|
Enemy Combatant: My Imprisonment at Guantanamo, Bagram, and Kandahar | 
| Authors: Moazzam Begg, Victoria Brittain
Publisher: New Press
Category: Book
List Price: $26.95
Buy New: $21.56
You Save: $5.39 (20%)
New (21) Used (20) Collectible (1) from $2.75
Rating:  18 reviews
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 352
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.8
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.3
ISBN: 1595581367
Dewey Decimal Number: 958.1047092
EAN: 9781595581365
ASIN: 1595581367
Publication Date: September 11, 2006
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
| |
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
The searing story of one man's years inside the notorious American prison—and his Kafkaesque struggle to clear his name.
"Under the hood I felt I couldn't breathe properly….Flashing lights—obviously from soldiers' cameras taking trophy pictures—came and went in front of me, despite the hood's darkness. From beside me a voice said in Arabic, 'Shall we pray, brother?' A guard came and screamed in my ear, 'Shut up, motherfucker, if you speak again I'll kill you.'"—from Enemy Combatant
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has become a worldwide symbol of the dark side of America's War on Terror. Here, for the first time, is a powerful and moving story from the other side, the first detainee's account of life inside the notorious prison. A highly educated British Muslim, Moazzam Begg spent three years in U.S. custody, nearly two of them in Guantanamo, before being released without charge in January of 2005.
Enemy Combatant, written with respected UK journalist Victoria Brittain, is the wrenching narrative of Begg's detention, including his eighteen months in solitary confinement. Secretly abducted at midnight from his home in Afghanistan, held incommunicado in Kandahar and Bagram Air Force base, Begg was eventually flown to Guantanamo, where, like more than 800 Muslim men and boys—550 of whom remain in custody—he was held in shackles and the now-trademark orange prison uniform, subjected to relentless interrogations and abusive and degrading conditions.
A riveting, personal story by a thoughtful and eloquent man, Enemy Combatant is a uniquely personal indictment of America's establishment of a global gulag that flouts the Geneva conventions—one of the great miscarriages of justice in our time.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 13 more reviews...
Eloquent... maybe dangerously eloquent? June 26, 2008
ensiform (Dallas, TX USA)
The author, either a pious bookseller and humanitarian or a supporter of al-Qaida, depending on who you ask, was abducted from his house in Islamabad and spent three years in the titular prisons. Begg is, by other accounts, a reasonable and charming man, and was a model prisoner who got along with several of his guards. His personality shows through in his prose, which is readable, clear, and impassioned without veering into needless vitriol (though he does not bother to hide his disdain for American culture and political ignorance). There are two ways to read the book: the unrepentant apologia of a liar who got caught funding terrorism, or the clarion call of an innocent man nearly destroyed by an unjust and unthinking system. Personally, I think there's a bit of truth to both. Begg leaves out an earlier arrest in his memoir, and even at times condemns himself from his own mouth. It isn't just a post 9/11 America that suspected him; he was investigated by MI5 as early as 1998. He also defends the Taliban, claims that he was allowed to build a girls' school under them, hints that 9/11 was known ahead of time by US authorities who let it happen, and thinks that Afghanistan was attacked because it was a "purist Islamic state" (which is ludicrous). But at the same time, the outrage of this book is that even if Begg was as bad as Bush and company said, he should have gotten a trial. The charges against him should have been made public and plain. He and all the others should have been treated with a modicum of humanity (which is not the same as respect or complacency). And certainly, US and British intelligence should have conducted interrogations with intelligence and coordination, not the repetitive, unhelpful sessions by any number of alphabet agencies vying with each other instead of sharing information. At the very least, Begg's memoir shows that the aftermath of the War on Terror is as badly handled in the prisons as it is in the White House.
over 3 years in prison June 4, 2008
jibli
leaving aside his guilt or innocence and the question of whether his treatment was fair or inhuman......what you won't find here is a political rant, mystical "epiphanies",philosophical speculation or reflections on Islam (except for talk among prisoners as to whether their religion permits attacks such as that of 9/11).instead we are given a calm, clear-eyed, step-by-step account of his time spent in custody. there are descriptions of the various guards, interrogators, and their rules and, finally, when he is released from solitary confinement, his fellow "detainees". he relishes reading so it is surprising that his poetry is the worst doggerel i've ever read. however the prose is clear and precise and he even includes the times when he lost his composure.
