Guantanamo Bay Was A Detention Center, Opened In 2002 Following The 9/11 Attacks, To Hold “Enemy Combatants” And Received Numerous Human Rights Complaints. According to McClatchy, “By the time DeSantis joined the Office of the Staff Judge Advocate in Guantánamo in 2006, Americans were already well aware of the nature of the facility and deeply divided over the indefinite detention of its prisoners. President George W. Bush first opened the detention center in 2002, after the Sept. 11 attacks, to hold hundreds of ‘enemy combatants’ that his administration said were primarily al Qaida and Taliban operatives. In the intervening years, human rights groups protested the detention of suspected combatants without the filing of criminal charges, and reports emerged from released or repatriated Guantánamo inmates alleging torture at the camp, prompting widespread controversy back at home.” [McClatchy, 3/7/23]
March 2006 – January 2007: DeSantis Served At Guantanamo. According to McClatchy, “DeSantis wrote in his new book that he was sent on ‘temporary-duty-travel stints’ to Guantánamo Bay, and has spoken of celebrating Christmas at the camp in 2006. Military records obtained by McClatchy show he spent at least six months in Cuba — between March 2006 and January 2007 — where his primary duty was as trial counsel and he served as a ‘JTF-GTMO scheduler/administrative officer.’” [McClatchy, 3/7/23]
DeSantis Arrived In Guantanamo In Spring 2006 Amid A Hunger Strike, Shortly Before The CIA Moved High-Value Detainees To The Facility. According to McClatchy, “As a young military officer at the height of the war on terror, Lt. Ron DeSantis was often seen running on the beach of Guantánamo Bay and along its ridgeline, encircling Camp America. […] He arrived at Joint Task Force Guantanamo in the spring of 2006 as its leaders were grappling with multiple challenges and global scrutiny. Aggressive tactics were adopted to break a hunger strike. An armed clash erupted between detainees and a riot squad in May. Three men were found dead in their cells in the same hour of a single night in June. And the CIA would transfer some of its highest-value detainees to the camp in the fall of that year.” [McClatchy, 3/7/23]
DeSantis Was Only A Year Out Of Harvard Law School When He Was Sent To Guantanamo Bay. According to the Tampa Bay Times, “Ron DeSantis was only about a year out of Harvard Law when he arrived at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.” [Tampa Bay Times, 8/14/18]
Former Guantanamo Staff Sergeant Said DeSantis “Was Very Inexperienced” As A Judge Advocate General (JAG) At The Time Of His Service. According to McClatchy, “‘At the time, he was extremely green in the JAG corps — he had just become a lawyer,’ said Joseph Hickman, who told McClatchy that he frequently saw DeSantis while serving as a staff sergeant at the camp. ‘He was very inexperienced, very young, and from what I’ve seen those guys didn’t have a lot of responsibility.’” [McClatchy, 3/7/23]
Retired Colonel Michael Bumgarner Said DeSantis Would Have Had “Intimate Knowledge” Of Conditions And “Face-To-Face Contact” With Detainees At Guantanamo. According to McClatchy, “Interviews with over a dozen former Navy officers and personnel, defense attorneys and former detainees shed light on the access DeSantis would have had to the men held captive on the base, suspended in a legal and ethical gray zone during a turbulent phase in the camp’s history. […] ‘He would have had very, very intimate knowledge’ of the conditions at the camp, Retired Colonel Michael Bumgarner, commander of the Joint Detention Group at Guantánamo during DeSantis’ service there, told McClatchy and the Miami Herald. ‘He would’ve had face-to-face contact with them — he would’ve known them intimately, their backgrounds and all.’” [McClatchy, 3/7/23]
Former Chief Defense Counsel At Guantanamo Bryan Broyles Said DeSantis And Other JAG Officers Had Regular Contact With Detainees. According to McClatchy, “Bryan Broyles, former chief defense counsel for military trials at Guantánamo, described the Office of the Staff Judge Advocate where DeSantis worked as a ‘tiny little office’ with six cubicles, and McCarthy’s office off to the side. ‘We would only see them when they were directly dealing with our cases,’ explained Broyles, who said he would not have been able to pick DeSantis out of a lineup had he not become governor. ‘That JAG office would have been in much more regular contact with the detainees than the rest of us,’ Broyles said. ‘They intimately would have known the best of their treatment, and the worst of it.’” [McClatchy, 3/7/23]
