Five Years of My Life: An Innocent Man in Guantanamo

by Murat Kurnaz, Patti Smith (Foreword)

In October 2001, nineteen-year-old Murat Kurnaz traveled to Pakistan to visit a madrassa. During a security check a few weeks after his arrival, he was arrested without explanation and for a bounty of $3,000, the Pakistani police sold him to U.S. forces. He was first taken to Kandahar, Afghanistan, where he was severely mistreated, and then two months later he was flown to Guantanamo as Prisoner #61. For more than 1,600 days, he was tortured and lived through hell. He was kept in a cage and endured daily interrogations, solitary confinement, and sleep deprivation. Finally, in August 2006, Kurnaz was released, with acknowledgment of his innocence. Told with lucidity, accuracy, and wisdom, Kurnaz's story is both sobering and poignant--an important testimony about our turbulent times when innocent people get caught in the crossfire of the war on terrorism.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Biography, Politics, History, German Literature, War

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Murat Kurnaz is a Turkish citizen and legal resident of Germany who was wrongly held in extrajudicial detention by the United States at its military base in Kandahar, Afghanistan and in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, Cuba for five years.

Officials of the United States and Germany had largely concluded in early 2002 that the accusations against Kurnaz were groundless, but he was detained for five years. He was released and arrived in Germany on August 24, 2006.

Kurnaz was repeatedly tortured during detention in Kandahar and Guantanamo.

Reviews

[Suzy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is devastating, and I wonder if anyone who isn't already convinced that Guantanamo should have been closed long ago will read it. The very sky is stolen from Kurnaz (the passage where he writes of this loss is particularly moving), who was known to be innocent in 2002 and continued to waste away in Guantanamo for four more years. It does not have the literary quality of Night by Wiesel, for example, hence the four stars rather than five, but it is an important book, and that Kurnaz survives at all is a testament to his spirit and faith. (I'm sure some readers will doubt the many instances of torture that he recounts, but with all the many revelations that our highest members of government were involved in setting the rules for "harsh interrogation tactics" I see little reason to doubt him. Regardless, even if he had been treated with constant kindness, he was imprisoned for five years without due process of law, and known to be innocent for four of those, and it is unbearable.) I used to wonder how Americans in the 40's could bear the internment of Japanese-Americans, the turning back of boatloads of Jewish people to extinction in Germany, the racism directed against American soldiers of color--but now I understand the feeling of powerlessness that must have gripped so many dismayed by wrongs done by their own government. If you read this book and it moves you, consider joining Amnesty International's fight to close Guantanamo--I wish I knew of more that could be done. Still, in the midst of all the suffering, Kurnaz thinks always of the other people around him, saves scraps of bread to feed the birds and lizards, and indulges in a thousand other small kindnesses that are a testament to the goodness and humanity that can be present anywhere.

[Keith]

finished reading 'Five Years of my Life (in Guantanamo)' by Murat Kurnaz. He's a Turkish student (born in Germany) who got sent to Guantanamo Bay for no reason
What happened, Bush began war on terrorism, Fed's gave $5,000 bribes to Pakistanis to 'find terrorists' so they turned in their neighbors, the doctor who they owed bills to, and lots of Islamic students, some aged 13.
What's good about the book is this Turk is a writer with compassion and a great sense of the absurd. He describes the camps in detail, all the torture techniques like waterboarding, breaking of arms, legs and dismemberment, denying sleep, food, water and air, and constant interrogations of prisoners chained inside tiny metal cages.
Actually the German Special Forces visited and were really impressed by the level of torture- they presented the US commanders with their newest sub-machine gun. All in the background, FREEDOM placards, McDonalds, and the Star Spangled Banner playing.
So why was he released? In 2006 Supreme Court judge declared the Military Tribunals unconsitutional.
2 lawyers got personally involved filing a 'writ of habeas corpus' and managed to get security clearance to represent Mr Kunaz. After 2 years of trying, they appealed to the new woman chancellor of Germany, who personally asked Mr Bush to help.After months of negotiation he was released.

