01/11/22 01/11/22 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> no one should be -- stripped of freedoms of right based on suspicion of his background.

one of the biggest human rights violations of the 21st century. amy: 20 years ago today, the u.s. militarbegan imprisoning muslim men at guantanamo bay in cuba. over the past two decades, the u.s. has held nearly 800 men at the secretive prison. most were never charged with a crime. many were tortured. held in isolation. shackled. hooded. kicked. threatened with dogs. today, 39 prisoners remain. the u.s. now spends more than $13 million a year for each prisoner at guantánamo. we will spend the hour with three men who spent time at guantanamo -- two were held without charge as prisoners, one served as a muslim army chaplain and then was jailed himself after being falsely accused of espionage. >> on this january 11, 2022, let's all agree it is time to

shut this place down once and for all. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the number of people hospitalized with covid-19 in the united states has soared to the highest level of the pandemic with over 142,000 patients, surpassing even last winter's people stop the grim milestone came as the u.s. reported over 1.4 million new infections monday, the highest daily case count have any nation so far. nearly 1700 u.s. deaths were recorded monday. the crisis has pushed states to mobilize national guard teams as hospitals delay or cancel elective surgeries. and in some cases, impose crisis standards of care. this is new york city emergency room physician. >> the majority of patients

getting admitted are high risk patients who are not vaccinated or who are elderly, comorbidity like cancer, heart failure, underline respiratory issues, or diabetes. while the disease is milder, it is also much more transmissible. amy: on monday, the biden administration said u.s. insurers must reimburse the cost of up to eight at home coronavirus test kits per family member per month beginning on saturday. in chicago, schools are back in session today despite soaring rates of community spread. chicago teachers union agreed to return their classrooms after winning an agreement on enhanced covid-19 testing in schools. in climate news, a new study finds ocean temperatures rose to a new record high last year as atmospheric carbon dioxide levels soared to a new high. this comes as danish researchers

reported greenland's ice sheet lost more mass in 2021 than it gained for the 25th year in a row. meanwhile, the insurance reinvestment firm munich re reports 2021 was the second-most costly year on record, with insured losses from natural disasters totaling around $120 billion. the united nations has launched a nearly $5 billion aid appeal for international donors to afghanistan. u.n. humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator martin griffiths said without immediate assistance, a full-blown humanitarian catastrophe looms in afghanistan. >> a million children potentially suffering severe acute malnutrition. a million children. the figures are so hard to grasp when they are this kind of size, but million children in afghanistan are at risk of that kind of malnutrition if these

things don't happen. amy: in washington, d.c., the congressional progressive caucus is demanding the biden administration lift economic sanctions imposed after the taliban overran afghanistan in august. the caucus tweeted that if the current u.s. economic policy toward afghanistan continues, "there could be more civilian deaths this year than there were in 20 years of war." delegations from the united states and russia emerged from negotiations in geneva monday with no sign the two sides had narrowed their differences over military tensions in ukraine. this is russia's foreign minister, sergei ryabkov. >> underscore that for us it is absolutely mandatory to make sure that ukraine never, never ev becomes a of nato. amy: the biden administration

says some 100,000 russian troops have massed near ukraine's border. deputy secretary of state wendy sherman warn russia monday that if it invades ukraine it would face "significant costs and consequences, well beyond what they faced in 2014" -- when russia invaded and annexed the crimean peninsula. south korea and japan say they detected a north korean ballistic missile launch on tuesday, the north's second suspected test in a week. south korea's military said the missile achieved a speed more than 10 times the speed of sound before crashing in the ocean between the korean peninsula and japan. let the when you has paid $113,000 to abu zubaydah who survived cia torture before his detention in the guantanamo bay prison where he has been indefinitely held since 2000 six without charge. in 20, the european of human rights ruled that the when you and romania violated his rights

