My New Article for the 10th Anniversary of 9/11, “When America Changed Forever,” in Australia’s Overland Magazine
25.8.11
POSTSCRIPT: My article, “When America changed forever: Human rights ten years after 9/11,” is online on Overland‘s website here.
Back in April, just after WikiLeaks released the classified military documents relating to the Guantánamo prisoners on which I worked as a media partner, and which have consumed most of my time since, I received a welcome email out of the blue from Jacinda Woodhead, the associate editor of Overland magazine.
Overland was founded in 1954, and Jacinda described it accurately as “one of the oldest, most esteemed and most radical of Australia’s literary magazines.” Writing on behalf of the editor Jeff Sparrow, she asked if I would be interested in a commission to write a 3,000-word essay on what the 9/11 attacks, whose tenth anniversary falls in just two weeks, did to civil liberties and the rule of law in America.
Needless to say, I leapt at the opportunity, and the article, “When America changed forever: Human rights ten years after 9/11,” has just been published in the latest issue of Overland, issue 204. In it, I revisit the baleful history of America’s flight from decency and the rule of law under George W. Bush, and President Obama’s failure to throughly repudiate it, or to hold anyone accountable for the torture and lies that defined his predecessor’s administration.
Profiled here, the latest issue of Overland contains, in Jeff Sparrow’s words, articles that plumb the darkness of the last ten years, echoing the words of Georg Trakl, an Austrian poet who died in 1914, aged 27, and who wrote with power about the horrors of the First World War, for whom a “decaying generation … cold and evil” presided over “a dark future prepared/For the pale grandchild.”
As Jeff also states, the articles in this issue of Overland, which plumb the darkness of the 21st century so far, deal with “the normalization of torture and abuse, wars abroad and austerity at home, the ongoing immiseration of asylum seekers, and all the rest of it. But they’re also suffused with a modicum of optimism, a sense that, perhaps, the gloom is finally clearing.”
I certainly hope that is the case, but in the meantime, I hope to have alerted readers in Australia to my presence in print on the other side of the world from London, and if anyone in Australia or elsewhere would like to subscribe to Overland or buy the latest issue for AUS $14.95, the details are here.
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, Twitter, Digg and YouTube). Also see my definitive Guantánamo prisoner list, updated in June 2011, 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 — or here for the US), 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.
Who's still at Guantánamo?
13 Responses
Andy Worthington says...
On Facebook, Eric Gebert wrote:
I say we learned nothing. Torturers go free, the ‘Patriot Act’ continues it’s unconstitutional reign, and Obama continues all of Bush’s “war on terror” policies.
Nat Hentoff wrote a great piece – http://www.stardem.com/opinion/article_57630da5-5773-5965-84b6-b457903837a7.html
...on August 26th, 2011 at 12:08 am
Andy Worthington says...
Christine Casner wrote:
Andy, Email soon. Hope you enjoyed your vacation!! Love, CC ♥
...on August 26th, 2011 at 12:09 am
Andy Worthington says...
Thanks, Eric and Chris. Good to hear from you.
...on August 26th, 2011 at 12:09 am
Andy Worthington says...
Ibo Tabo wrote:
andy: i have read so much from guys like this concern to the 9/11
http://www.ae911truth.org/
do this guys have any case in your view?
...on August 26th, 2011 at 12:16 am
Andy Worthington says...
Bob Williams wrote:
As a former AWAC squadron historian, I don’t buy the government’s version of events that day.
http://davidraygriffin.com/
...on August 26th, 2011 at 12:17 am
Andy Worthington says...
Ibo, feel free to check out the site recommended by Bob. It’s not my version of events — I recommend “The Looming Tower” by Lawrence Wright for the story of how the refusal of the US intelligence agencies to cooperate with one another allowed 9/11 to happen, but I know that there are many people out there who disagree.
...on August 26th, 2011 at 12:20 am
Andy Worthington says...
Ibo Tabo wrote:
I think the Book is just another brick in the wall. Is just repeating the so-calls official version of 9/11
...on August 26th, 2011 at 12:30 am
Andy Worthington says...
I found it very convincing, Ibo, and I was also convinced by accounts by Jane Mayer in her book “The Dark Side” that friends of Dick Cheney noted how he had changed — become colder, more paranoid — after 9/11, which struck me as unlikely if it was his own inside job. But I’d prefer to agree to differ on these things if you’re not convinced by my point of view.
...on August 26th, 2011 at 12:32 am
Andy Worthington says...
Bob Williams wrote:
I agree Ibo; it’s I.W. (information warfare).
The reality is that the Students (Talib-aan) implemented a successful drug prohibition program which stopped poppy production in 2000. Bush then flew the a dozen of the Students’ leadership to his ranch in Texas. He explained that CIA does not depend on American tax victims for its funding of covert operations, CIA traffics heroin made from poppies. The Students wouldn’t grow it again, hence the stitch job enabling the subsequent invasion of Afghanistan and record crops of opium every year.
The government is always planning, especially the military. Nobody was caught unawares, except for losing faction in the intelligence community’s civil war.
Where is Building 7?
Did you know it housed CIA’s New York section office?
...on August 26th, 2011 at 12:58 am
Andy Worthington says...
Christine Casner wrote:
Thanks for the book reference, Andy. I shall read it. (Ugh!!!) Peace. ♥
...on August 26th, 2011 at 12:59 am
Andy Worthington says...
Willy Bach wrote:
Andy, well done getting published in Australia. The story of 11 September 2011 needs refreshing from other viewpoints and particularly the USA’s descent into darkness. It is bothering how readily Britain, Australia and others joined the USA in this descent.
...on August 26th, 2011 at 10:41 am
Andy Worthington says...
Ibo Tabo wrote:
Andy: I know you are not expert on this or talk more on 9/11 but can you please enlighten us here on your view on building 7 as Bob raised that point?
...on August 26th, 2011 at 10:42 am
Andy Worthington says...
Willy, thanks very much for the supportive words.
And Ibo, I read extensively about the 9/11 conspiracy a few years ago, on CounterPunch:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2006/11/28/debunking-the-myths-of-9-11/
I also recommend Wikipedia’s articles about the conspiracy theories in general, and about Building 7, as they pull together a lot of relevant information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9/11_conspiracy_theories
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7_World_Trade_Center
...on August 26th, 2011 at 10:57 am