Throughout this period in which I have been studying Shaker’s story (for the last six years), it has been clear that there was no good reason for Shaker Aamer to be held. He was told in spring 2007 that he had been cleared for release by the Bush administration, and in August 2007 Gordon Brown, taking over from Tony Blair as Prime Minister, requested his return along with the other British residents.

Nevertheless, he was not freed, and with a new President in the US and a new government in the UK it was not initially known what his status was as the 10th anniversary of the opening of Guantánamo approached. However, two recent discoveries have ensured that, on the 10th anniversary of Shaker’s arrival at Guantánamo, there are no obstacles to his immediate release, however much representatives of the US or UK governments may pretend otherwise.

Firstly, it was revealed, on December 1, in a letter to Congress from four British MPs — Jeremy Corbyn, John Leech, Caroline Lucas and Michael Meacher — that Shaker had been “cleared for transfer out of Guantánamo” as a result of the review of all the remaining prisoners’ cases that was conducted throughout 2009 by the Guantánamo Review Task Force, established by President Obama when he came into office. The document that contained that information also informed him, “The US government intends to transfer you as soon as possible.” This had been presumed, but it had never been spelled out explicitly before.

The enormously significant confirmation that Shaker has been “cleared for transfer out of Guantánamo” for at least two years was followed by the passage of the National Defense Authorization Act, which contained another important lifeline for Shaker. This is not generally well known, because the NDAA is an otherwise dispiriting piece of legislation, in which lawmakers authorised mandatory military custody for anyone accused of being a terrorist with ties to al-Qaeda, and also insisted that Guantánamo prisoners cannot be released if there is a risk of them ever posing a threat to the US, and cannot be released to any country in which a single ex-prisoner has been accused of engaging in activities against the US.

However, as my colleague Tom Wilner, who was Counsel of Record for the Guantánamo prisoners in their cases before the Supreme Court in 2004 and 2008, explained in a recent article for the new “Close Guantánamo” campaign (which I also posted here), the NDAA also contains a provision allowing the administration to bypass the Congressional obstructions regarding the release of prisoners from Guantánamo. As he explained, Section 1028 of the NDAA explicitly allows the Secretary of Defense, in consultation with the Secretary of State, to waive the requirement to satisfy the onerous conditions imposed by Congress if the administration want sot release prisoners. As Tom proceeded to explain:

Those waiver provisions clearly give the Administration both the legal authority and the practical ability to transfer detainees from Guantánamo to their home countries. The question is no longer whether the Administration has the authority to transfer detainees home but whether it has the political courage to do so.

The obvious prisoner to be released first would be Shaker Aamer, because his home is the UK, which has been the staunchest of allies in the “war on terror,” and remains one of America’s closest allies. In the hope of bringing all excuses to an end — both from the UK and from US, which “will not risk releasing Shaker Aamer” before the Presidential election in November, because, according to an official who spoke anonymously to the Observer, “We’ve taken enough hits from the right; we can’t risk any more” — there are three protests in the UK on Saturday (in London), on Sunday (in Reading) and on Tuesday (also in London), where campaigners will be raising these points in the hope of exerting pressure on both governments, and, I hope, will also begin to establish a campaign on both sides of the Atlantic to bring Shaker’s unacceptable imprisonment to an end, and to also provide hope that some of the other 88 prisoners cleared for release but still held will also be released.

The details are below:

Saturday February 11, 12 noon: Free Shaker Aamer March and Meeting in Battersea. Assemble outside Northcote Road Baptist Church, Northcote Road, London, SW11 6DB.
This event is organised by the Save Shaker Aamer Campaign, which urges supporters to “Join the Guantánamo Chain Gang,” and explains, “By February 2012, British Resident Shaker Aamer will have spent ten long years of torture and abuse in Guantánamo, despite being cleared for release in 2007. Join the Guantánamo Chain Gang walk through Shaker’s home area of Clapham Junction & Battersea. We will wear orange prison jumpsuits, chains and hoods and very slowly walk through the area chained together, ending up at Battersea Islamic Culture & Education Centre.”
At 2.15 pm, the meeting will begin at the Islamic Centre, chaired by David Harrold, where a representative of the legal action charity Reprieve, freelance investigative journalist Andy Worthington and Joy Hurcombe, the chair of the Save Shaker Aamer Campaign, will speak. Shaker’s MP, Jane Ellison, has also been invited, and it is hoped that there will also be a screening afterwards of “You Don’t Like the Truth: 4 Days Inside Guantánamo,” the documentary film about former child prisoner Omar Khadr which I reviewed on TV here.
For further information, contact Ray Silk of the SSAC on 07756 493877 or email.

