Released From Guantanamo (Out of Gitmo) (full documentary) | FRONTLINE

foreign the prison at Guantanamo Bay throughout the Obama years President Obama rushing to emptied Guantanamo Bay just days before leaving office I returned just before Obama left office as he and Donald Trump fought over the future of this place and the men detained here he's allowing people to get out that are terrible people make no mistake we will close Guantanamo prison get my way keeping that open and we're going to load it up with Bad Dudes kidmo still houses notorious terrorists like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed the self-proclaimed Mastermind of the 9 11 attacks tell us where we are we're standing right now in front of Camp six and that's where the majority of the general population detainees or house just don't get any guard faces in the in the back this time I was here to report on Obama's final push to empty out the prison [Music] thank you in his last year he released 52 detainees nearly half of them had been held without charges and were once considered too dangerous to let go but military and intelligence officials finally deemed the men safe to set free I wanted to know more about these decisions and what happened to the detainees once they got out this gate would literally be the last gate that they walked through before they get on their transportation to leave Guantanamo Bay 15 detainees just released to the United Arab Emirates the detainees have been scattered around the globe taken in under secret deals bodyguard for Osama Bin Laden is now free after being held for 14 years none of the officials involved in these deals will discuss the details but most of the detainees were sent to Arab countries the Obama Administration quietly took 10 terrorist suspects from the prison at Guantanamo Bay and transferred them to the Middle Eastern country of Oman some were sent to rehab centers in places like Oman the U.S released for yemeni men with some relatives waiting others were reunited with their families in Saudi Arabia every transfer was reviewed and approved by the Department of Defense Chuck Hagel personally signed off on more than 40 detainees during his years as Secretary of Defense in terms of the facts about former detainees what did Americans make of their danger their status there's always the danger of course because this is an imperfect process but every one of those detainees I signed off on it was based on the best absolute best information intelligence and knowledge and certification that we could we could come up with and one of the final questions that I had to certify was in your opinion have you done everything to minimize the possibility that a detainee would ever again do any harm to an American or any of our allies what does that mean in in practice and figuring that out but I always took the approach that I wanted to be damn sure and I wanted Assurance from my security people that in fact they had seen physically where these people were going to be who was going to monitor them how often the monitoring and on the other side we say to the host countries that are going to accept them we want these people to get back into society where they are productive citizens that means education that means Rehabilitation of course I mean that's clearly in our interests it's in the interest of the detainee few of the X detainees have been heard from since their release their lawyers say that the one sent to Arab countries seem to be adjusting but I've heard others are having problems a handful of men who were taken to non-arab countries with little support one of them among the last to leave kitmo is willing to talk Mansour al-daifi prisoner number 441 from Yemen he was never charged but for most of his 14 years at gitmo he was considered too dangerous to release in 2015 a review board convened by President Obama determined he was no longer a threat yemeni detainees are barred from going home because of political instability there so last summer he and another detainee were transferred to Serbia mansour's pro bono lawyer in New York says he's unhappy in Serbia and wants to live in an Arab country was he given any choice in where he was going to go no not really it was pretty much presented as Guantanamo or Serbia and what kind of Rehabilitation has been provided for him in Serbia so far from Serbia as far as I can tell nothing and nothing from the U.S government if we are going to take someone after holding them for 14 or 15 years and not let them go home and not let them go to the country they want to go to not let them go to a place where they feel they themselves will be able to build a life but force them to another place then I think we have a responsibility to help them adjust to that and make it work she says Mansour has gone on a hunger strike protesting his situation you have represented other Guantanamo detainees in terms of bonzers resettlement and reintegrating is is Monster a unique case I do not think he's the only one who's had a difficult time I think a lot of the other men who have been sent to say Eastern Europe which is a very unfamiliar culture for them and unfamiliar languages have had a very hard time adjusting people who were sent to countries like Oman which are very familiar to them which are a familiar language which does have a formal rehabilitation program to help them make that adjustment those people seem to be doing pretty well and if we want to make sure that these people are never going to be a threat to the U.S the best way to do that is to make sure that they have a life that they're happy with that's not going to happen if you put