In another instance, Couch said officials took Slahi outside and made him believe he was about to be executed. Later on, an interrogator pretended to be an official from the White House with a letter from the Department of Defense and the State Department that stated Slahi’s mother was going to be transported to Guantanamo Bay. The false letter expressed concern that guards would not be adequately able to protect Slahi’s mother from the male prisoners, implying that she would be gang raped, Couch said.
“When I was finally holding this false letter, [and] I had this [other] classified information that I can’t discuss, and all this other stuff [already mentioned], I got to a point where I said, ‘Alright…I have read enough, I have seen enough, I have heard enough, I have had enough, bottom line,’” Couch said.
Couch said he decided to act on his feelings a few weeks later after an experience at church. During a baptism, the preacher, who was reading from a liturgy, asked the congregation if each member promised to seek justice and uphold the dignity of every human being.
“On this Sunday, when I heard that, I could have been the only dude in the church,” Couch said. “It was like a thunderclap to the side of the face…I felt at that moment that I was shaken to my innermost being, [and] that this was a bigger issue and I had to do something.”
Two days later, Couch told the chief prosecutor that he would no longer work on the Slahi case. Couch said the chief prosecutor “attacked the messenger and not the message,” and asked him why he thought he was better than everyone else.
