Enemy Combatant: A British Muslim's Journey to Guantanamo and Back, by Moazzam Begg, Free Press. Reviewed by Tami Peterson
The story of Moazzam Begg, a Muslim of Indo-Pakistani origin who fought the National Front on the streets of Birmingham and felt it his duty to embark on aid missions to Bosnia and Afghanistan, could in and of itself make for an engrossing read.
However, this was well before his capture, imprisonment and torture at the hands of US military personnel at Kandahar, Bagram and the notorious Guantanamo Bay which fills up the majority of the book's content.
Begg's account details the psychological and physical torture he suffered while in prison including the use of a screaming female prisoner in the next room, who he believed to be his wife, in order to get him to sign an admission of acts that he didn't commit. He also witnessed others being beaten and shot to death.
In these sort of circumstances it is hard to believe that there was enough humanity left to have a conversation with those on the other side, yet Begg surprises the reader again and again by relaying accounts of friendships that he struck up with various US guards and his attempts to understand them.
In this it seems he succeeded in creating a common understanding more than his interrogators cared to do with him. However, despite some guards sticking their necks out on the line to be kind, Begg points to the reality that he remains 'the bad guy' in their eyes.
Throughout the book, one gets a feel for the propaganda war that has been won amongst the ranks of the US military who continuously refer to 9-11 to justify the torture and imprisonment of those in their charge.
In fact when Begg is first arrested from his new home in Pakistan, an American slaps metal handcuffs on top of his plastic cuffs saying to Begg 'I was given these by the wife of a victim of the September 11th attacks'.
The scale of the seeming belief in conspiracy and lack of knowledge of the region by US CIA, FBI and British MI5 is almost dizzying.
Begg himself is amazed much of the time at the types of questions he is asked and wonders again and again whether they are trying to play mind games or they actually believe their own delusions.
Most of Begg's three years in prison were in solitary confinement, however he was occasionally transferred to units where communication with others was possible.
Most of the conversations focused on Islam or politics. He notes a number of these conversations and particularly his differences with a self proclaimed Al Qaida member about 9-11.
Begg argues that Islam does not allow for the killing of innocents. He is in a similar position later in the book when after being freed, the July 7th attacks happened in Britain and he was bombarded by requests for his views by the media.
The lasting impact of reading this book is the realisation that many of the people Begg met in prison had nothing to do with the groups that the US claim, and further are still held indefinitely without the right to a fair trial and without being charged.
He talks specifically about the British residents who are still being held in varying conditions throughout Guantanamo.
Near the end of the book, he thanks those who worked for his release and points to the website www.cageprisoners.org for more information.
It is vital for political activists to read this book in order to gain an understanding of precisely what has taken place and is continuing to take place at the behest of our governments and to further understand how many innocent people, Muslims in particular, continue to be held without trial or charge in the name of 'freedom'.