Mansur Ahmad Saad al-Dayfi

Mansur Ahmad Saad al-Dayfi
Born	1979 (age 45–46)[1][2] Sanaa, Yemen
Released	July 11, 2016 Serbia
Detained at	Guantanamo
ISN	441
Charge(s)	None; extrajudicial detention
Status	Released
Notable work	Don't Forget Us Here

Mansur Ahmad Saad al-Dayfi (born 1979) is a Yemeni who was held without charge in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps in Cuba from February 9, 2002, to July 11, 2016.^[3][4] On July 11, 2016, he and a Tajikistani captive were transferred to Serbia.^[5][6] His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 441.^[7]

According to a US government report, before his capture he "probably was a low-level fighter who was aligned with al-Qa'ida, although it is unclear whether he actually joined that group", and "traveled to Afghanistan in mid-2001, trained at an al-Qa'ida camp, [was] wounded by a coalition airstrike after the 9/11 attacks", and was captured by Afghan forces in late 2001.^[8]

Al-Dayfi came to prominence in 2022 when he alleged that Florida governor Ron DeSantis oversaw beatings and force-feedings of detainees at Guantanamo.^[9][10][11]

Official status reviews

Originally the Bush Presidency asserted that captives apprehended in the "war on terror" were not covered by the Geneva Conventions, and could be held indefinitely, without charge, and without an open and transparent review of the justifications for their detention.^[12] In 2004, the United States Supreme Court ruled, in Rasul v. Bush, that Guantanamo captives were entitled to being informed of the allegations justifying their detention, and were entitled to try to refute them.

Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants

Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held in a 3x5 meter trailer where the captive sat with his hands and feet shackled to a bolt in the floor.^[13][14]

Following the Supreme Court's ruling the Department of Defense set up the Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants.^[12][15]

Scholars at the Brookings Institution, led by Benjamin Wittes, listed the captives still held in Guantanamo in December 2008, according to whether their detention was justified by certain common allegations:^[16]

Formerly secret Joint Task Force Guantanamo assessment

Al-Dayfi's thirteen-page Joint Task Force Guantanamo assessment was drafted on June 9, 2008.^[17][18] It was signed by camp commandant Rear Admiral David M. Thomas Jr., who recommended continued detention.

Transfer to Serbia

Al-Dayfi was transferred to Serbia, which al-Dayfi describes as "Guantanamo 2.0".^[19] He was transferred together with an individual from Tajikistan named "Muhammadi Davlatov".^[5]

PBS Frontline profile

On February 21, 2017, al-Dayfi was profiled in an episode of the PBS network's Frontline series.^[20][21] His habeas attorney, Beth Jacob, described how al-Dayfi was offered either Serbia or continued detention.

Jacob said that neither Serbia nor the US had provided him with any language training, or other support to help him adapt to civilian life, or adjust to living in a foreign culture, or help him find employment, and that he had started a hunger strike in consequence.^[20]

Al-Dayfi learned English in Guantanamo.^[20]

When Frontline visited al-Dayfi, his weight had dropped 18 pounds in 21 days.^[20] In Guantanamo, he had been continuously force-fed for over two years.

Frontline producers were intercepted by security officials.^[20]

During the course of their research al-Dayfi disappeared.^[20] Serbian security officials interfered with their access to him.

Art from Guantanamo

On September 15, 2017, the New York Times published an account al-Dayfi had written of how desperate the Guantanamo captives were to see the sea, and how an approaching hurricane, in 2014, finally gave them a view.^[22] The fences surrounding the camp had opaque screens hung from them. The screens were removed when the hurricane approached, to prevent the fences being blown away.

In 2021 he published Don't Forget Us Here: Lost and Found at Guantanamo, a memoir written in collaboration with Antonio Aiello and based on manuscripts he wrote while detained.^[23][24]

Open letter to President Biden

On January 29, 2021 the New York Review of Books published an open letter from al-Dayfi and six other individuals who were formerly held in Guantanamo to newly inaugurated US president Joe Biden, appealing to him to close the detention camp.^[25]

Allegations regarding Ron DeSantis

In a November 2022 interview, al-Dayfi stated that current Florida governor Ron DeSantis, during his time as a JAG lawyer at Guantanamo Bay detention camp, oversaw beatings and force-feedings of detainees.^{[9][10][11][26][27]}

