Please support my work!

On Monday, I put out an appeal for financial support for my ongoing quest to expose the dark truths about Guantánamo and the “War on Terror,” which, for the last four years, has involved a concerted and consistent effort to fight back against the Bush administration’s insidiously successful rhetoric of fear and vengeance, and I’m renewing that appeal today.

My thanks to those who have contributed over the last few days, and if you’d like to join them, please click on the “Donate” button above to make a payment via PayPal. All contributions are welcome. Readers can pay from anywhere in the world, but if you’re in the UK and want to help without using PayPal, you can send me a cheque (address here — scroll down to the bottom of the page).

As I have demonstrated time and again — and will continue to do so, with your help — Guantánamo was never a prison that contained “the worst of the worst,” but was, instead, a mistake of colossal proportions, in which at least 95 percent of those held had no connection to al-Qaeda or international terrorism, and were either completely innocent men, seized by the US military’s allies in Afghanistan and Pakistan, at a time when substantial bounty payments were widespread, or Taliban recruits, urged by sheikhs and facilitators in the Gulf to travel to Afghanistan to help the Taliban in its long-running civil war with the Northern Alliance.

Throughout all my work, I have attempted to bring the men’s stories to life, to overcome the general lack of interest in the mainstream media, and to insist that the vile innovations of the Bush administration — holding men neither as prisoners of war or as criminal suspects, but as a novel category of human being without rights, and introducing torture as an illegal, morally repugnant and useless way of making them talk — must be brought to an end, and that those responsible for implementing torture must be held to account, as stipulated by the UN Convention Against Torture.

When President Obama came into office last January, I believed, like many others, that Guantánamo would be closed within a year, but that has not happened, and, if anything, the struggle to highlight the ongoing injustice of Guantánamo is now harder than ever. Your financial support will help me to continue with this work — and also to continue calling for senior Bush administration officials to be held accountable for their actions, and to continue researching other stories, in particular those of “America’s Disappeared” — the men held in the CIA’s secret prisons, whose whereabouts have not been disclosed by the Obama administration, which still insists on looking forward, rather than dealing with the crimes of the recent past.

As I mentioned on Monday, if you can’t help out with a donation, please be aware that my book The Guantánamo Files (and my two previous books, The Battle of the Beanfield and Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion) are all available to buy from me if you’re in the UK (and are available elsewhere through Amazon and other retailers), and that copies of my documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (co-directed by Polly Nash) are available on DVD, and can be dispatched anywhere in the world. As I also mentioned on Monday, any financial assistance you can provide will help me to cover the ongoing costs of taking the film on a UK tour without any financial backing.

Thanks for your continued support.

Andy Worthington
London
March 3, 2010

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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.

Please support my work!

Every three months I appeal for financial support to help me to continue the full-time work I began exactly four years ago, when I started researching and writing about the stories of the prisoners held in the US prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and first realized the scale of the injustice and brutality of the Bush administration’s “War on Terror.”

If you can help out at all, please click on the “Donate” button above to make a payment via PayPal. All contributions are welcome. Readers can pay from anywhere in the world, but if you’re in the UK and want to help without using PayPal, you can send me a cheque (address here — scroll down to the bottom of the page).

My life as a full-time chronicler and analyst of Guantánamo and the “War on Terror” began with the 14 months I spent researching and writing my book The Guantánamo Files, which (with additional chapters published online) tells the stories of the 779 prisoners who have been held at Guantánamo throughout its eight-year history. I then began writing articles following developments at Guantánamo, helping to spread the word through various websites, and am delighted to report that my website now receives an average of 150,000 page views a month.

My thanks to all who have discovered my work, and especially to those who follow it on a regular basis. Three months ago, despite stalling and compromises on the part of the Obama administration, I thought that we were at least still proceeding in the right direction, but the last few months have proved me wrong, and have demonstrated that a huge amount of work still needs to be done. This is where your help — reading my work, helping to get it out to other people and providing financial support to enable me to keep spreading the word — is so important.

