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02 March 2011 By Jason Leopold David Hicks was
one of the first "war on terror" detainees to be sent
to Guantanamo the day the prison facility opened on
January 11, 2002. He is one of the small group of
detainees who challenged President George W. Bush's
November 13, 2001 executive order authorizing
indefinite detention, which led to a landmark 2004
Supreme Court case, Rasul v. Bush, in which the
High-Court said detainees have the right to habeas
corpus. Hicks spent five-and-a-half years at
Guantanamo and was tortured. Last October, he
published a memoir, "Guantanamo: My Journey." This is
his first interview since his release from Guantanamo
in 2007.
Interviewer:
Can you describe for me what you felt, emotionally, as
you were writing the book and having to relive the
torture you were subjected to? David
Hicks: At times I
wrote as a third person, as if I was writing a
chronological research report as part of my day job.
At other times I had moments of vivid clarity. I would
stop typing, sit back, and stare into nothing. The
smells, sounds, the feeling of actually being there
came flooding back as if had been transported to the
camps of Guantanamo, clearly remembering what it was
like to have actually been there.
Interviewer:
Solitary confinement appears to be among the worst of
all the terrible experiences prisoners faced at
Guantanamo. Can you explain what it does to you in a
way that Americans, with no experience of such things,
can understand what such isolation, especially with no
knowledge of how long it will last, does to a person? David
Hicks: Solitary and
indefinite detention are two different things and are
devastating when combined. Isolation has a powerful
impact on the mind, especially when coupled with
incommunicado detention as in GTMO. Everything outside
the four walls is quickly forgotten. With no mental
stimulation the mind becomes confused and dull. That
state of mind is an advantage to interrogators who
manipulate every aspect of your environment. They
create a new world reality. Time ceases to exist.
Talking becomes difficult, so when conversations do
take place, you cannot form words or think. Even when
hostility is not present such as during a visit with a
lawyer or International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
visit, coherent sentences become elusive and huge
mental blanks become common, as though you are
forgetting the very act of speaking. Everything you
think and know is dictated by the interrogators. You
become fully dependent with a childlike reliance on
your captors. They pull you apart and put you back
together, dismantling into smaller pieces each time,
until you become something different, their creation,
when eventually reassembled. Indefinite detention is
draining and cruel. Only after five and a half years
when I had been promised a date of release did the
intense battle with insanity subside, and that I
started to feel a little more normal again. I finally
had some certainty and felt a glimmer of control
return. I began to remember that another world existed
and could once again dream about what that world used
to feel like. Indefinite detention is draining because
you are taken prisoner and thrown into a cage. No
reason is given or any relevant information or
explanation offered. There are no accusations, no
court rooms or judges. Nobody informs "you will be
here for X amount of time." It's an impossible
situation to accept and every minute is spent silently
asking and hoping, "this cannot last forever, I will
have to be released soon‚". But when the mind is so
desperate, when you are on your last legs, you can't
let go of the thought that you could be released any
moment, even if all seems lost and hopeless. In a
strange way it is one of those things the mind latches
onto for a source of strength, a reason to keep going:
false hopes and dreams are better than nothing.
Interviewer:
What do you believe
gave you the strength to survive in such terrible
conditions? Have you sought medical or psychological
help since returning? If so, has it helped you? David
Hicks: I survived
because I had no choice, as many of us may
unfortunately experience at some time in our lives. It
was a psychological battle, a serious and dangerous
one. It was a constant struggle not to lose my sanity
and go mad. It would have been so easy just to let go:
it offered the only escape. I have attended regular
counseling since being released. It has helped but the
passing of time has been just as helpful. Being
exposed to such a consuming environment for five and a
half years leaves a stain that cannot be removed
overnight. It will take longer to reverse the
consequences but even so, some experiences, especially
one so prolonged, can never be entirely forgotten. I
shudder to think what state of mind those who are
still detained in GTMO must be in, and wonder how
damaged they will be upon release. If they are
released. At the time of writing, the US government is
seriously considering enacting indefinite detention
into law. It is hard to comprehend that they will
effectively sentence someone to life in prison,
without ever being charged, accused of breaking a law,
or not even being told why they are being held. As
with medical experimentation, indefinite detention on
its own is a form of torture which causes mental
anguish.