Sunday, February 12, 2012, 2 pm: Free Shaker Aamer Protest, Reading. In the town centre, outside Marks & Spencer, Broad Street, Reading.
This event has been organised by Reading Save Shaker Aamer Campaign. See the Facebook page, and for further information phone 07816 665629 or email.

Tuesday February 14, 2 pm: Free Shaker Aamer Protest, US Embassy, 24 Grosvenor Square, London, W1A 2LQ.
To mark the 10th anniversary of Shaker Aamer’s arrival at Guantánamo, campaigners for his release will march round Grosvenor Square and wlll hand in cards and petitions for President Obama, which will say, “Dear President Obama, we would love you to release British resident Shaker Aamer, held without justice in Guantánamo for ten years to this day, cleared but not free. Bring him home now. End his torture and abuse — give him back his life.”
Kate Hudson, the chair of CND, and Joy Hurcombe, the chair of the Save Shaker Aamer Campaign have confirmed they will speak outside the US Embassy, and other speakers are expected.
For further information, contact Ray Silk of the SSAC on 07756 493877 or email.

If you’re in London or Reading, please come along and show your 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) 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 please also consider joining the new “Close Guantánamo campaign,” and, if you appreciate my work, feel free to make a donation.

That screening, the day before protests marking the 10th anniversary (which I covered here, here and here), was organized by the World Can’t Wait, the campaigners responsible for my visit, and was followed by a panel discussion in which I was delighted to be speaking alongside the attorney Tom Wilner — my colleague in the newly established “Close Guantánamo” campaign and website, with whom I had just taken part in a lunchtime event at the New America Foundation (also with Congressman Jim Moran and Col. Morris Davis) — and Darold Killmer and Mari Newman, attorneys from Denver whom I had asked to come along and speak about their clients, five Yemenis who are still held at Guantánamo.

Introducing the Q&A session, I spoke briefly about the “Close Guantánamo” campaign and the now-closed petition on the White House’s “We the People” website, asking President Obama to fulfil his promise to close Guantánamo, and also reminded those attending that, while criticizing Congress for inserting provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) demanding the mandatory military custody, without charge or trial, of anyone who can be accused of being associated with al-Qaeda, they should not forget that, for ten years, the prisoners in Guantánamo have been detained on essentially the same basis.

I also urged people to go away with just one message to tell everyone they meet — that, far from holding “the worst of the worst,” the Guantánamo of today actually contains 89 prisoners, out of the 171 still held, who have been cleared for release by the President’s interagency Task Force, but who are still held because they have become the victims of cynical political maneuvering.

After this introduction, I turned the mike over to Darold Killmer and Mari Newman, who spoke eloquently about their clients, the obstructions they have faced, and their incredulity that US justice has so spectacularly failed them. They also explained how their clients have persistently asked them to make sure that their stories are not forgotten, and anyone wishing to know more can read the stories of two of these men — Abdul Rahman al-Qyati and Musa’ab al-Madhwani — in the Center for Constitutional Rights’ “Faces of Guantánamo” reports that I played a major role in compiling, and which are also available here.

Afterwards, Tom also spoke, eloquently explaining his own disappointments, urging those attending to join the “Close Guantánamo” campaign, and also explaining, as he did last week in an article on the “Close Guantánamo” website, which I publicized here, that the NDAA actually contains a waiver, whereby the administration can, if it wishes, release prisoners from Guantánamo without having to overcome the almost insurmountable obstacles raised by Congress that have prevented a single prisoner from being released in the last 13 months.

Now, as Tom also mentioned, the only obstacle to the release of prisoners is whether President Obama and his administration can find the courage and the political will to actually follow through, and to begin to release some of those 89 cleared prisoners who are still held, but whose ongoing detention ought to be a source of shame.

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.

This was the day before the rally and march to close Guantánamo, which I covered here, here and here, and it was an extremely well attended event, with over a hundred people in the audience — mostly campaigners from the various organizations involved in the January 11 protest, including Amnesty International, Witness Against Torture, the World Can’t Wait, Code Pink and the National Religious Campaign Against Torture.

