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8/12/23 540 Days at CIA Black Sites. 18 Years at Guantanamo Without Charge. Hundreds of Paintings, Now Out in The World. |
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By Feliz Solomon
From Wall Street Journal | Original Article
Listen to the audio here.
His paintings tell the story of 18 painful years at Guantanamo.
Photo: Insiya Syed for the Wall Street Journal
In the early days of America’s war on terror, U.S. authorities detained Ahmed Rabbani, thinking he was someone else. He was never charged with a crime, and after 18½ years at Guantanamo Bay, he arrived in Pakistan in February—free, but broken. Rabbani has said his only escape was art, and made hundreds of paintings on canvas and scraps of old prisoner clothing or bedsheets. The works offer a rare testament to life in detention: a windowless cell, a man hung by his wrists, a force-feeding chair. In May, 20 of his paintings were shown at a gallery in Pakistan.
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