by allowing the u.s. central intelligence agency to torture him in secret prisons. the work found the country's violated article 3 of the geneva convention which requires the humane treatment of prisoners of war. 20 years ago today, u.s. military began imprisoning muslim and guantanamo bay in cuba. after the headlines, we will spend the rest of the hour with three men who spent time at guantanamo -- two muslim prisoners and a muslim chaplain who himself ended up being imprisoned. authorities in the dominican republic have detained a key suspect in the july assassination of haitian president jovenel moïse. the associated press reports rodolphe jaar was arrested friday with the assistance of the u.s. government and is being handled as a u.s. prisoner. jaar, who was born in haiti, have been hiding in haiti and was taken into custody as he was attentive to cross into the

dominican republic. he was previously convicted of drug trafficking and is a former informant for the drug enforcement administration. this comes as new evidence has linked haitian prime minister ariel henry with a prime suspect in the moïse murder. henry and joseph felix badio reportedly spoke both before and after moïse's killing. badio is a former haitian justice ministry official wanted on suspicion of organizing the attack against moïse. henry claimed power following moïse's death. he was appointed by moïse shortly before he was assassinated. meanwhile, the institute for justice and democracy in haiti reports three more u.s. deportation flights left laredo, texas, monday morning, expelling 297 haitian asylum seekers, including 63 children. el salvador's supreme court has reopened a criminal investigation into the 1989 massacre of six jesuit priests carried out by a u.s.-trained death squad during the salvadoran civil war.

their housekeeper and her daughter were also killed. five of the priests were from spain and one was salvadoran. there have been ongoing attets to prosecute all of those involved in the massacre since a 1993 amnesty law was declared unconstitutional in 2016. a spanish court in 2020 sentenced former salvadoran colonel inocente orlando montano to 133 years for the killings of the spanish priests. he's the only person linked to the massacre currently behind bars. president biden and vice president harris are in georgia today, pressing lawmakers to pass major voting rights legislation. biden and harris are touring atlanta's historic ebenezer baptist church and are paying respects at the crypts of the reverend martin luther king, jr. and his wife coretta. ahead of the visit, the white house signaled biden is supporting a special carve-out of the senate filibuster that would allow a simple majority of senators pass two major voting rights bills that have stalled

amid unanimous republican opposition. a number of voting rights organizations in georgia will not be attending today's speeches by biden and harris. cliff albright told reporters, "we don't need even more photo ops. we need action and that action is in the form of the john lewis voting rights advancement act, as well as the freedom to vote act, and we need that and immediately." a person who will be absent also is the gubernatorial hopeful stacey abrams, the most famous of the voting rights activists in georgia. in north carolina, a group of voters is challenging the reelection bid of republican congressmember madison cawthorn, saying his support for rioters who overran the capitol on january 6 disqualifies him from office. cawthorn voted against certifying joe biden's presidential victory and spoke at the so-called "stop the steal" rally outside the white

house last january 6. the 14th amendment, passed after the civil war in 1868, bars people from serving in congress if they've engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the united states or have provided aid or comfort to insurrectionists. the fox news channel has promoted the far-right tv personality jesse watters to a nightly prime-time show. watters first drew national attention in 2016 with a prime-time segment about new york city's chinatown full of racist anti-asian stereotypes. watters came under fire in december after he used violent rhetoric to call on conservative activists to confront top infectious disease expert dr. anthony fauci with conspiracy theories about the origin of the coronavirus pandemic. >> now you go in for the kill shot. the kill shot, with an ambush, deadly, because he does not see it coming. boom!

he is dead! he's done. amy: after those remarks, dr. fauci called on fox news to fire watters on the spot. instead, fox news announced monday watters will host his own show weeknights at 7:00 p.m. here in new york, the death toll in sunday's high-rise apartment fire in the bronx has revised downward to 17. investigators say the fire began when an electric space heater malfunctioned. victims suffered from severe smoke inhalation after an open door allowed smoke to spread throughout the 19-story building. city records show tenants of the twin parks tower had complained about a lack of heat in the building and doors that didn't close automatically as required by law. the building did not have fire escapes or sprinklers, and many people became trapped upper floors where self-closing doors were supposed to have blocked toxic smoke and flames from spreading. in knoxville, tennessee, authorities have confirmed the

