GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba _ The multiagency U.S. federal parole board has cleared "Guantanamo Diary" author Mohammed Ould Slahi for release, in part crediting his "highly complaint behavior" across nearly 14 years of detention without charge.
Slahi, 45, got to Guantanamo in August 2002 after detention and interrogation in Afghanistan, Jordan and his native Mauritania in West Africa. He went before the interagency Periodic Review Board on June 2 with a letter of support from a former prison guard.
"We are thrilled that the PRB has cleared our client," said Nancy Hollander, Slahi's long-serving attorney, in a statement issued by the American Civil Liberties Union. "We will now work toward his quick release and return to the waiting arms of his loving family. This is long overdue."
Slahi has spent years in segregation in a special detention site called Camp Echo, apart from nearly all of the other 75 captives currently at the Navy base's sprawling prison complex. He has never been charged with a crime and at one point won an unlawful-detention suit that was subsequently overturned on appeal and returned to federal court for a rehearing that has not been held.
"The Periodic Review Board, by consensus, determined that continued law of war detention of the detainee is no longer necessary to protect against a continuing significant threat to the security of the United States," said the decision dated July 14. It was released Wednesday afternoon, after his lawyers disclosed the favorable finding first.
It said, besides his good behavior in custody, the board considered Slahi's strong family ties and "extensive support network." It also mentioned the Mauritanian's "candid responses" to board questions, "to include recognition of his past activities, clear indications of a change in the detainee's mindset."
For his June 2 hearing, he had a letter of support from a former guard who spent 10 months at Guantanamo, sometime before April 2010, including "hours and hours, face to face" with Slahi, "getting to know each other." The guard, whose name is shielded in the letter, said he told Slahi about the birth of his daughter and the captive expressed "compassion and empathy."
"Based on my interactions with Mr. Slahi while in Guantanamo, I would be pleased to welcome him into my home," the guard said. "Based on my interactions, I do not have safety concerns if I were to do so. I would like the opportunity to eventually see him again."
Slahi's decision means that 31 of the 76 captives at Guantanamo are cleared for release.
The board said separately that a one-time war crimes trial candidate, Abdul Zahir of Afghanistan, was also deemed safe to go with security assurances that satisfy Secretary of Defense Ash Carter. It said an earlier U.S. intelligence assessment of the 44-year-old Afghan detainee with two wives "probably misidentified" him as "the individual who had ties to al-Qaida weapons facilitation."
Slahi's February 2016 U.S. intelligence threat assessment said he went to Afghanistan in 1991 and 1992, joined al-Qaida and trained to "fight against the Afghan communist regime." It described him, before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, as living mostly in Germany and recruiting for the Bosnian and Chechen jihads.
It also said he helped accused 9/11 plot deputy Ramzi bin al Shibh and two of the plot hijackers travel to Chechnya via Afghanistan in 1999.
"Throughout his detention," it said, Slahi "has maintained his support for jihad, but clarifies that his notion of jihad neither condones the killing of innocent people nor supports (Osama) bin Laden's version of justice."
The profile predicted that, if he were repatriated to Mauritania, Slahi would "probably would reunite with his family, take care of his sisters, and start a business." If allowed to leave his homeland, "he probably would travel internationally to promote his book 'Guantanamo Diary,' which was released in January 2015," the U.S. intelligence estimate said.
The book describes both warm and terrifying encounters with U.S. troops and interrogators.
It is based on 466 pages handwritten of prison-camp memoirs that Slahi wrote in 2005 for his lawyers to prepare his case in court. Prison staff originally marked the pages "Top Secret," and his lawyers only had access to them in a classified setting. Through the years, however, U.S. censors declassified a large portion of the material.
"We're delighted for Mohamedou and his family, but the new chapter in his life won't start until the Pentagon actually transfers him, and it should begin that process immediately," said Hina Shamsi, one of Slahi's attorneys and director of the ACLU's National Security Project.
Hollander said by email Wednesday afternoon that her Slahi case colleague, Theresa Duncan, was at Guantanamo informing the captive of the news.