Interviewer:
At what moment in your
mind did you begin to realize or understand that you
were being tortured? David
Hicks: I was beaten by
US forces the first time I saw them and realized
straight away that torture was going to be a reality,
it was very scary. As I say in my book, I could not
help thinking of the saying, "like trying to get blood
from a stone," and I was afraid of becoming that
stone.
Interviewer:
What do you think
makes a human being torture another human being? David
Hicks: In Guantanamo
torture was driven by anger and frustration. It seemed
like a mad fruitless quest to pin crimes on detainees,
to extract false confessions, and produce so-called
intelligence of value. The guards were desensitized
and detainees de-humanized. Soldiers were not allowed
to engage us in conversation. They were told to
address us by number only and not by name. They were
constantly drilled with propaganda about how much we
supposedly hated them and wanted them dead and how
much they needed to hate us. On occasion, when some
groups of soldiers jogged around the camp perimeters I
heard them sing lyrics such as, 'you hate us and we
hate you.' One time in the privacy of Camp Echo a male
soldier broke down when we were alone repeating, "what
have I become?‚" after having arrived from an
interrogation of a detainee in another camp.
Interviewer:
Can you describe for me the facial expressions of the
interrogators and /or the guards as you were being
abused? How did they react to your pain? David
Hicks: Usually the
guards seemed cold and indifferent. They deployed a
"just doing my job‚" attitude, such as when they
chained me to the floor in stress positions or made me
sleep directly on a metal or concrete floor in a very
cold air-conditioned room in only a pair of shorts.
However some soldiers displayed discomfort and
embarrassment. Usually guards were only used to
restrain detainees, move them about, or help in the
back ground with equipment. It was the interrogators
who did the dirty work, expressing, hatred and
frustration. At times soldiers did participate
directly in beatings however, such the beatings I
received before I arrived in GTMO (in Afghanistan, in
transit, or when I was rendered to the two ships).
These soldiers made a sport of it.
Interviewer:
Did any US soldier or
any US official present at Guantanamo during your
interrogations ever speak out about your torture or
the torture of other detainees? David
Hicks: If you mean
protest during the act of torture, never. Many
soldiers in private however apologized for what their
government was doing to us and emphasized that not all
Americans were like that or agreed with such
treatment.
Interviewer:
Were you ever
interrogated by anyone from the CIA? David
Hicks: Some
interrogators stated which agencies they represented,
some didn't, while others lied about who they worked
for. To the best of my knowledge I was seen by the
CIA, FBI, US military intelligence, MI5 from the UK,
ASIO and the AFP from Australia. There were other
organizations working in GTMO, some I had never heard
of before.
Interviewer:
In your book you write: "These beatings and other
activities were systematic and ordered from above, not
the result of low- ranking MPs looking for ways to
have some fun." Did anyone ever state who from above
ordered the beatings? David
Hicks: The soldiers
were very open about where their orders came from and
interrogators never allowed us to forget that they
controlled every aspect of our lives; whether it was
torturing us, allowing us a shower, clothing, or a
letter from home. Then there were examples such as
when General [Geoffrey] Miller took over camp
procedures in early 2003. He unleashed a new wave of
interrogation techniques upon us. Each new General,
and wave of interrogators who were accompanied by
experts from various professions, brought newly signed
orders from Department of Justice employees allowing
ever harsher techniques.
Interviewer:
Have you read the
torture memos written by former Justice Department
attorneys John Yoo and Jay Bybee? Were you ever
subjected to torture techniques described in those
memos? David
Hicks: I have read
them but it was some time ago and I cannot currently
recollect all that they contained. Some of the
techniques I was subjected to from the memos was being
chained to the floor, known as "stress positions."
Sleep deprivation was an everyday occurrence during
all of the years I spent in GTMO. Noise manipulation
also happened often depending on what camp I was in.
They used chainsaw motors and loud music in Camp
Delta. They used temperature extremes on me, which
meant subjecting me to the freezing cold because they
knew I have a low tolerance to the cold. Sensory
deprivation, prolonged isolation and other
psychological manipulation techniques were also used
on me (injecting me with substances, giving me cold
and sometimes green food such as eggs, putting cameras
up on the ceiling). They also used techniques that
exploited my fears.
Interviewer:
You write that at Camp
Echo that guards were placed to observe you constantly
and that they wrote notes about your every behavior.
