It's Hard Out Here for an Iraqi
JOSCELYN, THOMAS
It's Hard Out Here for an Iraqi The story of "Pimp Daddy," an Iraqi detainee at Guantanamo. BY THOMAS JOSCELYN FOR MORE THAN four years now, critics of the Bush administration have warned that...
...Is it the occupation of his native Baghdad...
...What the f...
...I went to the doctor and they said there is no help...
...I've got to say this 20 times...
...I didn't want to go every day...
...Ali claimed he had escaped service in Saddam's Republican Guard and decried the Butcher of Baghdad's poor treatment of his fellow citizens...
...I know about my brother, but my family doesn't...
...While in custody, he met the man known to many as the "American Taliban," John Walker Lindh...
...But, even at Gitmo, Ali's fellow detainees don't think much of him: They call me motherf— all the time and I say, "f— Osama Bin Laden and f— the Taliban...
...it means nice boy...
...If I was there, I'd f—ing kill him...
...Major Abdullah is not the sole focus of Ali's ire...
...They just broke his mind and taught him Islamic...
...And thanks to the March 3 release of more than 5,000 pages of documents from Gitmo, we can now hear the story of one such Iraqi detainee...
...BY THOMAS JOSCELYN FOR MORE THAN four years now, critics of the Bush administration have warned that the U.S...
...Or Yale...
...These people, they lie about John Walker...
...I run away from these questions from my mom...
...I'm very happy and I tell them I'll stay here forever and give information about them...
...Or, if you prefer, "Pimp Daddy"—a nickname Gitmo's guards gave him, for reasons that become obvious from the transcript...
...He's an asshole and a motherf—, but he's my uncle and I miss him...
...I can't stay in my house, because my father and mother are waiting very anxiously for me to get married...
...I can't stand the sight of my mom, because she says, "my son, I want to see your kids...
...I'm not a jackass...
...There is no hint of Ali's fate in the transcript...
...At the outset of his hearing, Ali thanked America for getting rid of Saddam's "cruel regime," which he said killed one of his uncles...
...He even professed a desire to become an "American person...
...There is a secret deal between Iran and the Taliban in 2001, and there are details of a suspected terrorist who was almost smuggled across the Mexican border...
...I told her that I want to go to college and be a good person...
...He got work as a driver for the Taliban, but hated the job...
...This problem has taken all of my life and my thinking...
...He was a jackass, and he's young and doesn't know anything about the Islamic religion...
...Ali explains: My problem isn't just that I am poor, or that Saddam's government killed my second uncle...
...I don't believe in the Taliban, but being hungry and homeless, I worked there for 2 1/2 months and traveled in an old Russian car called a Gas 66...
...It seems that virtually everyone in his life has done him wrong...
...That's f—ed up...
...I was never a "homo" or gay, but I have a problem...
...it's a bulls— car...
...The beards are bulls...
...Islamic doesn't mean to kill people, like they do...
...From a terrorism-researcher's perspective there are far more interesting pieces of information contained in the newly released Gitmo documents...
...For example, when I was in school, a lot of my friends were married...
...This is not just me in my family...
...The f— ing Taliban is f—ing my life...
...They said I couldn't have an operation or surgery of any kind because I'm poor...
...I knew there was this little f—er, osama Bin Laden, and the f—ing Taliban...
...His name is Ali Abdul Motalib Hassan al-Tayeea...
...From the Northern Alliance, Ali was transferred to American custody...
...If the U.S...
...I put a little of the money in my pocket and I'd go fix it...
...Who can help me...
...In America this is only a little problem, but in my home and in my life, it's very difficult when the days get dark, because I hate running from my people...
...They [the Taliban and al Qaeda] have bulls— rules...
...it means "homo...
...That's too hard for me...
...My uncle never even sent me one Jordanian Dinar...
...But why...
...The purportedly unwarranted detention of hundreds of Muslims, coupled with the allegedly unjustified invasion of Iraq, these critics argue, will only add to the rage that leads to terrorist attacks...
...Ali says he had no love for osama bin Laden or the Taliban...
...Following this line of thinking, you might suppose that an Iraqi national at Gitmo would be especially angry...
...I want to get the operation or drugs in America or Europe...
...His detention at Gitmo...
...Ali's sister finally came to the rescue, lending him enough money to purchase a visa on which he made his way to Syria...
...The transcript of Ali's tribunal session is by no means typical...
...She says she has a nice girl for me to marry, because she says this is my goal in life...
...My problem, I'm sorry to say in front of the two ladies, but I want the Judge to know everything about me...
...But his fellow detainees did not think highly of him because he did not conform to their strict grooming rules...
...I just kiss my mom and I say "maybe someday...
...He is clearly a very angry man...
...But, like a good episode of the Jerry Springer show, there is something compelling about Ali's "candor...
...That's bulls...
...They say, "osama Bin Laden is a prophet or something like that...
...I tell them, "f— you, if you believe in Osama Bin Laden...
...He describes a run-in with his commander in the Iraqi military, a Major Abdullah: He once called me "Kiki...
...bunal proceeding...
...He was born in 1980...
...For all of Ali's troubles, he says, he would like to be freed and serve America...
...My brother and father have no beard either...
...I feel someday I'll go back to my home and I'm sure that all of my friends are married now...
...So far so good...
...military won't take him, there's always hip-hop...
...Regarding Afghanistan's deposed government, "The Taliban is f—ed up, I'm serious...
...I look at my friends and say they have a good life...
...The cleanshaven Ali explains that he is a Shiite, and in his religion "only old men have beards...
...detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is fueling the Muslim street's hatred of America...
...Everyday there was a broken engine, so I requested the money to fix it...
...Ali launched into an obscenity-laden rant that takes up much of the 24-page record of his triThomas Joscelyn is an economist and writer living in New York...
...Ali was brought before the military tribunal that is determining whether he and the several hundred other Guantanamo detainees should continue to be held as enemy combatants...
...They pray like 20 times a day...
...When Ali left Iraq on December 16, 1998, he first made his way to Jordan...
...Ali claims he was detained by the Northern Alliance's forces when the war broke out...
...I'm sorry, but he's a motherf...
...If I saw Osama Bin Laden, I'd kill him...
...I can't get married because my penis is small-sized...
...There are many of these in Iraq...
...From there he made his way through Iran to Pakistan and then to Afghanistan...
...Several months later he left for Turkey, where he was arrested by the "motherf—ing police," who dropped him off in northern Iraq...
...He quickly ran out of money, though, and decided to call an uncle in Holland for help: I charged it to the hotel's phone, because I didn't have any money to go outside to make the call...
...The tribunal board continually reiterates that it doesn't have the power to make an immediate decision...
...Lindh, he says, "was a good guy, I promise...
...But then, something odd happened...
...My family said it was a bulls— reason and that I'm Arab and I can marry and complete my life...
...He's big and is a nice guy, but has the same problem...
...it's also my younger brother...
Vol. 11 • March 2006 • No. 26