[Julian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wat een verhaal.. van dit boek moet ik even mentaal bijkomen. Het is zo absurd en mensonterend om te lezen wat er in Guantánamo is gebeurd, maakt me plaatsvervangend boos. In 1 ruk uitgelezen.

[Dale Jr. · Rating 4 out of 5]

"...I hoped, like many other lawyers involved in defending Guantanamo detainees, to vindicate a principle: that there should be no prison beyond the law." ~Baher Azmy, lawyer for Murat Kurnaz

The U.S. compound in Guantanamo has, for the most part, been shrouded in secrecy. Until the exposure of torture practices during the Bush administration following the September 11th attacks, I had, unfortunately, not given much thought to such a place. Over the passing years, with more reports surfacing about the treatment of detainees, Obama's broken promise to close Guantanamo, and the ongoing incarceration of detainees without trials, my interest and disgust has built.

After the war in Vietnam, former American POWs spoke of the horrors they endured while imprisoned behind enemy lines. There are those veterans among us who still suffer the mental anguish and nightmares from those days in Vietnam. I've heard them screaming out windows of the local VA hospital. How, then, can we, as a nation, not be disgusted at the fact that our own government is inflicting the same torturous and unjust practices on perceived enemy combatants? We do not stand for our own being tortured, but we turn a blind eye to the torture of those who are not like us. Hypocrisy and doublethink.

Murat Kurnaz outlines his five years of being detained, unlawfully and without evidence, within Guantanamo. The horrors he describes (torture, endless interrogations, cruel soldiers, humiliation, malnutrition) sound more along the lines of brutal concentration camps than the description of an American detention center. He speaks simply and honestly about his time there, exposing the reader to his inner thoughts and questions, his compassion for other detainees (some in their early teens and another man who is in his early 90s), and his everlasting hope of release kept alive by his religious faith.

Even if half of what Murat describes within the pages of Five Years of My Life is true, it should be enough to turn the stomachs of any human being, American or otherwise. This nation was built on principles of equality and fairness, yet our government sees fit to deny these principles to anyone of their choosing regardless of justification.

Five Years of My Life has a few glitches here and there with how the book was arranged and minor editing choices I found awkward at times, but the overall book is a quick and engaging read. It feels as though you are sitting down with Murat in a casual conversation. There are no passages of data or thoughts of conspiracy. Not hatred aimed at America as a whole. This is a man who simply wanted to share his story as a human being subjected to horrible times.

The most unfortunate thing about this book is that many will not read it. Many will choose to ignore the horrors the American government inflicts upon others while keeping it under wraps. Endless torture accomplishes nothing except the debasement of humanity. If I had to be honest, I don't know that I'd be able to endure the treatment Murat was subjected to. As I read through his recollections of solitary confinement, beatings, torture, and exhaustion, all I could think was that even I, as a born and raised, white male American, would have broken down and confessed to anything the officials in Guantanamo had asked me to whether it was true or not.

Prior to reading this book, I had reread Orwell's 1984. The similarities between O'Brian's torture and breakdown of Winston are eerie, to say the least. Has fiction finally started turning to reality? Have we got the humanity in us to turn things around?

[Mark Konrad · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a seasoned human rights activist i have read and reread report after report about the violations of human rights of individuals and have grown used to it. However after reading Mr Kuranz's account of his 5 imprisonment i am absolutely stunned. I am stunned at how cruel one human being can be to another. In this case, the U.S. soldiers who acted as mr. Kurnaz's captors. As familar i am with things like the Universal Declaration of human rights, the geneva convention, rules of engagement, and the army field manual as guidelines for conduct in conflicts. The things tthe US government did to him were far above anything he warrented

as an "enemy combatant" I won't go into the things done to this innocent man, except that- ironically the thing i think i found most disturbing was Kurnaz's discovery that his captors were secretly spitting in his food and serving it to him.