Capt. Patrick McCarthy Was DeSantis’ Commanding Officer At Guantanamo. According to the Washington Post, “Over the course of nearly a year traveling to and from the base, DeSantis met directly with lawyers and detainees to hear their complaints as they were held without formal charges. He walked through corridors of steel mesh enclosures, ‘looking eyeball to eyeball with a lot of the detainees,’ according to his commander, Capt. Patrick McCarthy. And he spoke regularly with McCarthy and others about pressing legal issues.” [Washington Post, 3/19/23]
McCarthy Said DeSantis Was Part Of Legal Team Assembled By Bush White House To Assist After Three Guantanamo Detainees Were Found Dead. According to the Washington Post, “DeSantis was thrust into a major crisis early in his stint as a legal adviser. On June 9, 2006, around two months after military records say DeSantis began periodically visiting Guantánamo from his home base in Jacksonville, Fla., three detainees were found dead on the same night. With the Bush White House urging a quick resolution, DeSantis was part of a legal team tapped to help the Naval investigators who were interviewing witnesses and reviewing evidence, according to McCarthy, although he did not recall specifics of DeSantis’s role.” [Washington Post, 3/19/23]
DeSantis’ Military Records Said His Responsibilities Included “Provision Of Prosecution, Command Advice, And Court-Reporting Services” In Guantanamo Bay And Seven Southeastern States. According to the Washington Post, “DeSantis began traveling between Florida and the Cuban outpost around March 2006, according to his military records. The records do not specify how long his visits lasted; generally, JAG officers stayed on base for weeks at a time. His responsibilities included ‘provision of prosecution, command advice, and court-reporting services’ in seven southeastern states and Guantánamo Bay, the records say.” [Washington Post, 3/19/23]
Several Retired Naval Officers Who Served At Guantanamo Bay Said DeSantis’ Role Was To Advocate For Fair And Humane Treatment Of Detainees And Ensure Legal Compliance. According to the Tampa Bay Times, “The Times/Herald interviewed several retired Naval officers who served at the detention center at that same period, including several who worked directly with DeSantis. They said DeSantis's role, as a member of the Judge Advocate General corps of military lawyers, or JAG, was to advocate for the fair and humane treatment of the detainees to ensure the U.S. military complied with the law.” [Tampa Bay Times, 8/14/18]
DeSantis Was Placed On McCarthy Team, Which Was Tasked With Ensuring Legal Procedures Were Followed In Interrogation And Detention. According to the Washington Post, “His military records specify his responsibilities at Guantánamo such as ‘scheduler/administrative officer’ — but those who served with him said that understates the broad swath of DeSantis’s work after McCarthy came to trust him as a top aide. He was ‘someone that I could rely on to do a high-visibility mission,’ McCarthy said in an interview with The Post. ‘And if anything went wrong, Guantánamo was in the papers before the folks even got back over to their place. So it a was very high-visibility mission. It was a no-fail mission.’ McCarthy’s job included ensuring that legal procedures were followed in interrogation and detention, at a time when complaints from defense lawyers about mistreatment of their clients was at a peak. He made DeSantis part of his team that responded to the issue.” [Washington Post, 3/19/23]
McCarthy Said DeSantis Spent Time Talking With Detainees’ Lawyers. According to the Washington Post, “McCarthy’s job included ensuring that legal procedures were followed in interrogation and detention, at a time when complaints from defense lawyers about mistreatment of their clients was at a peak. He made DeSantis part of his team that responded to the issue. In practice, that meant that DeSantis spent much of his time talking with detainee lawyers. ‘There were hundreds of attorneys who were coming and going to Guantánamo,’ McCarthy said. ‘He and the people who did the job he had had to deal with all of them.’” [Washington Post, 3/19/23]
