Don't Forget Us Here
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 | |
| Author | Mansoor Adayfi |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Hachette Books |
Publication date | August 17, 2021 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Pages | 384 |
| ISBN | 978-0306923869 |
Don't Forget Us Here: Lost and Found at Guantánamo is a 2021 memoir by Mansoor Adayfi. As an 18-year-old man, he was sent to Afghanistan to do research but never returned. After being kidnapped by Afghan warlords, he was sold to the United States in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.[1] In Kandahar, he was stripped naked, beaten, and interrogated by the Americans about his link to Al-Qaeda. He was imprisoned without being charged at the Guantánamo Bay detention camp, where he was stripped of his name and was known as Prisoner 441. Adayfi describes in his memoir how he survived for 14 years until his 2016 release. Adayfi collaborated with writer Antonio Aiello.[2]
Don't Forget Us Here is the memoir of a man who was in detention at Guantánamo Bay for 14 years. The book is a series of manuscripts Mansoor Adayfi wrote while he was imprisoned at Guantánamo and sent to his attorneys as letters; he then used them as the basis of his book, which he wrote in collaboration with Antonio Aiello.[1] While in prison, Adayafi became a stubborn fighter who led prison riots and hunger strikes. Adayfi was known as Detainee 441 in Guantánamo; He tried to persuade his captors he had not been cooperating with Al-Qaeda. According to the book, to avoid torture, he confessed to be a member of al-Qaeda.[2]
According to Adayfi, Americans were more interested in taking revenge for the attacks than in finding out the detainees' identities and what they had done. He said: "I had only heard about the Sept.11 attacks." Adayfi writes that Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller, the Guantánamo commander from 2002 to 2004, "turned the camp into where everything seemed designed to humiliate and demean us."[2]
At his hearing in front of a panel that was meant to evaluate detainees, he read out a statement telling them again he was not a member of Al-Qaeda; "But after what they had done to us, I would join al-Qaeda," Adayfi added.[3] He writes: "I wanted to teach them that they couldn’t kill us and torture us and expect us to love them for it. No; I wanted them to see what they had created."[2]
By 2016, after 14 years of detention at Guantanamo Bay, the US government had not yet charged him with a crime or confirmed his detention was lawful. A review board decided he was not a threat to the United States and he was allowed to have a new life in Serbia.[2][3]