Quarterly Fundraiser: End of Week Appeal for Support for My Guantánamo Work
15.12.12
Please support my work!
My thanks to the ten friends and supporters who have made donations to help to support my ongoing work as an independent journalist, investigator and commentator, working primarily to close the “war on terror” prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, through humanizing the men held there, and exposing the enduring lies put forward by the Bush administration.
These lies are summed up in Donald Rumsfeld’s claim that the prisoners at Guantánamo are the “worst of the worst,” when the truth is that, in the overwhelming majority of cases, the men held had no involvement whatsoever with terrorism, and the cases against them are built up not of verifiable evidence, but of unreliable statements made by their fellow prisoners, most of whom have been exposed as unreliable witnesses by analysts within the US military and intelligence communities.
I’m also a concerned citizen of the UK, appalled at my government’s malevolent ideological assault on the poor, the ill, the unemployed and the disabled — as well as the attempt to destroy the NHS — and I write about these issues when possible, as well as being involved in a project I established in May this year, to photograph the whole of London by bike, a project that is also politically charged.
I have so far received over $300 in donations for the three months to come, and, ideally, I’d like to raise another $1000, although I understand that times are hard everywhere, as people have to cope with reduced living standards, unemployment and ideologically motivated austerity programs, part of the ongoing fallout from the global banking crash of 2008, whose architects — the bankers and the politicians who supported them — have evaded justice.
All contributions are welcome, whether it’s $25, $100 or $500 — or, of course, the equivalent in pounds sterling or any other currency. Readers can pay via PayPal from anywhere in the world, but if you’re in the UK and want to help without using PayPal, you can send me a cheque (address here — scroll down to the bottom of the page), and if you’re not a PayPal user and want to send a check from the US (or from anywhere else in the world, for that matter), please feel free to do so, but bear in mind that I have to pay a $10/£6.50 processing fee on every transaction. Securely packaged cash is also an option!
Thanks, as ever, for your interest in my work.
Andy Worthington
London
December 15, 2012
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, Flickr (my photos) and YouTube. Also see my definitive Guantánamo prisoner list, updated in April 2012, “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 please also consider joining the new “Close Guantánamo campaign,” and, if you appreciate my work, feel free to make a donation.
Who's still at Guantánamo?
13 Responses
Andy Worthington says...
On Facebook, Ratso JayBird Rizzo wrote:
Sharing!
...on December 15th, 2012 at 11:57 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Richard Osbourne wrote:
Delighted to help Andy. Your work is extremely important.
...on December 15th, 2012 at 11:57 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Jamie Mayerfeld wrote:
I just contributed. Thanks for reminding us.
...on December 15th, 2012 at 11:58 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Martin A Gugino wrote:
server down
...on December 15th, 2012 at 11:58 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Thanks, Ratso, for sharing. And thank you very much, Richard and Jamie, for helping to support my work. It’s very much appreciated.
Also, Martin, I hope the server’s back up now. Just a temporary glitch, I think.
...on December 15th, 2012 at 11:59 pm
Tom says...
Hi Andy,
Carry on with your London picture project. But why is it politically charged?
...on December 16th, 2012 at 5:07 am
Andy Worthington says...
Well, not all of it, Tom, but I hope some of it is — those parts looking at the ongoing housing bubble, the ongoing plague of speculative housing, and the increasing signs of poverty.
...on December 16th, 2012 at 11:36 am
Tom says...
Got it. I thought maybe it was because the police were stopping you and seizing your camera for some reason.
...on December 16th, 2012 at 2:37 pm
Andy Worthington says...
No, not yet, Tom. There is a problem with overzealous security guards in some places, though. I was stopped and questioned when photographing a government building near Parliament recently, and I’ve also been told to stop taking photos in a number of shopping centres, where photography is, apparently, strictly forbidden. The clampdown will continue, I am sure, just as there is a continuing clampdown on what members of the public are allowed to do in former public spaces that have been privatised.
...on December 16th, 2012 at 10:19 pm
Tom says...
When I was in central London, I had my own photo moment when I was surprised I wasn’t stopped. I was on the street with other people looking in at the front entrance to 10 Downing St. Then I went down and around to the other end. For some reason the security gate was open, and no security was around. Naturally, for a split second I went in, took a quick picture and left. Didn’t get stopped or anything.
Here, as far as I know not every mall has a Homeland Security office in it. Not yet, at least.
...on December 17th, 2012 at 3:39 am
Andy Worthington says...
I’m presuming that was back in the days when 10 Downing Street was open to the public, was it, Tom? It was fenced off in 1989. Great anecdote!
Nice to hear that the US is not quite as riddled with jobsworths as here, although that’s probably only because it eats into profits to actually employ people.
...on December 17th, 2012 at 11:29 am
Tom says...
Yes, it was around when John Major was Prime Minister. I was also at Parliament one day with a big crowd when Major and several other cars drove by. Imagine roughly 100 people all leaning to the right, and then a mass wave to the left.
Don’t be fooled about jobworths. They’re just as bad here. Also, if you ring up Homeland Security for any reason, you have to give them your name and number before they’ll answer your question. It is an actual law. However, the reason why they have it is “classified”. My tax dollars are going for this.
...on December 17th, 2012 at 5:43 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Ha! Very nicely put, Tom. A perfect summary of petty bureaucracy and over-classification.
...on December 17th, 2012 at 8:04 pm