Also present were: the attorney Tom Wilner — my colleague in the newly established “Close Guantánamo” campaign and website, with whom I had just taken part in a lunchtime event at the New America Foundation (also with Congressman Jim Moran and Col. Morris Davis) — and Darold Killmer and Mari Newman, attorneys from Denver whom I had asked to come along and speak about their clients, five Yemenis who are still held at Guantánamo.

The half-hour Q&A session that followed the screening was filmed, and I’ll be posting that soon, but first I’m posting below a short introduction I delivered while the staff at Busboys and Poets worked on technical issues involving the screening. While these were being resolved, I told the audience about the “Close Guantánamo” campaign, and our petition on the White House’s “We the People” website, asking President Obama to fulfil his promise to close Guantánamo. The petition has a one-month deadline, which comes to an end on February 6, so please sign it if you haven’t done so already.

I also told the audience about the news from Guantánamo, via Ramzi Kassem, the attorney for Shaker Aamer, the last British resident in Guantánamo, which I had announced on my website that day. Shaker and other prisoners had made it clear that they would be holding a three-day protest and hunger strike, to let the world know that they were not happy that President Obama was getting away with portraying Guantánamo as a safe and humane facility, and also to show solidarity with those protesting in Washington D.C. and elsewhere in the US.

In addition, I spoke specifically about the need to create a campaign on both sides of the Atlantic to push for the release of Shaker Aamer, well known as the foremost defender in Guantánamo of the prisoners’ human rights, on the basis that the Obama administration no longer wants to hold him, and the British government has asked for him to be returned to his wife and family in the UK.

I noted that the Congressional restrictions on releasing prisoners to countries that lawmakers regard as dangerous (included in provisions in the horrendous National Defense Authorization Act, in which lawmakers also declared their intention to hold terror suspects in permanent military custody, without charge or trial), could not realistically extend to the UK, making Shaker the prime candidate for breaking the deadlock regarding the release of prisoners from Guantánamo.

As I also explained, in 2011, the restrictions were so successful that only one living prisoner — an Algerian who had his habeas corpus petition granted by the courts — was released, and two others left in coffins, having died at the prison.

My thanks to everyone who turned up to make the screening such a successful event, to Debra Sweet, the national director of the World Can’t Wait for organizing it, and to Palina Prasasouk for filming my talk, and to Justin Norman for editing it.

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.

To mark the 10th anniversary of the opening of Guantánamo, on January 11, I was involved in two particular projects — firstly, the establishment of a new campaign and website, “Close Guantánamo,” designed to raise awareness of the continuing injustice of Guantánamo, and, in particular, the injustice of continuing to hold 89 of the remaining 171 prisoners, even though they have been cleared for release; and secondly, the establishment of a petition on the White House’s “We the People” website, calling on President Obama to fulfil his promise to close Guantánamo.

The “Close Guantánamo” project has only just begun, and will enter a new phase next week with the publication of the first of the profiles of the 171 prisoners still held, designed to inform people that they are human beings, with feelings, and with families, who, after ten years, are not held legitimately, but are, as Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, explained last week, subjected to arbitrary detention.

In contrast, the second project — the petition on the White House’s “We the People” website — has just three days left until its deadline of one month is reached, so please, if you haven’t yet signed it, sign it now, and please also tell everyone you know. This could be the weekend that we beat the odds and come up with the signatures we need to secure a response from President Obama. The countdown clock, above, by the way, is from the Center for Constitutional Rights’ “Close Guantánamo” page, which also features videos from the protests in Washington D.C. on January 11 (and which I wrote about here).

Please note, crucially, that you do not have to be a US citizen or a US resident to sign the petition. When registering (which you must do first), just leave the box blank that asks you for your zip code.

Also, please note that some people have had problems with the site, which, unfortunately, are beyond the control of those setting up petitions. However, the following advice is from a friend who managed to overcome the obstacles:

A trick for getting the not-very-helpful website to work:

Having created an account, then persuaded it to accept your password (this can take a while), you’ll then find you’re on your profile page, miles away from the petition. In another tab, reclick the link to the petition.

If the “Sign Now” button is greyed out, make sure you’re logged in, then reload the petition page. Eventually you’ll get there, but they don’t make it easy.

