Guantanamo/Detainees
Autobiography of an Enemy Combatant
Posted Apr 23, 2008, 03:24 pm CST
By Martha Neil
Murat Kurnaz is a German man who spent five years in the custody of the U.S. and its allies and is still considered an enemy combatant even now that he has been released and sent home.
Allegedly tortured and held for years even after U.S. and German authorities determined he had no connection to al-Qaida, as authorities initially claimed, Kurnaz maintained his innocence even when he was told, in 2006, that he would not be freed until he signed a written confession, reports the Village Voice.
Kurnaz has now written a book, Five Years of My Life: An Innocent Man in Guantánamo, about his experiences and would like to come back to the United States to testify in a Senate Armed Services Committee investigation of the way he and other detainees in the custody of the Department of Defense have been treated, the alternative New York newspaper notes. (Carl Levin, D-Mich., is the committee chair and presidential candidate John McCain is its ranking Republican.)
But there's a major problem with that potential plan, the Voice points out: As a claimed enemy combatant, Kurnaz won't be allowed back in the country.