This book personifies the accounts of others like him , i.e. the film The Road To Guantanamo.



It is a moving testimony to the depths that people [ Kurnaz's captors]can sink to

in the name of fighting a war against terror and more proof that everyone deserves to be treated humainly.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was, as might be expected, a difficult book to read. I feel, however, that it is important for those of us who can do things like vote in US presidential elections to understand the full measure of atrocities committed against fellow human beings in the name of our national security and 'freedom.' I was astonished at the level of cruelty this man endured, especially for him to come out the other side with honor, dignity and a sense of self intact. Part of me hopes those who are still enduring such despicable treatment in Cuba are as religious as Mr. Kurnaz. Faith in God can be clung to in a place like that, but faith in man will not last forever under such abuse. Mine was shaken by merely the account of it.

[Sarah Siddiqui · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book just left me stunned, scarred, devastated, and depressed. It's really hard not to develop anti-American sentiments after reading it. For a country that takes great pride in its justice system and calls itself the flag bearer of humanitarianism, this book is truly a slap on its hypocritical face. What's sickening is that even to this day, there are many Americans who favor and fully support the activities which take place at Guantanamo bay. This is just one account of an innocent man who had to bear all that torment. Lord knows how many more Murats will end up sharing a similar fate.

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

easy to read, tough to hear.

[J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I first learned of this account whilst watching an interview with John Le Carre who based his book 'A most wanted man' on Murat's case. Le Carre is the master of cold war spy literature. Indeed what happened to Murat is a result of corrupt U.S. hegemony in the cold war aftermath.

Murat a twenty year old Turkish citizen and a legal resident in Germany decided to travel to Pakistan to study the Koran. He was traveling on a bus when he was taken by the police, thrown in jail and sold to the Americans. It transpired that the U.S military and intelligence agents relied on corrupt informants who were raking in American dollars. He is eventually flown to Guantanamo bay and interred in camp X-ray aptly named due to the open plan system of cages that provide transparency for the guards. Lizards, spiders and snakes make their way into the cages at night. Murat experiences the full menu of interrogation and torture. Thus begins Murat's account of his incarceration in 'Gitmo'.

What amazed me was how equitable Murat is about the whole experience, he struck me as a 'gentle giant'. He doesn't write about post-traumatic stress but perhaps that speaks volumes. He tells us about the only time when the prisoners stood up against the establishment collectively was when a fellow inmate's Koran was taken and thrown on the ground. This defilement of the sacred incensed the prisoners and sent them on hunger strike. According to current media reports not much has changed. The latest hunger strike is now in it's sixth month.

The epilogue written by Murat's lawyer Baher Azmy provides us with the best writing. The only chink of light was the supreme court decision in 2004 that entitled the detainees to challenge the legality of their detentions. Murat had already been in Guantanamo for eighteen months by the time of his alleged suicide bombing.

This is a compelling account that invoked my sense of anger at the incredulity of it all. This is very readable straight forward reportage that could easily be read in a day. What let it down for me was some of the editorial errors that I found in the text, Palgrave and Macmillan really dropped the ball. I found at least three howlers.

Bush claims that Guantanamo housed 'the most dangerous best trained, vicious killers on the face of the earth" yet several prisoners have been released. A film about the three British lads called the Tipton three has been made and 'Five years...' is due for release this year (although the trailer looks poor). John Grisham recently highlighted the plight of Nabil Hadjarab an Algerian who has been in Guantanamo for eleven years, his release has been recommended but nothing has been done. Eighty detainees have been cleared for release yet still remain. I agree with Grisham, the U.S. government should release the innocent and give compensation to those who were found to be innocent yet remained in custody. It begs belief how nations can stand by while their citizens are whisked away to a foreign prison camp and then left out in the cold by their countries. Obama has reneged on his promise to close Bush's theatre of the absurd. Hopefully international pressure will prevail.

