Andy Worthington » A chronological list of all my articles, including the entire Guantanamo archive

The Guantánamo Files: An Archive of Articles — Part Eleven, October to December 2011

Andy Worthington — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 19:32:44 +0000

Please support my work!

Since March 2006, I have been researching and writing about Guantánamo and the 779 men (and boys) held there, first through my book The Guantánamo Files, and, since May 2007, as a full-time independent investigative journalist. For three years, I focused on the crimes of the Bush administration and, since January 2009, I have analyzed the failures of the Obama administration to thoroughly repudiate those crimes and to hold anyone accountable for them, and, increasingly, on President Obama’s failure to charge or release prisoners, and to show any sign that Guantánamo will eventually be closed.

As recent events marking the 10th anniversary of the opening of Guantánamo have shown, this remains an intolerable situation, as Guantánamo is as much of an aberration, and a stain on America’s belief in itself as a nation ruled by laws, as it was when it was opened by George W. Bush on January 11, 2002. Closing the prison remains as important now as it did when I began this work nearly six years ago.

Throughout my work, my intention has been to puncture the Bush administration’s propaganda about Guantánamo holding “the worst of the worst” by telling the prisoners’ stories and bringing them to life as human beings, rather than allowing them to remain as dehumanized scapegoats or bogeymen.

This has involved demonstrating that the majority of the prisoners were either innocent men, seized by the US military’s allies at a time when bounty payments were widespread, or recruits for the Taliban, who had been encouraged by supporters in their homelands to help the Taliban in a long-running inter-Muslim civil war (with the Northern Alliance), which began long before the 9/11 attacks and, for the most part, had nothing to do with al-Qaeda or international terrorism.

As I explained in the introduction to my four-part Definitive Prisoner List (updated in June last year), I remain convinced, through detailed research, through comments from insiders with knowledge of Guantánamo, and, most recently, through an analysis of classified military documents released by WikiLeaks, that “at least 93 percent of the 779 men and boys imprisoned in total” had no involvement with terrorism.

However, as this is a blog, rather than a specifically designed website, I recognize that it is increasingly difficult to navigate, as I approach 1500 posts. In an attempt to remedy this shortcoming, and to provide easy access to the most important articles on the site, I have, in the last two years, put together ten chronological lists of all my articles, covering the periods May to December 2007, January to June 2008, July to December 2008, January to June 2009, July to December 2009, January to June 2010, July to December 2010, January to March 2011, April to June 2011 and July to October 2011, in the hope that they will provide a useful tool for navigation, and will provide researchers — and anyone else interested in this particularly bleak period of modern history — with a practical archive.

This list is the second of two covering my articles in the second half of 2011, and, throughout the three-month period covered by these articles, the main focus of my work was my ongoing analysis of the classified military documents released by WikiLeaks, which involved nine parts of my 70-part, million-word series, entitled, “The Complete Guantánamo Files,” in which I have been telling the prisoners’ stories, as revealed in the files, adding that to what was already known about the prisoners.

In particular, this project has involved me subjecting the US military’s allegations to a forensic analysis, in which I have established above all the alarming extent to which the supposed evidence actually consists of unreliable statements made by a handful of prisoners who are either well-known liars (because they were bribed with more favorable conditions, or they were coerced, or they had mental health problems) or were torture victims, held in secret CIA prisons, whose statements are therefore unreliable.

From November onwards, I wound down my involvement in “The Complete Guantánamo Files,” as it is, to be honest, an exhausting project, and I wanted to spend some time writing about other topics, and also to take time off to think about a source of funding to complete the project in a manner that will give it maximum impact.

As a result, I had the opportunity to focus on the extremely important Occupy movement, specifically in the US and in London, on the age of austerity cynically imposed for ideological reasons by the Tory-led coalition government in the UK (especially with relation to the NHS), on the economic crisis on Europe, and specifically in Greece, which has been made the primary scapegoat of the West’s orgy of greed and debt in the last 15 years, and on hunger strikes by prisoners held in solitary confinement in US prisons. I also wrote about the ongoing case of Bradley Manning, the alleged WikiLeaks whistleblower, and found time to briefly revisit the revolutionary movements in the Middle East — and specifically the situation in Egypt, Syria and British complicity in the torture of opponents of Col. Gaddafi in Libya, although I wish I had had more time to devote to all of these stories.

An archive of Guantánamo articles: Part Eleven, October to December 2011

October 2011

1. Military Commissions: Guantánamo: Military Commissions and the Illusion of Justice
2. WikiLeaks: The Complete Guantánamo Files: WikiLeaks and the Prisoners Released in 2006 (Part Four of Ten)
3. Jose Padilla: It Could Be You: The Sad Story of Jose Padilla, Tortured and Denied Justice
4. Anwar al-Awlaki: Death from Afar: The Unaccountable Killing of Anwar Al-Awlaki
5. WikiLeaks: The Complete Guantánamo Files: WikiLeaks and the Prisoners Released in 2006 (Part Five of Ten)
6. Shaker Aamer: “Ten Hours for Ten Years”: Demonstration for Shaker Aamer, the Last British Prisoner in Guantánamo, as Part of Protest Against the Afghan War in London on Saturday
7. Occupy Wall Street: Protestors in Washington D.C. Call for an End to the Afghan War on its 10th Anniversary, and the Transformation of American Politics
8. UK politics: NHS Privatisation: Protest on Sunday, as 400 Doctors Accuse Government of Planning “Irreparable Harm,” and Lords Prepare Opposition
9. Abu Zubaydah: Abu Zubaydah and the Silencing of Guantánamo’s “High-Value Detainees,” as the CIA Censors His Drawings
10. WikiLeaks: The Complete Guantánamo Files: WikiLeaks and the Prisoners Released in 2006 (Part Six of Ten)
11. US prisons: Pelican Bay and American Torture: Prisoners in Long-Term Isolation Continue Hunger Strike Despite Authorities’ Brutal Response
12. US prisons: As Pelican Bay Hunger Strikers Risk Death, Psychologist Testifies that Solitary Confinement is Torture
13. UK politics: Save the NHS: The Battle is Not Over, Despite the Lords’ Capitulation on the Privatisation Bill’s Second Reading
14. “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo”: Andy Worthington Attends New Screening of “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” in Aberdeen University, October 21, 2011
15. Closing Guantánamo, Afghanistan war: A Call to Close Guantánamo on the 10th Anniversary of the War in Afghanistan
16. Occupy Wall Street, Occupy London: Occupy Wall Street, Occupy London, Occupy the World: Get Out on the Streets Today, and Don’t Go Home
17. Occupy London: Occupy London: Are We Free to Protest, or Is This a Police State?
18. WikiLeaks: The Complete Guantánamo Files: WikiLeaks and the Prisoners Released in 2006 (Part Seven of Ten)
19. Occupy London: Occupy London: As the Canon of St. Paul’s Welcomes the Protestors, They Issue a Statement of Intent
20. UK politics: Save the NHS: Please Sign the 38 Degrees Petition to Scrap the Tory-Led Government’s Privatisation Bill
21. Radio interviews, Omar Khadr: On Antiwar Radio, Andy Worthington Discusses the Omar Khadr Film, “You Don’t Like the Truth: 4 Days Inside Guantánamo”
22. UK travellers: The Dale Farm Eviction: Using Planning Laws to Justify Racism Towards Gypsies and Travellers
23. George W. Bush, torture: Rights Groups Call for the Arrest of George W. Bush for Torture as He Arrives in Canada
24. WikiLeaks: The Complete Guantánamo Files: WikiLeaks and the Prisoners Released in 2006 (Part Eight of Ten)
25. Guantánamo and Congress: Obama vs. Congress: The Struggle to Close Guantánamo, and to Prevent the Military Detention of Terror Suspects
26. Bradley Manning: UN Torture Expert Calls for an End to Solitary Confinement, Discusses Bradley Manning
27. WikiLeaks: The Complete Guantánamo Files: WikiLeaks and the Prisoners Released in 2006 (Part Nine of Ten)
28. Interviews: An Interview with Andy Worthington, Investigative Journalist and Author of “The Guantánamo Files,” for The Sunday Indian
29. Babar Ahmad: Sign the Petition to the British Government: Prevent Babar Ahmad’s Extradition to the US, Put Him on Trial in the UK
30. Occupy London: Occupy London: As Possible Eviction Looms, the Canon and Chaplain of St. Paul’s Resign, and Protestors Challenge the City’s Unaccountability
31. WikiLeaks: The Complete Guantánamo Files: WikiLeaks and the Prisoners Released in 2006 (Part Ten of Ten)

November 2011

32. Kuwaitis in Guantánamo: Life After Guantánamo: Kuwaitis Discuss Their Tortured Confessions
33. Occupy London: Occupy London Protestors Seize Moral High Ground, As Church Declares An End to Hostilities
34. Omar Khadr: No End to the Shameful Treatment of Omar Khadr
35. Babar Ahmad: Petition for Babar Ahmad to be Tried in the UK and Not Extradited to the US Reaches Target of 100,000 Signatures
36. Occupy Wall Street: How Iraq Veteran Scott Olsen, Beaten by Oakland Police, Became a Symbol of the Occupy Movement
37. UK politics: National Student-Led Demo Against University Fees, Austerity Cuts and the Planned Privatisation of Higher Education, November 9, 2011
38. Occupy Wall Street: It’s Bank Transfer Day, As Campaigners Ask US Banks to Repay $108 Billion and Call on Citizens to Open Credit Union Accounts
39. Greek crisis: Crisis in Greece: Experts Call for Return of the Drachma, As Prime Minister Cancels Bailout Referendum
40. Occupy Wall Street: Occupy USA: A Campaigning Message from Kevin Zeese in Washington D.C.
41. Greek crisis: We Are All Greece: Expert Explains How the Greek Crisis is Being Manipulated by Banks and Governments to Enslave Us All
42. Murdoch media: As Hackgate Resurfaces, John Pilger Criticizes Mainstream Media, Salutes Independent Investigative Journalists
43. UK politics: “The Banks Got Bailed Out, We Got Sold Out”: Students March in London
44. Revolution in the Middle East: A Call from Egypt for Solidarity and Support for the Unfinished Revolution
45. UK politics: As Tories Approve Private Takeover of Hospital, Lords Challenge Plans to Let NHS Be Run By An Unaccountable Quango
46. Military Commissions: Trial at Guantánamo: What Shall We Do With The Torture Victim?
47. Radio interviews: Andy Worthington Discusses the Guantánamo Torture Trial with Scott Horton on Antiwar Radio
48. UK politics: Tories Ordered to Stop Hiding Their Damaging Risk Assessment for NHS Reform; Ask Your MP to Help
49. Greek crisis: New Perspectives on the Euro Crisis, and the Need for Greece to Default
50. Occupy Wall Street: Expressing Solidarity with Occupy Wall Street, as Court Prevents Violently Evicted Protestors from Re-Establishing Camp
51. Occupy Wall Street: Where now for Occupy Wall Street and the Occupy Movement?
52. Closing Guantánamo: Don’t Forget the Guantánamo Prisoners Cleared for Release But Still Held
53. Occupy Wall Street: Celebrating Occupy Wall Street, and the November 17 Day of Action
54. Closing Guantánamo: It Costs $72 Million A Year to Hold Cleared Prisoners at Guantánamo
55. Occupy Wall Street: As Deficit Super Committee Fails, “Occupy” Activists in Washington, DC Provide Inspiring Plan for US Economy
56. WikiLeaks: The Complete Guantánamo Files: WikiLeaks and the Prisoners Released in 2007 (Part One of Ten)
57. Revolution in the Middle East: The Unfinished Revolution in Egypt: The People vs. The Military Junta
58. Shaker Aamer: After Ten Years in US Custody, British Resident Shaker Aamer “Is Gradually Dying in Guantánamo,” Says Clive Stafford Smith
59. Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo”: Two New Screenings of “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” — in New York and London
60. Bradley Manning: Hearing Date Set for Bradley Manning, the Alleged Whistleblower Who Exposed the Horrors of America’s Wars and of Guantánamo
61. UK politics: N30 Strike: 2 Million UK Workers to Protest Against Tory-Led Government Cuts
62. Greek crisis: Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay: Greeks Rise Up Against Austerity
63. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: As Judges Kill Off Habeas Corpus for the Guantánamo Prisoners, Will the Supreme Court Act?
64. UK politics: Misery for Nothing: 2 Million on Strike in the UK, As Tories’ Economic Plans Fail

December 2011

65. Shaker Aamer: British MPs Write to Congress to Complain About Guantánamo and to Demand the Release of Shaker Aamer
66. Guantánamo and Congress: Deranged Senate Votes for Military Detention of All Terror Suspects and a Permanent Guantánamo
67. WikiLeaks: The Complete Guantánamo Files: WikiLeaks and the Prisoners Released in 2007 (Part Two of Ten)
68. Guantánamo media: Please Vote for My Guantánamo Article to Win the 3 Quarks Daily Prize for Best Blog Article
69. Shaker Aamer: London Vigil for Shaker Aamer, the Last British Resident in Guantánamo, on Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011
70. Guantánamo media: Write to the Forgotten Prisoners in Guantánamo – for the 10th Anniversary of the Prison’s Opening on January 11, 2012
71. Guantánamo and Congress: Terrorists as Warriors: The Fatal Confusion at the Heart of the “War on Terror”
72. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: Lawyer Laments the Death of Habeas Corpus for the Guantánamo Prisoners
73. Life after Guantánamo, Revolution in the Middle East: Will Egypt’s Military Government Free Former Guantánamo Prisoner Imprisoned Since June?
74. US prisons: Beyond Guantánamo, New York Times Examines How Federal Prisons Deal with Terrorists
75. Bagram, UK complicity in torture: British Court Orders Release of Bagram Prisoner Rendered by UK from Iraq, Held for Seven Years
76. Mohammed El-Gharani: An Extraordinary Interview with Former Guantánamo Child Prisoner Mohammed El-Gharani
77. Conditions in Guantánamo: Conditions at Guantánamo Under Scrutiny
78. Revolution in the Middle East: With 5000 Dead in Syria, Channel 4 Exposes President Al-Assad’s Horrendous Torture Program
79. Guantánamo 10th anniversary, US tour: Close Guantánamo: Andy Worthington Visits US, Attends National Day of Action in Washington D.C., January 11, 2012
80. Revolution in the Middle East, UK complicity in torture: Libyan Rebel Leader, Rendered by UK to Torture by US in Thailand and Gaddafi in Libya, Sues British Government
81. Omar Khadr: Christmas Thoughts for Omar Khadr, Still Held at Guantánamo
82. Guantánamo 10th anniversary, US tour: Ten Years of Guantánamo: Andy Worthington Visits the US to Campaign for the Closure of the Prison, January 5-15, 2012

Note: Please visit the website of the “Close Guantánamo” campaign, and sign up to join a growing body of people demanding that President Obama fulfill his unfulfilled promise to close the prison. Please also sign a new White House petition on the “We the People” website calling for the closure of Guantánamo. 25,000 signatures are needed by February 6 to secure a response from the President.

Andy Worthington is the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison (published by Pluto Press, distributed by Macmillan in the US, and available from Amazon — click on the following for the US and the UK) and of two other books: Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion and The Battle of the Beanfield. To receive new articles in your inbox, please subscribe to my RSS feed (and I can also be found on Facebook, Twitter, Digg and YouTube). Also see my definitive Guantánamo prisoner list, updated in June 2011, “The Complete Guantánamo Files,” a 70-part, million-word series drawing on files released by WikiLeaks in April 2011, and details about the documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (co-directed by Polly Nash and Andy Worthington, and available on DVD here — or here for the US). Also see my definitive Guantánamo habeas list and the chronological list of all my articles, and, if you appreciate my work, feel free to make a donation.

The Guantánamo Files: An Archive of Articles — Part Ten, July to September 2011

Andy Worthington — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 21:43:32 +0000

Please support my work!

For nearly six years, I have been researching and writing about Guantánamo and the 779 men (and boys) held there over the last ten years, first through my book The Guantánamo Files, and, since May 2007, as a full-time independent investigative journalist. For three years, I focused on the crimes of the Bush administration and, since January 2009, I have analysed the failures of the Obama administration to thoroughly repudiate those crimes and to hold anyone accountable for them, and, increasingly, on President Obama’s failure to charge or release prisoners, and to show any sign that Guantánamo will eventually be closed.

As the 10th anniversary of the opening of Guantánamo approaches, this is an intolerable situation, as the prison remains as much of an aberration, and a stain on America’s belief in itself as a nation ruled by laws, as it was when it was opened by George W. Bush on January 11, 2002. Closing the prison remains as important now as it did when I began this work in 2006.

Over the last six years of researching Guantánamo and writing about it on an almost daily basis, my intention has been to puncture the Bush administration’s propaganda about Guantánamo holding “the worst of the worst” by telling the prisoners’ stories and bringing them to life as human beings, rather than allowing them to remain as dehumanized scapegoats or bogeymen.

As I explained in the introduction to my four-part Definitive Prisoner List (updated on June 1 last year), I remain convinced, through detailed research, through comments from insiders with knowledge of Guantánamo, and, most recently, through an analysis of classified military documents released by WikiLeaks, that “at least 93 percent of the 779 men and boys imprisoned in total” had no involvement with terrorism.

However, as this is a blog, rather than a specifically designed website, I recognize that it is increasingly difficult to navigate, as I approach 1500 posts. In an attempt to remedy this shortcoming, and to provide easy access to the most important articles on the site, I have, in the last two years, put together nine chronological lists of all my articles, covering the periods May to December 2007, January to June 2008, July to December 2008, January to June 2009, July to December 2009, January to June 2010, July to December 2010, January to March 2011 and April to June 2011, in the hope that they will provide a useful tool for navigation, and will provide researchers — and anyone else interested in this particularly bleak period of modern history — with a practical archive.

This list is the first of two covering my articles over the last six months, and, in the next article in this series, I’ll cover everything I wrote between October and December 2011, bringing the archive of all my articles up to date.

Throughout the three-month period covered by these articles, the main focus of my work was my ongoing analysis of the classified military documents released by WikiLeaks, which involved 17 parts of my 70-part, million-word series, entitled, “The Complete Guantánamo Files,” in which I have been telling the prisoners’ stories, as revealed in the files, adding that to what was already known about the prisoners.

In this period, I was so busy that I wasn’t able to devote as much time as I would have liked to other topics of importance — the revolutionary movements in the Middle East, and the age of austerity cynically imposed for ideological reasons by the Tory-led coalition government in the UK, although I did find time to cover the problems with solitary confinement in US prisons, and the death penalty (in the case of Troy Davis), the phone-hacking scandal in the UK involving the Murdoch press, and NGOs’ opposition to the narrow focus of David Cameron’s planned torture inquiry. This was also the period in which I was involved in various projects to mark the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, and it was also the time when the Occupy movement began on Wall Street, which I took note of immediately, even though it took me 12 days to write about it!

