Summary

This chapter moves backwards in time, recounting events that occurred prior to those in the opening chapter. Slahi opens the chapter with an anecdote from a whimsical Mauritanian folktale, which he applies to his own situation before the U.S. government: “For years I’ve been trying to convince the U.S. government that I am not corn” (71), or rather, a terrorist. Early in the chapter, Slahi empathetically writes, “I understand the anger and frustration of the U.S. about terrorist attacks” (75). He immediately continues, “But jumping on innocent individuals and making them suffer, looking for fake confessions, doesn’t help anybody” (75).

Slahi then describes his decision to leave Canada, a decision he made in order to escape surveillance by the Canadian government after Ahmed Ressam, a member of the mosque Slahi attended, was caught for the Millennium Plot. Upon...