They don’t indeed, and the problems with the site, to my mind, reflect badly on the Obama administration, which has also been beset with problems — like failing to keep important promises, such as the promise to close Guantánamo within a year, which the President made in an executive order on January 22, 2009.

My thanks to everyone who has worked to promote this petition, and to try to raise awareness of an ongoing disgrace that far too many people would rather forget. Guantánamo can be closed, and those of us who care — including those who signed up to the “Close Guantánamo” mission statement — will continue working hard to make that day a reality.

Note: Please also see the Facebook events page.

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.

In her exact words, Navi Pillay said:

It is ten years since the US Government opened the prison at Guantánamo, and now three years since 22 January 2009, when the President ordered its closure within twelve months. Yet the facility continues to exist and individuals remain arbitrarily detained — indefinitely — in clear breach of international law.

I was encouraged by the mention of arbitrary detention, as I have been attempting, for over a year, to ascertain when it would be appropriate to describe the prisoners as being subjected to arbitrary detention, given that they remain held, whether or not they have been cleared for release. 89 of the remaining 171 prisoners were cleared for release at least two years ago by an interagency Task Force established by President Obama, but they remain held, because of hysteria regarding the security situation in Yemen, and because of Congressional obstruction. Now, perhaps, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention will be able to exert pressure on the administration, by requesting a visit to the prison.

Navi Pillay also discussed the recently passed National Defense Authorization Act, with its disgraceful requirement for the mandatory military custody, without charge or trial, of anyone who can be described as having a connection to al-Qaeda. As she explained:

To make matters worse, the new National Defense Authorization Act, signed into law in December 2011, now effectively codifies such indefinite military detention without charge or trial. This piece of legislation contravenes some of the most fundamental tenets of justice and human rights, namely the right to a fair trial and the right not to be arbitrarily detained. Nobody should ever be held for years on end without being tried and convicted, or released.

The High Commissioner took note of President Obama’s commitment to interpret relevant sections of the National Defense Authorization Act “in a manner that ensures that any detention it authorizes complies with the Constitution, the laws of war, and all other applicable law,” which he noted when he signed the NDAA into law, but added:

While fully recognizing the right and duty of states to protect their people and territory from terrorist acts, I remind all branches of the US Government of their obligation under international human rights law to ensure that individuals deprived of their liberty can have the lawfulness of their detention reviewed before a court. Where credible evidence exists against Guantánamo detainees, they should be charged and prosecuted. Otherwise, they must be released.

Turning to accountability for torture, Navi Pillay explained that international law requires “thorough and systematic investigation of all allegations of serious human rights violations, including torture, that allegedly took place at Guantánamo Bay,” adding, “Every effort must be made to hold to account those responsible for the development, approval or implementation of coercive interrogation methods analogous to torture under international law. Individuals found to have perpetrated, ordered, tolerated or condoned torture and ill-treatment should be brought to justice.”

The High Commissioner also urged the Obama administration “to ensure that conditions of detention comply fully with human rights standards under international law,” explaining that “she was disturbed by the Government’s failure to allow independent human rights monitoring of the detention conditions at Guantánamo.” This is a long-standing complaint, and it highlights how Guantánamo remains a facility that, even under President Obama, is regarded, with complete justification, as an exception to the normal rules of detention.

In conclusion, she stated:

I urge the US Congress to take steps to enable the US Administration to close the Guantánamo Bay detention centre — as it stated it wished to do — in compliance with the Government’s obligations under international human rights law, and in so doing, to fully respect the principle of non-refoulement, under which no one should be sent back to a country where they may face torture.”

Ten years after Guantánamo opened, and three years after President Obama took office, it is depressing that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has to remind the US of its obligations, and to point out that the current situation is one in which the prisoners are held in arbitrary detention. I wish I could say that Congress and the Obama administration will be shamed into doing something about, but unfortunately it is unclear that anyone regards it as a pressing enough shame to take steps to bring the prison’s existence to an end once and for all.

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.

In the long struggle to close Guantánamo, protests took place in Washington D.C. and across America on the 10th anniversary of the opening of the prison on January 11, and the newly established “Close Guantánamo” campaign (of which I am a member of the steering committee) launched a petition on the White House’s “We the People” website, calling on President Obama to fulfill his promise to close the prison, which he made when he took office three years ago, and pointing out how fundamentally unjust it is that 89 of the remaining 171 prisoners have been cleared for release, and yet are still held.