 A cakewalk compared to the experiences of American POWs October 16, 2007
Michael P. Cronin
3 out of 8 found this review helpful
I am only half way through this book, but I can't resit writing a preliminary review after seeing the other reviews offered here.
This book is not well written. It is endlessly repetitive and the timeline of events is often vague or ambiguous. You have to wade through dozens of reconstructions of Begg's conversations with guards, most of which attempt to show how easy it was to be one up on the American servicemen that he regarded as his social inferiors. He comes across as a self promoting prig and a pansy. This seems to be the pattern for the leading jihadis, they come from relatively privileged backgrounds. They are disaffected young men from comfortable backgrounds using terrorism as a way to work out their own internal conflicts. In Begg's case he has clearly been influenced greatly by the feeling that he was never fully accepted in the UK.
I was a POW in Hanoi for six years. I can understand Begg's emotional response to his imprisonment. He has gone through the same emotional roller coaster that afflicts all prisoners, but that experience is universal and not the fault of the US or anyone else.
I do believe that the Administration erred seriously in not giving all these detainees POW status. One result of doing so would be that there would be no discussion of habeus corpus or detention without trial or guilt. POWs are guilty of nothing but are detained until exchanged by agreement with the enemy or the conclusion of hostilities. They have no right to expect anything else. Almost all of the mistreatment that has befallen the detainees has been generated by confusion at all levels as to what the standards of treatment should have been. The confusion came from the top and worked down through all levels. The bad decisions were urged upon the Administration by a bunch of attorneys who, to be blunt, had no idea what they were talking about. They were way out of their league. Their prime motivation was merely to provide legal rationale for what the Administration was determined to do anyway. Advice from senior experienced military leaders was disregarded by civilian leaders. This is especially galling as many of those civilians evaded service during Vietnam while the senior military leaders all earned their hard won experience in Vietnam.
The US fell into the same trap the Vietnamese did by denying a hated enemy the protection of the Geneva conventions. But there are important differences. Those detained by the US got enough to eat. To bad that Begg didn't care for the food- he got enough to eat. Reports are that most Gitmo detainees have put on a lot of weight. We who were POWs in Vietnam did not have that problem. The diet was semi starvation until the last months of the war. No, it wasn't because the guards didn't have anything better. They were well fed.
Begg wrote and received mail. I didn't write or receive mail for almost four years, and then it was only a small six line form several times a year. The Vietnamese did not list me and most others as captured until late in the war. Like most, I was "missing presumed captured" and my family had no idea if I was alive or dead.
Begg had paper to write with and books to read. We had none of that until the last month of the war. Six years with no way to make any use of your time except what was inside your head.
Begg did not get as much opportunity to exercise as he wanted. Compare that to never.
Begg was closely monitored and got adequate medical attention. We had none of that. Those injured prior to or during capture were lucky to live. If they lived they were to suffer for years with bones that knit together at crazy angles because they were never set. Wounds often drained and festered for years because the dressings were never changed and antibiotics were never used consistantly. Many died of their wounds. Ask John McCain. He was left to die until the Vietnamese realized he was the son of an Admiral and might be of some use. Even so the treatment given was so clumsy that he still has a gimp arm and other less visible injuries. About 137 Americans that we are pretty sure were captured never returned and no explanation has ever come from Vietnam. They either died of wounds not treated or were tortured to death or were executed. That's a pretty substantial number when you realize that the there were less than 600 American POWs. True, some detainees have died in our custody, and there may be culpability in those cases, but we are talking about a hand full out of thousands of detainees, most of whom were released and never sent to Gitmo.
I haven't come across anything yet in Begg's book that sounds like torture. Torture was universal for us and there wasn't any doubt that it was torture. What happened met every conceivable definition, even the cockeyed one used by the Administration. Some died during torture. I almost did. I am alive only by a lucky accident I don't choose to explain here.
Begg's places of detention were regularly visited by the ICRC. That never happened in Vietnam.
I could go on, but when Begg finds so much time to complain about the fact that some of the guards were unfriendly or even insulting, he doesn't have much to complain about. Imprisonment is not pleasant and military discipline isn't either. Begg did not seem to have any background to prepare him for either- lucky him. Bottom line to me is that his experience was a cake walk except for the fact that he was detained.
