Enemy Combatant: The Terrifying True Story of a Briton in Guantanamo [Paperback]

'A brilliant, terrifying and deeply moving account . . . A warning of the dangers inherent in using religion to justify war'

'If this was a thriller, people would say it was unlikely. Unhappily, it's true'

What is impressive about the account in this book is the sympathy with which [Begg] describes some of his captors. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

'...a shocking story that might open the eyes of those who still believe "Gitmo" is the best available option.' --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

All you want to do is welcome him back, hug his book and punish his tormentors. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

One of the most successful books of the last year...a fascinating prison memoir. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

The most extraordinary thing about Begg's book is the almost complete absence of bitterness --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Moazzam Begg is an ordinary man who has endured an extraordinary fate -- imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit and whose precise nature has never been determined. As far as the US government was concerned, it was enough to label him an 'enemy combatant'. Moazzam was arrested in Pakistan, where he was helping set up education programmes for children, in the panic-stricken months after the 9/11 attacks. He spent three years in prison, much of it in solitary confinement, and was subjected to over three hundred interrogations, death threats and torture, witnessing the killings of two detainees. He was released early in 2005 without explanation or apology. ENEMY COMBATANT is his riveting story. Not just an instant classic of incarceration literature, it reveals for the first time what it means to be an intelligent, engaged Muslim living in the West after 9/11, by someone who has recently emerged as an influential voice in the Muslim community, against both acts of terrorism and the demonising of Islam.

Moazzam Begg is an ordinary man who has endured an extraordinary fate – he is one of the nine Britons detained in the camps at Guantanamo Bay, imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit and whose precise nature has never been determined. As far as the US government was concerned, it was enough to label him an ‘enemy combatant’.

Moazzam was arrested in Pakistan during the panic-stricken months after the 9/11 attacks, having been working across the border in Afghanistan on education and water projects. Hooded, shackled and cuffed, he was taken first to the detention facility at Kandahar, then on to Bagram and finally Camp Echo in Cuba. In all he spent three years in prison, much of it in solitary confinement, and was subjected to over three hundred interrogations as well as death threats and torture, and witnessing the killings of two detainees. He was released early in 2005 without explanation or apology.

Enemy Combatant is his riveting story. Taking us behind the razor wire for the first time, it reveals the terrifying and Kafka-esque world into which he was thrown, a world governed by confusion, fear and frustration as he and his fellow inmates struggled to come to terms with their incarceration and with being accused of crimes of which they had little knowledge, let alone responsibility. Here too is a fascinating insight into the mindsets of his captors and interrogators, describing not just the pointlessness of much of the questioning from MI5 or the FBI but also the wildly divergent views on the ‘war on terror’ Moazzam encountered from the US soldiers on guard detail.

But Enemy Combatant is more than just a powerful and compelling account of a miscarriage of justice. It also explores fully the context of Moazzam’s arrest and his background as an intelligent, politically engaged Muslim living in the West; someone who finds common ground with fellow Muslims enduring oppression around the world but who finds the violent and criminal activity carried out in its name as abhorrent as the Western commentators who all too readily equate the words ‘Muslim’ and ‘terrorist’. Both candid and forthright, it is both an important contribution to the debate about religious integration and a modern classic of incarceration literature. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Moazzam Begg was born in Birmingham in 1968. A former law student, he has travelled extensively in support of Muslim causes. His co-writer, Victoria Brittain, is a former Associate Foreign Editor of the Guardian, and co-author (with Gillian Slovo) of the play Guantanamo: Honour Bound to Defend Freedom.