An archive of Guantánamo articles: Part Ten, July to September 2011

July 2011

1. UK politics: Why We Need Regular Protests Against the Coalition Government’s Brutal Ideological Cuts
2. Uighurs in Guantánamo: Exiled Guantánamo Uighurs in Hamburg Art Exhibition
3. Guantánamo media: The Guantánamo Files: An Archive of Articles — Part Eight, January to March 2011
4. UK politics: Leaked Letter Reveals Tory Welfare Reform Madness: 40,000 More Homeless Families, and An Increase in Cost
5. Torture: Torture “Does Not Work, And Is Wrong”: Former CIA Interrogator Glenn Carle Speaks Out
6. WikiLeaks: WikiLeaks and the Guantánamo Prisoners Released from 2002 to 2004 (Part Two of Ten)
7. Guantánamo media: The Guantánamo Files: An Archive of Articles — Part Nine, April to June 2011
8. UK politics, Murdoch press: Why Would Anyone Trust David Cameron, As Police Arrest Andy Coulson?
9. Torture: Torture Whitewash: Probe of Two CIA Murders Ends Obama Administration’s Investigation of Bush’s Global Torture Program
10. UK torture inquiry: UK Torture Inquiry Boycotted by Lawyers, As David Cameron Fails Again to Demonstrate an Interest in Justice
11. John Walker Lindh: John Walker Lindh, Torture Victim and 9/11 Scapegoat, Profiled by His Father
12. WikiLeaks: WikiLeaks and the Guantánamo Prisoners Released from 2002 to 2004 (Part Three of Ten)
13. TV interviews: Andy Worthington Discusses Al-Qaeda Film “The Oath” on Press TV
14. UK politics: A Good Day for Justice: British Supreme Court Bans Use of Secret Evidence by Intelligence Services
15. Torture: The Time is Right for Americans to Pay Attention to Human Rights Watch’s New Torture Report
16. WikiLeaks: WikiLeaks and the Guantánamo Prisoners Released from 2002 to 2004 (Part Four of Ten)
17. UK politics, Murdoch media: Waiting for the Fall of David Cameron
18. Murdoch media: News of the World Whistleblower Sean Hoare, Who Exposed Andy Coulson’s Knowledge of Phone-Hacking, Is Found Dead
19. UK politics, Murdoch media: Pie Attack on Rupert Murdoch is Highlight of Commons Hearing on News of the World Phone-Hacking
20. Guantánamo and Congress: Congress and the Dangerous Drive Towards Creating a Military State
21. US prisons: Support the Hunger Strikers of Pelican Bay, California, Calling for An End to Solitary Confinement as Official US Prison Policy
22. US prisons: The California Prison Hunger Strike Opposing Solitary Confinement as Torture — and the Insulting Response of Prison Officials
23. US prisons: Hellhole: The Most Devastating Article About Long-Term Solitary Confinement in US Prisons, and Why It Is Torture
24. WikiLeaks: WikiLeaks and the Guantánamo Prisoners Released from 2002 to 2004 (Part Five of Ten)
25. Life after Guantánamo: Video: Ex-Guantánamo Prisoner Murat Kurnaz Tells His Story on Russia Today
26. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: Guantánamo and the Death of Habeas Corpus

August 2011

27. WikiLeaks: WikiLeaks and the Guantánamo Prisoners Released from 2002 to 2004 (Part Six of Ten)
28. Life after Guantánamo, Revolution in the Middle East: Lawyers Appeal for Amnesty for Former Guantánamo Prisoner Held in Egypt (Adel El-Gazzar)
29. Revolution in the Middle East: Hosni Mubarak’s Trial Electrifies the Middle East, But Will Justice Be Served?
30. UK torture inquiry: Ten NGOs Withdraw from UK Torture Inquiry, Citing Lack of Credibility and Transparency
31. UK torture inquiry: Britain’s Secret Post-9/11 Torture Policy Revealed: Was Tony Blair’s Government Guilty of “Developing Something Close to a Criminal Policy”?
32. Torture: New Revelations About The Use of Water Torture at Guantánamo
33. UK politics: Michael Mansfield Defends Students’ Right to Protest, Criticizes Heavy Policing and Draconian Sentencing
34. Radio interviews: Andy Worthington Discusses Guantánamo on the Talking Progressive Politics Show on Blog Talk Radio
35. WikiLeaks: WikiLeaks and the Guantánamo Prisoners Released from 2002 to 2004 (Part Seven of Ten)
36. WikiLeaks: WikiLeaks and the Guantánamo Prisoners Released from 2002 to 2004 (Part Eight of Ten)
37. WikiLeaks: WikiLeaks and the Guantánamo Prisoners Released from 2002 to 2004 (Part Nine of Ten)
38. Torture: More Evidence of the Use of Water Torture at Guantánamo and in Afghanistan and Iraq
39. Shaker Aamer: Fears for the Health of Shaker Aamer, the Last British Resident in Guantánamo
40. Guantánamo media, 9/11 anniversary: My New Article for the 10th Anniversary of 9/11, “When America Changed Forever,” in Australia’s Overland Magazine
41. WikiLeaks: WikiLeaks and the Guantánamo Prisoners Released from 2002 to 2004 (Part Ten of Ten)
42. Revolution in the Middle East: An End to Gaddafi’s Tyranny: The Liberation of the Hated Abu Salim Prison
43. Noor Uthman Muhammed, Military Commissions: Tyler Cabot’s Important Profile of Guantánamo Prisoner Noor Uthman Muhammed for Esquire
44. WikiLeaks: WikiLeaks and the Guantánamo Prisoners Released After the Tribunals, 2004 to 2005 (Part One of Five)
45. Kuwaitis in Guantánamo: Can Kuwait Break the Guantánamo Deadlock?

September 2011

46. UK politics: The UK “Riots” and Why the Vile and Disproportionate Response to It Made Me Ashamed to be British
47. WikiLeaks: WikiLeaks and the Guantánamo Prisoners Released After the Tribunals, 2004 to 2005 (Part Two of Five)
48. UK politics: Save the NHS: Make No Mistake, the Government Plans to Privatise Our Precious Health Service
49. WikiLeaks: WikiLeaks and the Guantánamo Prisoners Released After the Tribunals, 2004 to 2005 (Part Three of Five)
50. UK politics: Save the NHS: As Lib Dems Vote to Support Tory Privatisation Plans, The Last Hope is the House of Lords
51. UK politics, Iraq: The Baha Mousa Inquiry: A Good Day for British Justice, A Bleak Day for the British Army and Their US Mentors
52. Dick Cheney: Ten Years After 9/11, America Deserves Better than Dick Cheney’s Self-Serving Autobiography
53. Guantánamo media, 9/11 anniversary: In FAIR’s Extra! Magazine, Andy Worthington on 9/11, Guantánamo and the Failures of US Corporate Media
54. TV interviews, 9/11 anniversary: Andy Worthington Discusses 9/11 and America’s Disproportionate and Mistaken Response on Russia Today
55. Guantánamo media, 9/11 anniversary: The Center for Constitutional Rights Marks “The 9/11 Decade and the Decline of US Democracy”
56. WikiLeaks: WikiLeaks and the Guantánamo Prisoners Released After the Tribunals, 2004 to 2005 (Part Four of Five)
57. Life after Guantánamo: In Afghanistan, Former Guantánamo Prisoners Reflect on Their Ruined Lives
58. WikiLeaks: WikiLeaks and the Guantánamo Prisoners Released After the Tribunals, 2004 to 2005 (Part Five of Five)
59. Tunisians in Guantánamo, Revolution in the Middle East: Tunisians Call for the Release of Prisoners in Guantánamo
60. Ahmed Errachidi: Ahmed Errachidi, Guantánamo Prisoner 590: The Cook Who Became The General
61. Guantánamo media, 9/11 anniversary: After Ten Years of the “War on Terror,” It’s Time to Scrap the Authorization for Use of Military Force
62. WikiLeaks: The Complete Guantánamo Files: WikiLeaks and the Prisoners Released in 2006 (Part One of Ten)
63. Russians in Guantánamo: The Black Hole of Guantánamo: The Sad Story of Ravil Mingazov
64. Death penalty: The Horror of America: Georgia Set to Execute Troy Davis, Despite His Conviction Being Riddled with Doubt
65. WikiLeaks: UPDATED – WikiLeaks: The Unknown Prisoners of Guantánamo (Part One of Five)
66. Death penalty: RIP Troy Davis: Your Killers Should Be Ashamed
67. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: US Injustice Laid Bare, As Afghan in Guantánamo Loses His Habeas Appeal
68. WikiLeaks: The Complete Guantánamo Files: WikiLeaks and the Prisoners Released in 2006 (Part Two of Ten)
69. WikiLeaks: The Complete Guantánamo Files: WikiLeaks and the Prisoners Released in 2006 (Part Three of Ten)
70. Occupy Wall Street: “Occupy Wall Street”: My Support for the Protestors in the “Financial Gomorrah of America”
71. UK travellers: The Dale Farm Eviction: How Racism Against Gypsies and Travellers Grips Modern-Day Britain
72: Revolution in the Middle East: “Syria: Inside the Secret Revolution” – Harrowing BBC Documentary Tells the Truth About Bashar Al-Assad’s Brutality

The Guantánamo Files: An Archive of Articles — Part Nine, April to June 2011

Andy Worthington — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 13:15:39 +0000

Please support my work!

For over five years, I have been researching and writing about Guantánamo and the 779 men (and boys) held there over the last nine and a half years, first through my book The Guantánamo Files, and, since May 2007, as a full-time independent investigative journalist. For nearly three years, I focused on the crimes of the Bush administration and, since January 2009, I have turned my attention to the failures of the Obama administration to thoroughly repudiate those crimes and to hold anyone accountable for them, and, increasingly, on President Obama’s failure to charge or release prisoners, and to show any sign that Guantánamo will eventually be closed.

My intention, all along, has been to bring the men to life through their stories, dispelling the Bush administration’s rhetoric about the prison holding “the worst of the worst,” and demonstrating how, instead, the majority of the prisoners were either innocent men, seized by the US military’s allies at a time when bounty payments were widespread, or recruits for the Taliban, who had been encouraged by supporters in their homelands to help the Taliban in a long-running inter-Muslim civil war (with the Northern Alliance), which began long before the 9/11 attacks and, for the most part, had nothing to do with al-Qaeda or international terrorism. As I explained in the introduction to my four-part Definitive Prisoner List (updated on June 1 this year), I remain convinced, through detailed research, through comments from insiders with knowledge of Guantánamo, and, most recently, through an analysis of classified military documents released by WikiLeaks, that “at least 93 percent of the 779 men and boys imprisoned in total” had no involvement with terrorism.

However, as this is a blog, rather than a website, I recognize that it is increasingly difficult to navigate, as there are so many “Categories,” and, most crucially, there is no access to articles in anything other than reverse chronological order. In an attempt to remedy this shortcoming, and to provide easy access to the most important articles on the site, I have, in the last 18 months, put together eight chronological lists of all my articles, covering the periods May to December 2007, January to June 2008, July to December 2008, January to June 2009, July to December 2009, January to June 2010, July to December 2010 and January to March 2011, in the hope that they will provide a useful tool for navigation, and will provide researchers — and anyone else interested in this particularly bleak period of modern history — with a practical archive.

This particular list was initially intended to bring the story up to date by covering my articles over the last six months, but as I examined my output, and realized that I now publish far more than I did even a year ago, I thought that, to make it more manageable, I’d publish it in two halves. Part Eight (published on July 3) therefore covers the period from January to March 2011, and this part covers April to June.

In terms of Guantánamo, this was a fascinating time for a revival of interest in the prison, as a counterpart to the sorry story of how, lacking courage, President Obama failed to stand up to critics in his own party, and particularly in the Republican Party, which has, over the last two years, become thoroughly cynical and negative, seizing opportunistically on Guantánamo as a win-win situation, involving the relentless use of a policy of fearmongering on a population largely starved of genuinely informative mainstream media.

In the last week of April, WikiLeaks arrived to shatter the veil of silence and apathy that had grown up around Guantánamo. Having been approached by Julian Assange to act as an independent media partner, I was the point of liaison between WikiLeaks and its mainstream media partners (the Washington Post, McClatchy Newspapers, the Daily Telegraph, Der Spiegel, Le Monde, El Pais, La Repubblica, L’Espresso and Aftonbladet) in the release of 765 classified military files (the Detainee Assessment Briefs) containing assessments of almost all of the 779 men held in the prison since it opened on January 11, 2002.

I helped these media outlets to understand what to look for in the files, as I explained in my articles, WikiLeaks Reveals Secret Guantánamo Files, Exposes Detention Policy as a Construct of Lies and How to Read WikiLeaks’ Guantánamo Files, which were both written originally for WikiLeaks, and I have since begun a detailed file-by-file analysis of all the documents, which will continue until Christmas, as well as updating my definitive Guantánamo prisoner list with reference to some of these developments (and also including photos from the files). However, back in early May, after a frantic week of TV and radio interviews on my part, alongside various articles by the media partners, the US government seized back the initiative by arranging for Osama bin Laden to be assassinated in Pakistan.

This distressing Wild West scenario — designed, it seemed, to appeal to the extrajudicial murderer apparently lurking deep in the American psyche — was also supposed to kick-start Obama’s re-election bid, although it also became a convenient peg on which unprincipled advocates of endless war, of torture and of the continued existence of Guantánamo could drape their feeble, self-seeking arguments which, nevertheless, gained traction in the US media.

Throughout this three-month period, I also conducted a major review of the situation at Bagram, in Afghanistan, where the Geneva Conventions have not made a return since the Bush years and prisoners have none of the legal rights of the Guantánamo prisoners. Nevertheless, although the laws of wartime detention have been rewritten, there is a review process in place (albeit one that the Supreme Court found “inadequate” when used at Guantánamo), and prisoners do sometimes secure their release, unlike at Guantánamo, where the only man to leave in this period, who was severely mentally ill, departed in a coffin.

Beyond Bagram, I continued to follow the story of Bradley Manning, the alleged WikiLeaks whistleblower, and his distressing treatment by the US government. I also continued to monitor the revolutionary developments in the Middle East (primarily in Syria), and also, on various fronts, in the UK, where I focused on university fees, the threat to the NHS, and how welfare reforms are leading to an increase in suicides amongst the disabled. I also looked at strike action in the UK, and the huge protests taking place in Greece and Spain against savage austerity cuts and mass unemployment.

Thank you again, my readers and supporters, for your continuing support of my work, which, as I regularly explain, is nothing without you. The most important thing to me is that my work is read, and circulated to others who will find it of interest, but I am also, of course, a self-employed new media journalist, reliant upon a handful of organisations — and also on the generosity of my supporters — to financially support the relentless output that is captured here. As a result,, if you would like to support my work (much of which was produced without any financial support whatsoever), then please feel free to donate via the PayPal button above.

Much work, sadly, remains to be done in order to try to secure the closure of Guantánamo, as the 10th anniversary of the prison’s opening approaches (on January 11, 2012), and also to maintain calls for those who authorised the use of torture to be held accountable for their actions. All three branches of government — the administration, the courts and Congress — have failed on both fronts, and this is particularly depressing, two and a half years after the Bush administration left office. However, those of us who care simply cannot give up. On these points, I believe, we are fighting for the very soul of America against dangerous people who are determined to continue the erosion of the principles — or, at least, the values and aspirations — on which America was founded.

An Archive of Guantánamo Articles — Part Nine, April to June 2011

April 2011

1. Revolution in the Middle East: Torture and Terrorism: In the Middle East It’s 2011, In America It’s Still 2001
2. Bagram: Updating the Definitive Bagram Prisoner List — 200 Review Board Decisions to Release, Transfer or Detain Added
3. Bagram: Broken Justice at Bagram — for Afghans, and for Foreign Prisoners Held by the US
4. Bagram: Voices from Bagram: Prisoners Speak in Their Detainee Review Boards (Part One of Three)
5. Military Commissions, 9/11 trial: Holder, Obama and the Cowardly Shame of Guantánamo and the 9/11 Trial
6. Radio interviews: Andy Worthington Discusses the Guantánamo Prisoners’ “Habeas Hell” and Obama’s Cowardly Retreat on the 9/11 Trial on Antiwar Radio
7. US protests: After Wisconsin and the “We Are One” Rallies, Where Now for Mass Protest in America?
8. Bagram: The “Dark Side” of Bagram: An Ex-Prisoner’s Account of Two Years of Abuse
9. Guantánamo media: On Guantánamo and Torture, Campaigners Send A Letter to the Justice Department: “US Democracy is in Far Sorrier Shape Than We Feared”
10. Bagram: Bagram and Beyond: New Revelations About Secret US Torture Prisons in Afghanistan
11. UK politics: Battle for Britain: The Government’s Idiocy on Increased University Tuition Fees Revealed
12. 9/11 trial: The 9/11 Indictment: The Case We Would Have Seen In New York Had A Federal Court Trial Proceeded
13. Bradley Manning, WikiLeaks: On the Torture of Bradley Manning, Obama Ignores Criticism by UN Rapporteur and 300 Legal Experts
14. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: How the Supreme Court Gave Up on Guantánamo
15. Radio interviews: Andy Worthington Discusses Guantánamo and the Failure of US Justice Under Obama with Peter B. Collins
16. Guantánamo media: The New Yorker’s Hendrik Hertzberg Criticizes Obama for Failure to Close Guantánamo, or to Call for Accountability for Torture
17. Bagram: Voices from Bagram: Prisoners Speak in Their Detainee Review Boards (Part Two of Three)
18. Revolution in the Middle East: Syria: On Independence Day, Calls for Freedom and Protests About the Torture of Activists and Journalists
19. Bradley Manning, WikiLeaks: US Intelligence Veteran Defends Bradley Manning and WikiLeaks
20. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: More Judicial Interference on Guantánamo
21. Interviews: Former Guantánamo Prisoner Khaled Ben Mustapha Interviewed by Cageprisoners
22. Revolution in the Middle East: The Roots of Revolution in Syria: The Sad Tale of Tal Al-Mallouhi, A Girl Imprisoned for Blogging
23. WikiLeaks: WikiLeaks Reveals Secret Guantánamo Files, Exposes Detention Policy as a Construct of Lies
24. TV interviews: Andy Worthington Discusses the Significance of WikiLeaks’ Guantánamo Files on Democracy Now!
25. WikiLeaks: The New Yorker’s Amy Davidson Captures the Despair in WikiLeaks’ Guantánamo Files
26. Radio interviews: Andy Worthington Discusses WikiLeaks’ Guantánamo Files on the BBC World Service and Press TV
27. WikiLeaks: The Hidden Horrors of WikiLeaks’ Guantánamo Files
28. Torture: Study Says Doctors at Guantánamo Neglected Or Concealed Evidence of Torture, Plus My Interview with Press TV
29. Radio interviews: Andy Worthington Discusses WikiLeaks’ Guantánamo Files with Scott Horton on Antiwar Radio
30. Interviews: Andy Worthington Tells the Truth About WikiLeaks’ Guantánamo Files in an Interview with Alexa O’Brien

May 2011

31. WikiLeaks: How to Read WikiLeaks’ Guantánamo Files
32. Radio interviews: On CounterSpin, Andy Worthington Discusses WikiLeaks’ Guantánamo Files, Lucinda Marshall Discusses Exposé of Author Greg Mortensen
33. Radio interviews: The Nation Conversations: Andy Worthington Discusses WikiLeaks’ Guantánamo Files with Kevin Gosztola
34. Osama bin Laden: With Osama bin Laden’s Death, the Time for US Vengeance Is Over
35. WikiLeaks: Scaremongers Fail to Undermine WikiLeaks’ Guantánamo Revelations
36. Osama bin Laden, Torture: Osama bin Laden’s Death, and the Unjustifiable Defense of Torture and Guantánamo
37. Radio interviews: Andy Worthington Discusses WikiLeaks’ Guantánamo Revelations on the Michael Slate Show
38. TV interviews: Andy Worthington Tears Down the Osama Bin Laden “Torture Debate” on Press TV
39. Osama bin Laden, Torture: New York Times Attempts to Stifle Torture Debate It Helped Spark in the Wake of Osama bin Laden’s Death
40. Guantánamo and the Supreme Court: The Abandonment of Guantánamo’s Uighurs and Attorney Sabin Willett’s Powerful Requiem for Habeas Corpus in the US
41. “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo”: Two New UK Screenings of “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” with WikiLeaks Partner Andy Worthington – in Leicester and Hull
42. Life after Guantánamo, Revolution in the Middle East: Tunisian Freed from Guantánamo and Sent Home from Italy Reflects on His Imprisonment
43. WikiLeaks: Abandoned in Guantánamo: WikiLeaks Reveals the Yemenis Cleared for Release for Up to Seven Years
44. WikiLeaks: Col. Morris Davis Discusses Guantánamo, Torture and Intelligence in the Wake of the Latest WikiLeaks Revelations
45. Osama bin Laden, Guantánamo and Congress: No End to the “War on Terror,” No End to Guantánamo
46. WikiLeaks: WikiLeaks: The Unknown Prisoners of Guantánamo (Part One of Five)
47. Radio interviews: On Antiwar Radio, Andy Worthington Discusses Pro-Torture Propaganda in the Wake of Osama bin Laden’s Death
48. “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo”: Five New UK Screenings of “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” with WikiLeaks Partner Andy Worthington — in London, Cardiff, Shropshire and York
49. Abu Zubaydah, Torture: “High-Value Detainee” Abu Zubaydah Blinded By the Bush Administration
50. UK politics: Act Now to Save the NHS, as Government Advisor Claims Reforms Will Show “No Mercy” and Allow “Big Opportunity” for Profiteering
51. WikiLeaks: WikiLeaks: The Unknown Prisoners of Guantánamo (Part Two of Five)
52. Deaths in Guantánamo: The Only Way Out of Guantánamo Is In a Coffin
53. Deaths in Guantánamo: Guantánamo Suicide Was Severely Mentally Ill, And Was A Case of Mistaken Identity
54. Shaker Aamer: During State Visit by Barack Obama, Amnesty International Asks David Cameron to Call for Return from Guantánamo of Shaker Aamer
55. John Walker Lindh: Free John Walker Lindh, Scapegoat of the “War on Terror”
56. Guantánamo and Congress: Rights Groups Tell Congress: Vote No to Dangerous New “War on Terror” Provisions
57. Guantánamo and Congress: White House Threatens to Veto War Provisions and Restrictions on Closing Guantánamo in Defense Bill
58. Shaker Aamer: During Obama’s UK Visit, Shaker Aamer’s Children – and Campaigners – Call for His Return from Guantánamo
59. WikiLeaks: WikiLeaks and the 14 Missing Guantánamo Files
60. Guantánamo and Supreme Court, Torture: Supreme Court Fails to Tackle Torture – in the Past or in the Future
61. Amnesty International: Happy Birthday, Amnesty International: Peter Benenson’s “The Forgotten Prisoners” Published 50 Years Ago Today
62. Radio interviews: Andy Worthington Discusses WikiLeaks and Guantánamo with Linda Olson-Osterlund on KBOO FM in Portland, Oregon
63. Bradley Manning, WikiLeaks: Bradley Manning and WikiLeaks: New Film by the Guardian Tells His Troubling Story
64. WikiLeaks: WikiLeaks: The Unknown Prisoners of Guantánamo (Part Three of Five)

