US clears letter handed by Al Dossary to his lawyer before suicide attempt

Manama: A letter handed by its writer, Juma Al Dossary, Bahrain's most famous inmate at Guantanamo Bay, to his lawyer fleeting seconds before attempting to commit suicide has been cleared by the US authorities.

In the letter, Al Dossary said that killing himself was "the only alternative to address the world so that people and fair Americans, be they state officials or judges, could engage in introspection and be true with themselves."

"Why hasn't the Guantanamo issue been settled yet? Until when will this tragedy continue? Until when will the detainees suffer from the bitterness of deprivation, the humiliation of imprisonment and the exasperation of slavery?" Al Dossary asked the world in the message he intended to be from his grave.

Lawyer Joshua Colangelo-Bryan yesterday told Gulf News that Al Dossary gave him the letter in a closed envelope and urged him not to open it at that point, clearly expecting to be dead by the time it was read.

"I opened the envelope after the suicide attempt and found this letter. The letter should have been cleared by the government months ago but the government had refused to clear it," he said.

Al Dossary who had repeatedly denied terrorist links had in December 2001 surrendered to the Pakistani authorities who handed him over to the US army.

In the letter, he wanted Colangelo-Bryan to recall him as "a human being called Juma who suffered tremendously and was oppressed in his religious beliefs, dignity, self and humanity. He was imprisoned, tortured and deprived of his homeland, his family and his young daughter, who have been in most need of him for four years, with no reason or crime committed. Remember that there are hundreds of detainees in Guantanamo, Cuba, who feel the same pain and share the same tragedy. They were captured, tortured and detained for no felony or reason. Their lives might end tragically like mine. When you recall me as I lie dying, remember that the world has let me and our cause down and that our governments let us down. Remember the court's procrastinations and not siding with the victims of injustice. Remember that if there were people who were genuinely fair and defended justice and the victims of injustice and if there were judges who were fair, I wouldn't be wrapped in a death shroud now and my family, my father, my mother, my brothers and sisters, and my little daughter, would not have lost me forever. But what can I do?" said Al Dossary, signing the letter "Prisoner of Deprivation".