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The Guantánamo Memoirs of Mohamedou Ould Slahi
Mohamedou
Ould Slahi • Slate
Excerpts from the once-classified journals of a current prisoner.
When I failed to give him the answer he wanted to hear, he made me stand up, with my back bent because my hands were shackled with my feet and waist and locked to the floor. [ ? ? ? ? ?] turned the temp control all the way down, and made sure that the guards maintained me in that situation until he decided otherwise. He used to start a fuss before going to his lunch, so he kept me hurt during his lunch, which took at least two to three hours. [ ? ? ? ? ?] likes his food; he never missed his lunch. I was wondering, how could [ ? ? ? ? ?] have possibly passed the fitness test of the Army? But I realized he is in the Army for a reason.
The fact that I wasn't allowed to see the light made me "enjoy" the short trip between my freakin' cold cell and the interrogation room. It's just a blessing when the warm GTMO sun hit me. I felt the life sneaking back into every inch of my body. I always had this fake happiness, though for a very short time. It's like taking narcotics.
John Moore/Getty Images
Surviving Hell in a Bangladesh Factory Collapse
Gillian Wong, Chris Blake and
Tim Sullivan • Associated
Press
21-year-old factory worker Merina was trapped under the rubble for three days.
Merina was sitting at her knitting machine on the fourth floor, in the Phantom TAC factory, when the world seemed to explode.
She jumped to her feet and tried to run for the door, but pieces of the ceiling slammed down on her. She crawled in search of a place to hide, and found one: a section of the upstairs floor had crashed onto two toppled pillars, creating a small protected area. About 10 other men and women had the same idea, including Sabina, a close friend. The two women clutched hands and wept, thinking their lives would end in a concrete tomb. "We're going to die, we're going to die," they said to each other.
MUNIR UZ ZAMAN/AFP/Getty Images
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