June 2011

65. Guantánamo media, WikiLeaks: Guantánamo: The Definitive Prisoner List — Updated for 2011, With New Information and Photos from WikiLeaks
66. “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo”: Open City: New London Film Festival Screening of “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo,” UCL, June 19, 2011
67. Military Commissions. 9/11 trial: The 9/11 Trial Timewarp: It’s February 2008 Again
68. Revolution in the Middle East: Syria: After the Brutal Torture and Murder of 13-Year Old Hamza Al-Khateeb, The Revolution Will Not Be Silenced
69. UK politics: Brutal Benefit Cuts for the Disabled Are Leading to Suicides in the UK
70. “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo”: Bring Shaker Aamer Home: Parliamentary Screening of “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo,” London, Tuesday June 21, 2011
71. TV interviews: Video: Andy Worthington Discusses the Omar Khadr Film “You Don’t Like the Truth” on Press TV
72. WikiLeaks: WikiLeaks: The Unknown Prisoners of Guantánamo (Part Four of Five)
73. Deaths in Guantánamo: On the 5th Anniversary of the Disputed Guantánamo “Suicides,” Jeff Kaye Defends Scott Horton
74. WikiLeaks: WikiLeaks and the 22 Children of Guantánamo
75. Deaths in Guantánamo: Teleconference: Five Years After Disputed “Suicides” at Guantánamo, Father of Dead Man Appeals Court’s Refusal to Consider His Case
76. Deaths in Guantánamo: Relatives of Disputed Guantánamo Suicides Speak Out As Families Appeal in US Court
77. Life after Guantánamo: Ex-Guantánamo Prisoner Adel Al-Gazzar Returns Home to Egypt and Is Arrested
78. WikiLeaks: WikiLeaks: The Unknown Prisoners of Guantánamo (Part Five of Five)
79. Radio interviews: Andy Worthington Discusses Obama’s Permanent Guantánamo with Scott Horton on Antiwar Radio
80. WikiLeaks: WikiLeaks and the Lawyers: Justice Department Finally Allows Attorneys to See Leaked Guantánamo Files, But Not to Download, Save or Print Them
81. TV interviews: Video: Andy Worthington Discusses the Omar Khadr Film “You Don’t Like the Truth” on Press TV (Part Two)
82. Obituaries: A Tribute to Anti-War Campaigner Brian Haw, Driven by Revulsion at the Murder of Innocents
83. Torture, Accountability: Rights Groups Tell Obama: Reward Those Who Opposed America’s Use of Torture in the “War on Terror”
84. Stonehenge: Happy Summer Solstice to the Revellers at Stonehenge — Is it Really 27 Years Since the Last Free Festival?
85. Guantánamo media: Write to the Forgotten Prisoners in Guantánamo (Summer 2011)
86. UK politics: June 30: A National Day of Action Against the Incompetent Tory-Led Coalition and Its Savage Ideological Cuts
87. European protests: The Revolution Reaches Europe: Tens of Thousands Protest in Greece and Spain
88. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: Judges Keep Guantánamo Open Forever
89. Shaker Aamer: Video: Sarah Gillespie Plays Her Song About Shaker Aamer, “How the West Was Won,” Live in London (with Gilad Atzmon)
90. WikiLeaks: WikiLeaks and the Guantánamo Prisoners Released from 2002 to 2004 (Part One of Ten)
91. Abu Ghraib, Torture: US Supreme Court Refuses to Allow Abu Ghraib Torture Victims to Sue Military Contractors
92. Abu Ghraib, Torture: In the US, on the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, A Glimmer of Hope Amidst the Hypocrisy

Andy Worthington is the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison (published by Pluto Press, distributed by Macmillan in the US, and available from Amazon — click on the following for the US and the UK) and of two other books: Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion and The Battle of the Beanfield. To receive new articles in your inbox, please subscribe to my RSS feed (and I can also be found on Facebook, Twitter, Digg and YouTube). Also see my definitive Guantánamo prisoner list, updated in June 2011, details about the new documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (co-directed by Polly Nash and Andy Worthington, on tour in the UK throughout 2011, and available on DVD here — or here for the US), my definitive Guantánamo habeas list and the chronological list of all my articles, and, if you appreciate my work, feel free to make a donation.

The Guantánamo Files: An Archive of Articles — Part Eight, January to March 2011

Andy Worthington — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 19:58:34 +0000

Please support my work!

However, as this is a blog, rather than a website, I recognize that it is increasingly difficult to navigate, as there are so many “Categories,” and, most crucially, there is no access to articles in anything other than reverse chronological order. In an attempt to remedy this shortcoming, and to provide easy access to the most important articles on the site, I have, in the last 18 months, put together seven chronological lists of all my articles, covering the periods May to December 2007, January to June 2008, July to December 2008, January to June 2009, July to December 2009, January to June 2010 and July to December 2010, in the hope that they will provide a useful tool for navigation, and will provide researchers — and anyone else interested in this particularly bleak period of modern history — with a practical archive.

This list was initially intended to bring the story up to date, but as I examined my output over the last six months, and realized that I now publish far more than I did even a year ago, I thought that, to make it more manageable, I’d publish it in two halves. This part therefore covers the period from January to March 2011, and Part Nine (to be published soon) will cover April to June.

In terms of Guantánamo, this was another bleak period, confirming President Obama’s inability to close the prison. With the support of The World Can’t Wait, I visited New York and Washington D.C. in January to mark the ninth anniversary of the opening of the prison with a protest outside the White House, and numerous events and TV appearances, but although there was more mainstream media interest than in previous years it did nothing to effect any major changes. In the last six months, just one prisoner left Guantánamo alive — an Algerian who was repatriated against his will. Two others left in coffins — an Afghan who died in February, and another to be covered in Part Nine, who died in May — bringing the prison’s population to 171.

Beyond these distressing stories, the D.C. Circuit Court maintained its opposition to any lower court ruling that would have led to the release of any prisoner, thereby ensuring that, between Congress, the courts and the administration itself, every option for prisoners to leave Guantánamo alive has been closed down. This is a particularly bleak situation, made all the more depressing by the public’s indifference, and by the full-scale return of the reviled Military Commission trial system, replacing federal court trials, which Obama apparently found too difficult to champion, despite securing a successful outcome in the only Guantánamo-related federal court trial that has taken place — that of former CIA “ghost prisoner” Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, who received a life sentence in January.

A further disappointment came in March, when President Obama established, by executive order, a framework for granting periodic reviews to 48 prisoners who had been approved for indefinite detention without charge or trial by the Guantánamo Review Task Force, an inter-agency group of officials and lawyers who had reviewed all the Guantánamo cases in 2009. This was a particular low point, as the Task Force had concluded that the men were too dangerous to release, even though there was no evidence against them that would stand up in any court, and Obama agreed, thereby attempting to justify arbitrary detention on the basis of hearsay or other unreliable testimony produced through torture, coercion or bribery.

In the hope of providing further education about Guantánamo, I traveled to Poland in February, for a week-long tour of a subtitled version of the documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo,” which I co-directed with Polly Nash, and that same month I also began a UK tour of the film, mainly with Amnesty International student groups, although some of these dates had to be cancelled when I became ill — although I’m glad to be able to confirm that I am now fully recovered.

The Polish tour coincided with one of the few areas in which the hope is still alive that Bush administration officials and lawyers will one day be held accountable for their actions in presiding over, authorizing and approving a global torture program. An investigation is ongoing into the Polish government’s role in the creation and management of a secret CIA torture prison in Poland, in 2002-03, and another hopeful incident also came in early February, when President Bush cancelled a trip to Switzerland, after lawyers prepared a torture indictment to be submitted on his arrival. As a result, it is now fair to say that George W. Bush is probably unable to travel to any country that has signed up to the UN Convention Against Torture, as he faces prosecution for having bragged in his autobiography that he authorised the torture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

With little activity on the Guantánamo front (until WikiLeaks published classified military documents relating to the prisoners in April), and with what news there was being so relentlessly bleak, I allowed myself the opportunity to cover other important events — the revolutionary movements in Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria, Libya and Syria, workers’ agitation in the United States, the ongoing pre-trial imprisonment in solitary confinement of the alleged Wikileaks whistleblower Bradley Manning, and the disgraceful program of ideologically motivated cuts to the British state by the Frankenstein’s Monster coalition government of the Tories and Lib Dems.

As ever, I thank you, my readers and supporters, for your continuing support of my work, which is nothing without you. As I mentioned above, I’ll be publishing Part Nine of this list in the near future, bringing the story up to date, but in the meantime, if you would like to support my work financially (as much of this work was produced without any financial support whatsoever), then please feel free to donate via the PayPal button above.

An archive of Guantánamo articles: Part Eight, January to March 2011

January 2011

February 2011

43. Military Commissions: Guantánamo and the Military Commissions: Revolution Interview with Andy Worthington
44. Revolution in the Middle East: Revolution in Egypt – and the Hypocrisy of the US and the West
45. Revolution in the Middle East: Guantánamo: A Tale of Two Tunisians
46. Deaths in Guantánamo: Guantánamo Prisoner Dies After Being Held for Nine Years Without Charge or Trial (Awal Gul)
47. Guantánamo media: The 11-Year Old American Girl Who Knows More About Guantánamo Than Most US Lawmakers
48. “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo”: Bringing Guantánamo to Poland — and Talking About the Secret CIA Torture Prison
49. Deaths in Guantánamo: In Afghanistan, 5,000 Attend Funeral of Prisoner Who Died in Guantánamo, as Afghan Peace Council Calls for Release of Former Taliban Official
50. Yemenis in Guantánamo: A Cry for Help from Guantánamo: Adnan Latif Asks, “Who Is Going to Rescue Me From the Injustice and the Torture I Am Enduring?”
51. Revolution in the Middle East: In Egypt, Protests Undimmed, as Mubarak Prepares to Cede Power, Torture Stories Emerge and the Revolution Finds a Hero in Wael Ghonim
52. Revolution in the Middle East: Protestors in Egypt Remain Angry and Determined as Mubarak Fails to Quit
53. Shaker Aamer, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo”: Amnesty Calls Treatment of Shaker Aamer, the Last British Resident in Guantánamo, A “Mockery of Justice,” Announces Andy Worthington’s Film Tour in Support of Shaker’s Release
54. Revolution in the Middle East: As Mubarak Resigns, Ex-Guantánamo Prisoner Mamdouh Habib Reminds the World that Omar Suleiman Personally Tortured Him in Egypt
55. UK politics: Battle for Britain: Fighting the Coalition Government’s Vile Ideology — and Praise for UK Uncut
56. Revolution in the Middle East: In Post-Mubarak Egypt, Protestors Demand A Date for Free and Fair Elections from the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces
57. Revolution in the Middle East: Responding to Egypt’s Revolution, President Bouteflika Violently Suppresses Protest in Algeria
58. Torture: Andy Worthington Discusses His Polish Tour of “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” and the Secret CIA Torture Prison in Poland on Antiwar Radio
59. Aafia Siddiqui: Compelling New Evidence About Aafia Siddiqui’s Detention by the ISI, and Her Rigged Trial in the US
60. UK politics: Battle for Britain: Resisting the Privatization of the NHS and the Loss of 100,000 Jobs
61. George W. Bush, Accountability for torture: George W. Bush, War Criminal, Is Not Welcome in Europe
62. Military Commissions, Torture: Hiding Horrific Tales of Torture: Why The US Government Reached A Plea Deal with Guantánamo Prisoner Noor Uthman Muhammed
63. Life after Guantánamo: Moazzam Begg Interviews Former Guantánamo Prisoner Saber Lahmer in Paris
64. George W. Bush, Accountability for torture: The Indictment for Torture Filed Against George W. Bush (Part One: The Facts)
65. David Hicks, Life after Guantánamo: Empathy and Self-Reflection: An Extraordinary Article by Jason Leopold About His Friendship with Former Guantánamo Prisoner David Hicks
66. Yemenis in Guantánamo: Another Desperate Letter from Guantánamo by Adnan Latif: “With All My Pains, I Say Goodbye to You”
67. David Hicks, Life after Guantánamo: Ex-Guantánamo Prisoner David Hicks Gives His First Interview — To Jason Leopold of Truthout
68. Revolution in the Middle East: Revolution in Libya: Protestors Respond to Gaddafi’s Murderous Backlash with Remarkable Courage; US and UK Look Like the Hypocrites They Are
69. “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo”: First US Film Festival Date: “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” Screens at the D.C. Independent Film Festival, Washington D.C., March 5, 2011
70. Military Commissions: After Recent Ruling in the Case of Bin Laden’s Cook, Guantánamo Should Close by July 2012 (Ibrahim al-Qosi)
71. Revolution in the Middle East: The Year of Revolution: The “War on Tyranny” Replaces the “War on Terror”
72. Radio interviews: Andy Worthington Discusses the “Political Prisoners” of Guantánamo on Antiwar Radio
73. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: Habeas Hell: How the Great Writ Was Gutted at Guantánamo
74. Revolution in the Middle East: Is This the Endgame for Gaddafi’s Murderous Regime in Libya?
75. Radio interviews: Video: Andy Worthington Discusses the Revolution in Libya with Ernest Hancock
76. UK torture inquiry, Shaker Aamer: Lawyers and Human Rights Groups Criticize Proposed UK Torture Inquiry, As the Government Fails to Address the Return of Shaker Aamer, the Last British Resident in Guantánamo
77. UK torture inquiry: NGO Letter to Chair of UK Torture Inquiry, Raising Concerns About Possible Whitewash
78. Revolution in the Middle East: Tunisia: The Unfinished Revolution, as Prime Minister Resigns, Despite Progress on Elections and the Release of Political Prisoners
79. US protests: The New American Revolution: Are Wisconsin’s 100,000 Protestors A Sign of Further Resistance to Come?
80. “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo”: Two Bradford International Film Festival Screenings of “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo,” March 26 and 27, 2011

March 2011

Andy Worthington is the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison (published by Pluto Press, distributed by Macmillan in the US, and available from Amazon — click on the following for the US and the UK) and of two other books: Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion and The Battle of the Beanfield. To receive new articles in your inbox, please subscribe to my RSS feed (and I can also be found on Facebook, Twitter, Digg and YouTube). Also see my definitive Guantánamo prisoner list, updated in June 2011, details about the new documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (co-directed by Polly Nash and Andy Worthington, on tour in the UK throughout 2011, and available on DVD here — or here for the US), my definitive Guantánamo habeas list and the chronological list of all my articles, and, if you appreciate my work, feel free to make a donation.

The Guantánamo Files: An Archive of Articles — Part Seven, July to December 2010

Andy Worthington — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 15:01:32 +0000

Please support my work!

For five years, I have been researching and writing about Guantánamo and the 779 men (and boys) held there over the last nine years, first through my book The Guantánamo Files, which tells the story of the prison and around 450 of the prisoners, and then through 12 online chapters, which provide information about the majority of the other 329 prisoners (see the links in the left-hand column). Since May 2007, I have followed up on this project, working as a full-time independent investigative journalist, covering stories as they develop, and focusing in particular on the stories of released prisoners, the Military Commission trial system, and the prisoners’ progress in the courts, through their habeas corpus petitions. For nearly three years, I focused on the crimes of the Bush administration and, since January 2009, I have turned my attention to the failures of the Obama administration to thoroughly repudiate those crimes and to hold anyone accountable for them, and, increasingly, on the Obama administration’s failure to charge or release prisoners, and to show any sign that Guantánamo will eventually be closed.

My intention, all along, has been to bring the men to life through their stories, dispelling the Bush administration’s rhetoric about the prison holding “the worst of the worst,” and demonstrating how, instead, the majority of the prisoners were either innocent men, seized by the US military’s allies at a time when bounty payments were widespread, or recruits for the Taliban, who had been encouraged by supporters in their homelands to help the Taliban in a long-running inter-Muslim civil war (with the Northern Alliance), which began long before the 9/11 attacks and, for the most part, had nothing to do with al-Qaeda or international terrorism. As I explained in the introduction to my four-part Definitive Prisoner List (which I hope to update in the near future), I remain convinced, through detailed research and through comments from insiders with knowledge of Guantánamo, that “at least 93 percent of the 779 men and boys imprisoned in total” had no involvement with terrorism.

However, as this is a blog, rather than a website, I recognize that it is increasingly difficult to navigate, as there are so many “Categories,” and, most crucially, there is no access to articles in anything other than reverse chronological order. In an attempt to remedy this shortcoming, and to provide easy access to the most important articles on the site, I have, in the last year, put together six chronological lists of all my articles, covering the periods May to December 2007, January to June 2008, July to December 2008, January to June 2009, July to December 2009, and January to June 2010, in the hope that they will provide a useful tool for navigation, and will provide researchers — and anyone else interested in this particularly bleak period of modern history — with a practical archive.

This latest list brings the story up to date, covering my articles in the last six months, from July to December 2010. I’d like to say that progess was made in this period, but in fact the opposite is true, and over the last six months the activities of the Obama administration, of Congress, and of the D.C. Circuit Court, have ensured that Guantánamo may not close while Obama is in office.

Just seven prisoners — out of the 97 cleared for release by the President’s interagency Guantánamo Review Task Force — were released in the last six months. This was the lowest six-monthly total since 2002, and was largely because of the unprincipled moratorium on releasing any Yemenis (amounting to guilt by nationality) that was announced by the President last January after hysteria greeted the news that the failed Christmas Day plane bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab (a Nigerian), had been recruited in Yemen. Under international pressure, the administration released a solitary Yemeni who had won his habeas corpus petititon, but no one cared — or seems to care still — that there was no basis to connect the remaining 58 Yemenis cleared for release by Obama’s interagency Guantánamo Review Task Force to a terrorist cell that had sprung up in Yemen in the last few years, or to presume that any released prisoner would somehow end up joining this cell. In fact, as the year came to an end, Congress also embroiled itself in the arguments, unconstitutionally including provisions in spending bills preventing the President from releasing any prisoner to a country regarded by lawmakers as dangerous — a list that included Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen.

When it came to trying any of the 35 prisoners that the Task Force recommended for trials, there was also little movement. Two men — Ibrahim al-Qosi, a sometime cook for Osama bin Laden’s entourage, and former child prisoner Omar Khadr — were put forward for trials by Military Commission, but were persuaded to accept plea deals so that the administration could avoid the embarrassment of actually proceeding with trials. In Khadr’s case, however, this could not disguise the fact that the Obama administration had proceeded with the first war crimes trial of a child prisoner since World War II, in spite of international treaties designed to guarantee the rehabilitation rather than the punishment of child soldiers, and, moreover, had done so by persuading Khadr to confess to war crimes that had been invented by Congress.

In October, the only man transferred from Guantánamo to the US mainland to face a federal court trial — Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a suspect in the 1998 African embassy bombings, and a former CIA “ghost prisoner” — was convicted on just one of the 285 charges that he faced, by a jury that was evidently unwilling to accept that he was a major player, but was prepared to accept that he was not entirely blameless. Despite the fact that Ghailani faces 20 years to life in prison, critics seized on the result as a failure, the administration did not protest enough that the result was actually a success, and, at year’s end, Congress responded with another unconstitutional power grab, including other provisions in the spending bills mentioned above, which prohibited any Guantánamo prisoner from being brought to the US mainland for any reason, and also prevented the administration from purchasing a prison on the US mainland to rehouse them. This was a naked ploy to prevent the administration from proceeding with the federal court trial of Khaled Sheikh Mohammed and four other men accused of involvement in the 9/11 attacks, which had been announced by Attorney General Eric Holder in November 2009.

With little movement on releasing any of the 90 cleared prisoners still held, and the administration unable to proceed with federal court trials and unwilling to proceed with trials by Military Commission for any of the 33 men recommended for trials by the Task Force (after criticism of the appalling treatment of Omar Khadr), the final stumbling block to the closure of Guantánamo concerns the 48 prisoners recommended for indefinite detention without charge or trial by the Task Force. This was always an unacceptable proposal, as it risked permanently enshrining indefinite detention as US policy, and it was not reassuring that, instead of allowing these men’s habeas petitions to proceed, and relabeling those found to be have been soldiers as prisoners of war, administration officials announced instead that they were preparing an executive order endorsing the men’s detention, but providing them with the opportunity to have their cases periodically reviewed.

