The Guantánamo Files: An Archive of Articles — Part Ten, July to September 2011

3.1.12

The Guantanamo Files

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For nearly six years, I have been researching and writing about Guantánamo and the 779 men (and boys) held there over the last ten years, first through my book The Guantánamo Files, and, since May 2007, as a full-time independent investigative journalist. For three years, I focused on the crimes of the Bush administration and, since January 2009, I have analysed the failures of the Obama administration to thoroughly repudiate those crimes and to hold anyone accountable for them, and, increasingly, on President Obama’s failure to charge or release prisoners, and to show any sign that Guantánamo will eventually be closed.

As the 10th anniversary of the opening of Guantánamo approaches, this is an intolerable situation, as the prison remains as much of an aberration, and a stain on America’s belief in itself as a nation ruled by laws, as it was when it was opened by George W. Bush on January 11, 2002. Closing the prison remains as important now as it did when I began this work in 2006.

Over the last six years of researching Guantánamo and writing about it on an almost daily basis, my intention has been to puncture the Bush administration’s propaganda about Guantánamo holding “the worst of the worst” by telling the prisoners’ stories and bringing them to life as human beings, rather than allowing them to remain as dehumanized scapegoats or bogeymen.

This has involved demonstrating that the majority of the prisoners were either innocent men, seized by the US military’s allies at a time when bounty payments were widespread, or recruits for the Taliban, who had been encouraged by supporters in their homelands to help the Taliban in a long-running inter-Muslim civil war (with the Northern Alliance), which began long before the 9/11 attacks and, for the most part, had nothing to do with al-Qaeda or international terrorism.

As I explained in the introduction to my four-part Definitive Prisoner List (updated on June 1 last year), I remain convinced, through detailed research, through comments from insiders with knowledge of Guantánamo, and, most recently, through an analysis of classified military documents released by WikiLeaks, that “at least 93 percent of the 779 men and boys imprisoned in total” had no involvement with terrorism.

However, as this is a blog, rather than a specifically designed website, I recognize that it is increasingly difficult to navigate, as I approach 1500 posts. In an attempt to remedy this shortcoming, and to provide easy access to the most important articles on the site, I have, in the last two years, put together nine chronological lists of all my articles, covering the periods May to December 2007, January to June 2008, July to December 2008, January to June 2009, July to December 2009, January to June 2010July to December 2010, January to March 2011 and April to June 2011, in the hope that they will provide a useful tool for navigation, and will provide researchers — and anyone else interested in this particularly bleak period of modern history — with a practical archive.

This list is the first of two covering my articles over the last six months, and, in the next article in this series, I’ll cover everything I wrote between October and December 2011, bringing the archive of all my articles up to date.

Throughout the three-month period covered by these articles, the main focus of my work was my ongoing analysis of the classified military documents released by WikiLeaks, which involved 17 parts of my 70-part, million-word series, entitled, “The Complete Guantánamo Files,” in which I have been telling the prisoners’ stories, as revealed in the files, adding that to what was already known about the prisoners.

In particular, this project has involved me subjecting the US military’s allegations to a forensic analysis, in which I have established above all the alarming extent to which the supposed evidence actually consists of unreliable statements made by a handful of prisoners who are either well-known liars (because they were bribed with more favorable conditions, or they were coerced, or they had mental health problems) or were torture victims, held in secret CIA prisons, whose statements are therefore unreliable.

In this period, I was so busy that I wasn’t able to devote as much time as I would have liked to other topics of importance — the revolutionary movements in the Middle East, and the age of austerity cynically imposed for ideological reasons by the Tory-led coalition government in the UK, although I did find time to cover the problems with solitary confinement in US prisons, and the death penalty (in the case of Troy Davis), the phone-hacking scandal in the UK involving the Murdoch press, and NGOs’ opposition to the narrow focus of David Cameron’s planned torture inquiry. This was also the period in which I was involved in various projects  to mark the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, and it was also the time when the Occupy movement began on Wall Street, which I took note of immediately, even though it took me 12 days to write about it!