DeSantis Said He Advised A Commanding Officer At Guantanamo Bay That Force-Feeding Was A Legal Method Of Breaking A Hunger Strike And That He Laid Out “The Rules For That.” According to the Washington Post, “Ron DeSantis was a 27-year-old Navy lawyer fresh out of Harvard Law School when he arrived in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, amid an escalating crisis at the U.S. military base. Hundreds of ‘enemy combatants,’ held without charges, had gone on hunger strikes. As pressure grew to end the protests, DeSantis later said, he was part of a team of military lawyers asked what could be done. ‘How do I combat this?’ a commanding officer asked in 2006, as DeSantis recalled in an interview he gave years later to a local CBS television station. ‘Hey, you actually can force-feed,’ DeSantis said he responded in his role as a legal adviser. ‘Here’s what you can do. Here’s kind of the rules for that.’” [Washington Post, 3/19/23]
The UN Commission On Human Rights Considered The Force-Feeding At Guantanamo Bay Amounted To Torture. According to the Washington Post, “Independent groups have decried their treatment, with the U.N. Commission on Human Rights concluding that force-feeding amounted to torture, and the International Committee of the Red Cross reaching a similar conclusion about overall conditions at the prison — both claims that the U.S. military has denied.” [Washington Post, 3/19/23]
DeSantis Said Claims Of Detainee Abuse Were Used “Offensively Against Us,” And Was A “Tactic, Technique, And Procedure.” According to the Washington Post, “Asked about the hunger strikes, DeSantis said in the local CBS interview in 2018 that ‘what I learned from that … is they are using things like detainee abuse offensively against us. It was a tactic, technique and procedure.’” [Washington Post, 3/19/23]
[Audio] Eyes Left Podcast, November 2022: “Ron DeSantis’s Military Secrets: Torture & War Crimes” [Soundcloud, Eyes Left, 11/18/22]
Adayfi Was Held Without Charge At Guantanamo Bay From 2002 Until 2016. According to Democracy Now, “We speak with Mansoor Adayfi, a former Guantánamo Bay detainee who was held at the military prison for 14 years without charge, an ordeal he details in his new memoir, ‘Don’t Forget Us Here: Lost and Found at Guantánamo.’ Adayfi was 18 when he left his home in Yemen to do research in Afghanistan, where he was kidnapped by Afghan warlords, then sold to the CIA after the 9/11 attacks. Adayfi describes being brutally tortured in Afghanistan before he was transported to Guantánamo in 2002, where he became known as Detainee #441 and survived years of abuse. Adayfi was released against his will to Serbia in 2016 and now works as the Guantánamo Project coordinator at CAGE, an organization that advocates on behalf of victims of the war on terror.” [Democracy Now, 11/26/21]
July 2016: Adayfi Was Released From Guantanamo On The Recommendation Of President Obama’s Periodic Review Board, Who Found His Release Was Not A Security Threat. According to a press release from the Department of Defense, “The Department of Defense announced today the transfer of Muhammadi Davlatov and Mansur Ahmad Saad al-Dayfi from the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay to the Government of Serbia. As directed by the president's Jan. 22, 2009, executive order, the interagency Guantanamo Review Task Force conducted a comprehensive review of this case. As a result of that review, which examined a number of factors, including security issues, Davlatov was unanimously approved for transfer by the six departments and agencies comprising the task force. On Oct. 28, 2015, a Periodic Review Board consisting of representatives from the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Justice, and State; the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence determined continued law of war detention of al-Dayfi does not remain necessary to protect against a continuing significant threat to the security of the United States.” [Department of Defense, Press Release, 7/11/16]
2017: Adayfi Wrote About His Experiences At Guantanamo In An Op-Ed For The New York Times. According to a Mansoor Adayfi op-ed for the New York Times, “Few detainees had seen the sea before coming to Guantánamo. All that the Afghans knew was that it was a lot of water that kills and eats people. They started asking about the sea. People who knew what the sea was, mostly people like me, from Arab countries, tried to explain it to the Afghans, but that made them even more afraid.” [New York Times, Mansoor Adayfi, 9/15/17]
