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“An intense, important read for anyone interested in the American government’s misguided efforts at Guantánamo.”

“The U.S. government didn’t want you to hear about life in the ‘legal black hole’ of Guantanamo. Having won the right to a judicial hearing and secured their release, Lakhdar Boumediene and Mustafa Ait Idir tell the urgent, compelling story behind their detention and one of the most important Supreme Court decisions of this century. It’s a revealing and moving look at what the U.S. government tried desperately to hide.”

“Witnesses of the Unseen courageously exposes an ugly episode in U.S. history, restoring to Lakhdar Boumediene and Mustafa Ait Idir the humanity hijacked from them by the American government. This book transcends geography and time to take readers from Boumediene and Ait Idir’s early years of innocence to their long imprisonment in the cages of Guantanamo. A must read for all people of conscience.”

“Lakhdar Boumediene and Mustafa Ait Idir are two of the most notorious victims of the U.S.’s post-9/11 program of rendition, torture, and indefinite detention. Kidnapped on groundless suspicions, they are perfectly placed to reflect on the horrors of Guantanamo and the ‘war on terror.’ With a warmth and intelligence sadly lacking in America’s treatment of them, this powerful joint memoir exposes their captors’ cruelty and the Kafkaesque twists and turns of the U.S. government’s efforts to build a case against them.”

“This book gives us insight into a dark period of U.S. history that is bound to repeat itself, unless more people like Mustafa and Lakhdar agree to tell their stories. Through their compelling first person accounts, told with enormous sensitivity, we learn how a culture of fear and suspicion can result in cruelty, injustice, and total disregard for humanity. There is horror, but there is also immense hope in this world where dedicated people, including the victims who have suffered untold indignities, speak up and speak out.”

“In Guantanamo, Mustafa and Lakhdar often lifted my spirits and gave me reasons to smile and to laugh in the midst of so much pain and darkness.  I urge everyone to read this moment of history, which is so beautifully and graciously captured by my two brothers and friends.”

"This book is crucial reading for all Americans. From a faculty perspective, it is invaluable to students in a number of disciplines: political science, criminal justice, and public administration are ones that come readily to mind because of the constitutional issues raised.  Highly recommended."

"There is much that shocks the conscience in Mr. Boumediene and Mr. Idir's book, even to those of us who have read nearly everything about Guantanamo in the 16 long years since it opened. Their resilience, and continuing recovery from the brutal treatment meted out by the United States government, is deeply moving."

2018 PROSE Award: Honorable Mention in the category of Biography & Autobiography

2018 Independent Publisher Book Award (IPPY): Silver Medal in the category of Current Events: Social Issues/Humanitarian