On habeas corpus, this was also a bleak period. Although two Yemenis won their habeas petitions, they are still held (and the government seems to have decided that appealing sucessful petitions — even in the case of an innocent man with severe mental health problems — is preferable to releasing them), and five other men lost their petitions, in part because the administration was happy for the notoriously Conservative D.C. Circuit Court to overturn successful petitions, and to propose a standard for detention that would have pleased the most hardline members of the Bush administration. This, too, remains a disgrace, and it is not reassuring that, with the retirement of Justice John Paul Stevens, the Supreme Court, which may be called upon to review the basis of detention at Guantánamo for a fourth time, now has a default position on national security issues that is more right-wing than it was under President Bush.

In an attempt to highlight the plight faced by the remaining 174 prisoners at Guantánamo, I undertook a major project, beginning in September, telling the stories of all of these men. The first eight parts have been published (and are available here), and the ninth will follow soon.

Outside of Guantánamo, the administration continued to resist calls for accountability for the Bush administration’s torturers, invoking the little-known and little-used “state secrets” doctrine to prevent petitioners from even gaining access to a US courtroom with their complaints. This was the case with five men subjected to “extraordinary rendition” and torture in a variety of secret prisons, who had attempted to sue Jeppesen Dataplan Inc., a Boeing subsidiary, for its role as the CIA’s travel agent for torture, and it was a ploy that was so successful — despite being a blatant misuse of the precedent, cynically shielding any government activity from scrutiny by proclaiming “national security” concerns — that the administration also used it to prevent challenges to distressing innovations introduced under Obama — drone killings in Pakistan, and the unprecedented claim that, without any review process whatsoever, the President could order the assassination of US citizens abroad.

In sharp contrast to the US, the last six months were a significant period for activities relating to the accountability of the British government for its involvement in the “War on Terror,” with the new coalition government promising to establish a judicial inquiry into British complicity in torture abroad, and, in November, reaching a financial settlement with 15 former prisoners — and with Shaker Aamer, the last British resident in Guantánamo. This arose because of a need to stem the dangerous leak of revelations about the complicity in torture of senior government officials (including Tony Blair and Jack Straw), which — again in stark contrast to the US — were emerging on the order of senior judges from a civil claim for damages filed by seven former prisoners. Despite the protestations of the coalition government, however, the financial settlement not only established a precedent for other countries to follow, but also involved the tacit admission of guilt. It was, therefore, enormously important, even though it has not, to date, led to the release of Shaker Aamer, for whom a campaign is ongoing.

On the domestic front, the coalition government is involved in an internal struggle regarding the reform of the Labour government’s reviled anti-terror legislation, and specifically, the future of control orders (a form of house arrest for men held without charge or trial on the basis of secret evidence), which had not been resolved by the end of the year. I will continue to cover this story this year, especially as the high-profile arguments within the government about the use of secret evidence do not currently extend to other men, held without charge or trial in similar circumstances in their homes, or in prison, while the government attempts to deport them to their home countries, where they face the risk of torture.

In addition, other aspects of UK politics also featured heavily in my work in the last few months of the year, as I began responding to the government’s ideologically-driven programme of savage cuts to university budgets, and to the welfare state, playing my part in the creation of a broad anti-cuts coalition that recognizes that, without a focus on the financial crimes committed in the City, and the loss of revenue through massive corporate tax evasion, the future for the UK promises to be increasingly bleak for anyone who is not either rich or super-rich. I expect that this campaign will consume more of my time in the months to come.

The other big story of the last six months, of course, was WikiLeaks, and I covered various aspects of the story — the release of the classified Iraqi war logs, the release of the classified US diplomatic cables, the revelations about the suppression of torture investigations in Germany and Spain, the pursuit of Julian Assange by the US government, and the cult of personality that has built up around him, and the worrying isolation of Bradley Manning. I anticipate that this, too, will remain a major story into 2011, especially regarding those aspects of the story that deal with the freedom of the media, and the freedom of the Internet.

On the work front, this was a good time for me, as I continued working part-time for Cageprisoners as a Senior Researcher and writing a weekly column as a policy advisor for the Future of Freedom Foundation, and also wrote the occasional article for the Guardian and Truthout. I also undertook several TV and radio appearances, some of which are listed below. In addition, I visited the US in October for a week of events, “Berkeley Says No to Torture” Week, which brought together a wonderful group of anti-torture writers, lawyers, activists and other experts, and was devoted to raising awareness about torture, and, in particular, about the crimes committed by John Yoo, author of the notorious Justice Department “torture memos” in 2002, who is now, disgracefuly, a law professor at US Berkeley. I also continued showing the documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (which I co-directed with Polly Nash) at various locations in the UK, and was delighted to take part in two conferences in London organized by Amnesty International.

As ever, I thank my benefactors and supporters for their continuing support of my work. I’m visiting the US from January 6-12 to call for the closure of Guantánamo on the 9th anniversary of the prison’s opening, and will also continue to attend screenings of “Outside the Law” in venues across the UK — some in conjunction with Amnesty International. I will also, of course, be writing assiduously about Guantánamo, continuing the work I began five years ago. As the year ended, I asked my supporters to help me raise $1000 to help me continue the many aspects of my work for which I receive no financial support, and was delighted to receive $1200. However, this is an ongoing request, and, as a result, if you would like to support my work financially, please feel free to donate via the PayPal button above.

An archive of Guantánamo articles: Part Seven, July to December 2010

July 2010

1. Life after Guantánamo: “It was better in Guantánamo,” Complains Egyptian Held in Slovak Detention Center
2. UK complicity in torture: Torture Complicity Under the Spotlight in Europe (Part One): The UK
3. Moazzam Begg: Dangerous Game: A Reply to Gita Sahgal and Her Supporters
4. UK anti-terror laws: Fighting Ghosts: An Interview with Husein Al-Samamara
5. Life after Guantánamo: Who Are the Three Ex-Guantánamo Prisoners on Hunger Strike in Slovakia?
6. Life after Guantánamo: Calls for Review of Punitive Sentences for Ex-Guantánamo Tajiks
7. European complicity in torture: Torture Complicity Under the Spotlight in Europe (Part Two): Germany and France
8. Military Commissions: Bin Laden Cook Accepts Plea Deal at Guantánamo Trial (Ibrahim al-Qosi)
9. UK complicity in torture: A Cautious Welcome for British Torture Inquiry
10. Guantánamo media: The Guantánamo Files: An Archive of Articles – Part Six, January to June 2010
11. Guantánamo media: The Guantánamo Archive: 3 Years, 650 Articles Listed Chronologically
12. Guantánamo media: Guantánamo: The Definitive Prisoner List (Updated for Summer 2010)
13. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: Judge Orders Release from Guantánamo of Yemeni Seized in Iran, Held in Secret CIA Prisons (Hussein Almerfedi)
14. Prisoners released from Guantánamo: Innocent Student Finally Released from Guantánamo (Mohammed Hassan Odaini)
15. UK complicity in torture: UK Sought Rendition of British Nationals to Guantánamo; Tony Blair Directly Involved
16. Radio interviews: Andy Worthington on Guantánamo: Four Powerful Radio Shows
17. Obituaries: RIP Charly Gittings: We’ve Just Lost One of the Good Guys
18. Omar Khadr, Military Commissions: Defiance in Isolation: The Last Stand of Omar Khadr
19. UK complicity in torture: Omar Deghayes Complains About “Highly Selective” Disclosure of UK Documents Relating to his Interrogations in Bagram and Guantánamo
20. Omar Khadr, Military Commissions: Omar Khadr Accepts US Military Lawyer for Forthcoming Trial by Military Commission
21. Torture: How Jay Bybee Has Approved the Prosecution of CIA Operatives for Torture
22. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: Guantánamo and Habeas Corpus: Prisoners Win 3 out of 4 Cases, But Lose 5 out of 6 in Court of Appeals (Part One)
23. UK complicity in torture: Reprieve Demands Resignation of “Fatally Compromised” Head of UK Torture Inquiry
24. Life after Guantánamo: Former Guantánamo Prisoners in Slovakia Finally Receive Residence Permits
25. Prisoners released from Guantánamo: Obama and US Courts Repatriate Algerian from Guantánamo Against His Will; May Be Complicit in Torture
26. Abu Zubaydah, Guantánamo and habeas corpus: In Abu Zubaydah’s Case, Court Relies on Propaganda and Lies
27. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: Guantánamo and Habeas Corpus: Prisoners Win 3 out of 4 Cases, But Lose 5 out of 6 in Court of Appeals (Part Two)
28. Omar Khadr: A Letter from Omar Khadr in Guantánamo
29. UK anti-terror laws: Ruling sends message on control orders (in the Guardian)
30. Return to torture: Guantánamo Algerian Returns Home; Will Obama Suspend Further Transfers?
31. Life after Guantánamo: Abdul Aziz Naji, Released from Guantánamo Last Week, Speaks to Algerian Media
32. Prisoners released from Guantánamo: Who Are the Guantánamo Prisoners Released in Cape Verde, Latvia and Spain?

August 2010

33. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: Judge Orders Release from Guantánamo of Mentally Ill Yemeni; 2nd Judge Approves Detention of Minor Taliban Recruit (Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif, Abdul Rahman Sulayman)
34. Ahmed Belbacha, Return to torture: Take Action for Ahmed Belbacha, at Risk of Enforced Repatriation from Guantánamo to Algeria
35. UK anti-terror laws: UK Judges Endorse Double Standards on Terror Deportations
36. Torture, European complicity in torture: New Evidence About Prisoners Held in Secret CIA Prisons in Poland and Romania
37. Torture, European complcitiy in torture: Will Poland’s Former Leaders Face War Crimes Charges for Hosting Secret CIA Prison?
38. Military Commissions, Sudanese prisoners in Guantánamo: Bin Laden Cook Expected to Serve Two More Years at Guantánamo – And Some Thoughts on the Remaining Sudanese Prisoners (Ibrahim al-Qosi)
39. Hunger strkes in Guantánamo: Ramadan Force-Feeding, and Renewed Secrecy Surrounding Hunger Strikers in Guantánamo
40. Omar Khadr, Military Commissions: Lawlessness Haunts Omar Khadr’s Blighted War Crimes Trial at Guantánamo
41. Obituaries, UK anti-terror laws: In Memoriam: Faraj Hassan Alsaadi (1980-2010)
42. UK anti-terror laws: An interview with Faraj Hassan Alsaadi (from 2007)
43. Conditions in Guantánamo: Would Al-Qaeda Terrorists Really Be Reading Harry Potter at Guantánamo?
44. US Islamophobia: Disgraceful: The Ground Zero Mosque Controversy
45. Iraq: The Legacy of the Iraq War: Over 100,000 Dead, 20,000 Unidentified

September 2010

October 2010

83. Deaths at Guantánamo, Accountability: US Court Denies Justice to Dead Men at Guantánamo
84. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: First Guantánamo Habeas Appeal to US Supreme Court
85. The remaining priosners in Guantánamo: Who Are the Remaining Prisoners in Guantánamo? Part Six: Captured in Pakistan (2 of 3)
86. Life after Guantánamo: Guantánamo Uighur Brothers “Happy” in Switzerland, But Struggling to Adapt to New Life
87. Hunger strikes in Guantánamo: Secrecy Still Shrouds Guantánamo’s Five-Year Hunger Striker (Abdul Rahman Shalabi)
88. Torture, Accountability: Former Guantánamo Prisoner, Tortured by Al-Qaeda and the US, Launches Futile Attempt to Hold America Accountable (Abdul Rahim al-Janko/al-Ginco)
89. Torture: Liveblogging “Berkeley Says No to Torture” Week: Day One
90. Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, Federal court trials: In the Case of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, Torture Apologists Are Everywhere
91. Torture: Liveblogging “Berkeley Says No to Torture” Week: Days Two and Three – Radio, Film and Puncturing John Yoo’s Lies
92. The remaining prisoners in Guantánamo: Who Are the Remaining Prisoners in Guantánamo? Part Seven: Captured in Pakistan (3 of 3)
93. Torture: Video: Andy Worthington and Justine Sharrock at “Berkeley Says No to Torture” Week
94. Torture: “Berkeley Says No to Torture” Week: Day Four – The Power of Art and the Power of the Pen (+ Video)
95. David Hicks: Former Guantánamo Prisoner David Hicks Describes His First Two Weeks at Camp X-Ray
96. Torture: Video: “The Giant John Yoo Debate” at “Berkeley Says No to Torture” Week, October 12, 2010
97. Torture: “Berkeley Says No to Torture” Week: Day Five – Humanizing Torture Victims and Fighting for the Soul of America (+ Videos)
98. “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo”: Great Malvern Gives Resounding Welcome to “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo”
99. UK politics: Butchering the Poor, the Ill, the Weak, the Dispossessed and the Marginalized: Welcome to Cameron and Osborne’s Heartless Britain
100. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: Judge Denies Guantánamo Prisoner’s Habeas Petition, Ignores Torture in Secret CIA Prisons (Tawfiq al-Bihani)
101. WikiLeaks, Iraq: Wikileaks’ 400,000 Classified Iraq War Documents Reveal 15,000 Previously Unreported Civilian Casualties, and Extensive Torture
102. Torture: How Paul Wolfowitz Authorized Human Experimentation at Guantánamo
103. Torture: “Berkeley Says No to Torture” Week: Day Six – Education, Human Experimentation and a Grand Finale
104. WikiLeaks: Wikileaks’ Julian Assange Accepts Intelligence Experts’ Whistleblower Award “On Behalf of Our Sources”
105. Omar Khadr, Military Commissions: No Justice for Omar Khadr at Guantánamo
106. Omar Khadr, Military Commissions: The Betrayal of Omar Khadr – and of American Justice
107. Life after Guantánamo, Conditions in Guantánamo: Moazzam Begg Interviews Ex-Guantánamo Prisoner Adel El-Gazzar in Slovakia
108. Radio interviews: Andy Worthington Discusses Omar Khadr’s Depressing Plea Deal on Antiwar Radio
109. Omar Khadr, Military Commissions: Omar Khadr’s Statement at Guantánamo, October 28, 2010
110. Omar Khadr, Military Commissions: In Omar Khadr’s Sentencing Phase, US Government Introduces Islamophobic “Expert” and Irrelevant Testimony
111. UK politics: Critics Attack UK Government’s Cruel and Ill-Conceived Assault on Welfare
112. Omar Khadr, Military Commissions: Torture Is Finally Mentioned on the Last Day of Omar Khadr’s Sentencing Hearing at Guantánamo
113. The future of the media: Great Turnout in Brighton for Discussion on the Future of the Media with Nick Davies and Andy Worthington

November 2010

114. Omar Khadr: “A Child’s Soul is Sacred”: Omar Khadr’s Touching Exchange of Letters with Canadian Professor
115. Guantánamo and Republicans: Is There No End to Republicans’ Abuse of Guantánamo Prisoners?
116. Omar Khadr, Military Commissions: Omar Khadr Jury Hammers the Final Nail into the Coffin of American Justice
117. UK anti-terror laws: UK Government Faces Major Rebellion on Control Orders
118. Barack Obama: US Mid-Term Elections: The Death of Hope and Change
119. Torture: Video: “Berkeley Says No to Torture” Week – Forum on Torture with Marjorie Cohn, Andy Worthington, Shahid Buttar, Debra Sweet and Ray McGovern
120. UK anti-terror laws: Gareth Peirce Discusses Her New Book, “Dispatches from the Dark Side: On Torture and the Death of Justice”
121. Torture, George W. Bush: No Appetite for Prosecution: In Memoir, Bush Admits He Authorized the Use of Torture, But No One Cares
122. UK politics: Why I’ll Be Attending the Demonstration Against University Cuts on November 10
123. Guantánamo, Torture, Aafia Siddiqui: Video: Shafiq Rasul and Ruhal Ahmed Discuss US Detention at Kandahar, Bagram and Guantánamo with Andy Worthington at “Eid Without Aafia Siddiqui” Event
124. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: Court Orders Rethink on Tortured Guantánamo Prisoner’s Successful Habeas Petition (Mohamedou Ould Slahi)
125. Radio interviews: On Antiwar Radio, Andy Worthington Discusses Bush’s War Crimes and “Congressional Depravity” on Guantánamo
126. Torture, George W. Bush: On Bush’s Waterboarding Claims, UK Media Loses Its Moral Compass
127. UK anti-terror laws: Are Control Orders About To Be Scrapped?
128. UK politics: 50,000 Students Revolt: A Sign of Much Greater Anger to Come in Neo-Con Britain
129. UK politics: The Cruelty and Stupidity of the Government’s Welfare Reforms
130. UK politics: On Housing Benefit Cuts, British Public Reveals Shocking Lack of Empathy and Compassion
131. UK complicity in torture, Shaker Aamer: As the UK Government Announces Compensation for Ex-Guantánamo Prisoners, Is the Return of Shaker Aamer Part of the Deal?
132. Closing Guantánamo: On Guantánamo, Obama Hits Rock Bottom
133. The remaining prisoners in Guantánamo: Who Are the Remaining Prisoners in Guantánamo? Part Eight: Captured in Afghanistan (2002-07)
134. Guantánamo campaigns, Shaker Aamer: Amnesty Students Say “Bring Shaker Aamer Home from Guantánamo”
135. UK complicity in torture, Shaker Aamer: The UK Government’s Guantánamo Guilt, and the Urgent Need for Shaker Aamer’s Return
136. Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, Federal court trials: Morris Davis, Former Guantánamo Chief Prosecutor, Nails Critics of the Federal Court Trial of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani
137. UK complicity in torture, Moazzam Begg, Shaker Aamer: Moazzam Begg Explains How Ex-Guantánamo Prisoners Offered to Forego Compensation for Return of Shaker Aamer
138. Guantánamo campaigns, Shaker Aamer: Send a Letter to Your MP Demanding the Release from Guantánamo of Shaker Aamer
139. UK complicity in torture, Moazzam Begg: Moazzam Begg in The Independent: The UK Government “Would Not Have Paid Up If They Thought They Could Win”
140. UK politics: Did You Miss This? 100 Percent Funding Cuts to Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Courses at UK Universities
141. “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo”: Revolutionary Spirit in Bangor, at a Screening of “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo”
142. Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, Federal court trials: The Rule of Law in the US Hangs on Obama’s Response to the Ghailani Trial
143. Radio interviews: Guantánamo: Andy Worthington’s In-Depth Interview with Christopher Renner of Community Bridge Radio
144. Guantánamo campaigns, Shaker Aamer: Send a Letter to William Hague Asking Him to Demand Shaker Aamer’s Return to the UK from Guantánamo
145. Guantánamo media: My Exchange About Guantánamo with Benjamin Wittes, Advocate of “Military Detention without Trial”
146. UK politics: Cameron’s Britain: “Kettling” Children for Protesting Against Savage Cuts to University Funding
147. Radio interviews: Andy Worthington Discusses Obama’s Failure to Close Guantánamo with Brad Friedman on the Mike Malloy Show