Adayfi Wrote A Book, “Don’t Forget Us Here: Lost And Found At Guantanamo,” Where He Proclaimed Himself An Innocent Man Detained At Guantanamo Bay. According to the Amazon page for “Don’t Forget Us Here: Lost And Found At Guantanamo,” “This moving, eye-opening memoir of an innocent man detained at Guantánamo Bay for fifteen years tells a story of humanity in the unlikeliest of places and an unprecedented look at life at Guantánamo. At the age of 18, Mansoor Adayfi left his home in Yemen for a cultural mission to Afghanistan. He never returned. Kidnapped by warlords and then sold to the US after 9/11, he was disappeared to Guantánamo Bay, where he spent the next 14 years as Detainee #441.” [Amazon, “Don't Forget Us Here: Lost and Found at Guantanamo,” accessed 2/24/23]
Adayfi Claimed DeSantis Supervised Torture, Including Force-Feeding And Beatings. According to an Eyes Left podcast as transcribed for the website The Real News, “Mansoor Adayfi: We were beaten all day long, all day. There’s a team, whatever you do, they just beat you. Pepper spray, beating, sleep deprivation, that continued for three months. And he was there. Because at the beginning he told us that he was there to ensure we are treated humanely, and if we have concerns or issues, he will take it. But he’s one of the people who actually supervised the torture, the abuse, and the beating all the time at Guantanamo. Mike Prysner: So Ron DeSantis, he wasn’t just there as a lawyer that you could go to. He was actually supervising torture, beatings, and he was supervising these force feedings of you and others. Mansoor Adayfi: Ron DeSantis was there all the time because his job was to walk around and talk to prisoners in the camp. That was the job because the report is like, I am here to ensure you’re being treated humanely. I’m like, I’m telling you Americans, if this is humanity, this guy is a torturer, is a criminal.” [Transcript via The Real News, 12/2/22]
Adayfi Said The Head Of A Team Had Come Over And Informed Him He Was There To Break The Hunger Strike, And The Next Day, Detainees Began Being Force-Fed Ensure. According to the Eyes Left Podcast, “ADAYFI: When they came to break our own hunger strike [inaudible] force-feeding, a team came to us, a general – the head of the team, he was a general, and he said, we were on hunger strike and he said, the first day he said, ‘I am here, I have a job, I was sent here to break your fucking hunger strike. I do not care why you’re here, I don’t care who you are, my job, sir, I’m here to make you eat.’ Today we are talking, tomorrow there will be no talking. The second day, I swear by my God Mike, they brought piles of Ensure, and they start force-feeding us over and over again.” [Soundcloud, Eyes Left (timestamp 10:35), 11/18/22]
Adayfi Said DeSantis Was In The Room During Force-Feedings As Detainees Were “Crying, Screaming.” According to the Eyes Left Podcast, “ADAYFI: Ron DeSantis was there watching us. We were crying, screaming. We were tied to the feeding chair, and that guy, he was watching that, he was laughing, basically. When they used to feed us, because our stomach cannot hold this amount of Ensure. They used to pour Ensure one can after another, one can after another.” [Soundcloud, Eyes Left (timestamp 11:28), 11/18/22]
Adayfi Said The Use Of Force-Feeding Resulted In Detainees Being Made Incontinent, And Along With Beatings And Solitary Confinement, The Hunger Strike Was Broken In A Week. According to the Eyes Left Podcast, “ADAYFI: They used to restrain us in the feeding chair. Which like, at points they tied our heads, our shoulders, our wrists, our thighs, and our legs. […] They kept doing this over and over again, and they put some kind of laxative in the feeding liquid, we’d like, we shit on ourselves all the time. Then, we’d be moved to solitary confinement, really cold cells. If they threw up – and like we used to get them five times a day, it wasn’t feeding, it was torture. So we couldn’t handle it for five days, we couldn’t. Because five times a day? You can’t. You cannot possibly handle it, because they just kept pouring the Ensure. And in one week, they break all of the hunger strikers. In one week, totally. It was a mission. And he was there.” [Soundcloud, Eyes Left (timestamp 12:27), 11/18/22]