fire that destroyed a local planned parenthood clinic last week was arson. the clinic was closed for renovations at the time. the fire on new year's eve is just the latest attack against the clinic in the past year, as reproductive justice advocates warn anti-abortion violence is on the rise. just last january, a person fired a shotgun at the clinic's doors, shattering the glass and peppering the reception area with bullet holes. the gunman has yet to be identified. in medical news, doctors have for the first time successfully transplanted a heart from a genetically-modified pig into a human recipient. david bennett, sr. of maryland is responding well after an eight-hour operation on monday. he received a heart from a pig whose genetic makeup was altered to make the organ less likely to be rejected by a human host. dr. bartley griffith led the surgical team.

>> we have given him a better option than continuing his therapy would have been. whether it is a day, week, month, year, i don't know. amy: animal rights groups condemned the procedure, known as xenotransplantation, as unethical and dangerous. people for the ethical treatment of animals said -- "animals aren't toolsheds to be raided but complex, intelligent human beings. it would be better for them and healthier for humans to leave them alone and seek cures using modern science." an investigation by "the washington post" found more than 1700 united states congress members enslaved people -- or were former slave owner, many of whom served in washington long after the civil war ended. "the post" researched thousands of historical documents and census records to compile what is the first-ever database listing enslavers who served in congress. and in california, mourners gathered monday for the funeral of valentina orellana peralta, a 14-year-old girl fatally shot by

a los angeles police officer in december while she tried on dresses inside a department store dressing room. the reverend al sharpton delivered the eulogy, demanding the lapd be held accountable. >> the question is, two days before christmas, would you have gone into a shopping center in beverly hills and started shooting like that? i not consider whether high-end shoppers might be hurt? the fact the value of a life was not considered is disturbing. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman in new york, joined by my co-host juan gonzález in new brunswick, new jersey. hi, juan. juan: hi, amy. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. 20 years ago today, the u.s. began imprisoning muslim men at guantanamo bay in cuba.

over the past 20 years, the u.s. has held 779 men at the secretive pron. most were never charged with a crime. many were tortured. held in isolation. shackled. hooded. kicked. threatened with dogs. when prisoners organized hunger strikes to protest their mistreatment, they were forced fed in a manner described as torture by the united nations. today, 39 prisoners remain. guantanamo opened under the administration of george w. bush. it continued under barack obama, donald trump, and now joe biden. while biden has said he wants to close the prison, his administration is making preparations to stay for years. the pentagon is now building what "the new york times" has described as a new secret courtroom at guantánamo. the biden administration has so far transferred just one prisoner since taking office. on monday, the interagency periodic review board recommended the transfer of a

somali man named guled hassan dura who has been held by the u.s. without charge since 2004 as a so-called high value detainee. he was held first at a cia secret black site and then guantanamo. it remains unclear if he will actually be freed. over a dozen other guantanamo prisoners have been recommended for release but remain locked up. the united states is spending an estimated $540 million to keep guantanamo open. that's over $13 million per prisoner a year. today we spend the hour with three men who themselves spent time at guantánamo. two were held without charge as prisoners, one served as a muslim army chaplain and then was jailed himself after being falsely accused of espionage.

we begin today's show with moazaam begg. he is a british citizen born and raised in birmingham. in february 2002, moazzam begg was seized by the cia in islamabad. no reasons were given for his arrest. he was hooded, shackled, handcuffed, and flown to the u.s. detention facility at kandahar, then to bagram airbase where he was held for approximately a year before being transferred to guantanamo bay. the u.s. government labeled him an enemy combatant. he was never charged with a crime. he was released in 2005. he now works as the director of outreach at cage, which advocates on behalf of victims of the so-called war on terror. moazzam begg, welcome back to democracy now! we first spoke to you in 2006 after you had been released. can you talk about your reflections today on this 20th