An archive of Guantánamo articles: Part Ten, July to September 2011

July 2011

1. UK politics: Why We Need Regular Protests Against the Coalition Government’s Brutal Ideological Cuts
2. Uighurs in Guantánamo: Exiled Guantánamo Uighurs in Hamburg Art Exhibition
3. Guantánamo media: The Guantánamo Files: An Archive of Articles — Part Eight, January to March 2011
4. UK politics: Leaked Letter Reveals Tory Welfare Reform Madness: 40,000 More Homeless Families, and An Increase in Cost
5. Torture: Torture “Does Not Work, And Is Wrong”: Former CIA Interrogator Glenn Carle Speaks Out
6. WikiLeaks: WikiLeaks and the Guantánamo Prisoners Released from 2002 to 2004 (Part Two of Ten)
7. Guantánamo media: The Guantánamo Files: An Archive of Articles — Part Nine, April to June 2011
8. UK politics, Murdoch press: Why Would Anyone Trust David Cameron, As Police Arrest Andy Coulson?
9. Torture: Torture Whitewash: Probe of Two CIA Murders Ends Obama Administration’s Investigation of Bush’s Global Torture Program
10. UK torture inquiry: UK Torture Inquiry Boycotted by Lawyers, As David Cameron Fails Again to Demonstrate an Interest in Justice
11. John Walker Lindh: John Walker Lindh, Torture Victim and 9/11 Scapegoat, Profiled by His Father
12. WikiLeaks: WikiLeaks and the Guantánamo Prisoners Released from 2002 to 2004 (Part Three of Ten)
13. TV interviews: Andy Worthington Discusses Al-Qaeda Film “The Oath” on Press TV
14. UK politics: A Good Day for Justice: British Supreme Court Bans Use of Secret Evidence by Intelligence Services
15. Torture: The Time is Right for Americans to Pay Attention to Human Rights Watch’s New Torture Report
16. WikiLeaks: WikiLeaks and the Guantánamo Prisoners Released from 2002 to 2004 (Part Four of Ten)
17. UK politics, Murdoch media: Waiting for the Fall of David Cameron
18. Murdoch media: News of the World Whistleblower Sean Hoare, Who Exposed Andy Coulson’s Knowledge of Phone-Hacking, Is Found Dead
19. UK politics, Murdoch media: Pie Attack on Rupert Murdoch is Highlight of Commons Hearing on News of the World Phone-Hacking
20. Guantánamo and Congress: Congress and the Dangerous Drive Towards Creating a Military State
21. US prisons: Support the Hunger Strikers of Pelican Bay, California, Calling for An End to Solitary Confinement as Official US Prison Policy
22. US prisons: The California Prison Hunger Strike Opposing Solitary Confinement as Torture — and the Insulting Response of Prison Officials
23. US prisons: Hellhole: The Most Devastating Article About Long-Term Solitary Confinement in US Prisons, and Why It Is Torture
24. WikiLeaks: WikiLeaks and the Guantánamo Prisoners Released from 2002 to 2004 (Part Five of Ten)
25. Life after Guantánamo: Video: Ex-Guantánamo Prisoner Murat Kurnaz Tells His Story on Russia Today
26. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: Guantánamo and the Death of Habeas Corpus

August 2011

27. WikiLeaks: WikiLeaks and the Guantánamo Prisoners Released from 2002 to 2004 (Part Six of Ten)
28. Life after Guantánamo, Revolution in the Middle East: Lawyers Appeal for Amnesty for Former Guantánamo Prisoner Held in Egypt (Adel El-Gazzar)
29. Revolution in the Middle East: Hosni Mubarak’s Trial Electrifies the Middle East, But Will Justice Be Served?
30. UK torture inquiry: Ten NGOs Withdraw from UK Torture Inquiry, Citing Lack of Credibility and Transparency
31. UK torture inquiry: Britain’s Secret Post-9/11 Torture Policy Revealed: Was Tony Blair’s Government Guilty of “Developing Something Close to a Criminal Policy”?
32. Torture: New Revelations About The Use of Water Torture at Guantánamo
33. UK politics: Michael Mansfield Defends Students’ Right to Protest, Criticizes Heavy Policing and Draconian Sentencing
34. Radio interviews: Andy Worthington Discusses Guantánamo on the Talking Progressive Politics Show on Blog Talk Radio
35. WikiLeaks: WikiLeaks and the Guantánamo Prisoners Released from 2002 to 2004 (Part Seven of Ten)
36. WikiLeaks: WikiLeaks and the Guantánamo Prisoners Released from 2002 to 2004 (Part Eight of Ten)
37. WikiLeaks: WikiLeaks and the Guantánamo Prisoners Released from 2002 to 2004 (Part Nine of Ten)
38. Torture: More Evidence of the Use of Water Torture at Guantánamo and in Afghanistan and Iraq
39. Shaker Aamer: Fears for the Health of Shaker Aamer, the Last British Resident in Guantánamo
40. Guantánamo media, 9/11 anniversary: My New Article for the 10th Anniversary of 9/11, “When America Changed Forever,” in Australia’s Overland Magazine
41. WikiLeaks: WikiLeaks and the Guantánamo Prisoners Released from 2002 to 2004 (Part Ten of Ten)
42. Revolution in the Middle East: An End to Gaddafi’s Tyranny: The Liberation of the Hated Abu Salim Prison
43. Noor Uthman Muhammed, Military Commissions: Tyler Cabot’s Important Profile of Guantánamo Prisoner Noor Uthman Muhammed for Esquire
44. WikiLeaks: WikiLeaks and the Guantánamo Prisoners Released After the Tribunals, 2004 to 2005 (Part One of Five)
45. Kuwaitis in Guantánamo: Can Kuwait Break the Guantánamo Deadlock?