Adayfi Said DeSantis Laughed At Defecation Caused By Ensure Force-Feeding. According to the Eyes Left Podcast, “PRYSNER: You say that while Ron DeSantis was observing you being – you were strapped to a chair, they were pouring can after can of Ensure down a tube through your noise. You were obviously in distress, right? At the time, it was obvious to Ron DeSantis that you were in pain. And you say that he was actually laughing during this procedure? ADAYFI: Yes. I mean, like, they were asking us to eat, because they took our hunger strike as though it was a challenge, and they want to break it because when he was there, they were looking at us and laughing, because also we were shitting in ourselves. He was laughing, because – when I was, like, screaming and yelling because – when your stomach full of Ensure, you couldn’t breathe, and you throw up at the same time. Also there was bleeding coming out of my nose, because the tube they brought, really thick tubes, not like the regular one. They brought small one, then they bring really big one, had like piece of metal in the end, it was hurt like hell. And I screaming, like, I was screaming and I look at him, and he was actually smiling like someone who enjoying it.” [Soundcloud, Eyes Left (timestamp 15:00), 11/18/22]
Adayfi Said DeSantis Was Present For Beatings, Sleep Deprivation, And Pepper Spraying Amid The Hunger Strike. According to the Eyes Left Podcast, “ADAYFI: And not just that, they used to also beat us. And if we scream or bleeding came out from our nose or mouth, they would like ‘eat.’ The only word you tell you, ‘eat, eat, eat.’ You know, we were beaten all day long, all day. There’s a team, ‘what are you doing?’ They just beat you. Pepper spray, beatings, sleep deprivation, that continued for three months, and [DeSantis] was there.” [Soundcloud, Eyes Left (timestamp 13:30), 11/18/22]
Adayfi Claimed DeSantis Told Him “You Should Start To Eat” When He Complained About Conditions, And That Adayfi Subsequently Threw Up In DeSantis’ Face. According to the Eyes Left Podcast, “ADAYFI: So when he approached me, I said, ‘this is the way we are treated.’ He said, ‘you should start to eat.’ I threw up in his face. Literally, on his face. PRYSNER: Ron DeSantis? ADAYFI: On his face, yeah.” [Soundcloud, Eyes Left (timestamp 11:49), 11/18/22]
Former Detainee Ahmed Abdel Aziz, Released From Guantanamo After 13 Years With No Charges, Said He Recognized DeSantis’ Face And Would Regularly Visit Detainees On The Block. According to McClatchy, “Ahmed Abdel Aziz, a former detainee who was released after 13 years without being charged with a crime, told McClatchy in a phone call from Mauritania that he recognized DeSantis after being shown a photo of the Florida governor. ‘I remember his face very well,’ Abdel Aziz said. ‘He was coming regularly on the blocks, and sometimes he talked, sometimes he didn’t.’ Abdel Aziz recalls first seeing DeSantis on what he described as a tour of the facility for the new officer. DeSantis’ visits on the block became routine, Abdel Aziz said, noting that he paid particularly close attention to the JAGs because their positions as attorneys made them especially valuable to the detainees.” [McClatchy, 3/7/23]
Aziz Claimed DeSantis Both Witnessed And Received Complaints About Forced Feeding Sessions: “He Aligned With The Bad People In The End.” According to McClatchy, “DeSantis witnessed and received complaints about forced feeding sessions, Abdel Aziz said. ‘He didn’t start as a very bad guy, but the course of events, I think, led him to have no choice,’ Abdel Aziz said. ‘Many of the very big leadership, if they want to be harsh, it’s hard from the lower people to take a different turn. He aligned with the bad people in the end.’” [McClatchy, 3/7/23]
Aziz Claimed DeSantis Was Walking Through Cell Blocks Amid Force-Feeding. According to Florida Bulldog, “Now, Ahmed Ould Abdel Aziz, known in Guantanamo as detainee #757 during his 13-year internment there without charges, has told Florida Bulldog he repeatedly witnessed DeSantis and ‘the feeding people’ entering cell blocks where ‘barbaric’ force feedings were taking place. ‘I wasn’t directly watching Ron DeSantis,’ at the feedings, Aziz said. ‘But we see him entering the blocks beside [us]. The blocks are all aligned…We can see him entering those blocks where they are, you know, feeding people there with that manner of torture. He came with the staff.’” [Florida Bulldog, 3/13/23]
Adayfi Said DeSantis Used His Official Claim Of Ensuring Humane Treatment To Get Intel From Detainees, Then Used That Information Against Them. According to the Eyes Left Podcast, “ADAYFI: You know one of the things that hurt us when someone can tell you that ‘I’m here to help you, I’m here to ensure that you’re treated humanely.’ And when he turn against us – not against, when he turn his face, his true face, it was shock to us all. Because he used to talk to the prisoner. He had like a notebook, and would ask the prisoners, ‘do you have any problem?s’ ‘how can I help you?’ ‘how the guards treated you?’ I’m like, ‘wow, thanks.’ And everything we told him, was turned against us.” [Soundcloud, Eyes Left (timestamp 16:23), 11/18/22]