anniversary of guantanamo being open? and if you would not mind going back, because i am sure it is painful every time you do, if you can tell us what happened to you there and on the way there when you held in afghanistan? >> thank you, amy. i remember very clearly speaking to first when i came back from guantanamo. my central story is -- before i begin, it is important i say to your report carries a mention of abu zubaydah who was -- still in guantanamo. this is important because the entire torture program, the enhanced interrogation technique program was developed by the psychologists for him. of course, justified by the lawyers who said it is not organ failure or death, it is not torture. that is what open the tortured

doors for all of us that when i was taken into u.s. custody and i was brutalized but in kandahar -- stripped tak, spat upo had my ptograph taken, naked and shivering by the fbi and cia agents, like all the other prisoners were, it was just the beginning. it was the introduction. it was my introduction to not u.s. detention, it was my introduction to the usa. that is important because the majority of prisoners have never been to the usa. the majority of the prisoners had the usa comfort them and show them aside the usa even most people in the u.s. would not even know exists. after kandahar, i was sent to bagram and was held approximately a year. amongst the worst things i saw were prisoner that was a taxi driver. his hands were tied above his

head to the top of a cage and was physically beaten until he was killed. i was subject to sounds of women screaming in the next cell that i was legibly was my wife being tortured while agents -- i emphasize fbi because they are always the ones that kind of get out of being accused of being involved, but the fbi was involved from the get-go. they waved pictures of my children in front of my face while i was being tortured and i heard the sound of a woman screaming. they threatened to send me to syria or egypt did not cooperate. by the time i'm said to guantánamo and spend the next two years in solitary confinement in a windowless cell without any meaningful access to family, to phone calls, visits -- any of the thgs that a normal ordinary decent convicted prisoner gets, we had no access to even though we had not been charged. in that sake, it was 2005,

eventually i was told that i would be going home. there are no charges against me for the last three years of our life had been -- is a return home, i joined an organization cage and have been campaigning against guantanamo since that time. i ve been doing this for 15 years. guantanamo has been open for 20. the legacy of this place, torture, the removal of the presumption of innocence -- all of those things that people take for granted, people say, you could not have been at guantanamo for nothing. there had to be a good reason. i said, the reason for it is exactly what malcolm x said, i am not a part of the usa, i am a victim of the usa like hundreds of thousands. that is the reason why i was held. the majority of the prisoners will say exactly the same thing.

juan: guantánamo was spawned in the aftermath of the invasion of afghanistan. now the united states, 20 years after come has pulled out of afghanistan, ended the war, but guantamo remains. could you talk about the remaining men, the 39 men that are there, essentially i three categories of detainees? could you talk about them, especially what are called "forever prisoners"? >> it is strange. it is important to say this, said brightly afghanistan is over -- is where this began and that were in iraq is over but guantanamo still open. the reason the afghanistan war is over because senior telephone numbers negotiated to withdrawal united states from the political office in kandahar and former guantanamo prisoners are ministers and of the afghan

government. getting back to the three categories, there is about a third of the prisoners that have been cleared for release. some have been cleared for over a decade. what is it mean to be cleared when you have never been charged with a crime to begin with? it is a strange category. they're being cleared by numerous departments, including the defense department stop but also, you then have a category prisoners called forever. too innocent to charge. listen to these terminologies. too innocent to charge but too dangerous to release. what does that even mean? there are people, one who is deemed high-value is now no longer high-value and no longer a forever prisoner. and then you have got those were charged in the military commissions. it has been described by senior jurists around the world as "a

kangaroo court." you have hearsay evidence, have no right to appeal. your military is your judge, jury, and your executioner. the irony of ironies is after 20 years, not a single person, not even those accused of masterminding the 9/11 attacks, have been convicted for any crime. as that as 9/11 may have been, it is not anywhere -- does not come close to the nuremberg trials, prosecuted within one year. so why can't those people get prosecuted? because they were tortured to begin with and torture cannot be committed in u.s. courts and that is why they develop the military commissions legal system which is outside any systems the united states has ever used before.