September 2011

46. UK politics: The UK “Riots” and Why the Vile and Disproportionate Response to It Made Me Ashamed to be British
47. WikiLeaks: WikiLeaks and the Guantánamo Prisoners Released After the Tribunals, 2004 to 2005 (Part Two of Five)
48. UK politics: Save the NHS: Make No Mistake, the Government Plans to Privatise Our Precious Health Service
49. WikiLeaks: WikiLeaks and the Guantánamo Prisoners Released After the Tribunals, 2004 to 2005 (Part Three of Five)
50. UK politics: Save the NHS: As Lib Dems Vote to Support Tory Privatisation Plans, The Last Hope is the House of Lords
51. UK politics, Iraq: The Baha Mousa Inquiry: A Good Day for British Justice, A Bleak Day for the British Army and Their US Mentors
52. Dick Cheney: Ten Years After 9/11, America Deserves Better than Dick Cheney’s Self-Serving Autobiography
53. Guantánamo media, 9/11 anniversary: In FAIR’s Extra! Magazine, Andy Worthington on 9/11, Guantánamo and the Failures of US Corporate Media
54. TV interviews, 9/11 anniversary: Andy Worthington Discusses 9/11 and America’s Disproportionate and Mistaken Response on Russia Today
55. Guantánamo media, 9/11 anniversary: The Center for Constitutional Rights Marks “The 9/11 Decade and the Decline of US Democracy”
56. WikiLeaks: WikiLeaks and the Guantánamo Prisoners Released After the Tribunals, 2004 to 2005 (Part Four of Five)
57. Life after Guantánamo: In Afghanistan, Former Guantánamo Prisoners Reflect on Their Ruined Lives
58. WikiLeaks: WikiLeaks and the Guantánamo Prisoners Released After the Tribunals, 2004 to 2005 (Part Five of Five)
59. Tunisians in Guantánamo, Revolution in the Middle East: Tunisians Call for the Release of Prisoners in Guantánamo
60. Ahmed Errachidi: Ahmed Errachidi, Guantánamo Prisoner 590: The Cook Who Became The General
61. Guantánamo media, 9/11 anniversary: After Ten Years of the “War on Terror,” It’s Time to Scrap the Authorization for Use of Military Force
62. WikiLeaks: The Complete Guantánamo Files: WikiLeaks and the Prisoners Released in 2006 (Part One of Ten)
63. Russians in Guantánamo: The Black Hole of Guantánamo: The Sad Story of Ravil Mingazov
64. Death penalty: The Horror of America: Georgia Set to Execute Troy Davis, Despite His Conviction Being Riddled with Doubt
65. WikiLeaks: UPDATED – WikiLeaks: The Unknown Prisoners of Guantánamo (Part One of Five)
66. Death penalty: RIP Troy Davis: Your Killers Should Be Ashamed
67. Guantánamo and habeas corpus: US Injustice Laid Bare, As Afghan in Guantánamo Loses His Habeas Appeal
68. WikiLeaks: The Complete Guantánamo Files: WikiLeaks and the Prisoners Released in 2006 (Part Two of Ten)
69. WikiLeaks: The Complete Guantánamo Files: WikiLeaks and the Prisoners Released in 2006 (Part Three of Ten)
70. Occupy Wall Street: “Occupy Wall Street”: My Support for the Protestors in the “Financial Gomorrah of America”
71. UK travellers: The Dale Farm Eviction: How Racism Against Gypsies and Travellers Grips Modern-Day Britain
72: Revolution in the Middle East: “Syria: Inside the Secret Revolution” – Harrowing BBC Documentary Tells the Truth About Bashar Al-Assad’s Brutality

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, “The Complete Guantánamo Files,” a 70-part, million-word series drawing on files released by WikiLeaks in April 2011, and details about the documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (co-directed by Polly Nash and Andy Worthington, and available on DVD here — or here for the US). Also see 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.

8 Responses

  1. Andy Worthington says...

    On Facebook, Natalia Rivera Scott wrote:

    I just finished reading the book. it’s a really good book.

  2. Andy Worthington says...

    Thanks, Natalia. That’s very good to hear.

  3. Andy Worthington says...

    Redjade InHungary wrote:

    thank you for all of your work Andy 🙂

  4. Andy Worthington says...

    Ann Alexander wrote:

    Gosh Andy – this is some body of work! I want to thank you too.

  5. Andy Worthington says...

    Thanks, Redjade and Ann — and everyone who has taken an interest in the archive. I appreciate the support. Next week — perhaps even on the 10th anniversary of the opening of Guantanamo — I’ll be publishing my 1500th blog post, so I guess it’s fair to say that I’ve been busy since I started blogging on a regular basis in May 2007. Please do bookmark the page for the archive if you need to reference my work — or if you’re just interested in seeing how the “war on terror” has played out over the last five years: http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/category/a-chronological-list-of-guantanamo-articles/

  6. Andy Worthington says...

    George Kenneth Berger wrote:

    I’m digging and sharing this, Andy.

  7. Andy Worthington says...

    Dejanka Bryant wrote:

    Me, too. Long time being away from your FB page, dear Andy. I did not forget my donation to you. It will be soon. You are the one whose work has to be supported, no doubt about it.

  8. Andy Worthington says...

    Thank you, George and Dejanka. And how lovely to hear from you, Dejanka. Thank you for your support, as ever.

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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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