That petition needs to secure 25,000 signatures by February 6, to oblige the President to respond, and at the time of writing, over 4,300 people had signed it. Many groups have been asking their supporters to sign it, and yesterday the Center for Constitutional Rights publicly added their voice to the campaign, sending out an email alert to all their supporters, asking them to sign the petition, and also asking visitors to the “Close Guantánamo” page on their website to sign it.

The embedded clock above was also created by CCR, and, in further publicity, three videos featuring speeches made outside the Supreme Court on January 11 — by Andy Worthington, by conscientious objector Daniel Lakemacher, who worked as a guard at Guantánamo, and by CCR’s executive director Vince Warren — have also been made available on CCR’s “Close Guantánamo” page, and are posted below.

I’d like to thank CCR for their support, and, in conclusion, if you haven’t yet signed the petition, please do so, and please also forward it to ten of your friends and family members. Time is running out, and we need 2,000 signatures a day for the next ten days to show that we care about the closure of Guantánamo, and that we are not prepared to put up with any more excuses from the administration or from members of Congress.

Andy Worthington Demanding Justice at Guantánamo and Around the World from Center for Constitutional Rights on Vimeo.

Daniel Jared Lakemacher Demanding Justice at Guantánamo and Around the World from Center for Constitutional Rights on Vimeo.

Vince Warren Demanding Justice at Guantánamo and Around the World from Center for Constitutional Rights on Vimeo.

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.

I discussed these provisions in a number of articles — most recently in an article entitled, “A Tired Obsession with Military Detention Plagues American Politics” — in which I wrote about the shameful provisions requiring the mandatory military custody, without charge or trial, of anyone allegedly associated with al-Qaeda, and also wrote about the provisions preventing the release of prisoners from Guantánamo, which have stopped anyone being released in the last year.

In addressing concerns about the NDAA, I made a point of stressing that, although it is important that criticism should continue to be directed at lawmakers for subverting the entire basis of America’s foundation as a country based on the rule of law with their military detention provisions (for which they should all be hounded out of office), and although it is also of significance that the restrictions on releasing Guantánamo prisoners are based on fearmongering for nakedly political reasons, two other details should not be overlooked.

The first is that, in all of the discussions about the mandatory military detention provisions in the NDAA, in which there was great anxiety that the provisions would apply to US citizens, there was little mention of the fact that, without Guantánamo, there would have been no basis for lawmakers to indulge their dangerously unconstitutional desires, and that those opposed to the provisions should therefore also direct their energies to the closure of Guantánamo.

The second reason, and one that the attorney Tom Wilner — Counsel of Record for the Guantánamo prisoners in their cases before the Supreme Court in 2004 and 2008 — was particularly concerned to explain while I was with him in Washington D.C. two weeks ago, is that another provision explicitly allows the administration to release prisoners without Congressional approval. Below, I cross-post Tom’s important commentary about this, which was first published yesterday on the website of the “Close Guantánamo” campaign, for which we are both members of the steering committee.

It is, I believe, extremely important for this to be noted by those who wish to see Guantánamo closed, because it provides a possibility that has been otherwise overlooked, and a means whereby campaigners can legitimately push for prisoners to be released. After all, as the “Close Guantánamo” campaign notes in its mission statement (signed by retired military personnel, a retired judge, lawyers and journalists), over half of the prisoners — 89 of the 171 men still held — have been cleared for release for more than two years, since the President’s own Guantánamo Review Task Force issued its recommendations about the disposition of the remaining prisoners, and some were first cleared for release under President Bush as long as as 2004. The campaign is also stressing that over half the prisoners have been cleared for release in a petition on the White House’s “We the People” website calling for President Obama to honor his promise to close the prison, for which 25,000 signatures are needed by February 6, to secure a response.

Please read Tom’s analysis below, and then let’s start mobilizing for the release of these 89 men who have effectively spent the last two years as political prisoners.

Legal Analysis — Section 1028, National Defense Authorization Act of 2012
By Tom Wilner, Close Guantánamo, January 25, 2012

The recently enacted National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 (the “NDAA”) does a number things that seriously threaten civil liberties. In one area, however, the NDAA significantly eases current restrictions. It gives the Obama Administration both the legal authority and the practical ability to transfer detainees from Guantánamo back to their home countries.

