SUMMARY: Who was humorist David Sedaris before he had sold millions of books and made countless live appearances before adoring audiences? In a new book, "Theft By Finding," Sedaris offers a portrait of himself as a younger artist through his personal diaries. Jeffrey Brown sits down with the author to discuss his compulsion to observe, write and perform.
SUMMARY: In 2001, Mohamedou Slahi was arrested in Mauritania for suspected connections to a bomb plot. He wound up at Guantanamo, and remains there without ever being charged. After a legal battle over his journal, "Guantanamo Diary" has been published, detailing isolation, beatings, sexual abuse and humiliation. Hari Sreenivasan interviews editor Larry Siems and Slahi's attorney Nancy Hollander.
HARI SREENIVASAN (NewsHour): Some two weeks after 9/11, Mohamedou Slahi, a 30-year-old electrical engineer, was arrested at his home in the North African country of Mauritania. He was questioned by FBI agents and then released.
In November of that year, he was re-arrested for suspected connections in a plot to bomb the United States. What followed was a harrowing journey through the American national security apparatus post-9/11, from Mauritania to Jordan to Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan, finally to the U.S. prison site at Guantanamo Bay. He remains there today, 13 years later, with no charges filed against him.
In 2005, he began a journal, which was confiscated by prison guards and deemed classified. After a seven-year legal battle, a federal judge declassified the material, although some sections remain redacted.
Last week, Little, Brown and Company published “Guantanamo Diary,” in Slahi details those first years of imprisonment, including isolation, beatings, sexual abuse, and humiliation.
Joining me now are Slahi’s lawyer, Nancy Hollander, and the book’s editor, Larry Siems.
I am Retired U.S. Navy (22yrs) and a Vietnam Veteran. After my Navy retirement I was in the computer related industry, now retired. In 2000 I was a registered Republican and voted for George W. Bush. Six months of having Bush in the Whitehouse forced me to re-evaluate my political stance. I had always thought of myself as a Moderate Republican, but was a Republican by "default" NOT because of close examination of the GOP. Due to what has happened in America since 2000, I now consider myself a progressive, and registered as a Non-Affiliated voter.
*Anti-First Amendment policies that attempt to turn America into a theocracy by enshrining ANY religious belief as law.
* Any attempt to suppress human or Constitutional rights.
* Any law or policy that supports discrimination based on religion, ethnicity, race/color, gender, sexual orientation, or any law that does NOT support Equal Treatment under the law.
*Any law or policy that attempts to suppress Freedom of the Press or Free Speech.
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