them someplace where they are totally isolated and they don't see any Prospect for a future as I set off to meet Mansour in Belgrade Serbia here's what I knew about him he'd spent time at an Al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan before being captured when he was in his early twenties much of his case File remains classified but leech documents show that at first the US government claimed he was an Al-Qaeda Commander his final review however came to a very different conclusion at worst it says he was a low-level fighter possibly not even a member of Al Qaeda at all Mansour was known to exaggerate and change his story in 2006 he claimed he was a committed Jihadi and praised the 9 11 attacks but by 2015 he claimed he wanted a college education and was a fan of Taylor Swift still Serbia seemed a surprising place to send a man once labeled a Muslim terrorist Muslim house burned every Muslim killed or runoff in the 1990s Serbian troops slaughtered tens of thousands of Muslim men women and children the serbs call it ethnic cleansing and brag about their efficiency NATO bombed Belgrade to stop years of carnage the voices when the detainees arrived here last July it made headlines some questioned if they were dangerous the Serbian prime minister insisted they weren't the other detainee has refused to talk at all and Mansour has kept a low profile avoiding publicity while his lawyer has been telling officials about his unhappiness and his hunger strike now he wants to go public in hopes of being moved the Serbian government agreed to keep Mansour for two years he can't leave the country they give him a small stipend and an apartment that's where we found him hey answer okay are you good morning good morning welcome how are you feeling right now I feel I'm lost honestly because I'm nowhere I end up in guantan on 28 years old I am still environmentally I'm 20 years old the way I'm thinking the way I'm talking but physically I am 36 because when you stay in jail I mean your mind and your intellectual everything is at the same and the worst thing in Guantanamo like what I have experienced you don't know I didn't know why I was there and for how long I'm going to punish me until when what's my what's my crime I wish if I had done something wrong then yeah I deserved that but nothing it's just capable and definite for no reason it's like it's not right at all mansource detention may have been prolonged by what he told a review board in 2006. after nearly five years at gitmo he declared himself an enemy of the United States can I regret that now I was mad I was young I was crazy of course imagine you are in a place where you are like all totally disconnected to the world outside to your family to lawyers to anyone they were extracting the worst of us to see the world this is bad people Mansour learned English at gitmo mostly from the guards he says and he wanted to study at an English language University here but was rejected he says it's because of his background but the university told me he failed his entrance exam he rarely leaves the house especially now that he's on a hunger strike my way is like sloping down very very fast I started on one for 150 for a pound now I am one thirty six like almost 18 pounds I have lost in 23 days [Music] for most of the detainees at gitmo refusing to eat was a common form of protest Mansour says he did it many times and at one point was force-fed over the course of two years now he's using the tactic to pressure the U.S to get him out of Serbia what I am asking to be sent to other countries which I can start my life that's what I want to start a family start to finish my education and to live any like the normal person that's what they want in my life not more simple dream what did you think when you heard Serbia I was afraid scared afraid to be honest with you because the historical conflict between Serbian and Muslims in the 90s this is like God I'm going to that country you threw me in a country which I know nothing about no language I mean it's total chaos Serbian government told me that after two years you are living and who is going to accept x110 with the change after what had had been said about us every night Mansour works on a memoir about his time at Guantanamo he shared a draft with me when we left him we plan to come back the next morning and continue our interview within a few minutes our taxi was pulled over Police pull us over about I think three or four officers they said random check we were with our local producer Valerie Hopkins now he wants to know what are you guys do we're reporters Vietnam has ever happened to you before yeah also foreign [Music] the next morning before heading to monsource he sent a text to Frontline producer James Jacoby he says look I have a problem and uh he said I I don't think I can talk to you today government was here that is what I can say now um for now I don't want to run into any problem please it's different now no please don't come it will be a problem for me thank you Mansour went silent and so began an Unexpected Journey we went to his apartment and called him repeatedly we spoke to his lawyer in New York but she didn't know where he was either in his texts hansour said the government had come but he didn't say who or why all we knew was that he had a Serbian government minder but we didn't know where to find him so we sought help from a local investigative journalist who's been pursuing the government for information about Mansour this is a letter to a government in August September also November so basically I am addressing to any possible authorities that are maybe in charge for