New London Date for “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo,” at LSE, Tuesday February 22, 2011

As part of my ongoing UK tour of the documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo,” which I co-directed with filmmaker Polly Nash, I’ll be attending a screening at LSE this Tuesday, February 22, after a last-minute request for me to come along as a speaker.

Here are the details:

Tuesday February 22, 7 pm: Film screening – “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo.” Followed by Q&A with Andy Worthington.
LSE, Room NAB.2.13, New Academic Building, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London WC2.
This event is organized by the LSESU Amnesty International Society.
For further information, please contact Oliver Sidorczuk. Also see the Facebook page, and see here for a map.

The screening is hosted by LSE’s Amnesty International Society, and, like the majority of dates on the 2011 tour, which are also hosted by Amnesty International student groups, it has the support of Amnesty International UK. As well as providing me with support on the logistics of the tour, AIUK has provided copies of the DVD to student groups, and is also providing publicity materials, including posters and, most importantly, postcards for audience members to send to Daniel Fried, the US Special Envoy on Guantánamo. This is part of an ongoing Amnesty campaign to secure the release from Guantánamo of Shaker Aamer, the last British resident in the prison, whose story features prominently in the film, and anyone who wants to help secure the relase of Shaker can also write to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton via the Amnesty page here.

At the LSE, as at other venues, I will also be making available postcards prepared by the indefatigable campaigner Maryam Hassan (of the Justice for Aafia Coalition) addressed to foreign secretary William Hague, and to Shaker himself, in Guantánamo, which I’ll be encouraging audiences to send. You can also find a letter to Wlliam Hague here, a letter to your MP here, and information here about an Early Day Motion tabled by Caroline Lucas MP, which you can ask your MP to support.

The LSE was one of the first places I visited last year, with former Guantánamo prisoner Omar Deghayes, on the 2010 tour of the film, and I’m delighted to be returning, to raise awareness of the human stories behind the enduring myth that Guantánamo held “the worst of the worst,” to explain to people why, nine years after Guantánamo opened, President Obama has failed so thoroughly to close the prison, and why it is, therefore, more important than ever to press for its closure, and also, of course, to explain why it is crucial that people continue to campaign loudly and incessantly for the release of Shaker Aamer.

Despite being cleared for release in 2007, Shaker is still held for a variety of reasons that cast a poor light on both the US and the UK governments, as I’ll be explaining to the audience at LSE (and to audiences everywhere else on the tour), while also encouraging them to believe that, with concerted action, Shaker’s long and unjust imprisonment will come to an end, and he will be reunited with his British wife and his four British children.

Reviews of “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo”

“‘Outside the Law’ is a powerful film that has helped ensure that Guantánamo and the men unlawfully held there have not been forgotten.”
Kate Allen, Director, Amnesty International UK

“[T]his is a strong movie examining the imprisonment and subsequent torture of those falsely accused of anti-American conspiracy.”
Joe Burnham, Time Out

For further information, interviews, or to inquire about broadcasting, distributing or showing “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo,” please contact Polly Nash or Andy Worthington. Also see this dedicated page for the UK tour, which will be updated as new dates are added. Below, on YouTube, you can watch the first five minutes of the film via Orchard Pictures, from whom you can also pay to watch the whole film online. You can also pay to watch it online, for just £1, via Journeyman Pictures.

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, on tour in the UK throughout 2011, and available on DVD here), my definitive Guantánamo habeas list and the chronological list of all my articles, and, if you appreciate my work, feel free to make a donation.