Guantanamo op-eds

“Diego Garcia: the UK’s shame” is the title of an article I wrote for the Guardian’s “Comment is free” section today, which follows revelations in TIME magazine that a senior US official, who was present in the White House Situation Room in 2002, recalled two occasions on which a CIA representative talked about a secret [...]

An edited version of this article was published in the first issue of the online magazine FLYP, in a section entitled “Face/Off,” in which two contrasting opinions are presented regarding current political issues. The question posed was, “Should Guantánamo Be Closed?” and my article was presented under the heading, “Its whole purpose is torture.” The [...]

“Torture on trial” is the title of an article I wrote for the Guardian’s “Comment is free” section today. It follows on from my article Six in Guantánamo Charged with 9/11 Murders: Why Now? And What About the Torture? by focusing on the revelation that “clean teams” of FBI agents re-interrogated the six detainees who [...]

This is the title of an article I wrote for “Comment is free” in today’s Guardian, looking at the obstacles to Guantánamo’s closure, which will be faced if any of the front-runners in the US presidential primaries –- Hillary Clinton, Barack Omama and John McCain, who have all expressed their opposition to the prison –- [...]

The Bush administration has maintained a low profile over the last month, as waves of indignation over the destruction of CIA videotapes showing the torture of two “high value” detainees have lapped ever closer to the White House. In the last few weeks, as coverage of the presidential primaries has consumed the media, both President [...]

Six years ago today, one of the most depressing icons of the twenty-first century opened for business. On January 11, 2002, the first of nearly 800 prisoners arrived at a hastily erected prison in the US naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Leased from Cuba since 1903, under an extraordinary agreement that cannot be broken [...]

January 11, 2008 marks a particularly grim anniversary, as the Bush administration’s reviled prison at Guantánamo Bay has been open for six years. Although over 60% of the nearly 800 detainees have now been released, the predicament facing the remaining 281 is as bleak as ever. Held without charge, without trial, and without any way [...]

This introduction to The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison, explaining how I came to research and write the book, and the significance of my findings, was published on the new British political blog Liberal Conspiracy, dedicated to “developing, shaping and spreading liberal-left ideas and values in Britain.” Information [...]