Adayfi Agreed With The Host’s Assertion DeSantis Took Detainee Complaints As Intelligence For The Prison Camp And Interrogators. According to the Eyes Left Podcast, “PRYSNER: So you’re saying that DeSantis, initially, because he presented himself as the lawyer whose job it was to ensure you were being humanely, then you and other detainees told him the things that were the hardest for you to deal with. The things that you felt needed to change. And then instead of actually making sure those things changed, and that your human rights were respected, he then basically like was gathering intelligence, to then tell the prison camp and the interrogators what it was that was impacting you most so they could do it more to you? ADAYFI: Exactly. That’s what happened there, because the things we used to tell them were turned against us, y’know? I remember when we were talking about the noise in the night, talking about like, the vacuums, the generators, the fans, and everything. And they brought more and more stuff.” [Soundcloud, Eyes Left (timestamp 16:57), 11/18/22]
Adayfi Cited Noise At Night As A Complaint Made To DeSantis, And The Noise Subsequently Was Increased. According to the Eyes Left Podcast, “ADAYFI: Exactly. That’s what happened there, because the things we used to tell them were turned against us, y’know? I remember when we were talking about the noise in the night, talking about like, the vacuums, the generators, the fans, and everything. And they brought more and more stuff. PRYSNER: You told DeSantis, that was one of your complaints to DeSantis, is that how they were sleep depriving you by causing so much intentional noise throughout the night. You told DeSantis this and then they increased the noise? ADAYFI: They increased the noise.” [Soundcloud, Eyes Left (timestamp 17:26), 11/18/22]
Adayfi Cited Complaints To DeSantis Regarding Concerns About Meat, And Claimed Meat Was Subsequently Mixed In With All Their Food. According to the Eyes Left Podcast, “ADAYFI: The food, for example. We used to tell them, we don’t eat meat, because [inaudible] haram or not. What the guard did after that, they used to mix all the food with meat, so that you cannot eat. PRYSNER: And that’s another thing that you told DeSantis was a problem and then they did it again? ADAYFI: It’s not just that.” [Soundcloud, Eyes Left (timestamp 17:57), 11/18/22]
Adayfi Said DeSantis Sought To Find Out What Hurt Detainees The Most, So That It Could Be Expanded. According to the Eyes Left Podcast, “ADAYFI: Medicine. Clothing. Treatment. Sleeping. The desecration of Quran. Everything we talk to [DeSantis] become multiple. Because – he was looking at the impact on you. What hurt you more. Because if you don’t tell them nothing, they need to find a way to hurt you, the thing that affect you more. And after that, we know who he is, basically.” [Soundcloud, Eyes Left (timestamp 18:16), 11/18/22]
Adayfi Claimed DeSantis Was “Splashed,” Which Meant Attacked With Inmate Feces, By Detainees Who Reserved The Practice For The Worst Of The Worst. According to the Eyes Left Podcast, “PRYSNER: Mansoor, to wrap up, you told me there was a resistance tactic of ‘splashing’ camp administrations, as it was called. Which was splashing them with your own feces. But you didn’t use this tactic often, and reserved it only for the most hated torturers there, the worst of the worst. You told me earlier that DeSantis was one of those people who got splashed. ADAYFI: Yes. Only the worst of the worst, basically. Even the camp administration knew that we would not go into this like this. Not everyone got splashed, no. PRYSNER: So DeSantis got the badge of shame? ADAYFI: [Laughing] I mean, yes.” [Soundcloud, Eyes Left (timestamp 19:17), 11/18/22]
DeSantis Recounted That Guantanamo Bay Guards “Would Have Feces Thrown At Them And Other Stuff.” According to the Washington Post, “In his interview with the Florida TV station, DeSantis recalled that ‘guards would have feces thrown at them and other stuff.’” [Washington Post, 3/19/23]