juan: yet even the military commission system -- what has happened there? for those who have not been following closely the guantanamo situation in terms of trying detainees? >> it is all caught up in pretrial cases. people arguing back and forth whether even the idea can tortured evidence be used, can a person give evidence -- can he be presented? because the rules and regulations are old, something -- nobody really knows. there are prosecutors that have reside. prosecutors that have said we don't even know with the law states on this. when i study -- u.s. military come uniform code of military justice, i did not study this outside the law. really what you have is a black hole, endless pretrial hearings with lawyers coming and going back-and-forth with some people being charged. the irony again is that those

being found guilty under these very low standards of what a crime actually is in the military commissions have gone home, one or to have pled guilty have gone me and had their convictions quashed in their country's of origin. those whare yet to face justice or even be charged remain in this limbo, whether it is in the milita commissions or outside cleared prisoners or forever prisoners. amy: wrote a letter, along with our next guest, another prisoner at guantánamo mansoor adayfi, and other people who were imprisoned at guantánamo to president biden to close guantánamo. i that letter, you talked about "some of us had children who were born in her absence and grew up without fathers.

others experience the pain of learning our close relatives died back home waiting in vain for news of our return, waiting in vain for justice." can you talk about how this affected families? >> yes. just to say that letter was written by a group -- published authors and werote this letter to be published in the new york review of books to biden, offering forim and describing for him and a point plan that would help tclose guantanamo the effects on people's lives is -- one of my closest friends was held in guantanamo 14 years without charge or trial. he came home to see four children, the youngest of whom was 14 years old, child he had met in his life. the others were so young that

they barely remembered him and were now grown adults. i spoke to three young men, he is 19, his father is still in guantanamo that is cleared for release. he had never seen his father in his life. jawad's father had never been charged with a crime. this isn't happening with the deepest darkest country, this is the most to look nation in the world. people will never forget. the residual effects on people's lives is people are growing up in the absence, some children in the absence of their parents, their father, others, like another who was also one of the authors of the letter, his mother died. if you see the film "mauritanian" one of the most heartbreaking plates of the film is when he looks back to his mother and he never sees her again. waited in vain to see him jus

once. those types of heart breaking stories. the cruelty of not even allowing visits or phone calls isust unimaginable. even the worst offenders around the world don't -- amy: we're going to take a break and then we are going to be joined by the muslim chaplain at guantánamo, well, until he himself was imprisoned and charged with espionage. guled hassan dura is with us. --moazzam begg is with us. he was imprisoned in guantánamo for three years before that, afghanistan, director of outreach at cage which advocates on behalf of victims of the so-called war on terror. he was held in extrajudicial detention by the u.s. government from 2002 to 2005, first in . we will also be joined by another former prisoner, mansoor adayfi, who was sent to serbia.

moazzam begg is the author of "enemy combatant: my imprisonment at guantánamo, bagram, and kandahar." today, 20 years ago, the guantánamo prison and cuba was opened by the u.s. military. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "afghano" by al-andalus ensemble. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. as we continue to look at the 20th anniversary of the opening of the u.s. military prison at guantánamo -- get open 20 years ago today -- we are joined now by former army chaplain captain james yee. he was one of the first muslim chaplains commissioned to the prison in 2002 by the u.s. army. but less than a year after serving there, he was accused of espionage by the military and faced charges so severe, that he was threatened with the death

penalty. he was arrested and imprisoned for 76 days in solitary confinement. the military leaked information about the case to the press and the media went on a feeding frenzy. chaplain yee was vilified on the airwaves as a traitor and accused of being a mole inside of the army. then the military's case began to unravel. the charges were eventually reduced, and eight months later, dropped altogether. he received an honorable discharge. chaplain yee wrote about his experiences in a book titled "for god and country: faith and patriotism under fire." james yee has long called for the closure of guantanamo and joins us now from his home in bloomfield, new jersey. james yee, welcome back to democracy now! we covered your case from the beginning. why don't you start off by telling her own story, how you came to the at guantanamo, being

