Quotes from Mohamedou Ould Slahi

I'm threatened because of the amount of information I've provided to the United States.

People with hatred have always something to get off their chests, but I wasn't ready to be that drain.

It is the taste of helplessness when you see your beloved fading away like a dream and you cannot help him.

People from cold regions might not understand the extent of the pain when ice cubes get stuck on your body.

So, I'm a big believer in democracy and human rights.

My 70 days of torture began in Camp India. The camps in Gitmo are named by letters. A is for Alpha, B for Beta, C for Charlie and so on. I is for India. It is a torture block.

No matter how bad you make the torture scenes, the reality was much worse. Because you cannot put on screen 70 days and nights with no sleep. And this is the easiest part of the torture.

Everyone who tortured me and kidnapped me, who imprisoned me, I have forgiven everyone. And I wish them, from the bottom of my heart, the best of lives.

I told the people before they tortured me, please, don't torture me. I didn't do anything. They say, we have to torture you very much. Then when they tortured me, I told them everything they want to hear. I signed confession. That said, the ball was in their court. You know, I very much surrender to my lot.

How can I render uninterrupted interrogation that has been lasting the last 7 years? That's like asking Charlie Sheen how many women he dated.

Detainees were not allowed to talk to each other, but we enjoyed looking at each other. The punishment for talking was hanging the detainee by his hands with the feet barely touching the ground.

In a matter of weeks I developed gray hair on the lower half of the sides of my head. In my culture, people refer to this phenomenon as the extreme result of depression.

I first came into the radar of the U.S. intelligence when I received a call from my cousin Mahfouz. It was 1999. He wanted me to help him transfer some money to his sick father. And he called me from the phone of UBL.

I have come to learn that goodness is transnational, transcultural, and trans-ethnic.

In the beginning, the U.S. government was happy with its secret operations, since it thought it had managed to gather all the evils of the world in GTMO, and had circumvented U.S. law and international treaties so that it could perform its revenge. But then it realised, after a lot of painful work, that it had gathered a bunch of non-combatants.

And when 9/11 came, that was open season to violate human rights. And that's how I was kidnapped.

I trusted the American justice system too much, and shared that trust with people from European countries. We all have an idea about how the democratic system works.

I often compared myself with a slave. Slaves were taken forcibly from Africa, and so was I. Slaves were sold a couple of times on their way to their final destination, and so was I. Slaves suddenly were assigned to somebody they didn't choose, and so was I.

My goal was solely to fight against the aggressors, mainly the communists, who forbid my brethren to practice their religion.

The U.S. bet its last penny on violence as the magic solution for every problem, and so the country is losing friends every day and doesn't seem to give a damn about it.

Man, just give me a couple of million dollars and let me go on my own, and I will be just fine.

I don't want to be treated outside the rule of law. And I don't want people from this part of the world, specifically North Africa and the Middle East, to be seen as underhumans, as people who are not deserving of human rights and being subjected to the rule of law, what I call open season. I don't want that anymore.

I would like to believe the majority of Americans want to see justice done, and they are not interested in financing the detention of innocent people.

I feel grateful and indebted to the people who have stood by me.