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Pashto-speaking Law Student Tells of her Visits to Gitmo

Restricted access to Guantanamo Bay means that few non-military Americans have been able to get a good view of the place and learn what's really going on. The exceptions have been lawyers who have sou

Pashto-speaking Law Student Tells of her Visits to Gitmo

Tom Fudge: The word Guantanamo was not part of the common American language ten years ago. Aside from the people stationed there, about the only Americans who knew of the Guantanamo Bay marine base were those who saw the movie "A Few Good Men." But today, anyone who follows the news knows that's where our most highly valued terror suspects are being held. They also know that the Bush administration has sought to prevent the men, held at Gitmo, from having access to U.S. Courts to challenge their incarceration.

A few years ago, Mahvish Rukhsana Khan was a law student in Miami, a short plane ride from Guantanamo. She was an American who grew up in an ethnic Afghan family, and she wanted to help in the legal representation of the Guantanamo prisoners. She did, and she got a rare look at the reality of the Guantanamo lock-up. Her experiences and observations are now summed up in a book she wrote called "My Guantanamo Diary." She lives in San Diego and she joined us in studio.

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Guest

  • Mahvish Rukhsana Khan, author of My Guantanamo Diary: The Detainees and the Stories They Told Me.