this issue and the government didn't even reply to to my constant calls or meals what have you been able to find out about the transfers we found out that the government didn't call any experts for resocialization and Trauma healing of those people we found out that they didn't contact Islamic communities in Serbia and notify them and for sure their help is needed in their decisionalization so basically the only person who has everything on this case is the prime minister who is not very keen of journalists I found out the Prime Minister Alexander vucich was having a press conference when I arrived I was referred to his interior Minister who's in charge of domestic security likewise do you think we could talk to you for a few minutes what are the issues that you want we're doing stories about the uh the Guantanamo detainees that have ended up in other countries think about it okay I want to really think what uh I should say anything because there are technical issues that are says I wanted to find out what he knew about mansour's whereabouts we've been interviewing one of the former detainees and he suddenly went quiet on us is there any way that we could find out through through you or well that there are now private citizens as anyone else and they have right to talk or not to talk with anyone so we cannot force them to do that or influence them to do that he's fallen out of contact with everybody I mean we're actually concerned about what's going on with him well I have no information that any one of them complained we have a regular communication with them and I think that they are very happy with the ongoing institution and I would say that we are doing a very good job we are trying to accommodate us in a way of de-radicalizing these kind of individuals while closing guantana [Music] foreign for two days we looked all over Belgrade from Monsoor and the U.S embassy couldn't offer much help is the state department responsible for these guys well-being here you don't know [Music] while waiting on word from Mansour one night I went into downtown Belgrade where more than a thousand refugees from predominantly Muslim countries had set up a makeshift camp the Serbian government has been trying to provide relief but it's hard to keep up you're from Afghanistan yeah I'm from Afghanistan how long have you been here now more than two months what's it like living here at the bus station it's very cold there blanket [Music] it's not water no shower nothing new people come here money people a lot of children families and single men it's not easy when I was an Afghanistan people call us hey you are not good Muslim they tried to kill me when we come to the Europe you are saying you are tourists but no reason why we tourists we did nothing bad here and we run we just run from tourists what we have to do we really don't know it's very hard yeah that night we finally heard from Mansour he was at the one place we didn't expect our hotel he told us that the morning we were supposed to continue our interview several Serbian men barged into his apartment and told him to stop talking to us they were serious very serious and one of them like uh push them back and excellent reasons because I'm on hunger strike they took me to the ground actually I'm 15 related I hit my head on the wall here they wouldn't I think they were more than three they checked the apartment they took my phone and they told me basically just okay it won't stay here you have to keep your mouth shut you are lying you are playing games if you can stay in this place we're going to the kill some place where you'd alike that's it considering his past it wasn't surprising the serbians would keep tabs on him and it was hard to tell how badly he was being treated we pointed out that a gitmo he was known to exaggerate I swore by my God I didn't need to to make it up I understand if you if you judge me by this sorry I have to go and guantanamu when they put you under pressure on their very best circumstances like 72 hours under very cold air conditioned and you were tied to the ground and someone came and called whatever tell him what he was just okay get out of my skin why I should even light about serving I'm living here why should I create problems for myself with Serbian government it was late and Mansour wanted to talk to his lawyer in New York about staying overnight at the hotel honestly last night I couldn't sleep I have nightmares all night even today like uh it was a lot of stuff behind the door and I think I'm going to keep doing this all the time okay I will stay here tonight about that okay Dennis wants to talk to you yeah let me take your credit card number unless you want to call the hotel directly and and book the room for months or they have nowhere to go to like I have thought about it to hide the among the refugees but a good idea what name uh do you want to use monster for tonight he wants to use four four one [Laughter] the next day we went to see if any of mansour's neighbors had heard a disturbance I was with Valerie our local producer no one had heard a thing but one neighbor said he thought the secret police were renting monsour's apartment back inside Mansour said he was worried the serbs would return I'm very afraid of these people yeah I'm afraid if they see your guys coming back look at this challenge do you think monster there was a misunderstanding about the terms of of your release that this is more of the way that things are I think you have certain restrictions that are that are placed upon you that they haven't when I was in control they haven't told me nothing about Serbia they told me it'll be good there