Did you ever ask these guards what their instructions
were, or if they knew what their superiors did with
these notes? Did they ever tell you? David
Hicks: We were
observed in all camps. Guards always carried a pen and
note book having been ordered to write down everything
we did, including the trivial such as what we did to
pass the time and what we spoke about when other
detainees were around. They even recorded how we went
to the bathroom, i.e. did we shield ourselves from
neighboring detainees or guards and if so, how?
Nothing went un-noted. This information was combined
with personality traits learnt from interrogations,
ranging from how we spoke to how we responded to the
so called "enhanced interrogation techniques." The end
result was the US government compiling files on each
of us, including a micro level psychoanalysis. They
knew our likes and dislikes, fears and weaknesses.
These files were then used against us in interrogation
and in daily camp life. It was about crushing and
defeating us, to make us become so desperate that we
would do and agree to anything to escape. Collecting
this information and what they used it for was no
secret and some guards explained this program when in
private. In Camp Echo guards who sat outside our cages
staring at us twenty four hours a day had to write
what we were doing every fifteen minutes night and
day. The interrogation rooms of Camp Delta had an
entire wall as a one way observation glass. Behind
these walls sat teams of so-called experts:
Intelligence officers, behavioral scientists,
psychologists; people who made conclusions upon which
they decided what techniques were to be employed. By
this I mean what programs the detainee would be
subjected to in his cage such as sleep deprivation,
noise or food ‘manipulation’. There was no
shortage of ideas, resources, expertise, or personnel.
A lot of effort went into these customized
interrogations. Nothing was private. We were violated
internally, psychologically, spiritually. They probed
and tinkered in recesses so deep; parts of ourselves
we are not conscious of or in touch with in our daily
lives and may not even connect with and discover in
our lifetimes.
Interviewer:
Did you ever meet separately with a psychologist or
psychiatrist when at Guantanamo, for ostensibly
psychological reasons, either a psychological test or
assessment, or for supposed treatment of any sort? David
Hicks: No, but they
did approach me occasionally during the last year or
so I spent in GTMO to see if I would talk and
cooperate. Apart from their contributions in
interrogations they were always lurking in the back
ground, waiting to "help a detainee," but to really
act as another prong to interrogation. If a detainee
even whispered for such medical intervention a "mental
health expert," would appear with a pocket of unknown
medication and a long list of probing questions. They
were not there to help, but to harm. We knew this and
so I always refused to speak with them when they
offered. If I did speak with them, such as the period
when I eventually, after two years, had limited access
to a lawyer for example, the questions would have been
centered on how I intended to defend myself and any
court actions I was considering. All they wanted was
information, or to find a new way to defeat you.
Interviewer:
Were psychologists
and/or medical professionals present at all
interrogations? Were the interrogations ever stopped
to check your heart rate and/or pulse? David
Hicks: The major
physical beatings I endured occurred in Afghanistan,
during transportation and en-route to GTMO. During
those sessions, one was around 10 hours, my vital
signs were checked often. In GTMO medical personnel
were not in the same room as me during actual
interrogations but from my understanding they were
monitoring my interrogations from behind the one way
glass in Camp Delta. For other detainees, such as
those being shocked or water boarded, medical
personnel were present, or if drugs were being
administrated during interrogation as I describe in my
book when they extracted false confessions from one of
the UK detainees. They were present when I was
injected in the spine, but that experience is one that
I don’t like to talk about.
Interviewer:
Have your attorneys
tried to get a copy of your medical records? David
Hicks: Yes, but with
no luck. We gave up thinking me might be allowed to
see them long ago. Even upon return to Australian
where I was forced to spend the first seven months in
isolated detention as part of the agreement to get out
of GTMO. My family requested an independent blood test
be taken on my return to Australia. They were refused
without an excuse. It was nearly eight months since
GTMO and about a year since being given medication
before I was allowed to have my first blood test. I
was informed that too much time had passed to see what
I had been given.
Interviewer:
During your
interrogations, did the interrogators ever ask you
questions about Iraq ? David
Hicks: No, the policy
of incommunicado was strictly enforced, for years we
knew absolutely nothing about the outside world. We
weren't even meant to know the time of day, let alone
our location, especially any news. The first time I
learnt about the war in Iraq was the end of 2003. A
guard was kind enough to allow me to read his copy of
FHM magazine and it contained an article about the US
invasion, otherwise I would not have known. Rumors of
a war in Iraq did not begin to circulate amongst the
detainees until 2004 and was viewed with skepticism by
most. The military did not inform us officially of the
Iraq invasion until late 2006 by placing large posters
of Saddam hanging from a noose around the camps with
slogans splashed across the front like, "this could be
you." It was only then that detainees believed that
the war had taken place.
