Witnesses of the Unseen: Seven Years in Guantanamo

Lakhdar Boumediene and Mustafa Ait Idir lived quiet, peaceful lives—working for humanitarian organizations, raising young children, filling weekend afternoons with pick-up soccer games and coffee with friends.

In October 2001, along with four other Algerian nationals, they were arrested and accused of plotting to attack the American Embassy in Sarajevo. A Bosnian court ordered that they be set free, only to be "released" into the waiting arms of American special forces. Lakhdar and Mustafa were blindfolded, beaten, shackled, and flown to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Housed outdoors in steel mesh cages, they watched as the now-infamous military prison was built around them. For seven years, they languished in subhuman conditions, enduring torture and harassment, force-feedings and beatings, cut off from communication with their families. Neither was accused of a crime nor allowed to argue his innocence.

Witnesses of the Unseen shares the stories of the plaintiffs behind the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Boumediene v. Bush, which allowed Guantanamo detainees the constitutional right to challenge their detention in federal court. After years of brutal mistreatment, casual violence, and finally the pro bono assistance of an American law firm, Lakhdar and Mustafa were able to secure their release. In these pages, they share their trauma and triumphs in the hope that what happened to them does not happen to innocent people in the future, especially under a flag that should stand for liberty and justice.