References

1. "JTF- GTMO Detainee Assessment" (PDF). nyt.com. Retrieved May 19, 2024.
2. "JTF- GTMO Detainee Assessment" (PDF). prs.mil. Retrieved May 19, 2024.
3. ""One of the Worst Places on Earth": Mansoor Adayfi on the 20th Anniversary of Guantánamo Bay Prison". March 24, 2022.
4. Hubbard, Ben (August 17, 2021). "He Spent 14 Years at Guantánamo. This Is His Story". The New York Times.
5. "Guantanamo Bay: US transfers two detainees to Serbia, Pentagon says". Australian Broadcasting Network. July 11, 2016. Retrieved July 11, 2016. US defence, homeland security and other officials determined late last year that continued imprisonment of al-Dayfi "does not remain necessary to protect against a continuing significant threat to the security of the United States".
6. Margot Williams (November 3, 2008). "Guantanamo Docket: Abdul Rahman Ahmed". The New York Times. Retrieved December 24, 2016.
7. OARDEC. "List of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from January 2002 through May 15, 2006" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved May 15, 2006. Works related to List of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from January 2002 through May 15, 2006 at Wikisource
8. Guantanamo Detainee Profile: YM-441 (Mansur Ahmad Saad al-Dayufi)
9. "See No Evil: The business of books and the merger that wasn't". Harper's Magazine. Vol. March 2023. February 17, 2023. ISSN 0017-789X. Retrieved March 8, 2023.
10. Wilner, Michael (March 7, 2023). "'Very Intimate Knowledge': What Ron DeSantis saw while serving at Guantanamo". Miami Herald.
11. Hall, Richard (March 17, 2023). "Former Guantanamo prisoner: Ron DeSantis watched me being tortured". The Independent. Retrieved March 17, 2023. The United Nations has characterised the force-feeding of hunger strikers at Guantanamo Bay as torture. The US government has denied that the practice amounts to torture, and it has been used against prisoners over successive administrations during hunger strikes.
12. "U.S. military reviews 'enemy combatant' use". USA Today. October 11, 2007. Archived from the original on October 23, 2007. Critics called it an overdue acknowledgment that the so-called Combatant Status Review Tribunals are unfairly geared toward labeling detainees the enemy, even when they pose little danger. Simply redoing the tribunals won't fix the problem, they said, because the system still allows coerced evidence and denies detainees legal representation.
13. Neil A. Lewis (November 11, 2004). "Guantánamo Prisoners Getting Their Day, but Hardly in Court". The New York Times. Archived from the original on September 26, 2015. Retrieved July 11, 2016.
14. Mark Huband (December 11, 2004). "Inside the Guantánamo Bay hearings: Barbarian "Justice" dispensed by KGB-style "military tribunals"". Financial Times. Archived from the original on March 9, 2016. Retrieved July 11, 2016.
15. "Q&A: What next for Guantanamo prisoners?". BBC News. January 21, 2002. Archived from the original on November 23, 2008. Retrieved July 11, 2016.
16. Benjamin Wittes, Zaathira Wyne (December 16, 2008). "The Current Detainee Population of Guantánamo: An Empirical Study" (PDF). The Brookings Institution. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 1, 2013. Retrieved July 11, 2016.
17. "Abd Al Rahman Ahmed Said Abdihi". The Telegraph (UK). April 27, 2011. Retrieved July 11, 2016.
18. "WikiLeaks: The Guantánamo files database". The Telegraph (UK). April 27, 2011. Archived from the original on June 26, 2015. Retrieved July 10, 2012.
19. Meet Mansoor Adayfi: I Was Kidnapped as a Teen, Sold to the CIA & Jailed at Guantánamo for 14 Years. YouTube. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021.
20. "Out of Gitmo". Frontline (PBS). February 21, 2017. Archived from the original on February 22, 2017. Retrieved February 21, 2017.
21. Arun Rath (February 21, 2017). "'Out Of Gitmo': Released Guantanamo Detainee Struggles In His New Home". National Public Radio. Archived from the original on February 22, 2017. Retrieved February 21, 2017. I traveled to Serbia and met Mansoor al-Dayfi, who had been sent to Guantanamo Bay soon after the war-on-terrorism detention facility was opened in early 2002.
22. Mansoor Adayfi (September 15, 2017). "In Our Prison on the Sea". The New York Times. p. SR5. Retrieved September 17, 2017.
23. Currier, Cora (August 17, 2021). ""They Believed Anything but the Truth" — 14 Years in Guantánamo". The Intercept. Retrieved June 23, 2022.
24. Hubbard, Ben (August 17, 2021). "He Spent 14 Years at Guantánamo. This Is His Story". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 23, 2022.
25. Mansoor Adayfi; Moazzam Begg; Lakhdar Boumediane; Sami Al Hajj; Ahmed Errachidi; Mohammed Ould Slahi; Mosa Zi Zemmori (January 29, 2021). "An Open Letter to President Biden About Guantánamo". New York Review of Books. Archived from the original on January 30, 2021. Retrieved January 30, 2021. At your inauguration, you told the world: "We will be judged, you and I, by how we resolve these cascading crises of our era. We will rise to the occasion." It is therefore our suggestion that the following steps are taken to close Guantánamo
26. Wilner, Michael (March 7, 2023). "What's known about Ron DeSantis' time in the Navy at Guantanamo Bay". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved April 30, 2023.
27. Stanton, Andrew (March 7, 2023). "Ron DeSantis' Superior Speaks Out Amid Guantanamo Torture Accusations". Newsweek. Retrieved April 30, 2023.

External links

• Who Are the Remaining Prisoners in Guantánamo? Part Two: Captured in Afghanistan (2001) Andy Worthington, September 17, 2010