Welcome to Andy Worthington

I report on the Metropolitan Police’s outrageous decision to impose a London-wide ban on Extinction Rebellion protests (gatherings of two or more people), criticism of the move, a legal challenge, and, most particularly, how non-violent direct action has continued, with the numbers attending actions indicating that the Met’s move may have backfired.

As the second week of Extinction Rebellion’s International Rebellion begins, I report on the success of the group’s disruptive tactics, drawing in part on the campaigning group’s co-founder Roger Hallam’s new book, ‘Common Sense for the 21st Century.’

My analysis of the broken Periodic Review Board system at Guantánamo, a parole-type process introduced by President Obama, to assess whether or not prisoners regarded as “too dangerous to transfer but not feasible for prosecution” could be released. The PRBs recommended 38 prisoners for release under Obama, whilst approving the ongoing imprisonment without charge or trial of 26 others. Under Trump, however, the process has become meaningless, because not a single prisoner has been recommended for release, and, as a result, the prisoners are now boycotting the process, with the most recent example being Hassan bin Attash, a Saudi who was just 16 or 17 years old when he was seized in 2002, and who has now, shamefully, spent over half his life imprisoned without charge or trial.

My report about a little-noticed ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in the case of Abu Zubaydah, for whom the CIA’s post-9/11 torture program was developed, in which, for the first time, an appellate court has stated that he was tortured, and has also recognized that the Bush administration’s description of him as a member of Al-Qaeda was mistaken. My article also includes a cross-post of an article about the case by Joseph Margulies, who was one of Abu Zubaydah’s lawyers for over ten years.

I look at the increasing violence of Brexiteers’ rhetoric regarding the UK leaving the EU, and my fears that the ideological civil war that Brexit represents is being stirred up by the disgraceful Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings into a much more physical manifestation of a civil war, even though Johnson – and his backers – are only really interested in a no-deal Brexit as a way of making huge amounts of money.

Following up on a report about the outrageous cost of running the prison at Guantánamo Bay by Carol Rosenberg in the New York Times, in which I suggest that her figure of $13m per prisoner per year, based on figures for last year, is actually understated, and is, instead, $14m per prisoner per year. Such a waste of money, as well as being a legal, moral and ethical abomination.

My report about the Global Climate Strike on September 20, 2019, and, particularly, the protest in London, in which I applaud the young people fighting for their future, discuss the architects who were amongst the adults joining in, and ask what benefit there is in the criticism of Greta Thunberg and Extinction Rebellion by some anti-capitalists.

I look at how Peabody Sales, the private sales arm of the giant housing association Peabody, has just launched a new development, called ‘The Muse’, at Amersham Vale in New Cross, with the private firm Sherrygreen Homes and Lewisham Council, where 80% of the homes will be for private sale. With breathtaking hypocrisy, Amersham Vale was stealthily twinned by the council with the bitterly-contested Tidemill site in Deptford, where campaigners — myself included — fought a long battle to try to prevent the destruction of a vital community space and environmental asset, the Old Tidemill Wildlife Garden, and a block of flats next door, and where, moreover, the council has been trumpeting the number of ‘affordable’ homes that will be built, without mentioning how those figures are undermined by the number of private homes at Amersham Vale.

On the 18th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, one of the bitterest legacies of the “war on terror” that the Bush administration declared in response is Guantánamo, where the men held are sinking into despair under Donald Trump, including one man, Sharqawi Al Hajj, who, just last month, attempted suicide, cutting his wrists with a piece of glass while on a phone call with his lawyer. How long can this injustice continue?

It’s the start of my latest quarterly fundraiser, in which I ask you, if you can, to make a donation towards my target of $2,500 (£2,000) to support my Guantánamo work, my housing activism and my London photography over the next three months.