Book Review: Five Years of My Life by Murat Kurnaz

Historians will look back on President Bush's War on Terror and marvel at how quickly the basic principles and values of America were violated and ignored. Many of the legal abuses have been documented by a few fearless journalists, some courageous and dedicated lawyers, and a handful of military officers who were angry and brave enough to blow the whistle on what they had heard and seen. But there are hardly any documents from the inside of the CIA Black Sites or the prison facility at Guantanamo Bay.  This week the book by the Turkish-German national Murat Kurnaz, who spent five years in Guantanamo, was released in the United States.  Five Years of My Life is the American translation of Fünf Jahre meines Lebens which was published in Germany last spring.

Americans were introduced to Murat Kurnaz this week on a 60 Minutes report.  Many were shocked by his story, even though there had been reports of Kurnaz in the US press for several years leading up to his release in August 2006. But hardly anyone cared.  After all, the Bush administration had been telling Americans that the most dangerous terrorists were being held at Guantanamo, so Kurnaz must be one of them.  And even today, reading the right-wing press reports and blog posts about Murat Kurnaz, many Americans dismiss the whole story as a giant fabrication: At best, they say,  it was an honest mistake by the US government. At worst, Kurnaz was an Islamist who deserved what happened to him. So the terrible story told in this book was not an aberration.  It will happen over and over again, and is happening now as you read this.

Five Years of My Life is relatively short book that can be read in one sitting, if the reader can stomach the content.  The American edition is enhanced by a forward by the poet and songwriter Patti Smith, who includes the lyrics of a song she wrote about Murat Kurnaz, as well as an epilogue by Kurnaz's American lawyer Baher Azmy. The story line follows the young man's journey into hell beginning with his ill-fated trip from Bremen to Pakistan shortly after the September 11 attacks, his arrest and transfer to an American prison in Kandahar,Afghanistan, his transfer to Guantanamo and final release and transport back to Germany five years later. Interspersed throughout are snippets of Kurnaz's past: growing up in Bremen, his visits to his extended family in Turkey, and his marriage with a young Turkish woman.

Kurnaz was pulled from a bus in Pakistan by the police - singled out, apparently,  by his relatively light complexion - and then handed over to the US military in exchange for a $3,000 bounty.  The conditions at the Kandahar prison are grim. The detainees are kept outside in freezing temperatures - naked. Kurnaz describes how some succumbed to lack of food and water, others had limbs amputated due to the frostbite. Kurnaz is "interrogated" for hours on end by US military demanding the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden.  Whey they fail to get the "right" answers from Kurnaz, he is subjected to the cruelest forms of torture: electric shock, waterboarding, and being hung for hours by arms bound behind his back.  More than one detainee is tortured to death at Kandahar.

One constant throughout the book is the beating by the American captors. The military guards were terrified of their prisoners, and so used every opportunity to punch, slap and kick Kurnaz and his fellow detainees.  This abuse continues at Guantanamo.  But in Kandahar Kurnaz is also visited by two members of Germany's elite special force - the KSK.  They beat him brutally.

Is it any wonder that Kurnaz began to have a less than favorable opinion of America and Americans?  He writes:

"I thought about the American movies I had seen in Bremen.  Action flicks and war movies.  I used to admire the Americans.  Now I was getting to know their true nature. I say that without anger.  It's simply the truth, as I saw and experienced it. I don't want to insult anyone, and I'm not talking about all  Americans. But the ones I encountered are terrified of pain.  They're afraid of every little scratch, bacteria, and illness.  They're like little girls, I'd say.  If you examine Americans closely, you realize this - no matter how big or powerful they are.  But in movies, they're always the heroes."

Kurnaz describes the situation in Guantanamo in vivid detail: the heat, the isolation, the beatings, the loud rock music blasting at night, the terrible food.  And there are the endless interrogations - also by members of the German secret service.  We now know that the US military had determined shortly after Kurnaz's arrival at Guantanamo in 2002 that he was of no intelligence value, that he had zero ties to Al Qaeda, the Taliban or any terrorist organization.  Yet the beatings and interrogations continued all the way up to his release in August 2006.

Kurnaz describes how the intimidation and torture techniques got worse with the arrival of General Geoffrey Miller at Guantanamo. These included sexual humiliation at the hands (hands, literally) of female interrogators, and desecration of the Koran in front of detainees.  Kurnaz and the other inmates had nothing but scorn for Miller, whom they called "General Toilet" after they pulled off a disgusting prank on him.

It is hard to imagine how the young man endured five years in the hell hole of Guantanamo.  No doubt his youth worked in his favor. But Kurnaz mentions that several of the detainees were old men (in some cases fathers of other prisoners) in their eighties. That Kurnaz was released at all to write this book is do to the tireless work of his German lawyer - Bernhard Docke - and his American attorney Baher Azmy. Finally, German Chancellor Angela Merkel intervened personally with President Bush to secure Kurnaz's release.

It is one of those mysterious coincidences that this book was released the same week that the US Justice Department released the 81-page "Torture Memo" written in 2003 by John Yoo, a lawyer for the JD, which was a blueprint for all of the abuses suffered by Kurnaz and the other detainees at Guantanamo and the other CIA facilities. But Yoo was rewarded for his efforts with a tenured faculty position at the prestigious  Berkeley Law School at the same time Kurnaz was in a stifling isolation cell in Guantanamo.

Finally, a personal comment. I first became aware of Murat Kurnaz's plight in 2005 and wrote numerous blog posts about everything I could learn about the case.  I corresponded with Bernhard Docke and others to learn the facts, and then wrote to the US Justice Department, the Department of State, and my congressional representatives.  In particular, I sent letters, faxes, and e-mails to my US Senator - Susan Collins (R-Maine) - and frequently called her office in Washington DC.  The only response I ever got from any of my efforts was a form letter from the office of Senator Collins praising the brave work of the US service men and women at Guantanamo Bay prison camp - the very people who were abusing Kurnaz and the others. Senator Collins missed an opportunity to be on the right side of history.

Comments

[Linda Richard]

Hello,

I enjoyed your review. If you are interested in this subject, please visit my site http://freedetainees.org

I post detainee profiles, as well as actions you can take to help. I also post detainee related news.

I am just finishing this book. Another excellent book you might like is Andy Worthington's "The Guantanamo Files" - which is linked on my blog. I use it all the time for research.

These things are shocking - and they need to be brought out.

Oh - a little trivia - my mother is Austrian. We moved to the US to stay when I was 11. I guess I'm first generation.

Take care,
Linda