December 2010

148. WikiLeaks, Guantánamo: The Irrelevance of Wikileaks’ Guantánamo Revelations
149. Guantánamo campaigns: Please Sign Petition Asking Eric Holder to Release Fayiz Al-Kandari, a Kuwaiti Aid Worker in Guantánamo
150. WikiLeaks, Guantánamo, Moazzam Begg: Guantánamo and the Wikileaks Documents, Including Yemeni and Uighur “Problems,” and Praise for Moazzam Begg
151. Torture: All Guantánamo Prisoners Were Subjected to “Pharmacological Waterboarding”
152. UK anti-terror laws: Lord Carlile, Discredited Advocate of Control Orders, Presents Flawed Alternative
153. WikiLeaks, Aafia Siddiqui: Wikileaks: Numerous Reasons to Dismiss US Claims that “Ghost Prisoner” Aafia Siddiqui Was Not Held in Bagram
154. Aafia Siddiqui: Video: Andy Worthington Speaks at “Bring Aafia Siddiqui Home,” November 14, 2010
155. Radio interviews: Andy Worthington, Asim Qureshi and Jason Leopold Discuss Guantánamo, Human Experimentation and the Global Reach of the “War on Terror” with Peter B. Collins
156. UK politics: Biggest Student Protest on Thursday, as Parliament Votes on Tuition Fees
157. Guantánamo campaigns, Shaker Aamer: “A Day for Shaker Aamer” on Saturday — and Postcards to Send to William Hague and to Shaker in Guantánamo
158. Guantánamo campaigns, Shaker Aamer: Urge Your MP to Sign Caroline Lucas’ Early Day Motion Calling for the Return of Shaker Aamer and the Closure of Guantánamo
159. WikiLeaks, Torture: WikiLeaks’ Revelations that Bush and Obama Put Pressure on Germany and Spain Not to Investigate US Torture
160. Radio interviews: Andy Worthington Discusses Guantánamo and WikiLeaks on Antiwar Radio
161. Targeted kilings, Accountability: Anwar Al-Awlaqi: Judge Rules that President’s Decision to Assassinate US Citizens Abroad, Without Due Process or Explanation, is “Judicially Unreviewable”
162. UK politics: Government Wins University Tuition Fees Vote, But So What? Remember the Poll Tax!
163. UK politics: Heroes and Villains in the Tuition Fees Vote
164. Campaigns: On Human Rights Day, Public Figures Call for Worldwide Ban on Solitary Confinement and Prisoner Isolation
165. Shaker Aamer: On Human Rights Day, A Call to Release Shaker Aamer from Guantánamo
166. Aafia Siddiqui: Cageprisoners Discusses the Repatriation of Aafia Siddiqui with Pakistan’s Interior Minister
167. Torture, Book reviews: Torture and Abuse on the USS Bataan and in Bagram and Kandahar: An Excerpt from “My Life with the Taliban” by Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef
168. Guantánamo campaigns, Shaker Aamer: Report on “A Day for Shaker Aamer” and Screenings of “Outside the Law” — and a Message of Support from Ken Livingstone
169. Closing Guantánamo, Guantanamo and Congress: Guantánamo: A Dismal Week for America
170. WikiLeaks, Julian Assange: Ten Thoughts About Julian Assange and WikiLeaks
171. UK politics: Video: 15-Year Old Tells UK Government Why It Has Radicalised A Generation
172. Music: Summoning Up the Spirit of Ronnie Lane: The Triumphant Return of Slim Chance
173. Guantánamo campaigns, Shaker Aamer: Tell the UK and US Governments We Need A Deadline for the Return of Shaker Aamer from Guantánamo
174. Bradley Manning, WikiLeaks: Is Bradley Manning Being Held as Some Sort of “Enemy Combatant”?
175. Ahmed Belbacha, UK complcity in torture: Lawyers for Ahmed Belbacha, Guantánamo Prisoner and Former UK Resident, Sue UK Government Over Refusal to Disclose Evidence of His Abuse
176. Guantánamo and Congress, Closing Guantánamo: Guantánamo Prisoners Sacrificed in Political Horse-Trading
177. Torture: More Evidence of Medical Experimentation at Guantánamo
178. Torture: Video: “Berkeley Says No to Torture” Week — Jason Leopold and Jeff Kaye Discuss Human Experimentation at Guantánamo
179. Closing Guantánamo, Barack Obama: President Obama Loses the Plot on Guantánamo
180. Closing Guantánamo, Yemenis in Guantanamo: Christmas at Guantánamo
181. Guantánamo and Congress, Barack Obama, Closing Guantánamo: With Indefinite Detention and Transfer Bans, Obama and the Senate Plumb New Depths on Guantánamo
182. Torture: Hounding a Torture Judge: A Report by Susan Harman on the Campaign to Impeach Jay S. Bybee

Andy Worthington is the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison (published by Pluto Press, distributed by Macmillan in the US, and available from Amazon — click on the following for the US and the UK) and of two other books: Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion and The Battle of the Beanfield. To receive new articles in your inbox, please subscribe to my RSS feed (and I can also be found on Facebook and Twitter). Also see my definitive Guantánamo prisoner list, updated in July 2010, details about the new documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (co-directed by Polly Nash and Andy Worthington, currently on tour in the UK, and available on DVD here), my definitive Guantánamo habeas list and the chronological list of all my articles, and, if you appreciate my work, feel free to make a donation.

The Guantánamo Files: An Archive of Articles – Part Six, January to June 2010

Andy Worthington — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 11:10:24 +0000

Please support my work!

For over four years, I have been providing detailed information about the prisoners in Guantánamo, first through my book The Guantánamo Files, which tells the story of the prison and around 450 of the prisoners held, and then through 12 online chapters, which provide information about the majority of the other 329 prisoners (see the links in the left-hand column). Alongside this project, I have been working assiduously as a full-time independent journalist, covering stories as they develop, and focusing in particular on the stories of released prisoners, the Military Commission trial system, and the prisoners’ progress in the courts, through their habeas corpus petitions. I have also focused unerringly on the crimes of the Bush administration and, since January 2009, on the failures of the Obama administration to thoroughly repudiate those crimes, to hold anyone accountable, and, increasingly, on its failure to charge or release prisoners, and to show any sign that Guantánamo will eventually be closed.

My intention, all along, has been to bring the men to life through their stories, dispelling the Bush administration’s rhetoric about the prison holding “the worst of the worst,” and demonstrating how, instead, the majority of the prisoners were either innocent men, seized by the US military’s allies at a time when bounty payments were widespread, or recruits for the Taliban, who had been encouraged by supporters in their homelands to help the Taliban in a long-running inter-Muslim civil war (with the Northern Alliance), which began long before the 9/11 attacks and, for the most part, had nothing to do with al-Qaeda or international terrorism. As I explain in the introduction to my four-part Definitive Prisoner List (which I will be updating next week), I remain convinced, through detailed research and through comments from insiders with knowledge of Guantánamo, that “at least 93 percent of the 779 men and boys imprisoned in total” had no involvement with terrorism.

However, as this is a blog, rather than a website, I recognize that it’s increasingly difficult to navigate, as there are so many “Categories,” and, most crucially, there is no access to articles in anything other than reverse chronological order. In an attempt to remedy this shortcoming, and to provide easy access to the most important articles on the site, I put together five chronological lists of all my articles in January this year, covering the periods May to December 2007, January to June 2008, July to December 2008, January to June 2009 and July to December 2009, in the hope that they would provide a useful tool for navigation, and would provide researchers — and anyone else interested in this particularly bleak period of modern history — with a practical archive.

This latest list, combined with the forthcoming update to my definitive prisoner list, brings the story up to date, although I’m sad to report that, for the most part, it has not been a period that reflects well on the Obama administration, beginning, as it did, with an unjustifiable — and politically motivated — moratorium on the release of any cleared Yemeni prisoners for an unspecified amount of time (following the failed mission of the Nigerian would-be plane bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, and revelations that he was recruited in Yemen), and the President’s failure to meet his self-imposed deadline for closing Guantánamo. This coincided with the publication of the Guantánamo Review Task Force’s report on the prisoners’ “disposition,” with its shocking recommendation that 48 men should continue to be held indefinitely without charge or trial.

The period covered by this archive was also distressingly notable for a pitiful downturn in the numbers of prisoners released. Even though the Task Force recommended over half of the remaining prisoners for release (114 of the 198 men held at the start of this period), only 17 were freed between January and June.

The prisoners were more successful in the District Court in Washington D.C., where, since October 2008, judges have been ruling on their habeas petitions. 12 cases were decided in this period, with six won by the prisoners, and six won by the government. In a major project in April and May, “Guantánamo Habeas Week,” I produced a definitive list of the rulings to date (34 for the prisoners, 16 for the government), which included detailed analyses of seven of these rulings, and throughout this period I also covered other rulings in depth, because, as I explained back in April, the judges’ rulings are “the single most important collection of documents analyzing the failures of the Bush administration’s ‘War on Terror’ detention policies — and Obama’s refusal, or inability to thoroughly repudiate them.” This is true, even though the rulings are plagued by a structural problem — the reliance on the Congress- approved Authorization for Use of Military Force, passed the week after the 9/11 attacks — which obliges the judges to approve the ongoing detention of soldiers in Guantánamo, when they should be held as prisoners of war.

On torture, this was a distressing period, with the shameful manipulation of a long-awaited internal Justice Department report on the conduct of the lawyers in the Office of Legal Counsel (John Yoo and Jay S. Bybee) who wrote and approved the “torture memos” in August 2002, which purported to redefine torture, so that they were found to have exercised “poor judgment’ rather than being found guilty of “professional misconduct.” Nevertheless, the distressing story of Abu Zubaydah (for whom the torture program was developed) continued to leak out, revealing more about how he was not a member of al-Qaeda at all, and the six-month period ended with a complaint filed in Texas against one of the architects of the torture program.

Moreover, in February, the United Nations produced a major report on secret detention. This contained a detailed section on the history of the US program of rendition and secret prisons, which I cross-posted last month in three articles here, here and here.

Elsewhere, there were revelations from Bagram, in the form of the first official prisoner list, and, more distressingly, in allegations regarding a secret prison, as well as other bad news — the denial of habeas corpus to foreign prisoners rendered to Bagram from other countries — and slightly better news, as Obama introduced a new review process, and began releasing prisoners in significant numbers.

The period was also notable for claims, first aired by Scott Horton in Harper’s Magazine, that three prisoners at Guantánamo, who died in June 2006, had not committed suicide, as alleged, but had been killed — either deliberately, or as part of a torture session that went too far. This deeply disturbing story was largely ignored in the mainstream US media, although I covered it, as did other bloggers, and I also tried to keep the story going, on the 4th anniversary of the men’s deaths this June, when I also made a point of reviving discussions of the other unexplained deaths at Guantánamo in 2007 and 2009.

In the UK, former prisoner Omar Deghayes and I undertook a major tour of campuses and other venues (including Amnesty International’s London HQ and the National Film Theatre), screening the new documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (directed by filmmaker Polly Nash and myself), to great acclaim from those who saw it. Polly and I also visited Oslo in February to show it at a human rights film festival, and in April it was screened as part of the London International Documentary Festival.

In May, the General Election promised some improvement on the dire human rights record of the Labour government, and, within weeks of taking office, foreign secretary William Hague announced an inquiry into British complicity in torture, but it remains to be seen how much the new government will deliver — and Shaker Aamer, the last British resident in Guantánamo, is still held, for no adequate reason.

On the work front, this has been a successful period for me, as I continued writing for the Guardian and Truthout, continued writing a weekly column for the Future of Freedom Foundation, and also began working for Cageprisoners as a Senior Researcher. I was also interviewed on Democracy Now! and Russia Today, did a BBC show on torture in February, and also took part in numerous radio shows, which can be found here. In addition, numerous sites began cross-posting my work, including Eurasia Review and others, which helped me to become listed as one of Technorati’s Top 20 World Politics Blogs, and also to be listed in the Top 100 Politics Blogs and the Top 100 US Politics Blogs (Nos. 17, 84 and 53, at the time of writing). As ever, though, much of my work is unpaid, so any contributions (via the PayPal button above) will be gratefully received.

In conclusion, I can only wish that my work wasn’t so necessary, and that President Obama would find the courage that he has failed to show since his first few days in office, when he indicated that he would be providing a clean break with the policies of his predecessor. Not only has this promise not come true, but in many ways those of us who abhor torture and arbitrary detention are even more disappointed than we were in the days of Bush and Cheney, as pragmatism and political maneuvering, rather than fanatically misconceived ideology, seem to be running the show, and are much more difficult to combat.

An archive of Guantánamo articles: Part Six, January to June 2010

January 2010

1: Guantánamo media: Guantánamo: The Definitive Prisoner List (Updated for 2010) (see Part One, Part Two, Part Three and Part Four)
2. Military Commissions: Afghan Nobody Faces Trial by Military Commission (Obaidullah)
3. Yemenis in Guantánamo: Guantánamo and Yemen: Obama Capitulates to Critics and Suspends Prisoner Transfers
4. Yemenis in Guantánamo: Yemenis in Guantánamo are Victims of Hysteria
5. Recidivism: Guantánamo Recidivism: Mainstream Media Parrot Pentagon Propaganda (Again)
6. Video: On Democracy Now! Andy Worthington Discusses Guantánamo, Yemen, Lies, Hysteria and the False Recidivism Report
7. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: Appeals Court Extends President’s Wartime Powers, Limits Guantánamo Prisoners’ Rights (Ghaleb al-Bihani)
8. Guantánamo anniversary: On Eighth Anniversary, Guantánamo Allows Little Hope
9. Video: Guantánamo: Shaker Aamer’s Daughter Delivers Letter to Gordon Brown (Video)
10. Interviews: An interview with Andy Worthington about Guantánamo, on the Eighth Anniversary of the Prison’s Opening (with Elizabeth Ferrari)
11. Guantánamo anniversary: Fear and Paranoia as Guantánamo Marks its Eighth Anniversary
12. Video: On YouTube: Guantánamo Guard and Ex-Prisoners Meet (via the BBC)
13. Closing Guantánamo: BBC Interviews Matthew J. Olsen, the Head of Obama’s Guantánamo Task Force
14. Deaths in Guantánamo: Murders at Guantánamo: Scott Horton of Harper’s Exposes the Truth about the 2006 “Suicides”
15. Closing Guantánamo: Obama’s Countdown to Failure on Guantánamo
16. UK anti-terror laws: Compensation for control orders is a distraction (in the Guardian)
17. Bagram, torture: Dark Revelations in the Bagram Prisoner List
18. Omar Deghayes: The Guardian interviews Omar Deghayes: “The spirit is what makes us who we are”
19. Closing Guantánamo, preventive detention: Rubbing Salt in Guantánamo’s Wounds: Task Force Announces Indefinite Detention
20. UK anti-terror laws: Control Orders Take Another Blow: Libyan Cartoonist Freed (Detainee DD)
21. Prisoners released from Guantánamo: Two Algerian Torture Victims Are Freed from Guantánamo
22. Bagram: Bagram: The Annotated Prisoner List (A Cooperative Project) (Note: See the annotated list here)
23. Torture: UN Secret Detention Report Asks, “Where Are The CIA Ghost Prisoners?”
24. Iraq: The madness of Tony Blair, the futility of the Chilcot inquiry

February 2010

25. Military Commissions: Lawyers Appeal Guantánamo Trial Convictions (Salim Hamdan and Ali Hamza al-Bahlul)
26. Uighurs in Guantánamo: Swiss Take Two Guantánamo Uighurs, Save Obama from Having to Do the Right Thing
27. Bagram: Bagram: Graveyard of the Geneva Conventions
28. Recidivism: White House Repeats Pentagon Lies About Guantánamo “Recidivists”
29. “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo”: Taking Guantánamo to Norway: “Human Rights, Human Wrongs” Film Festival Report
30. Moazzam Begg: Defending Moazzam Begg and Amnesty International
31. Shaker Aamer: Shaker Aamer’s Wife Speaks: “Since he has been away there is no colour in life”
32. Shaker Aamer: Torture in Afghanistan and Guantánamo: Shaker Aamer’s Lawyers Speak
33. Binyam Mohamed: Binyam Mohamed: Evidence of Torture by US Agents Revealed in UK
34. Torture: Andy Worthington Discusses Torture on BBC1’s “The Big Questions”
35. Moazzam Begg: Moazzam Begg’s dignified explanation of why he is not attending Amnesty’s screening of “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo”
36. Binyam Mohamed, Omar Khadr: Binyam Mohamed on Omar Khadr: A Scapegoat for a Failed “War on Terror”
37. Moazzam Begg: Sunday Times misrepresents views of Amnesty’s Sam Zarifi
38. “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo”: A full house for Amnesty screening of “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo”
39. UK anti-terror laws: Control Orders: Solicitors’ Evidence before the Joint Committee on Human Rights, February 3, 2010
40. UK anti-terror laws: Control Orders: Special Advocates’ Evidence before the Joint Committee on Human Rights, February 3, 2010
41. UK anti-terror laws: Will Parliament Rid Us of the Cruel and Unjust Control Order Regime?
42. Moazzam Begg: Moazzam Begg Responds To His Critics
43. Shaker Aamer: As Police Launch New Torture Inquiry, It’s Time for Shaker Aamer to Come Home from Guantánamo
44. Torture: Torture Whitewash: How “Professional Misconduct” Became “Poor Judgment” in the OPR Report
45. Prisoners released from Guantánamo: Four prisoners freed from Guantánamo: three in Albania, one in Spain
46. Kuwaitis in Guantánamo: US Military Lawyer: Kuwait Needs to Speak Up on Guantánamo
47. Torture: On Torture, New York Times Calls for Bush Officials to be Held to Account
48. Binyam Mohamed: Judges Restore Damning Passage on MI5 to the Binyam Mohamed Torture Ruling
49. UK anti-terror laws: Don’t renew control orders, CAMPACC, JUSTICE and the Joint Committee on Human Rights tell MPs

March 2010

April 2010

May 2010

98. Shaker Aamer: Shaker Aamer’s 3000 Days in Guantánamo: Moazzam Begg Speaks
99. “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo”: Great feedback from screening of “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” in New York
100. Military Commissions: David Frakt’s Damning Verdict on the New Military Commissions Manual
101. Omar Khadr, Military Commissions: Prosecuting a Tortured Child: Obama’s Guantánamo Legacy
102. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: How Binyam Mohamed’s Torture Was Revealed in a US Court
103. UK torture: UK Appeals Court Rules Out Government’s Use of Secret Evidence in Guantánamo Damages Claim
104. UK election: UK Election: The MPs Who Care About Human Rights
105. “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo”: “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” – A Pre-Election Trip to Birmingham
106. Aafia Siddiqui: Gareth Peirce’s Statement in Support of Aafia Siddiqui
107. UK election: As Hung Parliament Looms, This Was a Bad Election for Human Rights
108. Prisoners released from Guantánamo: Abandoned in Spain: The Palestinian Freed from Guantánamo
109. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: Guantánamo and Habeas Corpus: Consigning Soldiers to Oblivion (Suleiman al-Nahdi, Fahmi al-Assani)
110. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: Judge Denies Habeas Petition of an Ill and Abused Libyan in Guantánamo (Omar Mohammed Khalifh)
111. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: After “Guantánamo Habeas Week,” Analysis of Successes and Failures Continues
112. UK election: Can David Cameron’s Coalition Government Deliver Justice?
113. Omar Khadr, Military Commissions: The Torture of Omar Khadr, a Child in Bagram and Guantánamo
114. UK election: 98 MPs Who Supported Human Rights While Countering Terrorism
115. Prisoners released from Guantánamo: Who is the Syrian Released from Guantánamo to Bulgaria?
116. UK anti-terror laws: UK Terror Ruling Provides Urgent Test for New Government
117. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: Judge Orders Release from Guantánamo of Russian Caught in Abu Zubaydah’s Web (Ravil Mingazov)
118. UK anti-terror laws: An uncivilised society (in the Guardian)
119. UK torture: William Hague Orders a Judicial Inquiry into British Complicity in Torture
120. Shaker Aamer, Ahmed Belbacha: New letter to William Hague, asking him to secure the return from Guantánamo of Shaker Aamer
121. Shaker Aamer, UK anti-terror laws: New letter to MPs asking them to oppose the use of secret evidence in UK courts, and to support the return from Guantánamo of Shaker Aamer
122. Closing Guantánamo: House Kills Plan to Close Guantánamo
123. Bagram and habeas corpus: The Black Hole of Bagram
124. Guantánamo and US Congress: More “Congressional Depravity” on Guantánamo
125. Interviews: An interview with Andy Worthington for Labour Briefing: Guantánamo, Torture and “Outside the Law”
126. Deaths in Guantánamo: The Third Anniversary of a Death in Guantánamo

June 2010

127. Guantánamo media: Omar Deghayes and Terry Holdbrooks Discuss Guantánamo (Part One): Omar’s Story
128. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: Why is a Yemeni Student in Guantánamo, Cleared on Three Occasions, Still Imprisoned? (Mohammed Hassan Odaini)
129. Guantánamo media: Omar Deghayes and Terry Holdbrooks Discuss Guantánamo (Part Two): Terry’s Story
130. Bagram: What is Obama Doing at Bagram? (Part One): Torture and the “Black Prison”
131. Guantánamo media: Omar Deghayes and Terry Holdbrooks Discuss Guantánamo (Part Three): Deaths at the Prison
132. Bagram: What is Obama Doing at Bagram? (Part Two): Executive Detention, Rendition, Review Boards, Released Prisoners and Trials
133. Prisoners released from Guantánamo: Palau President Asks Australia to Offer Homes to Guantánamo Uighurs
134. Uighurs in Guantánamo: No Escape from Guantánamo: Uighurs Lose Again in US Court
135. Torture: New Report Reveals How Bush Torture Program Involved Human Experimentation
136. Deaths in Guantánamo: Suicide or Murder at Guantánamo?
137. Prisoners released from Guantánamo: Guantánamo Uighurs Thank Bermuda; Supporters Ask UK to Give Them Passports
138. Prisoners released from Guantánamo: A Voice from Iraq: Former Guantánamo Prisoner Speaks
139. Closing Guantánamo: Does Obama Really Know or Care About Who Is at Guantánamo?
140. Deaths in Guantánamo: Murders at Guantánamo: The Cover-Up Continues
141. Torture: UN Human Rights Council Discusses Secret Detention Report
142. Torture: UN Secret Detention Report (Part One): The CIA’s “High-Value Detainee” Program and Secret Prisons
143. Torture: UN Secret Detention Report (Part Two): CIA Prisons in Afghanistan and Iraq
144. Torture: UN Secret Detention Report (Part Three): Proxy Detention, Other Countries’ Complicity, and Obama’s Record
145. Torture: Obama, the Supreme Court and Maher Arar: No Accountability for Torture
146. UK anti-terror laws: BBC Broadcasts Bleak Insight into Life of Terror Suspect under House Arrest (Hussein Alsamamara)
147. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: Guantánamo and Habeas Corpus: 2 Years, 50 Cases, 36 Victories for the Prisoners
148. Shaker Aamer: Campaigners Ask David Cameron to Secure Return to UK of Shaker Aamer, the Last British Resident in Guantánamo
149. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: Obama Thinks About Releasing Innocent Yemenis from Guantánamo (Mohammed Hassan Odaini)
150. Shaker Aamer: An open letter to David Cameron demanding the return from Guantánamo of Shaker Aamer
151. Guantánamo campaigns: Write to the Forgotten Prisoners in Guantánamo (lists the remaining 181 prisoners in Guantánamo)
152. Torture: Abu Zubaydah and the Case Against Torture Architect James Mitchell
153. Torture: The Torture of Abu Zubaydah: The Complaint Filed Against James Mitchell for Ethical Violations
154. Torture: UN Secretary-General and Torture Experts Issue Statements on International Day in Support of Victims of Torture
155. Guantánamo media: Amnesty International Blasts Obama for Delays and Injustice on Human Rights, Guantánamo and Terrorism
156. Prisoners released from Guantánamo: Three Neglected Ex-Guantánamo Prisoners in Slovakia Embark on a Hunger Strike
157. Torture: Calling for US Accountability on the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture
158: Guantánamo media: Guantánamo as an “Intelligence Squeezing” Center: Pakistan Media Interviews Col. Morris Davis
159: Torture, Closing Guantánamo: Obama’s Moral Bankruptcy Regarding Torture
160: Guantánamo campaigns: Activists’ Letter to the Justice Department on Guantánamo, Torture and Accountability

Andy Worthington is the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison (published by Pluto Press, distributed by Macmillan in the US, and available from Amazon — click on the following for the US and the UK) and of two other books: Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion and The Battle of the Beanfield. To receive new articles in your inbox, please subscribe to my RSS feed (and I can also be found on Facebook and Twitter). Also see my definitive Guantánamo prisoner list, updated in January 2010, details about the new documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (co-directed by Polly Nash and Andy Worthington, currently on tour in the UK, and available on DVD here), and my definitive Guantánamo habeas list, and, if you appreciate my work, feel free to make a donation.