Prior law put significant hurdles in the way of transferring detainees from Guantánamo. It effectively blocked the transfer of any detainee who was not ordered released by a court or released pursuant to a prior plea agreement in a military commission case. Other than in those circumstances, the law prevented a detainee from being transferred (i) to any country if any detainee had previously been transferred to that country and had subsequently engaged in any terrorist activity (a “recidivist country”) or (ii) to any other country unless the Secretary of Defense issued a certification personally “ensur[ing] that the individual [transferred] cannot engage or reengage in any terrorist activity.” The general counsel of the Department of Defense had ruled that it was simply not possible for anyone to provide such a personal blanket assurance. As a result of these restrictions, no detainee has been transferred from Guantánamo since these laws were enacted except pursuant to a court order or a plea agreement.

Section 1028 of the NDAA changed the law and eased the transfer requirements. Although that section of the new law retains essentially the same certification requirements mentioned above, it now explicitly allows the Secretary of Defense in consultation with the Secretary of State to waive those requirements by finding:

[if] it is not possible to certify that the risks … have been completely eliminated, [that] the actions to be taken … will substantially mitigate such risks with regard to the individual to be transferred; [and, in the case of the recidivism provision,] the Secretary has considered any confirmed case in which an individual who was transferred to the country subsequently engaged in terrorist activity, and the actions to be taken … will substantially mitigate the risk of recidivism with regard to the individual to be transferred and [that] … the transfer is in the national security interests of the United States.

Those waiver provisions clearly give the Administration both the legal authority and the practical ability to transfer detainees from Guantánamo to their home countries. The question is no longer whether the Administration has the authority to transfer detainees home but whether it has the political courage to do so.

Note: For another take on this important waiver provision, see this letter from 15 retired admirals and generals to President Obama, urging him “to transfer Guantanamo detainees who have been cleared for release to their home or to third countries, an option that is available to him under new guidelines contained in the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act,” as Human Rights First explained in a press release to accompany the release of the letter.

In the letter, the retired admirals and generals state:

In the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act, Congress authorized new guidelines for transferring detainees out of Guantanamo. Under these guidelines, your administration can transfer detainees cleared for release to their home or to third countries if the Secretary of Defense issues a waiver in the interest of our national security demonstrating that measures will be taken to substantially mitigate the risk of transfer. We ask that you direct your administration to exercise this authority immediately and fully to demonstrate your good faith commitment to closing Guantanamo. Doing so is the first step among many needed to finally close this dark chapter in our history.

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.

Remind President Obama of his promise. Sign the petition on the White House’s “We the People” website urging him to honor his promise. 25,000 signatures are needed by February 6 to secure a response, so please sign up, and please spread the word.

What happened to President Obama’s bold promise?

Three years ago, on January 22, 2009, President Obama issued an executive order promising to close the prison at Guantánamo Bay within a year, but he did not move swiftly to implement his promise, and Congress then stepped in with onerous restrictions on the release of prisoners or their transfer to the US mainland for any reason, even to be tried or imprisoned.

Instead of being closed, Guantánamo still holds 171 men, even though 89 of these men were cleared for release more than two years ago by the interagency Guantánamo Review Task Force (PDF), which was established by the President after taking office.

Some of these cleared men, like the Uighurs (Muslims from China’s Xinjiang province), remain in Guantánamo because they cannot be safely repatriated, even though the Bush administration conceded they had been seized by mistake, and even though a District Court judge granted their habeas corpus petitions in October 2008.

Others — 28 in total — are Yemenis, whose release was approved by the Task Force but prevented by the President after a Nigerian man, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who had been recruited in Yemen, tried and failed to blow up a plane bound for Detroit on Christmas Day 2009. Although these men had nothing to do with Mr. Abdulmutallab, their release is prevented solely on the basis of their nationality. We believe that this is wrong, and that continuing to hold these men makes a mockery of claims that the United States believes in fairness and justice.

30 other Yemenis are held in what the Task Force described as “conditional detention,” a category of prisoner invented by the Task Force, and designed to prevent their release until, by some unknown mechanism, it is decided that the security situation in Yemen has improved sufficiently for them to be released.

We call on the President to release these 89 prisoners, and to bring to an end the unacceptable situation in which those cleared for release are indistinguishable from those recommended for trials or for ongoing detention, because of the unfair obstructions imposed to prevent them being freed.

Again, please sign the petition, and then tell others about it. Let’s make 2012 the year that we close Guantánamo.