The one-year deadline that President Obama set for the closure of Guantánamo has passed, those who oppose the prison’s closure appear to have gained the upper hand in an ongoing propaganda war, and the administration has made numerous fundamental mistakes: failing to provide new homes on the US mainland for cleared prisoners who cannot be repatriated because they face the risk of torture, reviving the Bush administration’s reviled Military Commission trial system, and insisting that it has the right to hold some prisoners indefinitely without charge or trial.

With widespread indifference in the mainstream media, my mission — to educate people about the terrible mistakes that have been made, and the human cost of those mistakes — continues, not just with regard to Guantánamo, but also in researching the “ghost prisoners” of the CIA’s secret detention program (whose whereabouts are largely unaccounted for), exposing the baleful history of the prison at Bagram airbase in Afghanistan, calling for accountability for those who made America a “Torture Nation,” and exposing British complicity in torture and the injustice of my home country’s own anti-terror laws.

In the last three months, I have updated my definitive Guantánamo prisoner list, produced an annotated version of the first ever Bagram prisoner list, and published five articles listing all my work in chronological order, as well as reporting the stories of the prisoners released from Guantánamo, reporting on their habeas corpus petitions in the US courts, exposing right-wing lies and misinformation, and the spinelessness of many Democrats, and criticizing the administration for its inability to place principles above pragmatism.

As this story moves forward, I am grateful to the various organizations who support my work financially (primarily, Truthout and the Future of Freedom Foundation, but also the Guardian, Cageprisoners and the Daily Star, Lebanon). However, most of the work I do is still unpaid — not only the majority of the 90 or so articles I have written over the last three months, but also the promotion I am undertaking for my documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (co-directed with filmmaker Polly Nash), which I am taking on a UK tour with former prisoner Omar Deghayes. The tour, like so much of my work, has no financial backing, so any assistance will be appreciated.

In conclusion, if you can’t help out with a donation, please be aware that my book The Guantánamo Files (and my two previous books, The Battle of the Beanfield and Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion) are all available to buy from me if you’re in the UK (and are available elsewhere through Amazon and other retailers), and that copies of “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” are available on DVD, and can be dispatched anywhere in the world.

Thank you for being here, and for your continued support of my work.

Andy Worthington
London
March 1, 2010

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.

Please support my work!

It’s that time of the year again — three months since my last quarterly fundraising appeal. For some readers, this may be a terrible time of year to put out a request for financial assistance, but if you can help out at all it would be much appreciated. US readers — or readers anywhere else in the world — can use the “Donate” button, which leads to a PayPal page, at the top of this post. If you’re in the UK and want to help, you can send me a cheque (address here — scroll down to the bottom of the page).

I am now being regularly supported financially by both Truthout and the Future of Freedom Foundation, but much of the work I do is still unpaid, and many of the 80 or so articles I have written in the last three months have been produced without any financial support whatsoever.

In addition, although I received significant support from the Future of Freedom Foundation and The World Can’t Wait for my recent trip to the US to promote the new documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (co-directed by Polly Nash and myself), and was very well looked after in New York, Fairfax, Washington D.C., Oakland and Berkeley, I also had to cover many expenses myself.

In the last three months, I have assiduously covered the Obama administration’s desperation and confusion when it comes to closing Guantánamo, have repeatedly discussed the spinelessness and/or opportunism of lawmakers, and have reported in unprecedented detail the stories of the handful of prisoners who have been released, as well as continuing to try to cover other stories that are not adequately covered elsewhere, as, for example, in my report about the successful habeas corpus petition of Fouad al-Rabiah, a Kuwaiti who was tortured to produce false confessions in Guantánamo, my profile of another Kuwaiti, Fayiz al-Kandari, who is still waiting for a judge to hear his case, and my report on the Justice Department’s attempts to gag Guantánamo attorney Candace Gorman. I have also tried to keep an eye on Britain’s ailing, but still monstrously unjust anti-terror policies, and have recently examined the dubious circumstances under which two Guantánamo prisoners were transferred to Italy to face trials.

