

Send them to the world,
To the judges and
To the people of conscience,
Send them to the principled men and the fair-
minded.

And let them bear the guilty burden, before the
world.

Of this innocent soul.

Let them bear the burden, before their chil-
dren and before history,
Of this wasted, sinless soul,
Of this soul which has suffered at the hands of
the "protectors of peace".
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Arrested in Pakistan and held in solitary confinement since 2003, Jumah al Dossari's mental well-being is worrying his lawyers. The 33-year old Bahraini national has tried to kill himself 12 times since his incarceration in Guantanamo. On one visit, his lacers found him hanging in a bedsheet noose, with a deep gash in one wrist. In a letter Mr. Dossari wrote in 2005, he said: "The purpose of Guantanamo is to destroy people and I have been destroyed."

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IS IT TRUE?
by Osama abu Kadir

Is it true that the grass grows again after rain?
Is it true that the flowers will rise up again in the spring?
Is it true that birds will migrate home?
Is it true that the salmon swim back up their streams?
But is it true that one day we'll leave Guantanamo Bay?
Is it true that one day we'll go back to our homes?
To be with my children, each one part of me; To be with my wife and the ones that I love;
to be with my parents, my world's tenderest hearts.
I dream to be home, to be free from this cage.
But do you hear me, oh Judge, do you hear me at all?
We are innocent, here, we've committed no crime.
Set me free, set us free, if anywhere still justice and compassion remain in this world!

Shortly after 11 September Abu Kadir traveled to Pakistan to perform charity work in Afghanistan with the Islamic missionary group Tablighi Jama. The US claims Tablighi was providing fighters for jihad in Afghanistan and arrested Mr. Kadir near Jalalabad in November 2001. In his native Jordan, he was known as a dedicated family man who worked as a truck driver. In Guantanamo, he is known as prisoner number 651.


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NOTICE: The above report was compiled from pages published by the London Independent daily newspaper on 27th June 2006. Also: Washington has dismissed speculation that its controversial prison camp at Guantanamo Bay is about to close . The White House is considering the move: it was due to be aired after news of it lead to the press (29 June 2007). Established in 2002, the camp currently holds 375 suspected terrorists who are classed as "enemy combatants" and denied normal legal rights. (fiba publisher GPS)

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