Interviewer:
You have written
eloquently of your terrible experience with what you
say was medical experimentation, calling it the worst
and darkest of your experiences there. Have you talked
with any other detainees about whether they had
similar experiences? How do you think about it now? David
Hicks: When I was
injected in the back of the neck I was being held in
isolation, so I was unable to discuss what had
happened with other detainees. A year passed before I
was eventually able to see and communicate with fellow
detainees, and I am unable to remember today if I
discussed that particular personal experience with
them. We did discuss medical experimentation in
general however. A detainee with UK citizenship
described being injected daily, resulting in one of
his testicles becoming swollen and racked with pain.
Along with these daily injections he was subjected to
mind games by interrogators, medical personnel, and
guards whom worked as a team. Under these conditions
they were able to extract written false confessions
from him. How I experienced the injection at the base
of my neck is described in detail in my book. In a
nutshell, I felt my soul had been violated. That is
just one experience I had with medication. There were
many pills and injections, plus constant blood tests
over the years. Everybody regardless of their
citizenship should acknowledge that medical
experimentation, whether on human beings or animals,
is unacceptable. As with animals, we were held as
prisoners when these procedures were forced upon us
against our will. And as with animals, we were
voiceless.
Interviewer:
Did any interrogator
or other official working for the US government ever
use the word "torture" or "experiment" as you were
being interrogated? David
Hicks: I don't
remember the word torture being used but there were
many ways to imply it. After a torture session for
example an interrogator would just say, "the treatment
you have recently endured can always be repeated," and
threats were often made referring to past treatment or
what was happening to other detainees. Guards often
alluded to GTMO as being a big laboratory where we
were subjected to their government's well-honed
techniques. I remember in the early days while being
held aboard a US ship when a soldier said, "be strong
man no matter what they do to you, just keep your head
in God man,". It didn't leave me with much confidence.
Interviewer:
Did you ever sign any
document stating that you consented to the
medications/injections you received? Did anyone ever
ask you to sign such a document? David
Hicks: I had two
surgeries while in GTMO. One was for a double hernia,
while the other was to remove painful golf ball size
lumps on my chest. The cause of the lumps or what they
were was never explained to me but research since my
release indicates that it was either the mediations I
was forced to take or the extreme stress levels may
have been responsible. On the two occasions I was
operated on I was asked to sign a consent form, which
I did. However my permission was not sought nor had I
any choice when it came to being forced fed tablets,
or the numerous injections that we were all given.
Many blood tests were also taken consistently over the
years I was detained.
Interviewer:
How typical was it, do
you think, that interrogators attempted to get
prisoners to become agents for their government? David
Hicks: Interrogators
attempted to bribe detainees with food, bed sheets,
toilet paper and other "luxuries‚" to become spies and
to give information about other detainees. On occasion
some detainees in GTMO became so drained and broken
that they would succumb to the temptation.
Interrogators tried everything to make detainees
"confess," including being asked to lie via
imagination or simply to agree to an interrogator's
theories. Interrogators became desperate with the
passing of time to find and pin actual crimes on
detainees, and paper trails have shown they were
willing to manipulate evidence in their favor. There
was one time in 2003 when we were all asked if we
would work for the US government performing secret
operations off the island, somewhere abroad. Nearly
every detainee laughed at this question and word
quickly spread so we knew we weren't alone. Apparently
the proposition was a part of their profiling system.
Interrogators worked around the clock to break us.
Once broken, detainees were asked to agree to anything
by interrogators, to repeat after them, to sign
confessions, to be false witnesses, or to sow discord
amongst detainees.
Interviewer:
When did you become
aware that journalists were writing about torture at
Guantanamo and at prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan? David
Hicks: Not until the
photos from Abu Ghraib in Iraq had become public. I
found the public debate interesting. At first it was,
"are they being tortured or not." Then once torture
was confirmed, the debate evolved to, "is it
acceptable, is it justified, is it legal?" I am
surprised by how many people still try to justify
torture and support it as government policy, as an
extra "necessary" tool to tackle terrorism.
