Andy Worthington Discusses “Guantánamo Habeas Week” with Peter B. Collins

On Tuesday I was delighted to talk once more to Peter B. Collins, the independent progressive radio host whose podcasts, uninterrupted by ad breaks, provide a great opportunity to discuss serious issues without interruption. The interview is available here — and as an MP3 here.

I met Peter on my trip to the US last November to promote the new documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (directed by Polly Nash and myself), and it’s always great to talk to him. This time round, we dealt mainly with my ongoing “Guantánamo Habeas Week,” featuring my interactive list of the 47 habeas petitions to date, 34 of which have been won by the prisoners, and my analyses of the most recent unclassified opinions in these cases – to date, “With Regrets, Judge Allows Indefinite Detention at Guantánamo of a Medic,” about the Yemeni, Mukhtar al-Warafi, and “Mohamedou Ould Salahi: How a Judge Demolished the US Government’s Al-Qaeda Claims,” about a man subjected to “extraordinary rendition” and torture, in the mistaken belief that he was involved in the 9/11 attacks.

I spoke to Peter about the sad story of Mukhtar al-Warafi, and we also discussed my respect for the District Court judges, despite their obligation to deny the habeas petitions of medics and cooks working for the Taliban, because of the existing legislation, passed in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, equating al-Qaeda with the Taliban. We also discussed my hope that one day, when we are looking back on this period of hysteria and overreaction (unless the Cheneyites win), the role played by the judges, who have painstakingly exposed the extent to which the supposed evidence actually consists of false confessions extracted through torture, coercion or bribery, will be celebrated, rather than being ignored (by those who should care) or belittled (by those who are trying to keep Cheney’s violent and paranoid worldview alive).

We also spoke, as Peter put it, “about the role of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel in the management of these issues and the departure of [White House] Counsel Greg Craig, as well as Obama’s withdrawal of the nomination of Prof. Dawn Johnsen to Office of Legal Counsel — a victory for the Cheneys.”

I’m always interested in examining how Craig — who pushed for a thorough repudiation of the Bush administration’s policies, and who established the now-defunct deadline for the closure of Guantánamo and tried to resettle cleared prisoners in the US — was squeezed out, particularly, it seems, by Emanuel. Distressingly, it seems, Emanuel’s obsession with cutting deals with Republicans and putting pragmatism before principles appears to be doing nothing but alienating Obama’s base and empowering increasingly hysterical Republicans every time the administration bows to pressure –- as it has on numerous occasions, and now threatens to do with replacing federal court trials for the alleged 9/11 co-conspirators with trials by Military Commission.

On that note, after presuming that Dawn Johnsen’s moral compass must have derailed her nomination, and bewailing the lack of convincing strong men, or women, with inviolable principles, in the administration and in Congress, our discussion came to an end with Peter mentioning Scott Horton’s extraordinary exposé of the “suicides” at Guantánamo in June 2006, which, according to witnesses from the military at the prison, including Staff Sgt. Joe Hickman, could not have been suicides, and how the story was suppressed by the Justice Department, and largely ignored in the mainstream US media, to my mind because it was too big and too shocking to contemplate.

It was a pleasure to talk to Peter, as ever, and I hope you enjoy the show.

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). To receive new articles in your inbox, please subscribe to my RSS feed (and I can also be found on Facebook and Twitter). Also see my definitive Guantánamo prisoner list, updated in January 2010, details about the new documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (co-directed by Polly Nash and Andy Worthington, and currently on tour in the UK), and, if you appreciate my work, feel free to make a donation.