so you know what I'm I will try to forget Guantanamo start education learning English studying blah blah blah I try to be reasonable I try to be nice I'm trying to be quiet because if I get angry I'm crazy you know what's been crazy teach us how to be crazy crazy I'm not making threats here but this is how they push me to the corner I'm trying to get my message to the Serbian Embassy about use current appointment problems here but who cares I mean we just peace they're just dying what matters later that day we called the interior Minister's office for comment about mansour's situation hi pneumonia I reached his assistant we've been interviewing one of the former detainees here and he's made some allegations regarding how things are in in Serbia and and his treatment it doesn't scan with with what we've heard on the interview and what we heard of the press conference on on Sunday so it was some things we really needed to give wanted to give the minister a chance to to respond to we've had some interactions I I guess with some um some people from the government that apparently um didn't go pleasantly okay okay Nemanja thanks very much we kept trying but the government never would agree to an interview or respond to questions about Mansour and his allegations [Music] the next day our last in Serbia I reread mansour's memoir the first line says if you have a problem in the camps and you want your problem to be solved you must cause another problem or many problems of the book to let the reader live the life of the details during our time here Mansoor would say very little about his past but before leaving I pressed him again about it and what he'd written about how gitmo changed him I have in my head I think the first line of your book which I won't get a precisely word for word in the camps if you have a problem uh and you want to solve it you should probably have to create other problems you have to protest you have to start behave crazy you have to kick the doors why people behave like this that's crazy they're not crazy this is the way how people behave this is the way how actually the place make these people behave I mean we like animals in case literally just animals who can behave like humans that way they were treated I mean I was wondering always what they want what they want from us how did you first get picked up by The Americans okay we didn't turn to go there first I was so liking other than anyone else your soul sold by Afghans to uh to CIA and from there let's stop here I don't want to mention the Box Afghanistan you don't want to talk about well he wouldn't say more according to his case File Mansour was turned over to the U.S by an Afghan warlord who was reported to be on the CIA payroll as I told you why don't you want to talk about that okay let us say wrong time wrong place I need to write it and please may pass in my separate book and separate story you will see it one day I promise you you write about Guantanamo had the difficulty being in place where you don't trust anybody and no one trusts you and you talk about the situation here in Serbia where they're people who you know say that you're a liar or like say that you know might be making things up I mean first of all the governments here or every government they get a picture from united state government That's The Stereotype those people are liars they pretend they are psychologically ill blah blah blah and I was shocked and surprised and everyone repeat the same thing and I'm afraid that you'll get affected with the with the disease here Liar Liar Liar I don't want to talk to you more to appear a liar a liar here finish [Music] we went back to the U.S leading Mansour much as we had found him bitter isolated determined to carry on with his hunger strike mansour's lawyer said she'd made no Headway getting anyone at the state department to reconsider his placement so on the 40th Day of mansoor's hunger strike I went to see the person who had struck the deal to send him to Serbia Ambassador Lee walowski the special Envoy for Guantanamo closure under President Obama hello we willowski nice to meet you wolowski was pressed for time there were 20 detainees he was still trying to find countries for in the remaining weeks of the Obama Administration I asked him about mansour's troubles in Serbia and his hunger strike we spent some time with the former detainee who has been recycled in in Serbia he was sent there last July he seemed like he is in a very desperate situation and he's gotten to the point that he's gone on a hunger strike to protest that well I'm not aware that he's on a hunger strike uh this is uh this is this is the first I've heard that he's on a hunger strike his lawyer said that they'd informed uh the US government about about The Hunger well hunger strikes are not the right way to proceed in addressing grievances the right way to do things there is to try to make the resettlement work we can't force people to make Good Life Choices we can only encourage them to do it and to create an environment where that's possible I think we've done that here and I think the Serbian government has also done it is there any additional responsibility from the US government to the detainees after they've been released and resettled we don't make apologies for having detained people lawfully however we also try to create an environment where individuals can move forward with their lives the Serbian government has created an environment where if he decides to learn the language and take advantage of the opportunities that are being offered to him we are still confident that it can be a successful resettlement but on the