Aziz Characterized DeSantis’ Role As Being To “Write What Happened And Try To Defend It Or To Cover Up Anything Bad.” According to Florida Bulldog, “Said Aziz, ‘I participated in the hunger strike, but I did not reach the force feeding process because I chose to drink the liquid that they were, you know, we were forced to drink voluntarily or they would beat you up and, you know, put the big tube in your nose and go through your throat and you will be choking,’ said Aziz from his home in Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania. ‘This person, they call him now Ron DeSantis. He was the same one who was there, but at that time we don’t know his name. But we know that this is the same person,’ said Aziz. ‘He was involved with uh, in, in, in attending, attending, watching and, uh, not recommending to stop or not telling guards not to do that thing. So, he’s definitely supporting them.’ […] Aydafi has said DeSantis told him that directly. Aziz said JAG officers like DeSantis were ‘in charge of making sure everything is legal, you know, going with the American rules and that there is no violation of the human rights. But they never write anything against the bad practices that were, you know, conducted in, in Guantanamo at that time…Their job is to watch, then to write what happened and try to defend it or to cover up anything bad.’” [Florida Bulldog, 3/13/23]
Adayfi Shared WhatsApp Messages From What He Said Were Three Former Inmates Who Similarly Identified DeSantis From Their Detention. According to McClatchy, “Adayfi keeps up with other former inmates on WhatsApp from his home in Serbia. Adayfi shared text messages with McClatchy that he said were between himself and three additional former inmates, all of whom identified DeSantis from their detention there.” [McClatchy, 3/7/23]
Prisoner Accounts Of DeSantis’ Actions At Facility Were Largely In Line With Details Of DeSantis’ Responsibilities. According to the Washington Post, “Two former detainees interviewed by The Post also said they vividly recalled interacting with DeSantis but did not know his name until he became governor of Florida. One said he personally urged DeSantis to report mistreatment of prisoners to higher-ups. Another said that DeSantis witnessed his force-feeding in person. The prisoners’ accounts could not be independently verified, but broadly match details of DeSantis’s responsibilities.” [Washington Post, 3/19/23]
In 2018 Gubernatorial Run, DeSantis Highlighted His Time At Guantanamo Bay Rarely And Did Not Expand On Details And Declined To Speak On The Issue. According to the Tampa Bay Times, “In his run for governor this year, DeSantis is spotlighting his time at Guantanamo as a key credential. Yet details about what exactly DeSantis did during this historic period are limited. DeSantis' campaign declined to make the candidate available to discuss the experience.” [Tampa Bay Times, 8/14/18]
In His 2023 Book, DeSantis Said He Saw The Opportunity For Military Prosecutions At Guantanamo Bay As A Reason For Joining The Military. According to McClatchy, “In a new book published in February titled ‘The Courage to be Free,’ DeSantis said the prospect of a deployment to Guantánamo factored into his decision to join the military in 2004. ‘One recruiter told me that the assumption was that the Iraq campaign would be over relatively quickly, and that there would be a need for military JAGs to lead prosecutions in military commissions of incarcerated terrorists at Guantánamo Bay,’ DeSantis wrote, using the acronym for a judge advocate general. ‘That turned out not to be what happened, but it seemed plausible at the time and also seemed like a good opportunity to make an impact.’” [McClatchy, 3/7/23]
2016: DeSantis, Citing His Guantanamo Bay Tenure, Said “I Know You Do NOT Want These Terrorists Released” And Opposed The Closing Of The Facility. According to the McClatchy, “DeSantis went straight into politics after his military service in Cuba and Iraq and, from his new perch as a U.S. congressman, repeatedly advocated to keep the Guantánamo Bay facility open. In February of 2016, DeSantis wrote on Facebook that, based on his experience there, ‘I know you do NOT want these terrorists released.’ And in May of that year, he presided over a congressional hearing on the remaining detainees at Guantánamo Bay as chairman of the House Oversight Subcommittee on National Security. ‘To me, the Islamists are on the march,’ DeSantis told the panel. ‘If we close Guantánamo tomorrow and remove the detainees, either release them to other countries or in the United States, is there anybody here that thinks that that would cause a drop in terrorist activity around the world?’” [McClatchy, 3/7/23]