Punk legend Patty Smith penned a song about Murat's detention called 'Without Chains' www.youtube.com/watch?v=7shKyRQ22y0

[Diane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Murat Kurnaz is a Mulsim from Germany with Turkish decent. He happened to be in Pakistan studying Islan when the U.S. went to war with Afkanistan. The Pakistanis picked him up and delivered him to the U.S. military for $3,000. He was innocent but still was held in Kandahar and Guantanamo--in both places he was tortured. In fact, the torture techniques reminded me of those in How to Catch a Vampire--that was frightning! The torture was by our own country. I did wonder if all this coupld be true. My five stars is based on Murat being truthful. If it comes out he lied, I would give the book 3 stars.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a disturbing testament. We've all heard tales of atrocities from Guantanamo and places like Abu Ghraib. How long has each of us, as individual citizens, paused to even wonder at the conditions of these prisoners, or the weak justifications for their inhumane treatment?

And who among us has objected? Is it not our duty as citizens to uphold the rule of law and the principles of the Geneva Convention?

Or did we slink away, thinking something to the effect of 'those people get what they deserve' Without due process of law and fair treatment, the information gained from inhumane tactics is highly suspect- people surely will 'confess' merely to alleviate their own suffering.

[Taner Ulupinar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Noch nie hat mich ein Buch so wütend gemacht, so mitgerissen, so für Gänsehaut gesorgt. Vergesst all die fiktive Lektüre. Ich habe es verschlungen. Ich weiß nicht, wie ich es zusammenfassen soll. All die Folter, die völlige Willkür im sogenannten Krieg gegen den Terror, die Unmenschlichkeit, das Bestialische, der Hass. Fünf Jahre lang. Völlig unschuldig. Das musste Murat Kurnaz über sich ergehen lassen und dennoch kriegt er es hin mithilfe der Stern-Reporter eine derart authentische und packende Autobiografie ins Papier zu sprechen.
Lest dieses Buch, wenn ihr einen Augenblick die Wahrheit fühlen wollt.
Lest es.

[Hasan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent telling of one man’s plight all for his being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Murat Kurnaz is on his way to a flight home from Pakistan and his life takes a turn that even Kafka would find unimaginable. If those grabbed up in America’s war on terror and sent to Guantanamo were really the “worst of the worst” as Donald Rumsfeld described them our treatment of them would still be way past morally disgusting. We know lots of things in the world are just plan wrong and this is the story of one of those things.

[Marley · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gut-wrenching memoir about the horrors and secrets of the US military and intelligence. We read this in my human rights class in college when talking about American exceptionalism and human rights, and the professor could not have picked a better book. It is hard to get through at times because it tells a real account of being in Guantanamo; don't back away from that, especially if you are white, because this system of imprisonment, white supremacy, and inhumanity, is a system that should anger you and make you question the system that benefits you.

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really disturbing book if even half of it is true. The book is about a young man detained in Gitmo for five years and details five years of torture, starvation, and oddly, hope. Most disturbing is the claim in the epilogue that the government decided Murat Kurnaz was innocent of any charges a year into his detainment, but continue trying to get him to confess to charge they knew were untrue. A real must read for everybody, readless of your political reviews.

[Zaira Rangel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was very interesting to read. I found it extremely hard to put down once I started it. I always knew that things like this happened in Guantanamo but I never imagined that to this extent. It is an important book to read so that we can begin to understand why so many people are against the U.S and what our government allows under our nose and without our consent.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Should be required reading, a civic duty. The only redemption to be found is in Kurnaz's (and other prisoners') ability to keep a sense of humor and mischief while having to survive through such stupidity and brutality. And that he managed to survive at all.

[Opal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shocking...I am not a crazy liberal or a hippie but I just cannot understand how the travesty of Guantanamo is continuing to exist, besmirching the name of democracy and the American citizenry is not outraged. I highly recommend this glimpse inside.

