| No Images? Click here   Last week, Jessica Schulberg wrote about a man who was set to leave the prison at Guantanamo Bay, but is now trapped there for years to come. We asked her about the piece.How did this story come about?In January, I wrote a story about a group of Guantanamo detainees who were arguing in federal court that President Trump — unlike his predecessors — had explicitly embraced a policy of indefinite detention at Guantanamo. They basically used Trump's past statements against him to make the case that their imprisonment was unlawful. Their lawyers also pointed out that the Trump administration was making no effort to transfer out prisoners who had already been cleared for release. That got me thinking broadly about the five men at Guantanamo who were cleared for release years ago but are still stuck in the prison indefinitely. It was just such an awful situation, even by Guantanamo standards: Imagine being imprisoned for 16 years, never being charged with a crime, being told you have to jump through all these bureaucratic hoops in order to prove that you aren't a threat, actually succeeding in doing all that, only to find out it was all for nothing because the wrong guy won the U.S. presidential election. I did some reporting on all five of the cleared men but chose to focus on Abdul Latif because I was able to meet with his family in Morocco and learn more about him as a person and the life waiting for him back home. What was the hardest thing about reporting, writing or editing the piece? The hardest reporting part was getting all the information I wanted from Abdul Latif's family members in a very short period of time. I spent about nine hours with his relatives at their home in Casablanca over a two-day period. They were incredibly accommodating but I could tell it was an emotionally exhausting process for everyone. In terms of writing, I wanted the reader to grasp just how close Abdul Latif came to going home — and how all these ridiculous bureaucratic obstacles that were totally out of his control piled up at the last minute and may result in him being trapped in Guantanamo for an additional four to eight years. What did you find that was most surprising? This sounds cliche, but I was really overwhelmed by Abdul Latif's ability to express hope and kindness in the face of such crushing disappointment. He reads books about how to be a good dad and writes these really sweet, appreciative notes to his lawyer. I don't know how someone in his position doesn't just give up. The detentions at Guantanamo have been in the news for more than a decade now. How do you get readers to still care? It's really hard. But the fact that they've been in the news for so long is all the more reason people should care! I tried to show readers that Abdul Latif is a human being who has a family and dreams for his future. I wanted readers to feel the excitement he felt when he thought he was going home — and the devastation he felt when he realized it had all fallen apart. What do you want readers to take away from this piece? Regardless of whether you buy the government's narrative that Abdul Latif was affiliated with terrorists, he's been held for 16 years and never been charged with a crime. Six different government agencies who have access to classified information about his case recommended sending him home. His own government agreed to take him home. The fact that Abdul Latif is still in Guantanamo is a result of the Moroccan government moving too slow, the Obama administration being too feckless, and the Trump administration being senselessly cruel. Love, |
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