Slahi was assigned detainee ID number 760 and was initially held in
Camp Delta. Officials belonging to the CSIS interviewed Slahi in February 2003. He was among 14 men classified as
high-value detainees, for whom
United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld authorized use of what were called
enhanced interrogation methods, which have since been classified as
torture. By January 2003, US military interrogators pressed to make Slahi their second "Special Project," drawing up an interrogation plan like that used against
Mohammed al-Qahtani. Declassified documents show that Slahi was transferred to an isolation cell near the end of May and abusive interrogation started. He was subjected to extreme cold and noise, extended sleeplessness, forced standing or other postures for extended periods of time, threats against his family, sexual humiliation and other abuses. In September 2003, Slahi was moved to Camp Echo.
Lt. Col V. Stuart Couch, a
Marine Corps lawyer, was appointed as Slahi's prosecutor at Guantanamo. He withdrew from the case in May 2004 after reviewing it in depth. Couch said that he believed that Slahi "had blood on his hands," but he "could no longer continue the case in good conscience" because of the alleged torture, which tainted all confessions Slahi had made. In the letter, Slahi said all his confessions of crimes were the result of torture. He laughed at being asked to recount "everything" that he had said during interrogations, joking that it was "like asking
Charlie Sheen how many women he dated."
Guantánamo Diary Slahi started writing a memoir of his experiences in 2005, continuing into the next year. The 466-page manuscript was in English, a language Slahi learned at Guantánamo. Excerpts were published by
Slate magazine as a three-part series beginning April 30, 2013. On May 1, 2013,
Slate also published a related interview with Col.
Morris Davis, the military's chief prosecutor at Guantánamo from September 2005 to October 2007.
Guantánamo Diary was published as a book in January 2015, It has become an international bestseller. Prison officials prevented Slahi from receiving a copy of his published book.
Joint Review Task Force When he assumed office in January 2009,
President Barack Obama repeated his commitment to close Guantanamo. He convened a six-agency task force to review the detainees and recommend those who could be released. In its 2010 report, the
Guantánamo Review Task Force recommended Slahi be considered for prosecution in a military commission. The task force recommended that detainees deemed too dangerous to release, but without sufficient evidence for prosecution, receive a
Periodic Review Board hearing. In 2013, Slahi was listed as one of 71 detainees eligible for a review. In March 2016, Slahi was granted a hearing before the Board in June.
Further interrogation request U.S. district court James Robertson had issued an order to the Department of Defense barring them from interrogating Slahi while his habeas corpus case was under consideration. Guantánamo authorities in October 2014 seized all of Slahi's privileged legal papers and all his personal belongings, including a computer. In the summer of 2003, Slahi was repeatedly subjected to the use of an interrogation technique which the Schmidt-Furlow Report stated had been prohibited by the Secretary of Defense on December 2, 2002. What was not revealed until 2008 was that in a March 14, 2003, legal opinion memo issued by
John Yoo of the
Office of Legal Counsel,
Department of Justice, to the
General Counsel of the Department of Defense, Yoo advised that federal laws related to torture and other abuses did not apply to interrogations overseas. Also, by 2005,
The New York Times reported that by an April 2003 memo from Rumsfeld to General
James T. Hill, commander of
United States Southern Command, responsible for Guantanamo Bay, Rumsfeld authorized 24 specific permitted interrogation techniques to be used.
Jack Goldsmith, head of the Office of Legal Counsel, withdrew the Yoo
Torture Memos in June 2004 and advised federal agencies not to rely on them. The
United States Senate Committee on Armed Services produced a report titled
Inquiry into the Treatment of Detainees in U.S. Custody on November 20, 2008. It contains information about the treatment of Slahi and others at Guantanamo before 2005.
Habeas corpus proceedings In
Rasul v. Bush (2004), the
United States Supreme Court ruled that detainees at Guantánamo Bay detention camp had the right of
habeas corpus to challenge their detention. Slahi had
habeas petitions submitted on his behalf. In response, the Department of Defense published 27 pages of unclassified documents from his
Combatant Status Review Tribunal (CSRT) on July 14, 2005. The
Military Commissions Act of 2006 (MCA) mandated that Guantánamo detainees were no longer entitled access to the
U.S. federal courts, so all pending
habeas petitions were stayed. However, in June 2008, the Supreme Court ruled in
Boumediene v. Bush that the MCA of 2006 could not remove detainees' right to
habeas and access to the federal court system. All previous
habeas petitions were eligible to be re-instated. Before submitting briefs in the
habeas case, the U.S. government dropped its previous allegations that Slahi had participated in the Millennium Plot and that he knew about the
9/11 attacks before they happened. Robertson's ruling was criticized by several
Republican Party politicians. Slahi was the 34th detainee whose release was ordered by a federal district court judge reviewing government materials associated with his habeas petition. The unclassified decision was filed on April 9, 2010. The Circuit Court panel said the following questions needed to be answered: • whether Slahi understood that he was referring recruits to work in al-Qaeda's "jihad" against the U.S., • what Slahi may have said to bin al-Shibh in a discussion of jihad in Afghanistan, • whether he had been asked by al-Qaeda to help with communications projects in Afghanistan and elsewhere, • whether he had taken a role in planning computer "cyberattacks," and • whether he remained "a trusted member" of al-Qaeda up to the time of his capture. The District Court never held any hearings after the Court of Appeals decision. Slahi had his first Periodic Review Board review on June 2, 2016. A month later, the board recommended that Slahi be released. ==Life after detention==