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Fahd Ghazy at around age 17. Photo courtesy the Center for Constitutional Rights
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The first prisoner Xenakis evaluated was Omar—deemed high profile because his father had ties to Osama bin Laden—who'd been accused of lobbing a grenade that killed an American medic during a firefight in Afghanistan. Gravely injured in the confrontation, Omar was found under a pile of debris with two bullet holes in his back and shrapnel in his eyes. International juvenile justice standards identify child soldiers first and foremost as victims in need of representation and rehabilitation. But Omar was air-evacuated to Bagram and interrogated almost immediately—pain relief for his injuries withheld during questioning.Years later, in an interrogation room that doubled as an office for doctor-patient interviews, Omar would say to Xenakis, "I'll tell you what happened in this room." He described being used as a "human mop": After painful stress positions caused him to urinate on the floor, he said, military police poured pine oil on his body and dragged him through the liquid. "These were kids," says Xenakis. "They're threatened and harshly interrogated; they're frightened. I just didn't think it was consistent with our values as a country."International juvenile justice standards identify child soldiers first and foremost as victims in need of representation and rehabilitation.
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But at Guantánamo, American guards flung racist taunts at him. Mohammed was hung by his wrists, deprived of sleep, and subjected to loud music and brightly colored strobe lights that permanently impaired his vision. "I think what was so insidious and damaging was the psychological torture," Rossdale says, commenting on the use of medical professionals to identify and exploit detainees' vulnerabilities. "Breaking down an individual's personality had terrible effects on making him feel powerless and confused, shattering his sense of self. And of course if you do that to a child, it's just multiplied a hundred fold." Mohammed attempted suicide on more than one occasion, cutting his wrists on a metal doorframe, and tying his clothes together to create a noose.But speaking to Tubiana, he also reflected on small systems for survival: learning English by writing on the walls with soap; regaining a modicum of control by taunting guards with their real names, which detainees weren't supposed to know; and deriving pleasure from fleeting, keyhole glimpses of cars outside or the sky. "It's important to understand the sort of sustenance that detainees drew from each other," Rossdale adds. Mohammed, who finally made it out of Chad in 2011 (we've withheld his current location at his request), is married now, his second child born earlier this year. He named the baby Shaker, after Shaker Aamer, a mentor and friend still imprisoned at Guantánamo. "Shaker was one of the men who really looked after Mohammed because he was a young boy," Rossdale explains. "This is his way of saying thank you."Breaking down an individual's personality had terrible effects on making him feel powerless and confused, shattering his sense of self. And of course if you do that to a child, it's just multiplied a hundred fold.
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Fahd Ghazy's family gathers for a meal at the Ghazy home. Photo courtesy the Center for Constitutional Rights.