a chaplain for the muslim men who were held there, and then what happened to you? >> first of all, amy, juan, and mansoor and moa i'm happy to join you onz the program. a convertedzam, to muslim in the early 1990's. i was a graduate of west point, serving as a young lieutenant and then after converting to islam, thought i could fill a pretty neat role in becoming a chaplain. at that timethere were no muslim chaplains in the u.s. military. i reentered active duty in early 2001 as a muslim chaplain. immediate post 9/11 aftermath, i was someone who the u.s. army public affairs look to to handle media requests that debt with anything that had to do with muslims who are serving in u.s.

military. especially following the tragic attacks on 9/11 where many of these muslim service members were expensing backlash. so my name was out there not only in u.s. army public affairs, but in the department of defense, the state department. so when we started bombarding afghanistan and opened the prison camp at guantanamo, i was earmarked for that assignment at guantanamo. i would arrive to the prison camp in early november, must exactly at the same time that the now infamous major general jeffrey miller took command of the joint task force. like you said in your intro, i was there for 10 months. i was supposed to have been there six months in voluntary extended another six months, but after 10 months more, i was

secretly arrested. juan: james yee, could you talk about from your perspective what guantanamo represents to the rest of the world and the impact that the treatment of the prisoners there have hadn the muslim world? >> yeah. guantanamo no doubt is the international symbol of torture d prisoner abuse. and it connues today to damage the reputation of the united states. i feel it also damages the relationships that the u.s. has even their closest ally. i don't know of any other nations around the world who are accepting of u.s. continuing to operat this prison camp in guantanamo. but in my view, these are very important issues because this

has been around now for 20 years. we are at the 20th anniversary of this prison camp. one of the things i always like to point out is something the late colin powell stated. he stated he would close guantanamo not today, not tomorrow, but this afternoon. so even someone who was part of the bush administration that opened guantanamo from an insiders perspective, even he w the urgency -- colin powell -- of needing to close this prisonamp immeately. an: could you talk about the issue that has not gottea lot of attention, the question of the youthfulness of some of the detainees?

basicall children. what you know about that? >> yeah. during my time in guantanamo, which was late 2002 through most of 2003, there were actually three young boys from afghanistan who were brought to guantanamo during that time. they were ages 12 to 14 years old. they were termed juvenile enemy combatants. there were already juvenile enemy combatants at guantanamo according to the international standard, which would be under the age of 18. so the policy at guantanamo was that any prisoner who was 15 years old or older were held in general population. there were several. one that i recall very distinctly was omar from canada and he was only 15 at the time.

these three younger prisoners were brought to guantanamo during my time, and they were kept in a separate facility. i used to meet with them on a weekly basis. i set up some basic sessions in courses on islam that i would teach. they had their own translator or interpreter who had anfghani background that spoke their dialect of language. but they also went through things, which i found disturbing. i was not privy to witness how they were interrogated, but there oftentimes when the interrogators came during the time i sessions were taking place and i was pushed aside. and following those sessions with interrogators, i saw these

young boys actually came back very disturbed. they had changed behaviors, they showed signs of anxiety. they would recall things to me and the other guards that were overseeing their detention, things like how interrogators would, and -- would come and promise them nice things like ice, things like that, but then for some reason, their punishment was they would not get that ice cream. you're talking about very youthful kids. when you're treating individuals like this who are taken away from their homes, taken from their families it had to have a devastating effect on their psyche. amy: james yee, your former u.s. army captain. he graated from west point.

does them chaplain at guantánamo. if you could finish your story, what happened? we are talking about a time when, what, 800 muslim men almost were being held and then you had the -- you had arabic interpreters? you had arabic language interrogators? were you chaplain to all of them? and what happened to you? how did you end up getting imprisoned? >> so my role as a chaplain, one, was chaplain to t prisoners who were all being held in guantanamo. the numbers were upwards toward 660 around the time i was there. one of the things also make a point of his during that time during 2003, not one could be connected to any terrost attack, attacks on 9/11.

