Barack and the Missing Terrorist

Barack Obama wants to close Guantanamo. It will be one of the most remarkable acts of his presidency. Just like Gorbachev’s decision to free political prisoners still in jail or exiled in the big Soviet Union. It will be a breaking point with the American legal culture under Bush when, after 9/11, the Patriot Act reduced the rights of the American people where law enforcement officers can search a home or business without the owner’s permission, and the reintroduction of torture during investigations, which entered the political, legal and constitutional debate as an allowed instrument to extort confessions.

Anyway, Obama should take a look at “normal” jails, too. I met Aicha el-Wafi, Zacarias Moussaoui’s mother, the one and only “terrorist” (actually an aspiring one, having been arrested two weeks before 9/11). Moussaoui is serving a life sentence as the “20th hijacker” of 9/11. Al-Qaeda later said that “the 20th” was Tourki ben Fheid al-Mouteiri-Faouaz al-Nachmi, a Saudi Arabian killed in 2004. We could not believe it, just like we could not believe Bin Laden, who exonerated Moussaoui with his disappointment, since his conduct at the trial has been focused on demonstrating his guilt. Recently, the official records of another prisoner’s trial emerged that the “20th” was another one. The fact remains that Moussaoui is the only one who’s had a public trial and has been sentenced in a normal court.

His mother’s story is amazing. Aicha narrated it in a book that was very successful in France (where she lives) and brought to Italy by Piemme: Mio Figlio Perduto [translator’s note: My Lost Son]. A strong woman who raised four kids alone after running away from a violent husband. And she didn’t give up on Zacarias, even though she did not like any of his ideas. A mother who doesn’t proclaim his son’s innocence, but asks for a conviction for what he really did, not for something he didn’t and couldn’t do. I could feel her tenacity, her strong conscience of her rights as a woman and mother. It’s obvious that she speaks motivated by affection and maternal pity. But her description of the court and the legal system of Bush’s U.S.A. can scare even Italians, used to indecent conditions for prisoners.

Zacarias lives in total isolation: he can’t meet with other prisoners and must stay in a 3×2 meter cell. He’s got only one hour of movement under surveillance. Lights are always on in the cell. No newspapers, no books. On TV, only religious-themed shows are available. No visits. It’s the description of revenge rather than a punishment. Aicha only asks for a mitigation of extreme conditions. Obama should listen to her prayer.