The Guantánamo Files: An Archive of Articles – Part Five, July to December 2009

Andy Worthington — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 11:02:46 +0000

Please support my work!

For four years, I have been providing detailed information about the prisoners in Guantánamo, first through my book The Guantánamo Files, which tells the story of the prison and around 450 of the prisoners held, and then through 12 online chapters, which provide information about the majority of the other 329 prisoners. Alongside this project, I have been working assiduously as a full-time independent journalist, covering stories as they develop, and focusing in particular on the stories of released prisoners, the Military Commission trial system, and the prisoners’ progress in the courts, through their habeas corpus petitions.

My intention, all along, has been to bring the men to life through their stories, dispelling the Bush administration’s rhetoric about the prison holding “the worst of the worst,” and demonstrating how, instead, the majority of the prisoners were either innocent men, seized by the US military’s allies at a time when bounty payments were widespread, or recruits for the Taliban, who had been encouraged by supporters in their homelands to help the Taliban in a long-running inter-Muslim civil war (with the Northern Alliance), which began long before the 9/11 attacks and, for the most part, had nothing to do with al-Qaeda or international terrorism. As I explained in the introduction to my four-part Definitive Prisoner List (updated on January 1), I remain convinced, through detailed research and through comments from insiders with knowledge of Guantánamo, that “at least 93 percent of the 779 men and boys imprisoned in total” had no involvement with terrorism.

However, as this is a blog, rather than a website, I recognize that it’s increasingly difficult to navigate, as there are so many “Categories,” and, most crucially, there is no access to articles in anything other than reverse chronological order. In an attempt to remedy this shortcoming, and to provide easy access to the most important articles on the site, I’ve put together five chronological lists, covering the periods May to December 2007, January to June 2008, July to December 2008, January to June 2009 and July to December 2009, in the hope that they will provide a useful tool for navigation.

In this final part (for now, pending an update this summer), I continued writing for the Guardian, the Future of Freedom Foundation and Cageprisoners, and was also thrilled to be asked to start writing regularly for Truthout. I also maintained my involvement with the Huffington Post, CounterPunch, Antiwar.com, AlterNet and ZNet, and also kept up contact with the Daily Star, Lebanon. A number of other sites also started regularly cross-posting my articles, including Jason Leopold’s The Public Record, and I also made a number of appearances on al-Jazeera and Democracy Now!

In terms of content, this was the period when, distressingly, the high hopes human rights activists had for President Obama began to unravel. I covered some spectacular testimony in Congress, when Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld and Maj. David Frakt did their utmost to prevent the revival of the Military Commissions, but then watched in horror as the Commissions were revived in November, in a three-tier system of “justice” that involved federal court trials for some prisoners, Military Commissions for others, and, most alarmingly, indefinite detention without charge or trial for others. In September, the administration dropped its plans to apply for new legislation to endorse this disturbing plan, but ended up claiming that it needed only to rely on the sweeping and open-ended powers that Congress granted George W. Bush in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, which, to be frank, are in drastic need of an overhaul.

I also covered the prisoners’ habeas corpus petitions in great detail, rounding up the stories to date in a three-parter in the summer, cheering as Judge Ellen Huvelle granted the habeas petition of the former juvenile prisoner (and torture victim) Mohamed Jawad, and then reeling in shock as Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly granted the habeas petition of a Kuwaiti, Fouad al-Rabiah, and revealed, in her ruling, how he had been tortured into making false confessions that he had then repeated in publicly-available documents. This was one of my most successful articles of the period, along with a two-part interview with Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, formerly Colin Powell’s Chief of Staff.

I also covered the stories of the 31 prisoners released between July and December, continued to monitor Binyam Mohamed’s ongoing UK court case regarding his “extraordinary rendition” and torture, maintained a regular commentary on the UK’s domestic anti-terror laws, exposed what is known to date about murders in US custody in Afghanistan, and, in September, focused on the Obama administration’s shameless attempts to maintain Bush-era secrecy at Bagram, and to introduce a review process, unrelated to the Geneva Conventions, which was essentially copied from the discredited system used at Guantánamo.

In addition, I branched out into film, with the launch of a new documentary film, “Outside the law: Stories from Guantánamo” (co-directed by filmmaker Polly Nash and myself) in October, which I then followed up with a short US tour, taking in New York, Fairfax, Virginia, Washington D.C., and the Bay Area. The film was later featured on Democracy Now!, ABC News and Truthout, and although I had a great time in the States, and met some wonderful people, I couldn’t help thinking that the hopes of January 2009 were being dashed, with right-wingers out of control, members of Obama’s own party demonstrating their own stupidity, and a voter base that was either blind to reality, believing that Obama had waved a magic wand and made everything fine, or thoroughly disillusioned and comparing him to George W. Bush. In several articles, I expressed my disgust with lawmakers of both parties, and also my disappointment that, when it came to being challenged, the Obama administration chose cowardice, and acted with pragmatism rather than with the principles that are so desperately needed if the crimes of the Bush administration are ever to be thoroughly repudiated.

An archive of Guantánamo articles: Part Five, July to December 2009

July 2009

1. Murders in US custody: When Torture Kills: Ten Murders In US Prisons In Afghanistan
2. Torture: Release Of The “Holy Grail” Of Torture Reports Delayed Again
3. Federal court trials: African Embassy Bombing Suspect To Face Trial In September 2010 (Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani)
4. UK anti-terror laws: Seven years of madness: the harrowing tale of Mahmoud Abu Rideh and Britain’s anti-terror laws
5. UK anti-terror laws: “Would you be able to cope?”: Letters by the children of control order detainee Mahmoud Abu Rideh
6. UK anti-terror laws: Control order detainee Mahmoud Abu Rideh to be allowed to leave the UK
7. Bagram: Judge Rules That Afghan “Rendered” To Bagram In 2002 Has No Rights
8. Military Commissions: Military Commissions: Government Flounders, As Admiral Hutson Nails Problems
9. UK torture: Britain’s Secret Torture Policy Exposed
10. UK torture: How David Davis Exposed Britain’s Secret Torture Scandal
11. Military Commissions: Former Insider Shatters Credibility of Military Commissions (Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld)
12. UK anti-terror laws: Testing control orders (in the Guardian)
13. Torture: Will Eric Holder Be The Anti-Torture Hero?
14. Afghanistan: The Convoy of Death: Will Obama Investigate The Afghan Massacre Of November 2001?
15. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: Guantánamo And The Courts (Part One): Exposing The Bush Administration’s Lies
16. China: Is The World Ignoring A Massacre of Uighurs In China?
17. Uighur prisoners: Chair Of The American Conservative Union Supports The Guantánamo Uighurs
18. UK anti-terror laws: Dismantle the secret state (in the Guardian)
19. Tunisian prisoners: Italy’s Guantánamo: Obama Plans “Rendition” Of Tunisians In Guantánamo To Italian Jail
20. Military Commissions: Predictable Chaos As Guantánamo Trials Resume
21. UK anti-terror laws: UK government issues travel document to control order detainee Mahmoud Abu Rideh after horrific suicide attempt
22. Uighur prisoners: Three Uighurs Talk About Chinese Interrogation At Guantánamo
23. Uighur prisoners: House Threatens Obama Over Chinese Interrogation Of Uighurs In Guantánamo
24. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: Obama’s Failure To Deliver Justice To The Last Tajik In Guantánamo (Umar Abdulayev)
25. Interviews: An interview with Andy Worthington, author of The Guantánamo Files (July 2009)
26. Video: Andy Worthington discusses the closure of Guantánamo on Al-Jazeera
27. Closing Guantánamo: Obama And The Deadline For Closing Guantánamo: It’s Worse Than You Think
28. Torture: US Torture Under Scrutiny In British Courts
29. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: How Judge Huvelle Humiliated The Government In Guantánamo Case (Mohamed Jawad)
30. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: As Judge Orders Release Of Tortured Guantánamo Prisoner, Government Refuses To Concede Defeat (Mohamed Jawad)

August 2009

31. Video: Former prisoners launch the Guantánamo Justice Centre in London
32. Closing Guantánamo: Guantánamo As Hotel California: You Can Check Out Any Time You Like, But You Can Never Leave
33. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: Judge Orders Release From Guantánamo Of Kuwaiti Charity Worker (Khalid al-Mutairi)
34. UK anti-terror laws: Secret evidence in the case of the North West 10 “terror suspects”
35. Binyam Mohamed: What The British Government Knew About The Torture Of Binyam Mohamed
36: Uighur prisoners: A Profile of Rushan Abbas, The Guantánamo Uighurs’ Interpreter
37. Uighur prisoners: A Plea To Barack Obama From The Guantánamo Uighurs
38. Military Commissions: David Frakt: Military Commissions “A Catastrophic Failure”
39. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: Guantánamo And The Courts (Part Two): Obama’s Shame
40. Closing Guantánamo: Guantánamo In Belgium: The Questionable Fate Of Two Tunisians
41. Bagram: Bagram Isn’t The New Guantánamo, It’s The Old Guantánamo
42. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: Guantánamo And The Courts (Part Three): Obama’s Continuing Shame
43. Guantánamo history: Arrogance And Torture: A History of Guantánamo
44. Interviews: An Interview With Col. Lawrence Wilkerson (Part One)

September 2009

45. Prisoners released from Guantánamo: Reflections On Mohamed Jawad’s Release From Guantánamo
46. Prisoners released from Guantánamo: Who Are The Two Syrians Released From Guantánamo To Portugal?
47. UK anti-terror laws: Letting go of control orders (in the Guardian)
48. Torture: Spanish judge resumes torture case against six senior Bush lawyers
49. Interviews: An Interview With Col. Lawrence Wilkerson (Part Two)
50. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: No Escape From Guantánamo: The Latest Habeas Rulings
51. 9/11 anniversary: Remember 9/11, remember Guantánamo (in the Guardian)
52. Bagram: Obama Brings Guantánamo And Rendition To Bagram (And Not The Geneva Conventions)
53. Bagram: Is Bagram Obama’s New Secret Prison?
54. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: First Guantánamo Prisoner To Lose Habeas Hearing Appeals Ruling
55. Closing Guantánamo: Guantánamo Envoy: US Should Have Taken Cleared Prisoners; Some Should Never Have Been Held
56. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: Judge Orders Release From Guantánamo Of Kuwaiti Who Met Bin Laden (but please see 71, below)
57. Mohamed Jawad: The Unsung Heroes Who Helped Secure Mohammed Jawad’s Release From Guantánamo
58. Video: Freed From Guantánamo, Mohammed Jawad Celebrates Eid With His Family
59. Return to torture: Court Allows Return Of Guantánamo Prisoners To Torture
60. Military Commissions: 9/11 Trial At Guantánamo Delayed Again: Can We Have Federal Court Trials Now, Please?
61. Video (in German): Andy Worthington Discusses Guantánamo On Swiss TV
62. UK anti-terror laws: Another Blow To Britain’s Crumbling Control Order Regime
63. Prisoners released from Guantánamo: Three Prisoners Released From Guantánamo: Two To Ireland, One To Yemen
64: Video: Former Guantánamo Prisoner Binyam Mohamed Speaks (Video)
65. Prisoners released from Guantánamo: The Story of Oybek Jabbarov, An Innocent Man Freed From Guantánamo
66: Closing Guantánamo: Obama Drops Plan For New “Indefinite Detention” Policy At Guantánamo
67. Prisoners released from Guantánamo: A Teenage Refugee Freed From Guantánamo And Released In Ireland
68. Torture: Torture in Bagram and Guantánamo: The Declaration of Ahmed al-Darbi
69. Military Commissions: Torture And Futility: Is This The End Of The Military Commissions At Guantánamo?
70. Video: Andy Worthington Discusses Bagram on al-Jazeera
71. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: A Truly Shocking Guantánamo Story: Judge Confirms That An Innocent Man Was Tortured To Make False Confessions (Fouad al-Rabiah)

October 2009

72. Closing Guantánamo: 75 Guantánamo Prisoners Cleared For Release; 31 Could Leave Today
73. Guantánamo and US Congress: On Guantánamo, Lawmakers Reveal They Are Still Dick Cheney’s Pawns
74. Guantánamo and US Congress: Lawyer Blasts “Congressional Depravity” On Guantánamo
75. Barack Obama: Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize: OK, He’s A Nice Guy, But …
76. Prisoners released from Guantánamo: Two More Guantánamo Prisoners Released: To Kuwait And Belgium
77. Afghanistan (guest post): A Letter From Afghanistan: Bagram, Afghan suffering and the futility of war
78. Closing Guantánamo: Finding New Homes For 44 Cleared Guantánamo Prisoners
79. Kuwaiti prisoners: Resisting Injustice In Guantánamo: The Story Of Fayiz Al-Kandari
80. Binyam Mohamed: UK Judges Order Release Of Details About The Torture Of Binyam Mohamed By US Agents
81. Uighur prisoners: Justice At Last? Guantánamo Uighurs Ask Supreme Court For Release Into US
82. Guantánamo media: Photos from the launch of “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo”
83. Torture: Musicians (Finally) Say No To Music Torture
84. Guantánamo media: New Book: The Guantánamo Lawyers – and a talk by Jonathan Hafetz
85. Guantánamo and US Senate: Senate Finally Allows Guantánamo Trials In US, But Not Homes For Innocent Men
86. Prisoners released from Guantánamo: Six Uighurs Go To Palau; Seven Remain In Guantánamo

November 2009

87. US enemy combatants: Ali al-Marri’s Statement In Court, October 30, 2009
88. US enemy combatants: Ali al-Marri, The Last US “Enemy Combatant,” Receives Eight-Year Sentence
89. Prisoners released from Guantánamo: Who Are The Six Uighurs Released From Guantánamo To Palau?
90. Uighur prisoners: Guantánamo Uighurs In Palau: First Interview And Photo
91. Military Commissions: Military Commissions Revived: Don’t Do It, Mr. President!
92. Rendition: Italian Judge Rules “Extraordinary Rendition” Illegal, Sentences CIA Agents (Abu Omar)
93. US tour: Bringing Guantánamo To New York
94. Video: On Democracy Now! Andy Worthington Discusses the Forthcoming 9/11 Trials and “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo”
95. Video: An Evening with Andy Worthington, Discussing Guantánamo (Video)
96. US tour: Guantánamo Comes To The United States: Andy Worthington’s Tour Report
97. Federal court trials, Military Commissions: The Logic of the 9/11 Trials, The Madness of the Military Commissions
98. UK torture: UK Judge Approves Use of Secret Evidence in Guantánamo Case
99. Video: Andy Worthington Discusses Guantánamo on VOA News (Video – In Urdu)
100. Federal court trials, Military Commissions: Rep. Jerrold Nadler and David Frakt on Obama’s Three-Tier Justice System For Guantánamo
101. Closing Guantánamo: Obama’s Failure To Close Guantánamo By January Deadline Is Disastrous
102. Guantánamo lawyers: Justice Department Pointlessly Gags Guantánamo Lawyer (Candace Gorman, lawyer for Abdul Hamid al-Ghizzawi)
103. Video: On ABC News, Andy Worthington Discusses New Film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo”
104. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: Judge Orders Release Of Algerian From Guantánamo (But He’s Not Going Anywhere)
105. UK torture: Cruel Britannia: Human Rights Watch Exposes British Complicity In Torture In Pakistan
106. Iraq: Iraq Inquiry: Sir Christopher Meyer Confirms That Iraq War Was Illegal
107. Binyam Mohamed: UK Judges Compare Binyam Mohamed’s Torture To That Of Abu Zubaydah

December 2009

108. Closing Guantánamo: Guantánamo: Idealists Leave Obama’s Sinking Ship
109. UK anti-terror laws: The end of secret evidence? (in the Guardian)
110. Video: Andy Worthington Discusses Guantánamo, Plus Clips From “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (Truthout video)
111. Prisoners released from Guantánamo: Four Men Leave Guantánamo; Two Face Ill-Defined Trials In Italy
112. UK anti-terror laws: Living With A Terror Suspect: Detainee U’s Landlord Tells His Story
113. Guantánamo lawyers: Guantánamo Lawyer Calls Off Talk In Illinois After Receiving Threats Of Violence
114. Closing Guantánamo: 116 Guantánamo Prisoners Cleared For Release; 171 Still In Limbo
115. Military Commissions: Former Guantánamo Prosecutor Loses Job For Criticizing Military Commissions
116. UK anti-terror laws: Calling Time On The Use Of Secret Evidence In The UK
117. Military Commissions: Chaos and Confusion: The Return of the Military Commissions
118. Prisoners released from Guantánamo: Innocent Guantánamo Torture Victim Fouad al-Rabiah Is Released In Kuwait
119. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: What Does It Take To Get Out Of Obama’s Guantánamo?
120. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: “Model Prisoner” at Guantánamo, Tortured in the “Dark Prison,” Loses Habeas Corpus Petition
121. UK torture: UK Court Orders Release Of Torture Evidence In The Case Of Shaker Aamer, The Last British Resident In Guantánamo
122. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: Judge Orders Release From Guantánamo Of Unwilling Yemeni Recruit
123. Mohammed El-Gharani: Stranded In Chad: Mohammed El-Gharani, Once Guantánamo’s Youngest Prisoner
124. UK torture: Shaker Aamer: UK Government Drops Opposition To Release Of Torture Evidence
125. Prisoners released from Guantánamo: The Stories Of The Two Somalis Freed From Guantánamo
126. Closing Guantánamo: Serious Problems With Obama’s Plan To Move Guantánamo To Illinois
127. Somali prisoners: “Hell on Earth”: Released Somali Speaks about Guantánamo
128. Prisoners released from Guantánamo: Who Are The Four Afghans Released From Guantánamo?
129. Uzbek prisoners: At Christmas, Ex-Guantánamo Prisoner Is Reunited With His Family
130. Interviews: An Interview With Andy Worthington About Guantánamo, “Outside the Law” and New Media
131. Video: Q&A with Moazzam Begg, Omar Deghayes, Andy Worthington and Polly Nash at the Launch of “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo”
132. Prisoners released from Guantánamo: Why Obama Must Continue Releasing Yemenis From Guantánamo

(‘’)

Andy Worthington is the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison (published by Pluto Press, distributed by Macmillan in the US, and available from Amazon — click on the following for the US and the UK). To receive new articles in your inbox, please subscribe to my RSS feed (and I can also be found on Facebook and Twitter). Also see my definitive Guantánamo prisoner list, updated in January 2010, details about the new documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (co-directed by Polly Nash and Andy Worthington, and launched in October 2009), and, if you appreciate my work, feel free to make a donation.