Of course, the real issue is whether he should have been detained at all. The answer to that is maybe yes, maybe no. He is certainly not going to admit in his book that he was working with Al Quaida. And guess what- he was released long before the war ended. Maybe he was totally blameless, maybe he was just no longer a threat. His release may have been conditioned on a pledge of good behavior and no further participation in efforts against the US. If he had had POW status, that would be called parole, which has a long history in international law. If a POW and not paroled, he would still be detained and would have no access to any court. Keep in mind that the status of "enemy combatant" is someone who has less protection from the Geneva Conventions than a POW. The reason for that is that the detainee has been captured in the field engaging hostilities without being a part of any recognized armed force. Then consider that a POW will be detained until the end of hostilities without accusation or trial of any kind. If "enemy combatants" have less protection than POWs, how is it that they should have access to our legal system? The Administration's use of the "enemy combatant" status has been an error that helps no one. It has caused a lot of confusion even among legal scholars who should know better. Had they been kept as POWs, they could be kept until the end of hostilities with out trial, accusation or access to any court. If the US had any reason to believe any of them were guilty of crimes against the laws of war, they could still be tried for those acts. POW status does not protect anyone from criminal prosecution.
I'm not happy with the way we've handled our captives in this conflict, but I challenge anyone to name any enemy we have ever faced who has done as well as the imperfect performance we have delivered this time.
 You May Be Next September 8, 2007
Lowell P. Beveridge (Brooklyn, NY USA)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Moazzam Begg has written a memoir about an experience during three years as a "detainee" that reminds one of Franz Kafka's fiction, but he claims that these things really happened and he writes with such clarity, conviction, and telling detail that I, for one, am convinced. Whether or not he was "guilty" is a mute point because although he was accused of many things - some quite fantastic and improbable - and even "confessed" under duress, he was never charged or tried for any crime. After three years of harsh treatment and over three hundred interrogation sessions, he was merely told he was free to go with no apology, thanks or recompense.
Although I consider myself well educated, I know little about the language, culture, history, and religion of Muslims; I have few acquaintances and no friends from that world. In this respect, I believe I am typical of most other native born senior citizen of the United States. I am indebted to Begg for lifting this veil of ignorance for me; he is an excellent ambassador. Interspersed in this narrative about what Hannah Arendt called the "banality of evil" are asides and incidents revealing information and insights valuable to my understanding. If he is an example of Islam in practice, I want to know more about it. In the midst of his ordeal he was able to reach out to many of his guards and interrogators and establish a human bond. I was reminded of Pogo's memorable statement: "we have met the enemy and he is us." If you are old enough to remember that line, you may also remember the bad old days of McCarthyism and anti-communist hysteria and have a sense of deja vu. You might do well to pay close attention to this book as a primmer on how to survive the kind of ordeal that Begg suffered through. In the current political environment of anti-terrorist hysteria, if you give aid, comfort, or support to Begg or people like him you could well be labeled "Enemy Combatent" and suffer the same fate or worse.
 Looks like a lot of people chose to swallow the Blue Pill when reviewing this book. May 30, 2007
Michael Hanson (Lansing, Il United States)
8 out of 18 found this review helpful
Moazzam Begg's story is basically this: despite all the coincidences and all the evidence of Begg's involvement in al-Qaida and jihadist movements in general, he claims of innocence and toruture are to be taken at face value. Oh, sure, he and lilttle Tokyo Rose co-author write a excellent piece of fiction; dramatic, poetic, moving and completely full of horse manure.
Never mind that he joined a jihadi street gang, "The Lynx" as a teen. Forget about the fact that he was arrested in 1994 after a raid and a search of his home found night vision goggles, a bulletproof vest, and extremist Islamic literature, because after all, it was just a "hobby". Forget that he has traveled to every jihadist cause celeb battle field: Chechnya, Bosnia, and Afghanistan, and that he also admits to financially supporting these causes, because after all he "swears" that he never took part in active combat. Forget that during another arrest in 2000 on a raid of the Maktabah Al Ansar bookshop, his computer was loaded with encrypted files, because the judge said he did not have to provide Scotland Yard with the decrypted information. Forget that wire transfer forms to an account of his in Pakistan were found by US and British special forces in an al-Qaida training camp near Jalalabad.
And my favorite: the only reason he went to the Taliban ruled Afghanistan was to .... better have a seat ..... he claims he when to open up a school for girls. A school for girls .... unfreakin' believable.
To take Begg's story at face values requires one to suspend all logic and ignore every piece of evidence that would lead any reasonable person to the conclusion that he is a violent jihadist.
The only way Begg should have left Gitmo is in a coffin not a rose parade from the Muslim Brotherhood.
|
|
|
| |