Also, please note that the petition can be signed by anyone, not just US citizens. When registering from outside the US, just leave the “zip code” section blank. Good luck, and thanks for the support!

Note: This article is adapted from an article on the website of the newly established “Close Guantánamo” campaign. Please also see the mission statement, signed by significant retired military personnel, NGOs, lawyers and journalists, and sign up here to receive updates and action alerts.

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.

In the first video, Ed asked me about how I became interested in exposing the injustices of Guantánamo and I explained how I became the custodian of the prisoners’ stories, and he also filmed my brief speech to the crowd, as well as the speeches made by the Guantánamo attorney Tom Wilner (my colleague in the newly-launched “Close Guantánamo” campaign), Vince Warren, the executive director of the Center of Constitutional Rights, Stephen Olesky, the attorney for Belkacem Bensayah, an Algerian still held in Guantánamo, and a very powerful speech by Daniel Lakemacher, a former Guantánamo guard and conscientious objector, who was noticeably moved by the presence of other people who care about the ongoing injustice of Guantánamo, and the continuing dehumanization of the men still held there.

In the second video, Ed captured part of the rally outside the White House, and the march to the Supreme Court, via the Justice Department, as well as the speech made outside the Supreme Court by Debra Sweet, the director of The World Can’t Wait, and the facilitator of my visit. The third video features the very moving recitation, by Leili Kashani of the Center for Constitutional Rights, of “Is It True?” written during his detention by a former Guantánamo prisoner, the Jordanian national Usama Abu Kabir, which the crowd echoed using the “call and response” method of transmitting information, which has been a hallmark of the Occupy movement, and was a very powerful experience, which I was delighted to find that Ed had filmed.

There are also unedited videos produced by Witness Against Torture — a two-hour version here, and a half-hour version here. There are also photos, by Andrew Courtney and by The World Can’t Wait.

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.

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.

I’ve also embedded the interview below:

And this is how Dennis described the show:

Today on Flashpoints, we continue our series on ten years of torture at Guantánamo: we’ll be joined by Andy Worthington, author of the book The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison, and producer of the film “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo.” Also we’ll be joined by Bay Area anti-torture activist Stephanie Tang: and we’ll feature an extended interview with Emmy award winning talk-show host Phil Donahue who will talk about politics, war, Bradley Manning, and why he’s on the stump for congressional candidate Norman Solomon.

On January 11, during the day of events to mark the 10th anniversary, I was interviewed twice on WBAI in New York: firstly, on a cellphone on the steps of the Supreme Court by Andrea Sears, for inclusion in the WBAI Evening News. That seven-minute interview is available here, and in it I had the opportunity to address all the issues raised by the anniversary, and also to mention the “Close Guantánamo” campaign and website, and the petition on the White House’s “We the People” website, calling on President Obama to close the prison as he promised three years ago, which I encourage readers to sign, as 25,000 signatures are needed by February 6 to secure a response and to show the strength of feeling that exists.

After the walk from the White House to the Supreme Court, and the powerful speeches there, I went for a late lunch with Jen Nessel and Kevi Brannelly of the Center for Constitutional Rights, and Debra Sweet of The World Can’t Wait, and afterwards, as I made my way in a cab to Russia Today, for the interview available here, I spoke for ten minutes to Robert Knight for his show, Five O’Clock Shadow. That interview is available here, and it starts about 29 minutes into the hour-long show, which also features Frida Berrigan of Witness Against Torture.

After the RT show, I wandered downtown D.C., which gave the appearance of being permanently swathed in rain, in something of a daze, wandering into Chinatown, and then back downtown until I finally figured out my bearings, and, rather absurdly, walked all the way to Union Station in the rain, where I finally picked up a cab for the shortish ride back to where I was staying.

The next morning, when the rain miraculously departed as swiftly as it had arrived, I was picked up for a half-hour TV interview for Atlantic Television news, which is not yet available online, and then returned to the house for a half-hour interview with an old friend, Linda Olson-Osterlund of KBOO FM in Portland, Oregon. That interview is available here, and, as Linda explained:

January 11th 2012 is the 10th anniversary of  the opening of the Guantánamo Prison. Protests against this monument to Imperial impunity are happening in London, New York City, Washington D.C. and San Francisco, Portland OR and other cities around the US. London journalist, activist and author Andy Worthington joins host, Linda Olson-Osterlund to talk about closing Guantánamo and freeing the prisoners that are not convicted of a crime. He reports on Wednesday’s protests and the growing movement to close Guantánamo as well as the challenges it faces.

