I don't know when I am coming out but pray for me that it will be soon. I cried a lot when you told me about how the kids talk to their cars and toys as if I am talking to them on the phone. Please try to be easy on them. Don't send any pictures of the kids -- it will make it hard on me here in jail.
In 2013, he was one of the prisoners involved in leading a massive hunger strike, which brought renewed focus on releasing innocent captives and closing the prison. He signed on to a letter pleading for independent medical doctors to be allowed to treat prisoners.
I do not wish to die, but I am prepared to run the risk that I may end up doing so, because I am protesting the fact that I have been locked up for more than a decade, without a trial, subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment and denied access to justice. I have no other way to get my message across. You know the authorities have taken everything from me.
Shaker Aamer's words were a window into how the U.S. military was suppressing a growing uprising within Guantanamo in 2013. The spark was an alleged violation of their Qurans. Aamer and others were subject to forcible cell removals by an "Emergency Reaction Force" known to have brutalized prisoners before.
Military personnel treated Aamer as if he was suicidal to justify isolating him in a cell block for disabled prisoners, which had not been used for several years. He suffered sleep deprivation because of noise in the cell block.
When asked if he wanted to harm himself, Aamer told a psychiatrist, "I have a wife and kids and I expect to be released sometime in the near future as I have been cleared for more than five years. It is not me who wants to harm me, but the [Obama] Administration that is harming me."
Aamer was one of the leaders of a peaceful protest and hunger strike in 2011 as well. From Camp 5E, he and other prisoners condemned the " opening and continuing operation of this unjust detention facility for the ninth year of my continuing and indefinite detention in the absence of any real accusation or crimes committed," and called himself a "hostage."
He and others further castigated Obama and the U.S. government for failing to "remove the injustice" that had "befallen" them. He protested the deprivation of access to family calls and demanded prisoners be allowed to contact family at least once every fifteen days to talk to them for no less than two hours each time.
On or around July 26, 2005, Aamer helped prison authorities negotiate an end to a widespread hunger strike when multiple prisoners on strike had reached the "life-threatening stage." He negotiated and not only pushed for better conditions but also for prisoners to be charged and tried or released.
The negotiations broke down and he was put in isolation for over 360 days despite the fact that prison rules only permit isolation for a period of 30 days.
During this chapter of his confinement, the prison showed disregard for the medical problems he suffered from: his asthma, arthritis, kidney pain, tinnitus, constant constipation and stomach pains. They did nothing about the living conditions causing him extreme pain.
"I Am Living Just to Die"
In 2014, Aamer penned a moving letter on Valentine's Day, which marked the twelfth year of his detention. He arrived at Guantanamo on February 14, 2002, and his youngest child, Faris, was born. (He is thirteen now and Aamer will hug him for the first time today.)
"I feel lonely and lost. Not knowing my future is the worst torture," Aamer declared. "I am living just to die. I am confused about everything and everyone. It is not enough for them to leave us alone with all this pain we are suffering. It is not enough for us to live only with our memories, which bring more pain."
He suggested "dead people" were "better off" than Guantanamo prisoners.
"They are living a new way of life, knowing that they are dead and facing the consequences of their past actions," Aamer contended. "But our suffering is endless--and with it, our loved ones' suffering is endless. We are not dead but they forget us after a while, because they cannot see us or feel us and know how we truly are."
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