The Mauritanian (Guantánamo Diary)

Slahi identifies the US Department of Defense (DoD) as the jurisdiction ultimately responsible for the detention and treatment of detainees at Guantanamo.

A euphemism for the different types of torture applied to detainees in connection with the US War on Terror, “Enhanced Interrogation Techniques” occurred at different US military sites around the world—including the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base and the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. These techniques included beatings, sleep deprivation, hooding and blindfolding, sexual assault and humiliation, noise, stress positions, and cold rooms. The author and other detainees at Guantanamo frequently experienced such torture.

A Latin term literally meaning “that you have a body” in Latin, habeas corpus is a method of challenging unlawful, indefinite imprisonment through the US court system. Slahi successfully challenged his detention via Slahi v. Obama.

A term referring to the prejudicial attitude toward practitioners of Islam, Islamophobia is often linked to racism targeting Arabs and South Asians.

Any struggle against sin or the enemies of Islam is jihad. The spiritual form of jihad is the highest, while the physical counterpart is the lowest.

A task force within the US military, Joint Task Force (JTF) Guantanamo has been responsible for the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo in the context of the US War on Terror.

The term “MENA” refers to the region comprising the Middle East and North Africa.

A foiled attempt to bomb the Los Angeles International Airport in 1999, the Millennium Plot was carried out by al-Qaeda member Ahmed Ressam, who crossed the border from Canada. Ressam was convicted for this plan in 2001. Because Ressam and Slahi attended the same mosque in Montreal, Slahi ended up on the radar of Canadian authorities.

Those who fight for Islam are mujahideen. In the 20th century, the term is best known in the context of the Soviet-Afghan War during the 1980s.

Two military ranks in the US Army are Sergeant First Class (SFC) and Staff Sergeant (SSG). The memoir describes how these officers routinely interrogated Guantanamo detainees.

A coping mechanism in extreme situations, such as kidnappings, Stockholm Syndrome refers to a situation in which captive people begin to experience positive feelings toward captors or abusers and defend them. The syndrome is similar to the trauma bond experienced during intimate-partner abuse and violence.