For some former Guantanamo detainees, present bleaker than past

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KABUL — Haji Shahzada never leaves home without a neatly folded scrap of paper that is the closest thing to an apology the United States offered after keeping him locked up in Guantanamo Bay for more than two years.

“This individual has been determined to pose no threat to the United States Armed Forces or its interests in Afghanistan,” reads the April 2005 release document, which includes a squiggle of a signature and the initials of a sergeant first class. “This certificate has no bearing on any future misconduct.”

The words are of little consolation to Shahzada as he struggles to rebuild a life he says is in ruins, in a nation he views as worse off than a decade ago when U.S. troops swooped in, promising to rebuild, secure and transform Afghanistan.

Like several other Guantanamo detainees interviewed, Shahzada said he has come to see the toll that the U.S. invasion took on his country as a bigger curse than the years he spent locked up in the seaside prison for suspected terrorists.

full: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/for-some-former-guantanamo-detainees-present-bleaker-than-past/2011/09/09/gIQAJusDIK_singlePage.html