DeSantis Said Guantanamo Bay Was “Very Professionally Run” And Justified Treating Detainees As Having Violated The Laws Of War. According to McClatchy, “Recalling his time in Cuba, DeSantis told the House subcommittee hearing in 2016 that the camp was ‘a very professionally run facility’ that is ‘a very stressful environment for our uniformed personnel who are there.’ ‘These guys should not be treated like they are committing civilian crimes. They should be treated like they are violating the laws of war,’ DeSantis said. ‘And when they are being captured in accordance with that, that should be the prism by which we see this.’ ‘I know this will be an issue that will continue to rear its head,’ DeSantis added.” [McClatchy, 3/7/23]
Miami Herald Editorial HEADLINE: “What Did DeSantis Do At Guantánamo? If He Wants To Be President, Voters Need To Know” [Miami Herald, Editorial, 3/7/23]
Miami Herald Editorial Noted Called For DeSantis To Reveal Exactly What He Did As A 27-Year Old Lieutenant At Guantanamo Bay. According to an editorial from the Miami Herald, “The more we hear about Gov. Ron DeSantis’ time as a Navy lawyer in Guantánamo in the spring of 2006, the more questions we have — and the more we think voters need to know. Here is a man who spends an extraordinary amount of time fighting the so-called war against woke, but how about the war on terrorism, the one for which he had a front-row seat? He has barely addressed it. If he’s going to run for president, well, then, yeah, we need to know exactly what he did as 27-year-old lieutenant at the notorious U.S. military detention facility in Cuba.” [Miami Herald, Editorial, 3/7/23]
Miami Herald Editorial Noted DeSantis Has Dodged Specifics Of His Time At Guantanamo Throughout His Political Career. According to an editorial from the Miami Herald, “DeSantis hasn’t said much about his experience — even in his new book, where presumably he could have laid to rest any concerns. He, instead, skims over his work there by calling it “temporary-duty-travel stints to the Guantánamo terrorist detention camp in Cuba.” He is more forthcoming about his time in Iraq. He didn’t respond to questions from a McClatchy reporter about Guantánamo. But the story, which includes interviews with more than a dozen former Navy officers and personnel, defense attorneys and former detainees, indicates he would have had face-to-face contact with the detainees. According to military records obtained by McClatchy, he was there for at least six months, between March 2006 and January 2007.” [Miami Herald, Editorial, 3/7/23]
Miami Herald Editorial Noted Charges From Detainees Regarding Torture And DeSantis, Saying That Voters Don’t Need To Just Take The Detainees At Their Word, But Do Deserve Answers. According to an editorial from the Miami Herald, “One former detainee, Ahmed Abdel Aziz, who was released after 13 years without being charged with a crime, told McClatchy that he recognized DeSantis after being shown a photo and that DeSantis witnessed and received complaints about forced feeding sessions. He said DeSantis ‘aligned with the bad people in the end.’ We’re not saying voters should simply take the ex-detainee’s word for it, but that certainly raises questions about DeSantis’ responsibilities during those six months.” [Miami Herald, Editorial, 3/7/23]
Miami Herald Editorial: “If [DeSantis] Hopes To Be Considered Commander-In-Chief Material, Though, Voters Deserve A Full And Clear Accounting Of What He Did In Guantánamo.” According to an editorial from the Miami Herald, “It’s clear that Florida’s governor is aiming for the White House, where, if he won the presidency, he would be in charge of the country’s armed forces. If he hopes to be considered commander-in-chief material, though, voters deserve a full and clear accounting of what he did in Guantánamo.” [Miami Herald, Editorial, 3/7/23]
Guantanamo Defense Attorney Yvonne Bradley Said It Was Important For DeSantis’ Record At Guantanamo To Get Out. According to the Miami Herald, “It is an experience in the Florida governor’s life that he rarely discusses publicly and remains largely unexplored, even as he appears poised to mount a campaign for the White House. ‘This guy has the potential to run for president of the United States,’ said Yvonne Bradley, who represented Guantánamo detainees as a military lawyer at that time. ‘I think it’s important for the story to get out.’” [Miami Herald, 3/7/23]