Mansoor Adayfi remembers meeting US presidential candidate, Governor Ron DeSantis – when Adayfi was being force fed in Guantanamo Bay. DeSantis had come to observe.
“Ron DeSantis was there watching us” Adayfi told the podcast Eyes Left, “We were crying, screaming. We were tied to the feeding chair. And he was watching. He was laughing.”
DeSantis has tried to laugh off accusations that he was involved in torture. He asks how the men on Guantanamo can possibly claim to remember individuals from 15 years ago. But Adayfi is adamant.
“During my time at Guantanamo, I witnessed and experienced unimaginable horrors,” he says. “Many of the faces responsible for my and my fellow prisoner’s pain and torment are etched into my memory. Ron DeSantis is one such face I will never forget.”
The American streaming channel Vice has produced a documentary about Governor DeSantis’s involvement with the prison, titled The Guantanamo Candidate. It was meant to be shown on the Showtime network, but the channel’s owner, Paramount, cancelled it. This has now become news in itself after investigation by the website Semafor, which accused Paramount of burying the documentary for political reasons.
Adayfi has written a response, and is now calling for Paramount to show some courage and air the programme.
I am grateful to Vice for their courage in pursuing this story, and I hope they will find another way to bring it to the public. I also stand with my fellow former prisoners who bravely spoke out for this documentary. We refuse to be silenced.
Former Guantanamo detainee Mansoor Adayfi
Article and video about Desantis’ role in Guantanamo in the Independent
Partial transcript of the interview with Mansoor Adayfi:
https://harpers.org/archive/2023/03/ron-desantis-force-feedings-guantanamo-bay-laughing/