Welcome to Andy Worthington

Publicizing a petition calling on President Biden to close the prison at Guantánamo Bay, which, impressively, secured over 330,000 signatures. Initiated by groups including Daily Kos, MPower Change and Amnesty International USA, it was delivered to the White House on September 20, the 20th anniversary of George W. Bush telling Congress that the US had launched a “war on terror” in response to the 9/11 attacks.

A link to, and discussion of my interview yesterday, about the men still held indefinitely without charge or trial at Guantánamo, and the Biden administration’s slowness in releasing prisoners already approved for release, and moving towards the prison’s eventual closure, with Chris Cook, for his Gorilla Radio show in Victoria, Canada. Chris and I have spoken many times before over the years, and he is always an extremely well-informed host.

Here’s my latest quarterly fundraiser, in which I’m hoping to raise $2500 (£2000) to support my Guantánamo work, and my photo-journalism project ‘The State of London’, for the next three months, as a freelance journalist, activist and photographer.

Linking to, and discussing, my appearance on South African broadcaster Salaamedia’s show, “Reflections on 9/11: The Impact on Afghanistan and the Muslim World,” on Sept. 8, 2021, which included a discussion about Guantánamo.

On the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, and with the last US troops having left Afghanistan, I call on President Biden to close the prison at Guantánamo Bay, the most shameful and enduring legacy of the “war on terror,” releasing all the men who have not been charged with crimes, and moving the trials of those accused of crimes to federal court.

My report about Extinction Rebellion’s fortnight of actions in London, primarily targeting the City of London, and demanding an immediate end to all investments in fossil fuels — the minimum that is required to tackle the alarming and irreversible climate change that is already underway, but whose worst effects can be mitigated if we act now — and not, as politicians like to think, by 2030 or even 2050. Included are some of my photos from the last two weeks, plus a detailed account of how awareness of a looming environmental catastrophe has grown, and information about the banks and other organisations targeted by XR — as well as others who only escaped attention because two weeks isn’t long enough to expose all the climate crimes of our banks and other financial institutions.

As the right-wing media and Republicans focus on two former Guantánamo prisoners who hold leadership positions in the Taliban, and seek to infer that the Taliban’s victory in Afghanistan somehow means that Guantánamo should remain open, I explain why this is nothing more than disgraceful propaganda, and urge President Biden to remain resolute when it comes to closing Guantánamo once and for all.

Reflecting on the US defeat in Afghanistan, as the Taliban once more control the country, I look at how, in Guantánamo and in the prison at Bagram Airbase, chronically poor intelligence, and the contempt for the rules regarding the detention of prisoners in wartime that was so typical of the “war on terror,” did so much to help the US lose the battle for “hearts and minds” in Afghanistan.

The latest fundraiser for my photo-journalism project ‘The State of London’, a labour of love for which I have no institutional backing whatsoever, and rely on your support to enable me to keep cycling, taking photos and posting a photo a day, with accompanying essays, on social media.

My review of “Don’t Forget Us Here: Lost and Found at Guantánamo,” former prisoner Mansoor Adayfi’s riveting account of his 14 years in the prison, much of which was spent in fierce resistance to the injustice and brutality of everyday life in this fundamentally lawless facility. While the subject matter is bleak, Mansoor somehow never loses touch with his hope, his sense of humor and his humanity.