Welcome to Andy Worthington

Linking to, and discussing my recent one-hour interview with Chris Cook on his Gorilla Radio show in Victoria, British Columbia, about hopes for the release of prisoners from Guantánamo, and the eventual closure of the prison, under Joe Biden, and the proposed extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. We also spoke about my photo-journalism project ‘The State of London’, and my band The Four Fathers.

Responding to the good news that Said Nashir (aka Hani Abdullah), a Yemeni prisoner at Guantánamo, has been approved for release by a Periodic Review Board, the first such decision to take place under Donald Trump. Unfortunately, two other men had their ongoing imprisonment approved by PRBs, nearly three and four years after their last hearings took place. These are unacceptable delays, and it is to be hoped that Joe Biden will not only release Nashir (and five other men long cleared for release), but will also urgently overhaul the review process.

A link to, and discussion of my recent one-hour interview with Peter B. Collins, as part of his ‘Last Interview’ series, in which we talked about Guantánamo, and the prospects for its closure under Joe Biden, and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s extradition hearing, for which I gave evidence as part of his defence.

My call for donations to support my work over the next three months as a reader-funded journalist and campaigner, calling for the closure of the prison at Guantánamo Bay under Joe Biden, now that Donald Trump’s four terrible years in office are nearly behind us.

Following up on a recent Associated Press article, in which Ben Fox spoke to attorneys for some of the 40 men still held at Guantánamo, with their messages for Joe Biden about why he must close the prison, finishing the job that Barack Obama started but failed to complete, a policy that was shamefully discarded over the last four years by Donald Trump.

Marking 1,300 days since I first began posting a photo a day on Facebook from my photo-journalism project ‘The State of London’, which I began five years earlier, in May 2012, this article provides some of my reflections on the last eight and half years, including, of course, the unprecedented upheavals of the last eight months, since Covid-19 turned the world upside down, and largely shut down the City and the West End.

A cross-post, with my own introduction, of a detailed proposal for how Joe Biden can close the prison at Guantánamo Bay, written for Just Security by Benjamin Farley, currently a 9/11 trial attorney, and, from 2013-17, Senior Adviser to the Special Envoy for Guantánamo Closure at the State Department.

Linking to my recent interview — about the future of Guantánamo under Joe Biden, the proposed extradition of Julian Assange, and more — with Andy Bungay and Colin Crilly for Andy’s show on Riverside Radio, a community radio station in Battersea. Andy also played two songs by my band The Four Fathers.

As the second Covid lockdown bites, I wonder how many “non-essential” businesses will survive, but take heart from the news that office rents are collapsing, and that residential rents in inner London are down by 14.9% on this time last year. I can only hope that the uncontrolled property greed that was so dominant before Covid has finally hit a wall, and will be unable to recover.

Reprieve has just launched a website counting, in real time, how long their client Ahmed Rabbani has been on a hunger strike — 2,846 days, as of Nov. 17, 2020. This is a shocking amount of time, as is Ahmed’s skeletal state — he weighs just 39 kilos, or 6 stone 2 pounds. I argue that it is time for Ahmed, like other “forever prisoners,” who genuinely don’t pose a threat to the US, to be released.