Close scrutiny of the Obama administration and pressure on policy makers remain of the utmost importance over the next few months, as Guantánamo marks its eighth anniversary (on January 11, 2010), and the deadline is missed for President Obama’s promise to close the prison (January 22). I intend to remain focused on these issues — and would, if possible, like to visit the US again to join those campaigning for the closure of Guantánamo.

In conclusion, however, if you can’t help out with a donation, please be aware that my book The Guantánamo Files (and my two previous books, The Battle of the Beanfield and Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion) are all available to buy from me if you’re in the UK (and are available elsewhere through Amazon and other retailers), and that copies of “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” are available on DVD, and can be dispatched anywhere in the world.

I wish you a peaceful December, and progress on the issues that are of concern to all of us.

Andy Worthington
London, December 2009

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, published in March 2009, and 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).

Please support my work!

Three months ago, I held a fundraising appeal for the first time to raise money to enable me to carry on investigating and writing about Guantánamo and other issues related to the Bush administration’s “War on Terror.” At the time, I promised that I would only put out a fundraising appeal every three months, but three months have now passed and, as a result, I’m asking those who appreciate my work to help me continue. US readers — or readers anywhere else in the world — can use the “Donate” button, which leads to a PayPal page, at the top of this post. If you’re in the UK and want to help, another option is to send me a cheque (address here — scroll down to the bottom of the page).

Regular readers will know that I have now been researching and writing about Guantánamo for four years, first through my book The Guantánamo Files, and, since May 2007, in the nearly 600 blog posts I have written about Guantánamo and related issues, most of which are original, full-length articles published here, or for a variety of other publications and websites.

Regular readers will also know that I have covered the stories of the released prisoners, the Military Commissions and the habeas corpus hearings in more detail than is available elsewhere (as well as reporting on Britain’s under-reported anti-terror laws), and also that I have regularly come up with exclusive stories.

When I put out my last appeal, I had, in the previous few months, put together a definitive Guantánamo prisoner list, reported exclusively on the death of the CIA’s most notorious “ghost prisoner,” Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, and had also recently published a unique report on hunger strikes and weight loss in Guantánamo. In the last few months I have endeavored to match this output, reporting exclusively on the “extraordinary rendition” and torture of Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi and plans to transfer Tunisian prisoners in Guantánamo to an Italian jail, picking up on a recent story about Spanish Judge Galtasar Garzón’s continuing intention to prosecute Bush administration lawyers for implementing torture, conducting an interview with Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin Powell’s former Chief of Staff, which has been attracting significant attention in the past week, and, on Monday, reporting exclusively on a story buried in a New York Times report about the Obama administration’s plans to introduce tribunals for prisoners held at Bagram airbase in Afghanistan. In the report, officials seemed to confirm, for the first time, that prisoners seized outside Afghanistan and Iraq were currently being “rendered” to Bagram, now that the CIA has closed its secret prisons. I also wrote a follow-up article here, asking if this was why the administration was so determined to prevent US courts from having access to foreign prisoners in Bagram).

It would be deceitful of me to claim that I do not receive any compensation for the work that I do. A number of organizations I write for help to support me financially, but the majority of the work that I do is unpaid, so any contribution will be gratefully received. As anyone who has been paying attention will realize, a considerable amount of work remains to be done to call Bush administration officials to account for their crimes, to roll back the lawlessness of the last eight years, and to maintain pressure on the Obama administration, and I hope to continue uncovering and reporting on aspects of these stories that need to be brought out into the light.

Thank you again for your time and support.

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 also see my definitive Guantánamo prisoner list, published in March 2009.

Please support my work!

As the Obama administration’s muddled mission to clear up the toxic inheritance of Dick Cheney and George W. Bush continues, and fearmongers of both parties — led by Cheney himself — continue to spread lies and misinformation about the men held at Guantánamo and in other “War on Terror” prisons, the need has never been greater for accurate information about who is still held there, why most of them never had any involvement with al-Qaeda or international terrorism, and why the Obama administration should do all in its power to release the majority of these men before January 2010.

It is also important for the President to understand that, to reestablish America’s moral standing in the world, those prisoners regarded as truly dangerous (no more than a few dozen, according to reliable intelligence sources) should be prosecuted in a court that meets internationally acceptable standards (in other words, not in a reworked version of Cheney’s Military Commission trial system, which the administration recently proposed).