Interviewer:
Do you know if any prisoners ever died at Guantanamo
while you were there? David
Hicks: Four died
during my time in Guantanamo.
Interviewer:
Have you heard about
the three prisoners who allegedly committed suicide in
June 2006? Do you know anything about them? Do you
believe they committed suicide? David
Hicks: Suicide is
possible in that situation, but evidence has emerged
in various forms and from various sources suggesting
foul play. Some witnesses are soldiers and have said
that they believe that the detainees were
"accidentally‚" killed during an interrogation at a
secret camp on the island called "Camp No‚" as in no,
it doesn't exist. It seems they pushed their dangerous
techniques too far. The fact that the organs were
removed from the bodies so that an independent autopsy
could not be carried out raises more questions than
answers. This topic is covered in detail in my book
with researched references pointing to foul play.
Interviewer:
Did you ever interact
with Shaker Aamer, the last British resident still
held at Guantanamo? David
Hicks: I saw him on
the odd occasion over the years and exchanged
greetings, otherwise I never had the chance to talk or
interact with him. The military has often kept him
separated from other detainees and I believe subjected
him to horrific treatment. When I left GTMO in early
2007 I knew that he was being held in isolation in
Camp Echo because that is where I was. Whenever I saw
him he always looked so skinny, weak, and tired. I
cannot understand why they continue to hold him and
the nearly two hundred men still detained there.
Interviewer:
Were dogs ever used to
invoke fear in you? You describe the use of chainsaws
in your book. What was the purpose of this? David
Hicks: Not personally,
dogs were mainly used against detainees known to have
a fear of them. Our individual fears and weaknesses
were used against us as customized interrogations. The
chainsaw engines kept at full revs were used as part
of their noise manipulation program. It prevented
detainees from communicating with each other,
prevented sleep, and basically drove us mad.
Interviewer:
Can you tell me whether you have any flashbacks and if
so what triggers it? When that happens, what do you
start to feel? David
Hicks: Day time
flashbacks consist of those moments of vivid clarity
as I described previously, but it is the dreams that
are the worst. I see myself having to begin the long
process of imprisonment again accompanied with vivid
feelings of hopelessness and no knowledge of the
future or how long it will last. The other dreams
consist of gruesome medical experimentations too
horrible to describe. Losing my personality, my
identity, memories and self is much more frightening
to me than any physical harm. It is these dreams that
are the most common and terrifying.
Interviewer:
Do you remember former
Guantanamo guards Brandon Neely and Albert Melise? David
Hicks: Unfortunately,
I don't remember Neely from Camp X-ray, it was a very
confusing time for me. We established contact last
year, but I became aware of Neely some time ago when
he flew to the UK and publicly met some of the former
UK detainees. He apologized for what he and his
government had done. He is a brave man and I admire
his courage and moral values so it was an honor to
speak with him. I remember the polite and respectful
soldiers, and the bad, but especially the good men and
women I spent time with privately, such as in Camp
Echo. One of those good men is Albert Melise who made
contact with me to apologize, to offer help, and to
see if I was alright. I remember him well because he
did what he could in that controlled high security
environment to help slow the deterioration of my
sanity for the few months I spent with him. He is
another brave man that I respect and admire, to add
his voice to the growing number of witnesses that are
coming forward to publicly share the truth and expose
that shameful time in our history. Melise did a lot to
help me in those dark times, and it was a joy to hear
his voice that first time as a free man. I hope to
gather enough funds so I can fly these two men to
Australia to thank them personally and show my
gratitude for their friendship and trust. I'd like to
show them my hospitality and my country, and to show
them how much I appreciate their past kindness and
current bravery. Neely and Melise were not alone in
covertly showing humanity to myself and other
detainees whenever they had the opportunity. A
handshake, an apology (though that responsibility
shouldn't have to have been shouldered by them), even
a simple hello and a smile goes a long way in an
environment drowning in hostility and hatred. There
were other soldiers who helped me in their own way and
apologized for what was happening when no one else was
around. As bad as that place was, and some of the
people who worked there, they were all human and there
is good in all of us. A good percentage of the
soldiers were very young and most were only reservists
who had never expected to be deployed. It was always
interesting to watch the shock on their faces when
they first entered the camps, a scene they had often
seen only in old war movies and the realization that
their government "did torture." Some of these poor
souls suffered greatly as they experienced the "other"
America and struggled to carry out questionable
orders. It is not just the tortured who suffer.
