Guilt and Innocence

Guilt and innocence are not absolute terms, but rather the endpoints on a continuum of culpability. Slahi maintains his complete innocence throughout his memoir, while the U.S. government maintains that Slahi is a high-priority terrorist. The reader’s challenge is to determine where on the continuum Slahi belongs, and what we accept as grounds for culpability.

Unfortunately for Slahi, he is suspicious almost by virtue of who he is, for characteristics that are almost inherent to his identity. One interrogator told him, for example, that he was suspicious because he is multilingual, educated in a technical discipline, and a Muslim male (192). Though none of these factors suggest a crime, they contribute to the perception that Slahi may be guilty. From Slahi’s point of view, such suspicion is totally unjustified, and rightfully so. Generally speaking, this type of profiling is considered highly questionable by rights...