that was not a reality. anyone who was fiercely suspected of being involved in terrorism were not brought to guantánamo in 2003, they were taken to secret cia black sites. it was not until later, 2006, when those 19 or so prisoners were brought to guantánamo. during the time i was there, it was clear these individuals were not associated with terrorism whatsoever. but other role as a chaplain was to prisoners. in that role, was to ensure free exercise of worship and accommodation of religious practices with the prisoners there. also flding mplaints and concerns prisoners had and thereby providing them with secondary channel of communication the chain of

command for those concerns and complaints i was chaplain to many american muslims who served on the joint task force -- civilian and military. by and large, most of these individuals were translators or interpreters, linguis. we had a pretty vibrant what you might call congregation in which we had friday worship service at the chapel, guantanamo chapel on friday. that even raised suspicion amongst the command at guantanamo. we were all under surveillance. i recall seeing individuals who were associated with the fbi that were kind of monitoring our activities at the chapel. and i knew they were from fbi because many of the translators

work for the intelligence operation and said, yes, these guys are hanging around the chapel are with the fbi. so that raised suspicion. there was this widespread islamophobia or some kind of fearhat wes american muslims who were working for the joint task force wer somehow being seditious. and that is how i got targeted as the chaplain because i was supposedly the ringleader. after i was arrested, it also came to light that two other american muslims who were down in guantanamo -- what a civilian translator and one a u.s. air force translator -- both also arabic linguists, were also arrested the time i was and the

media frenzy you spoke about or you mentioned earlier was that i was the ringleader of some type of inspiring in guantanamo working on behalf of who knows. amy: how long you were held and how you got out? >> i was secretly arrested in september 2003 for 76 days, held in solitary confinement. i also was subjected to this process called sensory deprivation where i had goggles put over my eyes, devices put over my ears that prevented me from hearing or seeing, which instilled fear in me because i had saw how the prisoners at guantanamo were subjected to sensy deprivation. for me, this was any indication i was also in the category of, combatant, where all of my rits could be stripped away as they were stripped away from all

of the prisoners down at guantanamo. because i was a u.s. citizen, they put into what you might call a stateside guantanamo, which was the consolidated naval base where president bush was housing people he categorized as enemy combatants that were either u.s. citizens -- and there were two, josé padilla and yasser hamde --or taken into custody on u.s. soil, like one who was in the united states legally and was put also and it is prison. i was housed alongside these individuals. long story short, all of the charges that were brought against me would eventually fade away. after having no evidence come even try to prosecute me on classified information of which there was no evidence for that. so theharges would be dropped.

i was reinstated as chaplain. at the first opportunity, i resigned my commission. amy: wow. we're going to go to break and then come back to our conversation with james yee, former u.s. army captain who served as the muslim chaplain at guantánamo before the military falsely accused him of spying and imprisoned. all of the charges were dropped and he received an honorable discharge. his book is called "for god and country: faith and patriotism under fire." when we come back, we will speak to mansoor adayfi, former guantánamo prisoner who was held for 14 years without charge before being released in 2016 not to his own country, but to serbia. he would write a letter to the former chaplain james yee. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "tefham" by kabreet. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. as we continue to mark the 20th anniversary of the opening of the u.s. military prison at guantanamo, where there are still 39 men being held at the cost of something like more than $13 million per prisoner per year that the u.s. taxpayers are paying for, we're joined now by mansoor adayfi, or is he reversed himself, detainee 441. at the age of 18, left his home to do research in afghanistan. shortly before he was scheduled to return home, he was kidnapped by warlords and sold at the cia for a bounty after the september 11 attacks. he was jailed and tortured in afghanistan and then transported to the u.s. military prison at guantánamo in 2002 where he was held without charge for 14 years. many of those years in solitary