Interviewer:
What do you think should happen, if anything, to the
individuals who tortured you and the government
officials who sanctioned it? David
Hicks: As for the
soldiers I don't think "following orders" is an
excuse. Interrogators should be disciplined and
charged if found to have acted illegally. All medical
personnel who participated in interrogations, whether
doctors, nurses, corpsman, psychologists and
psychiatrists should be investigated and banned from
practicing, even if they only gave advice or kept
silent if aware of what was happening. I also think
that the highest ranking military officials,
politicians, and lawyers who created and supported the
system need to go in front of an international court. But these are not
the only issues. GTMO should be closed, torture
abolished, military commissions scrapped, renditions
ceased, indefinite detention should be a thing of the
past, and people (including children) should no longer
be made to "disappear" into unknown black site
prisons. Justice is coming
slowly however. Former Guantanamo soldiers,
translators, FBI and other US employees, even
prosecutors, have gone public to expose the truth of
GTMO and many documents have made it into the public
realm. Spain and Germany had begun the process of
prosecuting former president Bush and members of his
regime but after being pressured by the US they
dropped the proceedings. The latest country said to be
exploring the possibility of prosecuting US officials
is Poland for the US using its soil in its rendition
program. Last year Italy convicted 26 CIA agents in
absentia for their involvement in kidnapping an
Italian citizen and then dumping him in the woods near
his home in the middle of the night a year later. The
former UK detainees were recently paid just over a
million pounds each in compensation and the Australian
government has just paid compensation to the other
Australian who was held in GTMO after being tortured
in Egypt. In both instances these men were required to
drop their court cases against the state. Wikileaks
has been another vehicle shedding light on what took
place at GTMO and beyond, exposing those responsible
for illegal acts. Sometime this year about thirteen
hundred diplomatic cables are to be released
concerning Australia. I have been told to look out for
information concerning my case. Especially cables that
talk about the treatment I was receiving, and who was
involved with the political interference and creation
of the plea deal that I was forced to sign if I was
ever to come home. I will be watching with great
interest once all that information comes to light.
Interviewer:
Is there anything the US government or the Australian
government told you that you can never speak about? There was a one
year gag order upon my release and I had to sign a
plea agreement that said I had never been mistreated
by US officials or their employees while in US
detention. I am also not allowed to challenge or
"collaterally attack‚" my conviction, seek
compensation or other remedies, or sue anyone for my
illegal imprisonment and treatment. I have been
advised that no court would uphold the plea agreement.
Interviewer:
There aren't many Caucasians at Guantanamo? How were
you treated by the other detainees? And now that
you've been released, how have you been treated by the
public? David
Hicks: There weren't
many Caucasians at GTMO but I wasn't the only one.
Before the release of detainees began there must have
been close to forty European citizens spread between
eight or nine western European countries. Usually most
detainees treated each other the same regardless of
their geo-political or cultural background. The
Australian public has been wonderful; very welcoming,
glad to see me home and very helpful. I often have
people approach me to say hello.
Interviewer:
How did you and your wife Aloysia meet? David
Hicks: Aloysia has
been involved in human rights activism for years and
in her efforts for social justice became involved in
the Australian campaign to see me released from
Guantanamo bay. Over the years she came to know my dad
quite well, and he played a part in our relationship.
Interviewer:
You have a long life ahead of you. What would you like
to accomplish? What are your hopes and dreams? David
Hicks: When I was
released I wondered if refugees newly arrived in a
country felt similar. I had to begin a new life from
the beginning, from collecting a set of identification
papers to such privileges as a vehicle license and
obtaining a Medicare card. Despite long term plans
such as owning a home I have been taking a day at a
time, receiving treatment for physical and mental
injuries, finding employment and working, and when I
get the chance or in the mood fishing or socializing.
Writing my book for two years took up a lot of my
time, as does keeping abreast of all the continuous
developments regarding GTMO, the so-called war on
terror and its related policies, and those whose lives
(detained or not) they continue to effect, including
my own. Life is very busy for me. Finding the love of
my life has been my biggest accomplishment, of course!
And then writing my book. Otherwise there is a lot of
work left to do and in the years to come I will
continue to rebuild my life, seek normality, and to
live in peace with the hardships of the past far
behind me. This interview was made by
Truthout; Source Truthout |
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