Linda also featured the logo of the “Close Guantánamo” campaign on her site, linked to the website, and spoke to me about that ongoing campaign.

After that interview, Robert, a supporter of The World Can’t Wait, picked me up and drove me to Dulles International Airport for my six-hour flight to San Francisco, which gave me an opportunity to catch up on some lost writing opportunities. At the airport, I was met by an old friend from previous visits, Curt Wechsler of The World Can’t Wait, and we then met up with WCW supporter MaryAnn Thomas, who was putting me up for the night in Oakland. After a meal and an opportunity to catch up, I caught a few hours sleep at MaryAnn’s in preparation for a very early start the next day.

In Berkeley, I appeared on KPFA’s “Morning Mix,” hosted by Mickey Huff of Project Censored, in an hour-long show, co-hosted by Peter Phillips, Professor of Sociology at UC Davis and Abby Martin of Media Roots, which also featured Pardiss Kebriaei calling in from the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York, Almerindo Ojeda, the director of the Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas at UC Davis, which has an excellent, ongoing Guantánamo project, and the singer-songwriter David Rovics, who I had not met before, who performed two of his powerful songs in the studio. The show is available here, and I’ve also embedded it below:

As soon as the KPFA show was over, MaryAnn drove me across the Bay to the hills above San Francisco, for an appearance on “Your Call” on KALW, with Rose Aguilar. Rose and I had met on a previous visit, and I was delighted to have the opportunity to discuss Guantánamo with her again, and also with Scott Horton, law professor and contributing editor of Harper’s Magazine, who was calling in from New York. The show is available here, and afterwards I met up with two more old friends from previous visits, Stephanie Tang and Joey Johnson of The World Can’t Wait, and we drove back down the hill to UC Hastings Law School, for “Ten Years of Guantánamo: A Discussion with Andy Worthington and Jason Leopold.”

That event, which took the form of a fascinating conversation, was filmed, and will hopefully be available soon. Afterwards, I had the opportunity to catch up not only with Jason (the lead investigative reporter of Truthout), but also with other old friends who had arrived especially for the day — psychologist and blogger Jeff Kaye and former SERE instructor Michael Kearns.

That evening, Jason and I — and David Rovics — attended a fundraising dinner for The World Can’t Wait, when I was reunited with other friends from my last visit in October 2010, for “Berkeley Says No to Torture” Week — but I had to leave rather sooner than I would have wished, to take another flight, this time to Chicago, where I was met by another WCW activist, Jay, and where I stayed with Candace Gorman, the attorney for two Guantánamo prisoners (one of whom, Abdul Razak Ali, is still held), whose outspoken blog is here, and took part in a successful screening of “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” at Loyola University Chicago School of Law with a panel of Guantánamo attorneys including Candace, Len Goodman (who represents the Afghan prisoner Shawali Khan) and Andy Moss (who represents Umar Abdulayev, the last Tajik prisoner in Guantánamo).

Afterwards, we went out for a meal in a great seafood restaurant with other friends, including Joe Scarry, an associate producer of the Guantanamo film “The Response,” Marissa, a formidable activist with Occupy the Southside, and activist Gregory Koger, and then Joe, Jay, Debra and I took a drive around Chicago, involving a walk down to the shore of Lake Michigan, which was the unadulterated tourist moment of my trip — the visit to the Hill three days before being rather more politically charged.

On Sunday, as I began to lose my grip on what day of the week it was, Debra and I flew back to New York, and were picked up by my old friend The Talking Dog, who looked after me in Brooklyn for my last 24 hours, where, although politics were pretty consistently on the agenda, my public events were over, and I also found time to do some last minute shopping for my family, before the long, jet lag-inducing return home, from which I’m still recovering.

I do, however, wish to thank everyone who helped to facilitate my trip and to make me so welcome, and I also hope to visit again soon. After all, just because it’s a Presidential election year, it’s no reason not to mention Guantánamo, and to call repeatedly for its closure. To do anything less would be to capitulate to the most cowardly form of political manoeuvring, and some outrages — like the ongoing existence of Guantánamo — are too important for that.

Note: Please join the “Close Guantánamo” campaign and sign the White House petition here.

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.