{"id":8422,"date":"2017-01-09T20:20:45","date_gmt":"2017-01-10T01:20:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reprieve.org\/?p=8422"},"modified":"2018-01-11T10:32:07","modified_gmt":"2018-01-11T15:32:07","slug":"197-reporting-dark-hole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reprieve.org\/us\/2017\/01\/09\/197-reporting-dark-hole\/","title":{"rendered":"197 reporting from a dark hole"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1\/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][image_with_animation image_url=”8440″ alignment=”center” animation=”Fade In” border_radius=”none” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”125%”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1\/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]The following is a letter from\u00a0Younous Chekkouri<\/a>\u00a0to Reprieve paralegal Cortney Busch.<\/em><\/p>\n

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\nDear Cortney,<\/em><\/p>\n

You asked me to tell you about myself. This is my story.<\/em><\/p>\n

Hi! I\u2019m not an alien. My name is 197. I\u2019m serious. I have a name but sometimes I almost forget it. No one here calls me by my name, because my world is Guantanamo.<\/em><\/p>\n

I guess my tragedy starts from that first day when I was kidnapped by bounty hunters. I was so scared. I thought I had only a slim chance of s<\/em>
\nurviving. But you know me, I also thought maybe this is just a bad dream, like you see in Hollywood movies. Movies don\u2019t last long \u2013 I thought it would all be over in a couple of days or months, or maybe even years, but a decade \u2013 no way!<\/em>
\nWhen they handed me over to the American soldiers at the airbase I thought they looked like ninjas and I was frightened. They dragged me around like a sack of potatoes. Then they shipped me off in a cargo plane like a parcel.<\/em><\/p>\n

I had been working for a charity in Afghanistan. When war broke out I fled to Pakistan. I lost my wife and my brother as well. The funny thing is I was returned to Afghanistan by US airplanes. On the cargo plane I found they had stuck a number on my chest. It felt mad then but now I\u2019ve got used to numbers. In Kandahar [at the US military airbase] I was Mr 189, if I remember rightly. I can\u2019t describe my days in that camp without crying. It hurts so much to live and have memories that you want to bury forever.<\/em><\/p>\n

I suppose that in an odd way it was good news to discover that I wasn\u2019t alone. I realised that I was witnessing a big story, an insane one. When they put me on a plane a guard said to me, \u201cYou\u2019re going to hell\u201d. When we got to Gitmo, it turned out that he had not been joking.<\/em><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t even care if I\u2019m killed. But it\u2019s the way we get treated here that scares me. Before this I had only ever seen men behaving like this in the movies. I used to watch movies about World War I and II and the Vietnam war. I would see American POWs in the hands of the guerrillas and I always sided with those prisoners. I cried for them and when at the end of the movie I got to see them go home and be with their loved ones again, I was happy. I hope that there is a happy ending to my movie too.<\/em><\/p>\n

This is 197 reporting from a dark hole.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

About Younous<\/h2>\n

Younous was doing charity work in Afghanistan when he was rounded up with other Arabs and taken to a prison in Kandahar.\u00a0<\/em>He was sold to US forces for a bounty and then taken to Guantanamo Bay. He was\u00a0held without charge for 14 years before finally being released to his native Morocco in September 2015.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n

[vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1\/3″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][\/vc_column][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1\/3″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][nectar_btn size=”jumbo” button_style=”regular” button_color_2=”Accent-Color” icon_family=”none” url=”https:\/\/reprieve.org\/us\/2018\/01\/10\/2018-end-guantanamo\/” text=”Back to “2018: The end of Guant\u00e1namo“”][\/vc_column][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1\/3″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi! I\u2019m not an alien. My name is 197. I\u2019m serious. I have a name but sometimes I almost forget it. 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