The Guantánamo Files: An Archive of Articles – Part Four, January to June 2009

Andy Worthington — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 12:42:51 +0000

Please support my work!

My intention, all along, has been to bring the men to life through their stories, dispelling the Bush administration’s rhetoric about the prison holding “the worst of the worst,” and demonstrating how, instead, the majority of the prisoners were either innocent men, seized by the US military’s allies at a time when bounty payments were widespread, or recruits for the Taliban, who had been encouraged by supporters in their homelands to help the Taliban in a long-running inter-Muslim civil war (with the Northern Alliance), which began long before the 9/11 attacks and, for the most part, had nothing to do with al-Qaeda or international terrorism. As I explained in the introduction to my four-part Definitive Prisoner List (updated on January 1), I remain convinced, through detailed research and through comments from insiders with knowledge of Guantánamo, that “at least 93 percent of the 779 men and boys imprisoned in total” had no involvement with terrorism.

However, as this is a blog, rather than a website, I recognize that it’s increasingly difficult to navigate, as there are so many “Categories,” and, most crucially, there is no access to articles in anything other than reverse chronological order. In an attempt to remedy this shortcoming, and to provide easy access to the most important articles on the site, I’ve put together five chronological lists, covering the periods May to December 2007, January to June 2008, July to December 2008, January to June 2009 and July to December 2009, in the hope that they will provide a useful tool for navigation.

In this fourth period covered by the list, I continued writing for the Guardian, the Future of Freedom Foundation, Cageprisoners, the Huffington Post, CounterPunch, Antiwar.com, AlterNet and ZNet, and also maintained contact with the Daily Star, Lebanon. I also wrote guest columns for the ACLU, co-wrote a post with my friend The Talking Dog, and made my first appearance on Democracy Now!

After George W. Bush shuffled off the world stage on January 20, Barack Obama launched his presidency exactly as his supporters had hoped, freezing the Military Commissions, and issuing executive orders upholding the absolute prohibition on torture and ordering the closure of Guantánamo by January 22, 2010. Despite this excellent start, the program soon slipped. The Justice Department continued to obstruct the defense teams in the prisoners’ habeas petitions, and the government persisted in putting forward cases that ended in humiliation, as judges cast an objective — and authoritative — eye over the supposed evidence. Of the eight cases decided in this period, four went the government’s way, but four others were won by the prisoners, including the former juvenile prisoner Mohammed El-Gharani, and Abdul Rahim al-Ginco, a Syrian who had been tortured by al-Qaeda as a spy.

One sign of paralysis in the government, after its bold early start, concerned the release of prisoners. Just 12 prisoners were released by Obama in this period (to add to the six released in Bush’s dying days). They included Binyam Mohamed and four of the 17 Uighurs, who were sent to Bermuda after the administration failed to seize the initiative by rehousing them in the United States. In April, Obama further cheered those seeking accountability for the Bush administration’s crimes by releasing four notorious “torture memos,” issued in 2002 and 2005 by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, but by May his reforming zeal effectively ground to a halt, when, in a major national security speech, he announced his intention to revive the Military Commissions, and to hold some prisoners indefinitely without charge or trial.

While closely monitoring President Obama’s retreat from the bold initiatives of his first few days, I also attracted significant attention with my Definitive Prisoner List (published in March, and updated in January 2010), and with my articles about the CIA “ghost prisoner” Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, who was tortured in Egypt to produce a false confession about links between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. In May, I was the first Western journalist to pick up on al-Libi’s suspicious death in a Libyan prison, and in June I wrote an exclusive report about his “extraordinary rendition” and torture, based on information provided by the former Guantánamo prisoner Omar Deghayes through a contact in Libya. I also wrote well-received articles about the timing of Abu Zubaydah’s torture, and the fact that prisoners in Afghanistan were being tortured as early as December 2001, eight months before the “torture memos” were issued, and wrote a report for Cageprisoners analyzing the weight records of the Guantánamo prisoners, and revealing that, throughout the prison’s history, one in ten of the total population — 80 prisoners in total — weighed, at some point, less than 112 pounds (eight stone, or 50 kg), and 20 of these prisoners weighed less than 98 pounds (seven stone, or 44 kg).

Throughout this period, I also devoted time to the parlous state of Britain’s anti-terror laws, running a series on secret evidence in April, and covering an important ruling in June, when the Law Lords savaged the government’s control order regime, which functioned as a form of house arrest for men held without charge or trial on the basis of secret evidence. I also covered a story first published in the Mail on Sunday, but almost completely ignored, indicating further complicity by the British government in the rendition and torture of Binyam Mohamed, and involving an informer who was sent to visit Mohamed during his 18 months of torture in Morocco.

An archive of Guantánamo articles: Part Four, January to June 2009

January 2009

1. Closing Guantánamo: Will Europe help close Guantánamo? (in the Guardian)
2. Uighur prisoners: A New Year Message to Barack Obama: Free the Guantánamo Uighurs
3. Guantánamo and habeas corpus, Military Commissions: The Top Ten Judges of 2008 (with The Talking Dog)
4. Military Commissions: The Dying Days of the Guantánamo Trials
5. Guantánamo anniversary: Seven Years Of Guantánamo, And A Call For Justice At Bagram
6. Guantánamo anniversary: Will Guantánamo Bay ever close? (in the Guardian)
7. Guantánamo anniversary: Seven Years of Guantánamo, Seven Years of Torture and Lies
8. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: No End in Sight for the “Enemy Combatants” of Guantánamo (two prisoners lose their habeas petitions)
9. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: Former Guantánamo Prosecutor Condemns “Chaotic” Trials in Case of Teenage Torture Victim (Mohamed Jawad)
10. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: Judge Orders Release of Guantánamo’s Forgotten Child (Mohammed El-Gharani)
11. Military Commissions: Torture Taints the Case of Guantánamo Prisoner Mohamed Jawad
12. Binyam Mohamed: British torture victim Binyam Mohamed to be released from Guantánamo
13. Torture: Bush Era Ends With Guantánamo Trial Chief’s Torture Confession (Susan Crawford on Mohammed al-Qahtani)
14. Children in Guantánamo: The Tale of Two Tortured Teenagers (in Bagram and Guantánamo) (for the ACLU)
15. Military Commissions: Chaos and Lies: Why Obama Was Right To Halt The Guantánamo Trials
16. Closing Guantánamo: Return To The Law: Obama Orders Guantánamo Closure, Torture Ban and Review of US “Enemy Combatant” Case
17. Prisoners released from Guantánamo: Refuting Cheney’s Lies: The Stories of Six Prisoners Released from Guantánamo (an Afghan, an Algerian and four Iraqis)
18. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: How Cooking For The Taliban Gets You Life In Guantánamo (Ghaleb al-Bihani loses habeas petition)

February 2009

19. Closing Guantánamo: Don’t Forget Guantánamo (hunger strikes and doubts about the Pentagon’s role)
20. Binyam Mohamed: A transcript of Jon Snow’s interview with David Miliband on Channel 4 News
21. Binyam Mohamed: The betrayal of British torture victim Binyam Mohamed
22. Closing Guantánamo: Who’s Running Guantánamo? (more on hunger strikes and doubts about the Pentagon’s role)
23. Closing Guantánamo: Guantánamo’s refugees (prisoners cleared for release who cannot be repatriated)
24. Binyam Mohamed: Hiding Torture And Freeing Binyam Mohamed From Guantánamo
25. Interviews: The Guantánamo Files: Andy Worthington interviewed for Foreign Policy Journal
26. Closing Guantánamo: Guantánamo: Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics (an analysis of the supposed “evidence” against the prisoners)
27. Uighur prisoners: Bad News And Good News For The Guantánamo Uighurs (Obama backs appeal against rehousing Uighurs in the US)
28. Interviews: The Talking Dog interviews Darrel Vandeveld, former Guantánamo prosecutor (for Mohamed Jawad)
29. Binyam Mohamed: Binyam Mohamed’s Coming Home From Guantánamo, As Torture Allegations Mount
30. UK anti-terror laws: Abu Qatada: Law Lords and Government Endorse Torture
31. Prisoners released from Guantánamo: Binyam Mohamed’s statement on his release from Guantánamo
32. Conditions in Guantánamo: Obama’s “Humane” Guantánamo Is A Bitter Joke
33. Binyam Mohamed: Who Is Binyam Mohamed, the British resident released from Guantánamo?
34. UK anti-terror laws: Home Secretary ignores Court decision, kidnaps bailed men and imprisons them in Belmarsh

March 2009

35. US enemy combatants: Ending The Cruel Isolation Of Ali al-Marri, The Last US “Enemy Combatant”
36. Interviews: An interview with Andy Worthington, author of “The Guantánamo Files” (by Elizabeth Ferrari)
37. Binyam Mohamed: Seven Years of Torture: Binyam Mohamed Tells His Story
38. US enemy combatants: Why The US Under Obama Is Still A Dictatorship (Ali al-Marri)
39. British residents: Forgotten in Guantánamo: British resident Shaker Aamer
40. Recidivism: Who are ‘the worst of the worst’? (in the Guardian)
41. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: Guantánamo: The Nobodies Formerly Known As Enemy Combatants
42. UK anti-terror laws: Britain’s insane secret terror evidence
43. Intelligence failures: Lawrence Wilkerson Tells The Truth About Guantánamo
44. Conditions in Guantánamo: Guantánamo’s Long-Term Hunger Striker Should Be Sent Home
45. Torture: Prosecuting the Bush Administration’s Torturers
46. Binyam Mohamed: Binyam Mohamed’s Plea Bargain: Trading Torture For Freedom
47. Uighur prisoners: A Letter To Barack Obama From A Guantánamo Uighur
48. Binyam Mohamed: Guantánamo, Bagram and the “Dark Prison”: Binyam Mohamed talks to Moazzam Begg
49. Torture: Abu Zubaydah: The Futility Of Torture and A Trail of Broken Lives
50. UK anti-terror laws: Torture taints all our lives (in the Guardian)

April 2009

May 2009

69. US enemy combatants: Dictatorial Powers Unchallenged As US “Enemy Combatant” Pleads Guilty (Ali al-Marri)
70. Closing Guantánamo: Obama’s First 100 Days: A Start On Guantánamo, But Not Enough
71. Military Commissions, preventive detention: Obama Returns To Bush Era On Guantánamo
72. Military Commissions: New Chief Prosecutor Appointed For Military Commissions At Guantánamo
73. Torture: Obama’s First 100 Days: Mixed Messages On Torture
74. Torture: Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi Has Died In A Libyan Prison
75. Torture: Dick Cheney And The Death Of Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi
76. Torture: The “Suicide” Of Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi: Why The Media Silence?
77. Torture: Two Experts Cast Doubt On Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi’s “Suicide”
78. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: Judge Condemns “Mosaic” Of Guantánamo Intelligence, And Unreliable Witnesses (Alla Ali Bin Ali Ahmed)
79. Torture: Lawrence Wilkerson Nails Cheney On Use Of Torture To Invade Iraq
80. Torture: Death in Libya, betrayal in the west (in the Guardian)
81. Torture: Cheney’s Lies Undermined By Iraq Interrogator Matthew Alexander
82. Abu Ghraib: The Torture Photos We’re Not Supposed To See
83. Binyam Mohamed: UK Government Lies Exposed; Spy Visited Binyam Mohamed In Morocco
84. Binyam Mohamed: Daily Mail Pulls Story About Binyam Mohamed And British Spy
85. Prisoners released from Guantánamo, conditions in Guantánamo: Pain At Guantánamo And Paralysis In Government (Lakhdar Boumediene)
86. Torture: Lawrence Wilkerson Nails Cheney’s Iraq Lies Again (And Rumsfeld And The CIA)
87. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: Guantánamo: A Prison Built On Lies (Alla Ali Bin Ali Ahmed and other prisoners)
88. Binyam Mohamed: Government Bans Testimony On Binyam Mohamed And The British Spy
89. Uighur prisoners: Guantánamo: A Real Uyghur Slams Newt Gingrich’s Racist Stupidity
90. Federal court trials: Out Of Guantánamo: African Embassy Bombing Suspect To Be Tried In US Court (Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani)
91. Military Commissions, preventive detention: Transcript Of President Obama’s Speech About Guantánamo And Terrorism, May 21, 2009
92. Military Commissions, preventive detention: My Message To Obama: Great Speech, But No Military Commissions and No “Preventive Detention”
93. Binyam Mohamed: More twists in the tale of Binyam Mohamed (in the Guardian)
94. Binyam Mohamed: Did Hillary Clinton Threaten UK Over Binyam Mohamed Torture Disclosure?
95. Closing Guantánamo: Guantánamo And The Many Failures Of US Politicians
96. UK torture: Outsourcing torture to foreign climes (UK-assisted torture in Bangladesh, in the Guardian)
97. Algerian prisoners: Life After Guantánamo: Lakhdar Boumediene Speaks
98. Deaths in Guantánamo: Forgotten: The Second Anniversary Of A Guantánamo Suicide (Abdul Rahman al-Amri)
99. Uighur prisoners: Free The Guantánamo Uighurs!

June 2009

100. Military Commissions: A Child At Guantánamo: The Unending Torment of Mohamed Jawad
101. Deaths in Guantánamo: Yemeni Prisoner Muhammad Salih Dies At Guantánamo
102. Diego Garcia: Revealed: Identity Of Guantánamo Torture Victim Rendered Through Diego Garcia (Muhammad Saad Iqbal Madni)
103. Military Commissions: A Broken Circus: Guantánamo Trials Convene For One Day Of Chaos (Omar Khadr)
104. Deaths in Guantánamo: Death At Guantánamo Hovers Over Obama’s Middle East Visit
105. Recidivism: New York Times finally apologizes for false Guantánamo recidivism story
106. Uighur prisoners: Uighur Protest In Guantánamo: Photos
107. Military Commissions: Obama Proposes Swift Execution of Alleged 9/11 Conspirators
108. Closing Guantánamo: Council Of Europe’s Human Rights Commissioner Urges European Governments To Help Close Guantánamo
109. Video: Lakhdar Boumediene Talks About Torture At Guantánamo
110. Uighur prisoners: From Guantánamo To The South Pacific: Is This A Joke?
111. Conditions at Guantánamo: Guantánamo’s Hidden History: Shocking Statistics of Starvation (report for Cageprisoners)
112. Prisoners released from Guantánamo: Guantánamo’s Youngest Prisoner Released To Chad (Mohammed El-Gharani)
113. Prisoners released from Guantánamo: Who Are The Four Guantánamo Uighurs Sent To Bermuda?
114. Deaths in Guantánamo: Binyam Mohamed: Was Muhammad Salih’s Death In Guantánamo Suicide?
115. UK anti-terror laws: Law Lords Condemn UK’s Use of Secret Evidence And Control Orders
116. Uighur prisoners: Guantánamo’s Uighurs In Bermuda: Interviews And New Photos
117. Prisoners released from Guantánamo: The Last Iraqi In Guantánamo, Cleared Six Years Ago, Returns Home
118. Military Commissions, preventive detention: Obama’s Confusion Over Guantánamo Terror Trials
119. Prisoners released from Guantánamo: Empty Evidence: The Stories Of The Saudis Released From Guantánamo
120. Closing Guantánamo: Europe agrees to accept cleared Guantánamo prisoners (and I talk to the BBC)
121. UK torture: Miliband Shows Leadership, Reveals Nothing About Torture To Parliamentary Committee
122. UK torture: Britain’s Torture Troubles: What Tony Blair Knew
123. Mohammed El-Gharani: Guantánamo’s Youngest Prisoner, Mohammed El-Gharani, Is Imprisoned In Chad
124. Torture: WORLD EXCLUSIVE: New Revelations About The Torture Of Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi
125. Prisoners released from Guantánamo: The Lies Told About The Saudi Hunger Striker Released From Guantánamo
126. Video: Andy Worthington Discusses Guantánamo on Democracy Now!
127. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: Why Did It Take So Long To Order The Release From Guantánamo Of An Al-Qaeda Torture Victim? (Abdul Rahim al-Ginco wins habeas petition)
128. Torture: Never Forget: The International Day in Support of Victims of Torture
129. Torture: ACLU Interviews Wife Of Rendition Victim Abou Elkassim Britel
130. Torture: Torture In Guantánamo: The Force-feeding Of Hunger Strikers (for the ACLU)
131. Video: Mohammed El-Gharani, Guantánamo’s youngest prisoner, speaks to al-Jazeera
132. Libya: UK protestors mark 13th anniversary of Libyan prison massacre
133. Preventive detention: Guantánamo: Charge Or Release Prisoners, Say No To Indefinite Detention

(‘’)

Andy Worthington is the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison (published by Pluto Press, distributed by Macmillan in the US, and available from Amazon — click on the following for the US and the UK). To receive new articles in your inbox, please subscribe to my RSS feed (and I can also be found on Facebook and Twitter). Also see my definitive Guantánamo prisoner list, updated in January 2010, details about the new documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (co-directed by Polly Nash and Andy Worthington, and launched in October 2009), and, if you appreciate my work, feel free to make a donation.

The Guantánamo Files: An Archive of Articles – Part Three, July to December 2008

Andy Worthington — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 14:10:20 +0000

Please support my work!

My intention, all along, has been to bring the men to life through their stories, dispelling the Bush administration’s rhetoric about the prison holding “the worst of the worst,” and demonstrating how, instead, the majority of the prisoners were either innocent men, seized by the US military’s allies at a time when bounty payments were widespread, or recruits for the Taliban, who had been encouraged by supporters in their homelands to help the Taliban in a long-running inter-Muslim civil war (with the Northern Alliance), which began long before the 9/11 attacks and, for the most part, had nothing to do with al-Qaeda or international terrorism. As I explained in the introduction to my four-part Definitive Prisoner List (updated on January 1), I remain convinced, through detailed research and through comments from insiders with knowledge of Guantánamo, that “at least 93 percent of the 779 men and boys imprisoned in total” had no involvement with terrorism.

However, as this is a blog, rather than a website, I recognize that it’s increasingly difficult to navigate, as there are so many “Categories,” and, most crucially, there is no access to articles in anything other than reverse chronological order. In an attempt to remedy this shortcoming, and to provide easy access to the most important articles on the site, I’ve put together five chronological lists, covering the periods May to December 2007, January to June 2008, July to December 2008, January to June 2009 and July to December 2009, in the hope that they will provide a useful tool for navigation.

In the period covered by this third part of the list, I continued writing for the Guardian, the Huffington Post, CounterPunch, Antiwar.com and AlterNet (and also began working with ZNet), and left Reprieve, the legal action charity whose lawyers represent dozens of Guantánamo prisoners, in October, to concentrate on my writing. I picked up some work for Cageprisoners and The Raw Story (especially an overlooked story of the number of juveniles held in Guantánamo), continued my association with the Daily Star, Lebanon, and also started writing a weekly column for the Future of Freedom Foundation. I also contributed guest columns to Juan Cole’s Informed Comment and to the British site, Liberal Conspiracy.

The three dominant themes of this period were the prisoners’ habeas corpus petitions (authorized by the Supreme Court in June), the US presidential elections, and the ongoing collapse of the Military Commissions. One of Guantánamo’s Uighur prisoners (Muslims from China’s Xinjiang province) won a resounding appeals court victory at the start of this period, which led to the government abandoning all attempts to claim that the 17 Uighurs were “enemy combatants,” persuading Judge Ricardo Urbina to order their release into the United States in October. This was resisted by the Bush administration, but in November another judge ordered five out of six Algerians seized in Bosnia-Herzegovina to be released, and at the end of the year, 22 out of 23 habeas petitions had been granted.

On the election trail, I followed Barack Obama’s progress, taking hope from his stated opposition to the Bush administration’s policies regarding Guantánamo and the “War on Terror,” and delivering two articles presenting the problems with Guantánamo in the weeks following his victory.

