Andy Worthington Discusses Obama’s Guantánamo Inertia on Antiwar Radio

7.9.10

On Friday, I was delighted to take part in my 18th interview with Scott Horton of Antiwar Radio. The one-hour show is available here (and here as an MP3), and my interview begins 35 minutes in. Scott was standing in for Gustavo Arellano on Pacifica Radio’s KFPK channel in Los Angeles, and our interview follows fascinating interviews with Patrick Cockburn, the Middle East correspondent for The Independent, discussing Iraq and his new book Muqtada Al-Sadr and the Battle for the Future of Iraq, about the Shia cleric and political leader), and Michael Hastings, who wrote the extraordinary Rolling Stone article “The Runaway General” that triggered the dismissal of Gen. Stanley McChrystal.

In our 18-minute interview, Scott and I ran through the latest news from Guantánamo, focusing, as Scott described it, on “the proceedings at Guantánamo that are grinding to a halt, why ‘material support for terrorism’ charges have no relation to war crimes and should be tried in federal courts, the political realities that make Guantánamo’s timely closure highly unlikely and the 58 Yemeni prisoners still in custody despite being cleared for release.”

Further information about these topics can be found in my recent articles — in particular, Bin Laden Cook Expected to Serve Two More Years at Guantánamo – And Some Thoughts on the Remaining Sudanese Prisoners, Lawlessness Haunts Omar Khadr’s Blighted War Crimes Trial at Guantánamo and No Surprise at Obama’s Guantánamo Trial Chaos.

It was great to talk to Scott, as ever, and I hope I managed to summon up the necessary outrage regarding Obama’s lamentable inertia, the moral depravity of lawmakers in Congress, and the deplorable absence of debate about Guantánamo in the mainstream media. I hope you enjoy the show — and if you have the time, please listen to the whole hour, as Patrick Cockburn and Michael Hastings both have excellent insights into the truth on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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) and of two other books: Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion and The Battle of the Beanfield. 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 July 2010, details about the new documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (co-directed by Polly Nash and Andy Worthington, currently on tour in the UK, and available on DVD here), and my definitive Guantánamo habeas list, and, if you appreciate my work, feel free to make a donation.

3 Responses

  1. Andy Worthington says...

    Here are some comments from Facebook:

    Janis Berman wrote:

    wrong timing going into an election

  2. Andy Worthington says...

    Steve Pesce wrote:

    I completely disagree, Janis. I think the fact that Obama has come out with this huge proposal for public works projects should tell us that he needs to rally the left to go out and vote. Maybe this is the only window we will have until the next presidential election to push him to do something good.

  3. Andy Worthington says...

    Lisa Gregory Koger Barr wrote:

    Andy thanks for all you do — you are a voice in the wilderness. please please please share the petition call on behalf of gregory koger and consider asking people to send some cash love to his appellate attorneys:
    http://www.worldcantwait.net/index.php/home-mainmenu-289/6622-free-gregory-koger-videotaping-is-not-a-crime-gregory-should-do-no-time

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Andy Worthington

Investigative journalist, author, campaigner, commentator and public speaker. Recognized as an authority on Guantánamo and the “war on terror.” Co-founder, Close Guantánamo and We Stand With Shaker. Also, photo-journalist (The State of London), and singer and songwriter (The Four Fathers).
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