confinement. in 2016, he was released against his will to serbia, when she compares to guantanamo 2.0. he is now the guantanamo project coordinator at cage. we first spoke to him last year after he published his memoir "don't forget us here." he is joining us now from belgrade. still with us is captain former army chap loan -- chaplain james yee. mansoor wrote a letter to james yee when he was still in prison at guantánamo. welcome back to democracy now! it is good have u back with us now. can you briefly tell your story and what you think is important to raise now 20 years after guantánamo was open, 20 years to this day? >> thank you, amy, again, for

having me. i have today an important message for americans. i wish of george w. bush and his gang was with us, to have a friendly conversation. what is america? from my perspective, and america is not a nuclear arsenal, not a military, economic power. the founding fathers. look at the core. zoom out. we are dealing for 20 years of a war on terror. 20 years of guantanamo. 20 years were anniversary of afghanistan, also 20 years of war in -- in america, [indiscernible]

the core of the problem is, the one created structure and. outside the country, they brought the destruction to the country. we are dealing with the legacy -- what put americans and a deposition is the legacy - anyone who can destroy america is the republicans themselves. it is the way they behave. the way they abandon american morals and values. basically, if you want to destroy democracy, america themselves. you're dealing with the legacy of the last 20 years. if you look at the 20 years what happened there, it is a legacy of republicans. dealing with 20 years of guantanamo. i commend the americans, they

should be banned to practice any political for the next 20 years. 20 years now we are talkg about guantanamo, 20 years of indefinite detention, 20 years of torture, injustice, 20 years of failure and abuse of the american justice system. it is not about the detainees. it is not about the place. it is about us as human beings, as humanity. today i am so sad. we are still talkingbout detention. even the democrats, which they always clean the mess of the republicans, they both played with guantanamo. the republicans use it for political gain and the democrats are afraid to close it because -- and so on.

the decision to close it. i think biden can close it. juan: i wanted to ask you about the 39 prisoners who still remain in guantánamo. but the hundreds like you to were never charged, never convicted of any crime and then were sent not back to their home country, but to a third country that you had no knowledge before. what has life been like for those who are still in essence statelescome at is point? >> living guantanamo was supposed to be an agreement between the u.s. government and 14 countries. i said in an interview in 2017, americans had the budget rates country and they demanded [indiscernible] that is what was supposed to

happen but it never happened. we were sent against our will to countries on from our families, culture, language, everything. when i did my research last year about guantanamo detainees, there was no redirection program. it depends on the hosting country. some of the prisoners are doing well. those countries helped them to integrate into society. but other countries like serbia, people faced difficulties and challenges, some still in limbo. some are dying, losing their lives. some are being deported. some of them actually spend for

the last five years in one of the worst cases after the abuse of guantanamo, finding themselves five years, released just two months ago after they were hospitalized from coronavirus, did not want anyone to die there so they just took him to yemen without any coronation with their families or government or lawyers. and when they released prisoners of yemen, some of them left 24 hours were kidnapped and imprisoned for at least two months. we have been working for those cases for the last months. at least five of them have been kidnapped by the militia. we are trying to free them. we freed i think three so far. communicate with our lawyers, the icrc, communicate --

basicall we left guantanamo 2.0. cannot travel, live in the stigma of guantánamo. juan: i wanted to ask you, one of the things many americans i, well, they were not convicted but they were really terrorists. how many of the more than 700 n who were released, to your knowledge, ended up going into some kind of organization's of terrorism or to seek to attack the united states again, from what you can tell? amy: if you could answer that? mansoor, if you could answer that? >> sorry.

basically, if you go to the report, 86% of the prisoners [indiscernible] interrogatn. george w. bush himself, over 500 prisoners, found out it was a mistake. i'm talking about statements by deficit of american instant -- office of an institute. when they say terrorists, we were asking, why are we here? i s told i was at terrorist because my behavior was in a detention -- i was not uncooperative. stopping the hunger strike torture. amy: we have 10 seconds. looks in my case, [indiscernible]

no basis whatsoever. they tried to market about guantanamo. amy: we have to leave it there but i want to encourage people to watch the hour with mansoor adayfi, imprisoned without charge for 14 years. ■ú