In my coverage of the Military Commissions, I watched closely as Salim Hamdan, a driver for Osama bin Laden, was convicted in a Pyrrhic victory for the government, which led to his release from Guantánamo in November, and also watched as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed seized two opportunities to usurp the trial system’s faltering authority. Also of significance was a one-sided trial for al-Qaeda member Ali Hamza al-Bahlul, and the machinations behind the scenes, which I covered in a series of articles, focused primarily on one of my favorite articles, “The Dark Heart of the Guantánamo Trials.”

I also covered in detail an unprecedented court case in the UK involving the British resident Binyam Mohamed, reported on the stories of the 21 prisoners released during this period, reported new revelations about the use of Diego Garcia for a secret prison, and kept an eye on the bleak story of US “enemy combatant” Ali al-Marri. As the year ended, I published an article on the history of music torture in the “War on Terror,” which received worldwide attention, published a detailed, two-part analysis of “The Lies of Dick Cheney” and an interview with the Guantánamo whistleblower, Lt. Col. Stephen Abraham, and asked whether, in the wake of a critical report by the Senate Armed Services Committee, senior Bush administration officials would be held accountable for war crimes.

An archive of Guantánamo articles: Part Three, July to December 2008

July 2008

1. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: Guantánamo as Alice in Wonderland (Uighurs)
2. Military Commissions: Guantánamo Trials: Another Torture Victim Charged (Abdul Rahim al-Nashiri)
3. Prisoners released from Guantánamo: Repatriation as Russian Roulette: Will the Two Algerians Freed from Guantánamo Be Treated Fairly?
4. Diego Garcia: Scandal of Diego Garcia rendition flights strains US-UK relations
5. Omar Khadr: “Screwed up” and “abused”: Omar Khadr’s Canadian interrogations at Guantánamo
6. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: What’s Happening with the Guantánamo cases?
7. US enemy combatants: Court Confirms President’s Dictatorial Powers in Case of US “Enemy Combatant” Ali al-Marri
8. Omar Khadr: Moazzam Begg recalls the suffering of Omar Khadr
9. Film reviews: Film review: Standard Operating Procedure
10. Military Commissions: Folly and Injustice: Salim Hamdan’s Guantánamo Trial
11. Prisoners released from Guantánamo: Three prisoners released from Guantánamo, including the brother of US “enemy combatant” Ali al-Marri
12. Sami al-Haj: An interview with Sami al-Haj, former Guantánamo prisoner and al-Jazeera journalist

August 2008

13. Diego Garcia: Secret Prison on Diego Garcia Confirmed: Six “High-Value” Guantánamo Prisoners Held, Plus “Ghost Prisoner” Mustafa Setmariam Nasar
14. Diego Garcia: Diego Garcia: the UK’s shame (in the Guardian)
15. Binyam Mohamed: Binyam Mohamed’s judicial review: judges grill British agent and question fairness of Guantánamo trials
16. Military Commissions: A critical overview of Salim Hamdan’s Guantánamo trial and the dubious verdict
17. Military Commissions: Salim Hamdan’s sentence signals the end of Guantánamo
18. Video: TV and radio: Andy Worthington responds to the verdict in Salim Hamdan’s Guantánamo trial
19. Military Commissions: Salim Hamdan’s sentence at Guantánamo: a military juror speaks
20. Military Commissions: The Media’s Response to the Hamdan Trial: Due Process or Dictatorial Sideshow?
21. Deaths in Guantánamo: NCIS Statement on the Guantánamo Suicides of June 2006
22. Deaths in Guantánamo: Guantánamo Suicide Report: Truth or Travesty?
23. Prisoners released from Guantánamo: Clearing Out Guantánamo: Two More Algerians Transferred
24. Binyam Mohamed: High Court rules against UK and US in case of Guantánamo torture victim Binyam Mohamed

September 2008

25. George W. Bush: Bush’s proposed terror legacy: a legal basis for perpetual war
26. Prisoners released from Guantánamo: Rendered to Egypt for torture, Mohammed Saad Iqbal Madni is released from Guantánamo
27. Prisoners released from Guantánamo: Two Afghans released from Guantánamo: a farmer and a teenager
28. Military Commissions: Controversy still plagues Guantánamo’s Military Commissions
29. Binyam Mohamed: In a plea from Guantánamo, Binyam Mohamed talks of “betrayal” by the UK
30. George W. Bush: Bush’s bitter legacy (in the Guardian)
31. Military Commissions: Guantánamo trials: another insignificant Afghan charged
32. Omar Khadr: Seized at 15, Omar Khadr turns 22 in Guantánamo
33. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: Guantánamo: Government Says Six Years Is Not Long Enough To Prepare Evidence
34. Military Commissions: Is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Running the 9/11 Trials?
35. US election: Obama and McCain shirk discussion of Guantánamo and executive overreach
36. US election: A Message to Barack Obama: Don’t Forget Cheney and Addington

October 2008

37. Military Commissions: The Dark Heart of the Guantánamo Trials
38. Prisoners released from Guantánamo: Seized In Pakistan, Two 50 Year Olds Are Released From Guantánamo
39. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: From Guantánamo to the United States: The Story of the Wrongly Imprisoned Uighurs
40. Military Commissions: New Evidence of Systemic Bias in Guantánamo Trials
41. Torture: Newly released Guantánamo manual confirms use of banned techniques
42. Binyam Mohamed: US Justice Department drops “dirty bomb plot” allegation against Binyam Mohamed
43. Torture: The trail of torture (CIA torture revelations, in the Guardian)
44. Uighur prisoners: Guantánamo Uyghurs’ resettlement prospects skewered by Justice Department lies
45. Uighur prisoners: A Pastor’s Plea for the Guantánamo Uyghurs
46. Omar Khadr: Omar Khadr: The Guantánamo Files (how advice on the treatment of juveniles was ignored)
47. Military Commissions: Guantánamo’s bleak farce (Military Commission charges dropped against Binyam Mohamed and others, in the Guardian)
48. Binyam Mohamed: Contempt of court (more on Binyam Mohamed’s UK court case, in the Guardian)
49. Diego Garcia: Diego Garcia: no return to “torture island” (Law Lords turn their backs on the Chagos Islanders)
50. Military Commissions: Meltdown at the Guantánamo Trials
51. Omar Khadr: The Collapse of Omar Khadr’s Guantánamo Trial
52. Military Commissions: An Empty Trial at Guantánamo (Ali Hamza al-Bahlul)
53. Uighur prisoners: Guantánamo: Justice Delayed or Justice Denied?
54. Military Commissions: Corruption at Guantánamo: Military Commissions Under Investigation
55. Binyam Mohamed: Torture cannot be hidden forever (police to investigate MI5′s actions)

November 2008

56. Uighur prisoners: Guantánamo Uighurs: Sabin Willett’s letter to the Justice Department
57. Return to torture: Treachery at Guantánamo (attempts to forcibly repatriate prisoners protected by court orders)
58. US election: Silence on war crimes as the US election campaign ends
59. Military Commissions: Life sentence for al-Qaeda propagandist fails to justify Guantánamo trials (Ali Hamza al-Bahlul)
60. US election: A bright new day – but what now, President Obama? (Obama’s election victory)
61. Binyam Mohamed: Guilt By Torture: Binyam Mohamed’s Transatlantic Quest for Justice
62. Prisoners released from Guantánamo: Release of three prisoners highlights failures of Guantánamo (a Kazakh, a Somali and a Tajik)
63. Guantánamo guards: On Veterans Day, my correspondence with Brandon Neely, Iraq war resister and former Guantánamo guard
64. Closing Guantánamo: Why Guantánamo Must Be Closed: Advice for Barack Obama
65. Military Commissions: 20 Reasons To Shut Down The Guantánamo Trials (studies of the 20 prisoners facing charges)
66. Closing Guantánamo: How Guantánamo Can Be Closed: More Advice for Barack Obama
67. Military Commissions: More Dubious Charges in the Guantánamo Trials (two Kuwaitis charged)
68. Children in Guantánamo: The Pentagon Can’t Count: 22 Juveniles Held at Guantánamo
69. Children in Guantánamo: Trampling The Rights Of The Child: The Treatment Of Juveniles In Guantánamo
70. Salim Hamdan: Bin Laden’s Driver To Be Released From Guantánamo; Government Defeated
71. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: After 7 Years, Judge Orders Release of Guantánamo Kidnap Victims (Bosnian Algerians, kidnapped in January 2002)
72. Salim Hamdan: The End of Guantánamo (the implications of Hamdan’s release)

December 2008

73. Military Commissions: Torture, Preventive Detention and the Terror Trials At Guantánamo
74. US enemy combatants: The Last US Enemy Combatant: The Shocking Story of Ali al-Marri
75. Closing Guantánamo: Obama and Holder must return to a September 10th mind-set (for Informed Comment)
76. Military Commissions: Is The 9/11 Trial Confession An Al-Qaeda Propaganda Coup?
77. Prisoners released from Guantánamo: Lost In Guantánamo: The Faisalabad 16
78. Military Commissions: Relatives of 9/11 Victims Condemn Shameful and Unconstitutional Guantánamo Trials
79. Torture: A History of Music Torture in the “War on Terror”
80. Closing Guantánamo: Will Europe Take The Cleared Guantánamo Prisoners?
81. Prisoners released from Guantánamo: Freed Bosnian Calls Guantánamo the “worst place in the world”
82. Guantánamo whistleblowers: An interview with Guantánamo whistleblower Stephen Abraham (Part One)
83. Torture: Will the Bush administration be held accountable for war crimes?
84. Binyam Mohamed: Is Robert Gates Guilty of Perjury in Guantánamo Torture Case?
85. Dick Cheney: The Ten Lies of Dick Cheney (Part One)
86. Dick Cheney: The Ten Lies of Dick Cheney (Part Two)
87. Guantánamo whistleblowers: An interview with Guantánamo whistleblower Stephen Abraham (Part Two)

(‘’)

Andy Worthington is the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison (published by Pluto Press, distributed by Macmillan in the US, and available from Amazon — click on the following for the US and the UK). To receive new articles in your inbox, please subscribe to my RSS feed (and I can also be found on Facebook and Twitter). Also see my definitive Guantánamo prisoner list, updated in January 2010, details about the new documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (co-directed by Polly Nash and Andy Worthington, and launched in October 2009), and, if you appreciate my work, feel free to make a donation.

The Guantánamo Files: An Archive of Articles – Part Two, January to June 2008

Andy Worthington — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 11:37:24 +0000

Please support my work!

My intention, all along, has been to bring the men to life through their stories, dispelling the Bush administration’s rhetoric about the prison holding “the worst of the worst,” and demonstrating how, instead, the majority of the prisoners were either innocent men, seized by the US military’s allies at a time when bounty payments were widespread, or recruits for the Taliban, who had been encouraged by supporters in their homelands to help the Taliban in a long-running inter-Muslim civil war (with the Northern Alliance), which began long before the 9/11 attacks and, for the most part, had nothing to do with al-Qaeda or international terrorism. As I explained in the introduction to my four-part Definitive Prisoner List (updated on January 1), I remain convinced, through detailed research and through comments from insiders with knowledge of Guantánamo, that “at least 93 percent of the 779 men and boys imprisoned in total” had no involvement with terrorism.

However, as this is a blog, rather than a website, I recognize that it’s increasingly difficult to navigate, as there are so many “Categories,” and, most crucially, there is no access to articles in anything other than reverse chronological order. In an attempt to remedy this shortcoming, and to provide easy access to the most important articles on the site, I’ve put together five chronological lists, covering the periods May to December 2007, January to June 2008, July to December 2008, January to June 2009 and July to December 2009, in the hope that they will provide a useful tool for navigation.

In the period covered by the second part of the list, I continued writing for the Huffington Post, CounterPunch and Antiwar.com, and also hooked up with the “Rights and Liberties” team at AlterNet. I also started writing occasionally for the Guardian, had a front-page story in the New York Times (with Carlotta Gall), continued writing the occasional op-ed for the Daily Star, Lebanon, and, in March, began working for Reprieve, the legal action charity whose lawyers represent dozens of Guantánamo prisoners. I also had articles published in Amnesty International’s magazines in the Netherlands and Australia, and was commissioned to write an entry about Guantánamo for the Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia.

This was a crucial period in Guantánamo’s history, as, in June, the Supreme Court ruled that the prisoners had constitutionally guaranteed habeas corpus rights, paving the way for the challenges which, at the time of writing, have led to 32 out of 41 victories for the prisoners. In the months preceding this historic ruling, I continued to report the stories of the released prisoners (ten in total, including al-Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Haj, whose banned drawings attracted worldwide attention), and also kept a close eye on the stumbling progress of the Military Commissions. This was a busy time for the revived version of Dick Cheney’s terror trials, and included the filing of charges against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and five other men accused of involvement in the 9/11 attacks, which remains my most popular article to date.

I also exposed the lies and misinformation regarding the alleged “high-value detainee” Abu Zubaydah, continued to cover the story of the US “enemy combatants,” especially through the punitive sentence delivered to Jose Padilla, reported on cruel attempts to extradite two British residents to Spain (after their release from Guantánamo) on the basis of a non-existent connection to terrorist activities, covered the stories of some little-known prisoners (including Mohammed El-Gharani, just 14 at the time of his capture, and a number of Tunisian prisoners), and made my first ever visit to the United States, to promote The Guantánamo Files. On topics relating to the UK, I also made attempts to monitor Britain’s anti-terror laws, reported on evasions regarding the island of Diego Garcia, and took great interest in a lawsuit filed by Binyam Mohamed’s lawyers, seeking information held by the British government regarding his “extraordinary rendition” and torture.

An archive of Guantánamo articles: Part Two, January to June 2008

January 2008

1. Prisoners released from Guantánamo: Who Are The Ten Saudis Just Released From Guantánamo?
2. British residents: Jamil El-Banna’s first interview since returning from Guantánamo
3. British residents: Guantánamo Britons resist Spanish extradition order
4. Guantánamo anniversary: Guantánamo: Six Years Of Injustice Need To End
5. Guantánamo anniversary: Six Years Of Guantánamo: Enough Is Enough
6. Guantánamo anniversary: The future of Guantánamo (in the Guardian)
7. Guantánamo anniversary: US military chief’s strategic call to close Guantánamo (Adm. Mike Mullen)
8. Sami al-Haj: A letter from Guantánamo (by Al-Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Haj)
9. Omar Khadr: Canada’s Guantánamo torture warning shows double standards
10. US enemy combatants: Why Jose Padilla’s 17-year prison sentence should shock and disgust all Americans
11. Media: BBC torture experiment replicates Guantánamo and secret prisons: how to lose your mind in 48 hours
12. Book reviews: Road From Ar Ramadi: The Private Rebellion of Staff Sergeant Camilo Mejía
13. Uighur prisoners: Support for ex-Guantánamo detainee’s Swedish asylum claim
14. Libyan prisoners: Horror at Guantánamo: Libyan detainee infected with AIDS (Abdul Hamid al-Ghizzawi)

February 2008

15. Sami al-Haj: Guantánamo: Al-Jazeera’s Sami al-Haj to be released?
16. Deaths in Guantánamo: Time Runs Out for an Afghan Held by the U.S. (the death of Abdul Razzaq Hekmati, in the New York Times, with Carlotta Gall)
17. Torture: Waterboarding: two questions for Michael Hayden about three “high-value” detainees now in Guantánamo
18. Media: Scott Horton on Guantánamo and the New York Times’ Editor’s Note
19. Military Commissions: Guantánamo Trials: Where Are The Terrorists?
20. Military Commissions: Six in Guantánamo Charged with 9/11 Murders: Why Now? And What About the Torture?
21. Media: Guantánamo and the New York Times: FAIR sends letter to public editor
22. Military Commissions: Torture on trial (the 9/11 trials, in the Guardian)
23. British residents: Guantánamo Britons’ Spanish extradition request: an update
24. Afghanistan: Expelled UN official criticizes Afghan policy re: Taliban – and defends ex-Guantánamo detainee
25. Diego Garcia: David Miliband admits that two “extraordinary rendition” flights refuelled at Diego Garcia: Is this a joke?
26. UK anti-terror laws: Britain’s Guantánamo: control orders renewed, as one suspect is freed
27. Interviews: The Guantánamo Files: AlterNet interviews Andy Worthington
28. Military Commissions: Guantánamo’s shambolic trials: Pentagon boss resigns, ex-chief prosecutor joins defense
29. Interviews: The Guantánamo Files: Press TV interviews Andy Worthington

March 2008

30. Guantánamo whistleblowers: Guantánamo whistleblower Stephen Abraham addresses European Parliament
31. British residents: Spanish drop “inhuman” extradition request for Guantánamo Britons
32. Deaths in Guantánamo: Afghan hero who died in Guantánamo: the background to the story (more on Abdul Razzaq Hekmati)
33. Closing Guantánamo: Why Guantánamo Must Be Closed
34. Military Commissions: Torture allegations dog Guantánamo trials
35. US tour: The Guantánamo Files: Andy Worthington’s US tour report
36. Uighur prisoners: A Chinese Muslim’s desperate plea from Guantánamo
37. Military Commissions: As a sixth “high-value detainee” is charged at Guantánamo, disturbing evidence surfaces (Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani)

April 2008

38. Moroccan prisoners: Cleared but still held in Guantánamo: Moroccan prisoner Said al-Boujaadia
39. Sami al-Haj: Sami al-Haj: the banned torture pictures of a journalist in Guantánamo
40. Military Commissions: The US military’s shameless propaganda over Guantánamo’s 9/11 trials
41. Mohammed El-Gharani: Guantánamo’s forgotten child: the sad story of Mohammed El-Gharani
42. Abu Zubaydah: The Insignificance and Insanity of Abu Zubaydah: Ex-Guantánamo Prisoner Confirms FBI’s Doubts
43. Video: The Guantánamo Files: Al-Jazeera interviews Murat Kurnaz, Andy Worthington

May 2008

44. Prisoners released from Guantánamo: Sami al-Haj released from Guantánamo
45. Video: Sami al-Haj speaks, appeals for fellow prisoners in Guantánamo
46. Video: Sami al-Haj: “Torture is terrorism”
47. Interviews: The Guantánamo Files: al-Istiqamah interviews Andy Worthington
48. Prisoners released from Guantánamo: Who are the prisoners released from Guantánamo with Sami al-Haj?
49. Sami al-Haj: The journey from Guantánamo: One final indignity for Sami al-Haj
50. Prisoners released from Guantánamo: Who are the Afghans just released from Guantánamo?
51. Binyam Mohamed: Guantánamo: Torture victim Binyam Mohamed sues British government for evidence
52. Recidivism: Identification of ex-Guantánamo suicide bomber unleashes Pentagon propaganda
53. Military Commissions: Betrayals, backsliding and boycotts: the continuing collapse of Guantánamo’s Military Commissions
54. Military Commissions: Guantánamo trial delayed: judge invokes pending Supreme Court decision
55. Military Commissions: Fact Sheet: The 16 Prisoners Charged in Guantánamo’s Trials
56. Binyam Mohamed: Binyam Mohamed’s letter from Guantánamo to Gordon Brown
57. Deaths in Guantánamo: The forgotten anniversary of a Guantánamo suicide (Abdul Rahman al-Amri)

June 2008

58. Military Commissions: Guantánamo trials: critical judge sacked, British torture victim charged (Binyam Mohamed and three others)
59. Military Commissions: Afghan fantasist to face trial at Guantánamo
60. Military Commissions: 9/11 trials: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed speaks of martyrdom and torture
61. Binyam Mohamed: UK court grants judicial review over torture allegations, as US files official charges
62. Binyam Mohamed: Binyam Mohamed embarks on hunger strike to protest Guantánamo charges
63. Military Commissions: In a legal otherworld, 9/11 trial defendants cry torture at Guantánamo
64. Deaths in Guantánamo: Second anniversary of triple suicide at Guantánamo
65. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: The Supreme Court’s Guantánamo ruling: what does it mean?
66. Media: Report on ex-Guantánamo prisoners reveals systematic abuse and chronic failures of intelligence (the McClatchy Newspapers report)
67. US election: John McCain, Torture Puppet: Senator Ignores Mounting Evidence of Torture and Abuse in “War on Terror” Prisons, including Guantánamo
68. Uighur prisoners: Former Guantánamo prisoner denied asylum in Sweden
69. Tunisian prisoners: Italy’s Forgotten Residents in Guantánamo
70. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: Six Years Late, Court Throws Out Guantánamo Case (Uighurs)

(‘’)

Andy Worthington is the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison (published by Pluto Press, distributed by Macmillan in the US, and available from Amazon — click on the following for the US and the UK). To receive new articles in your inbox, please subscribe to my RSS feed (and I can also be found on Facebook and Twitter). Also see my definitive Guantánamo prisoner list, updated in January 2010, details about the new documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (co-directed by Polly Nash and Andy Worthington, and launched in October 2009), and, if you appreciate my work, feel free to make a donation.