The President must also understand that another recent proposal — to seek Congressional approval for a policy of “preventive detention” — is also unacceptable, as it would enshrine, in law, the fundamental betrayal of justice on which Guantánamo was founded. Prisoners in US custody are either prisoners of war, to be protected by the Geneva Conventions, or they are criminal suspects, who must be put forward for a trial, in which they will be found either innocent or guilty. There is no “third way,” whereby men can be deprived of their liberty forever without having the opportunity to prove their innocence, or to have their guilt confirmed by a jury.

President Obama came into office promising to close Guantánamo within a year, to ban the use of torture, and to ensure that, in future, all prisoners in wartime would be held according to the Geneva Conventions and would be interrogated according to the non-coercive techniques laid down in the Army Field Manual.

It was an auspicious beginning, but as the months have passed, it has become clear that many different voices — some less benign and more cowardly than others — have been prevailing upon the President to compromise his mission to undo the damage wrought by the Bush administration’s “War on Terror.”

Some of the resulting problems are outlined above; others include resisting calls to extend habeas corpus rights to foreign prisoners held in the US prison at Bagram airbase, bowing to hysterical pressure from politicians and other fearmongers by refusing to resettle innocent prisoners from Guantánamo on the US mainland, and invoking the “state secrets” doctrine to prevent disclosure of information about “extraordinary rendition” and torture.

To some, the refusal to appoint an independent prosecutor to investigate the legality of the Bush administration’s policies is Obama’s major failing, but as this particular story is still unfolding, I have to say that, on the first anniversary of Boumediene v. Bush, the Supreme Court ruling that reasserted the Guantánamo prisoners’ habeas corpus rights (after they had been granted in 2004 and then taken away by Congress), my major complaint right now is that the Justice Department has been persistently obstructing the District Court judges in their attempts to review the prisoners’ habeas cases — primarily by refusing to provide the prisoners’ defense attorneys with necessary material in a timely manner, if at all — to the extent that there is now a widespread feeling amongst the lawyers that, in the habeas cases, the change of government has made absolutely no difference whatsoever.

I wrote about the Justice Department’s obstruction in several articles recently (see here, here and here), but there is clearly more work to be done, for the simple reason that most people are not yet aware of the extent to which what is being hidden is, for the most part, not evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the prisoners, but evidence of information extracted from unreliable witnesses  (through the use of torture, coercion or bribery), and evidence of desperate attempts on the part of the authorities to build up “mosaics” of intelligence that are not actually credible. A substantial amount of work also remains to be done on other crucial topics, including the “ghost prisoners” held in secret CIA prisons, who were not eventually transferred to Guantánamo, and the prisoners in Bagram.

I also remain committed to breaking news stories in the Western media (as I did with the death of Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi last month), to providing detailed commentary on breaking news stories that is not available elsewhere, and to being able to continue producing reports like the definitive Guantánamo prisoner list that I published in March, and the report on hunger strikes and weight loss in Guantánamo that I published this week.

For over three years, I have been assiduously chronicling every aspect of Guantánamo and the men held there, first through my book The Guantánamo Files, and, for the last two years, through this blog and the many other websites and publications where my work is available. I recently published my 500th post on this site (“Guantánamo’s Youngest Prisoner Released To Chad,” about the release of Mohammed El-Gharani, which was published before anyone else picked up on the story), and although I’m delighted that a number of media outlets support my work financially, and am also generally content to keep doing this work for the sake of combating injustice, and to help to bring an end to the crimes committed in the “War on Terror,” I could do with a little financial help to keep myself and the website running.

I promise only to put out a fundraising appeal every three months, but if you can help at all, it would be greatly appreciated. US readers — or readers anywhere else in the world — can use the “Donate” button, which leads to a PayPal page, at the top of this post. If you’re in the UK and want to help, you can send me a cheque (address here — scroll down to the bottom of the page).

Thank you for your time and support.

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 also see my definitive Guantánamo prisoner list, published in March 2009.