Patterico has scored a coup because of his honest and upfront blogging: one of his commenters, Stashiu3, served at Gitmo, and has agreed to tell his story.
The terrorists at Guantánamo knew the American by the name "Stashiu." Readers of this blog know him as "Stashiu3." Stashiu has been reading and commenting on this blog since July 2006, but only recently mentioned that he had been stationed in Guantánamo. When I read that, back on September 17, I immediately e-mailed Stashiu to ask him if he would be willing to speak with me on the record about Guantánamo, and let me publish the results of our conversation. He agreed, and this series of posts is the result.Although I know Stashiu's real name, I am not going to publish it. Stashiu has received death threats from around a dozen Al Qaeda members. Some of the threats have been made in anger, some have been attempts to intimidate -- and some have been simple statements of intent . . . like the detainee who threatened to have Zarqawi cut off the heads of Stashiu and his family.
I am very much looking forward to this series of posts, and will be reading the comments of each carefully, as Stashiu will be doing his best to answer questions that Patterico's readers might have. There will, apparently, be five parts (e.g. four more posted over the next few days) to the interview.
Patterico has done his homework and verified Stashiu's identity, but is keeping it as private as he can to protect Stashiu and his family. He also stated that Stashiu has read each of the posts already to verify that Patterico is indeed posting what Stashiu is saying. As Patterico says in the update to this post:
A reader expresses concern that I have revealed too much regarding Stashiu's identity. This is an issue that he and I discussed extensively. I warned him that including certain details would probably reveal his identity to anyone with a basic knowledge of Google. Stashiu allowed me to retain those details, reasoning that anyone determined enough to find him probably could anyway. I am allowing him to review the posts before publication for the sake of accuracy, so he knows exactly what I am saying about him.
Please make sure you keep an eye on Patterico's blog for this sure-to-be fascinating interview!
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