Match.com offers users an easy way to find love, but the online dating service doesn’t mention that a Bret Michaels-quoting Gitmo detainee is one of the potential love matches on its site.
Al Jazeera recently released unclassified letters from a Guantanamo Bay prisoner, Muhammad Rahim al-Afghani, to his lawyer that reveal Rahim has a Match.com account. His lawyer, Carlos Warner, told Al Jazeera that Rahim describes himself on the site as “detained but ready to mingle.”
While Rahim can’t check the account himself, his lawyer keeps him up to date on his “winks” -- one of the ways an individual can signal to someone that they’re interested in them on the site.
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Considered a “high-value” detainee, Rahim is the last known prisoner sent to the facility, having arrived in March, 2008. U.S. officials believe he is a senior Al-Qaeda member who was once a close associate of Osama Bin Laden, but he has yet to be charged with a crime.
Although he doesn’t have an Ashley Madison account, Rahim has sympathy for those who had data exposed after the recent hack of the controversial dating and networking site. “This is terrible news about Ashley Madison … I’ll stick with Match.com – even though you say it is for old people. There is no way I can get Tinder in here,” Rahim wrote.
Rahim’s letters don’t revolve solely around dating and finding a mate. The detainee has also shared a number of opinions on politics and U.S. culture with his lawyer. Rahim reportedly has access to news articles, magazines and satellite television channels, which enables him to keep up with current events.
One letter reveals how he feels about the GOP front-runner for the 2016 presidential race: “Donald Trump is an idiot!!! Sen. McAin is a war hero. Trump is a war zero.”
Related: This Match Is Going Public
He also expressed enthusiasm for Caitlyn Jenner, who recently transitioned genders. “I am happy for her because people are born how they are. I have one question though – how is she a republican? They want to take her rights away.” Rahim also offered her a bit of beauty advice: “Tell her to use spray tan for her legs.”
And Rahim appears to be a fan of both basketball star LeBron James and pop singer Bret Michaels, though not of the city of Miami: “It is good to hear about LeBron coming home. Miami is a good place to visit – but nobody wants to Live there – too greasy and Hot. … as the great Bret Michaels once said – ‘although the Wound heals, the scar Remains!!!’”
On a more serious note, Rahim questions how he can be held without charge and addresses his torture by U.S. officials, which was confirmed by a December 2014 Senate Intelligence Committee report: “I am Innocent and I was Tortured. Hung from the ceiling until I was dead. I am not HIGH value They call me High value because the cia Tortured Me,” Rahim wrote.