[Farahin Nadh]

'in camp x-ray,there were always birds. i had fed them with breadcrumbs i concealed from the guards under my clothing and my matress. i used to talk to birds about how strange the world was. they used to be in a cage, and i would visit them and now the situation was reversed.'

[Dawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was amazing. It is so scary to think that this is really going on - that US soldiers can commit such attrocities. A must read for every american.

[Ted · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this book. I was actually in Kandahar when this individual was detained there. I saw the detainment area he was in. This is a story that will make your life seem easy.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Doubtless most of this stuff is true - and gut wrenching. Guantanamo is hell and the guys who created it are evil incarnate.

It's astonishing how fear can fashion men into animals.

[robin]

a book everyone needs to read - removes any excuse for Americans to say, "...we didn't know..."

[Tanya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and heartbreaking first person insight into the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo.

[Diener · Rating 4 out of 5]

EVERY American should read this book!

[Hena · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is truly devastating, horrifying, and draining to read. But read, we must. Its the least we can do.

[Makenzie Verbout · Rating 4 out of 5]

The typos drove me crazy, but the story is fascinating.

[Rebekah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was...horrific. A truly eye-opening account of one of the darkest times in US history. Read for academic purposes.

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book got me all riled up(Possibly because my cousin was in the marines and was killed in Operation Iraqi Freedom)! You may not want to read my review as it may irritate you! :)
He complains that when they tried to say their prayers to Allah- we blasted the national anthem through the loudspeaker. WOW- That's seriously trampling on his rights! Our kids can't even pray in school- so I'm not overly concerned about his right to pray to Allah being "taken away".
At one point he is whining about the masks and mittens and such that they were forced to wear during transport....uuuhhhh the masks prevent them from spitting on the soldiers, and the mittens from scratching.
He also says- he used to admire the Americans now he is getting to know their true nature. He says and I quote "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."
Another big complaint he has is the guards being loud so the prisoners couldn't sleep... yeah, that's called sleep deprivation! Among his other grievances: He was forced to sit in his cell (not allowed to walk around) all day, and lay on his back at night. They weren't allowed to touch the fence or talk.
He cries about having a team of soldiers accompany him (all suited up in riot gear) but then brags about knowing the martial arts, being able to bench 300 pounds, being a boxer... and how his body is a weapon,that at age 14 he beat up someone over the age of thirty! So of course they treated him as though he were a potential threat!
Forms of torture he had to endure: Being taken out to the exercises yard only to be told his time there was up, being taken to the showers and given a three count and then hearing his time was up. Being in solitary confinement where they kept the cell very cold, and where they left it so hot it was hard to breathe. Guards spitting on his plate of food. A scantily clad female officer making suggesting remarks while rubbing up against him (in an interrogation room, as a method of humiliation.)Rough- huh!? I am sorry- but while this doesn't sound enjoyable to me, it does sound like they were trying to break them into giving information. I feel that if he wants to hear about some real torture he should hook up with a Vietnam vet and hear the stories about men choking to death on their own testicles! Many prisons in the world have it worse then this guy did!
He gets upset about the mistreatment but he and his buddies didn't submit- they antagonized the guards- some examples: His Friend gestures to the guards that they are the bug on his arm and then squishes it.
The author tells about being angry when he was told his shower was done and squeezing the bar of soap so it shot out and hit the guard in the forehead. Or when the general was walking through and he and his fellows detainees threw feces mixed with water at the general. Or the time that they searched him and asks if he has any weapons and he says Yes and then gestures to his teeth (lucky I wasn't on guard or I'd have removed the "weapons"!). He also shares the story about the time a group of them removed fans from the ceilings and sharpened the fan blades and used as swords and did some serious damage to the soldiers.
At one point he talks about the spiders that would crawl into his cell and he says" I didn't kill them. They hadn't done anything to me. You shouldn't kill any animal you don't intend to eat. The same goes for plants." But then in other places of the book he talks about killing a snake for fun(pre capture) and killing a scorpion and ugly bug while in the cell,and wounding a fly with a coffee stirrer during a lawyer meeting. So which is it?
One of the biggest problems I had with the book was that he sounded like a big old whiner! This was confirmed with the last chapter when he says things like; "No one other then my lawyer asked if I needed medical, psychological, or any other kind of help." "I tried to apply for welfare benefits, but no one offered me any assistance". Sounds like someone looking for a handout!He complains about the small rations of food that was to the point of starving- but then shares this story.... he was shackled and the guard was pulling him too quickly down the hall, he gets sick of it and does some judo move and takes the guard to the ground, then jumps on him and bashes his for head into the soldiers nose breaking it. I have a hard time believing that after a few YEARS of being starved, that he would have the strength for that!
It comes out that one of his friends told the authorities that he (the author) had been stirred up by the mosques to fight for Afghanistan, heading out to join the Taliban...he had been living with a group known to help the fighters, and had been doing allot of traveling, then the Pakistan police arrested him, and turned him over to the American military. He also had visit from the Turkish(were he was a citizen) and German( where he lived)police/government and neither one really made a large effort to free him, and initially Germany didn't want him back in there country!
So it wasn't as though he was just snatched off the street without any "probable cause"!
Don't get me wrong- he also talks about some "real" torture/interrogation methods- getting knocked around, having his face dunked into a bucket of water and hit in the stomach so that he was forced to inhale water(which the use of this was discontinued by the Bush administration in 2003(GASP! You won't hear that in the media!), and being hooked so that he feet couldn't reach the ground. But I ask this..... what if we hadn't interrogated these guys? What if there had been another 9-11? Then everyone would be complaining that the government hadn't done enough, that we weren't hard enough on them! They did what they had to do!