state Department's own website it talks about xenophobic violence being a problem in Serbia we've seen no indication in this case that that is a factor at all none of the resettlements that we do are easy they require work on the part of the individual that's been transferred and put in a completely alien environment I'm not minimizing that what I am saying though is that sometimes life isn't perfect and you have to you know make a decision about where you find yourself in life I I do have to be in a meeting to make sure that we're able to get more people out of Guantanamo Weeks Later I'd heard that Mansour started eating again when his mother in Yemen threatened to start her own hunger strike if he didn't stop his then when I was home on a Saturday afternoon he called discovered hidden cameras in his apartment and started ripping them out yeah yeah I used my iPad to record our video call second one is here they're lost there you see it yeah being watched on camera on my part in my in the place where I live I imagine probably you know whoever has the cameras is going to probably come by at some point a few minutes later a group of men came in Mansour turned the camera on them and kept talking to me there's a Moscow here and there is more guns like eight of them are inside outside so what what is going to happen right now okay can you again thinks this will end well you're telling what's wrong with me oh come on at that point more men came in so can you tell me why I'm being white partners can give me one reason am I a crying now I don't know criminal no I'm asking I don't know if you make any kind of the problems do you know the situation just listen to me I'm speaking now you're not speaking now this is my phone [Music] the choice I'm not sleep [Music] I would if I was a bad guy I'm a student I'm very smart I'm very dangerous but I respect children from it I respect Supreme Serbian people I have promised I will never do anything in Serbia but the audio kept going as the men explained why they were there to have any other intentions except going back to our normal life how should I know you are not like a friend well I have done nothing wrong in my life I have nothing to be sure is that nothing happens nothing happens and nothing will happen I want to make my life I want to start my life it has to come to an Arabic country you know that you don't probably have opportunity to do it they see that the Trump Administration now it is not the same like before one month I don't think that you actually have the choice Mansour told me they took his phone and laptop and when he got them back he says all of his data had been wiped clean I called Serbian officials again for comment but they wouldn't respond I returned to Guantanamo just before President Trump took office there are still 41 detainees being held five of them are accused of planning the 9 11 Terror attacks their trial is expected to take place here in the coming years around the base there are signs of a long future ahead what's going on here in terms of the construction currently here on the Hill exam room for the team Medical Center how far away is this from from being finished some time in 2017. the commander of the Detention Center says they're prepared there's some construction going on here is that an indication that this facility will be around for for a while we're preparing for uh whatever the possibility may be going forward with that it provides us a capacity and ability to provide better Medical Care uh to the detainee population helps us out also if there's an aging population if we're here you know 5 10 15 years down the road as well because we have to look for all possibilities for that if the new commander-in-chief who said that he wants to keep the facility open and start sending new detainees here how would you be able to to adjust we have you know multiple you know uh you know plans in place the first thing we'd probably do would be looking at you know not intermingling new detainee's coming in so we'd have to figure out the best way to to do that based upon the number of detainees we'd get outside as I took another tour of the camp something unusual happened a detainee yelled out to me from the wreck yard [Music] where's home communication between detainees and journalists is usually forbidden they made us stop filming but I was able to continue talking to him off camera for several minutes he said he was detainee number 242 that he'd had four reviews but is being held indefinitely without charges he said he's worried he'll be here forever later I texted Mansoor about the exchange I've texted him that uh that detainee tried to talk with me prisoner number 242. monster says this is my best friend he said I think he has hunger strike his name is Khalid yemeni hasn't been clear yet monster said they want him to admit he was wrong they are crazy but he says sorry can't talk about this issue anymore it brings only pain and I haven't figured out what to do today there are 26 detainees like the one who called out to me being held here indefinitely without charges and there are five men who had been cleared for release like Mansour but didn't get out of Guantanamo before Donald Trump took office foreign [Music] programs visit our website at pbs.org Frontline [Music] front lines out of gitmo is available on DVD to order visit shop pbs.org or call 1-800 play PBS Frontline is also available for download on iTunes foreign [Music]

Channel: FRONTLINE PBS | Official

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Id: Wd5JfFjhfMQ

Length: 39min 19sec (2359 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 25 2023