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Back in 2009, when a slate of Guantanamo detainees were being released by the Obama administration, Bermuda's government agreed to take four Uighur men who had been wrongly imprisoned there. Cue the knee-jerk outrage from my compatriots: "we're going to let terrorists live here? But they're dangerous!" The ignorance - and people's inability to perceive a Muslim man as innocent of wrongdoing - was stomach-turning. Years later, they are still living in Bermuda, causing no harm and are in fact the victims of a kind of statelessness due to the red tape of the release agreement.

In reading Murat Kurnaz's memoir of his Guantanamo detention and release, it dawns on me just how much those men must have endured before coming to live on my island. Kurnaz is a Turkish legal resident of Germany, a kind of second-class citizenship which likely prolonged his detainment. He started to become more religious in his late teens, and planned a trip to an Islamic school in Pakistan which unfortunately coincided with the aftermath of 9/11. On his way back home he was pulled off the bus by police - which Kurnaz thought was a case of mistaken identity. But it was just the start of a five-year ordeal of torture and imprisonment in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay.

Kurnaz's recollection of these years is incredibly difficult to read, but no American should be allowed to turn away in disgust from this story: we have to witness his ordeal to understand what was done to him and others, supposedly in our names and for our "safety". The American military and government officials cared little for the truth, refusing to get an interpreter for him and asking their inane questions in English ("Do you know Osama?" Really??). And those were just the stupid ones, to say nothing of the sadists: he recalls one of his torturers saying "Do you know what the Germans did to the Jews? That's exactly what we're going to do with you."

Throughout it all, Kurnaz maintained his innocence and a kind of mental strength I didn't know was possible. And despite the chains, the beatings, the solitary confinement, and the religious disrespect, he does not blame all Americans for what happened to him. Finally released in 2006, he found out that evidence of his innocence had been apparent since 2002, but suppressed. All the torture and pain had been so the US could try to prove its moral rectitude in keeping him prisoner.

It's heartbreaking to read Kurnaz say he wishes his mother had stopped his naïve 19 year old self from traveling to Pakistan, as innocent as the trip was. Just a few accidents of fate can change a life so permanently. But he is brave to have lived through this experience and have shared it with us, as a way of preventing future atrocities.