10.3.14
Dear friends and supporters,
It’s that time of year again, when I ask you, if you can, to help to support my work as an independent journalist researching, writing about and commenting on the “war on terror” prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and working to try to get the men still held there either released or tried, and the prison closed down. If you can help out at all, please click on the “Donate” button above to donate via PayPal (and I should add that you don’t need to be a PayPal member to use PayPal).
Every three months, I ask you if you can help to support my work — not just my writing, but also my personal appearances, the TV and radio interviews I undertake, and the maintenance of this website and various social media sites associated with it.
All contributions to support my work are welcome, whether it’s $25, $100 or $500 — or, of course, the equivalent in pounds sterling or any other currency. You can also make a recurring payment on a monthly basis by ticking the box marked, “Make This Recurring (Monthly),” and if you are able to do so, it would be very much appreciated.
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!
It’s eight years since I began working on Guantánamo on a full-time basis — first through researching and writing my book The Guantánamo Files, and, since May 2007, as a full-time independent investigative journalist and commentator. I had begun researching Guantánamo in September 2005, but eight years ago, in March 2006, three developments occurred that persuaded me that writing a book about Guantánamo and the men held there was not only necessary, but also possible.
The first was Moazzam Begg’s autobiography, Enemy Combatant: A British Muslim’s Journey to Guantánamo and Back, which I bought and devoured shortly ate its publication on February 27, 2006, and the second was the docudrama “The Road to Guantánamo,” directed by Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross, telling the stories of the three Guantánamo prisoners known as the “Tipton Three,” which I watched engrossed when it was first broadcast on Channel 4 on March 9, 2006.
The third development was the release, on March 3, 2006, of thousands of pages of documents relating to the Guantánamo prisoners, released after the Pentagon lost a FOIA lawsuit — including, for the first time, their names and nationalities, as well as the unclassified allegations against them, and the transcripts of the tribunals and review boards held at Guantánamo, a rigged process designed to establish that the majority of the prisoners were correctly designated as “enemy combatants,” who could continue to be held indefinitely without charge or trial, but one that, nevertheless, allowed the prisoners to have a voice.
If you follow my work, you will know that I drew on these documents (and others released in the following months) to write my book The Guantánamo Files and to begin writing about Guantánamo and the men held there on a full-time basis as a freelance journalist after I finished the manuscript for my book in May 2007. Since my last fundraiser, in December, I have been writing about the men freed as a result of the prison-wide hunger strike last year, which forced President Obama to promise action.
Nine prisoners were released in December — more than in the previous three years — but since then the release of prisoners has ground to a halt once more, even though 77 of the 155 men still held have been cleared for release — all but one since January 2010, when the high-level, inter-agency Guantánamo Review Task Force appointed by President Obama shortly after he took office in January 2009, issued its recommendations regarding who to release, who to prosecute and who to continue holding without charge or trial. As a result, my work telling the men’s stories and reminding the world about their existence, is, sadly, as important as ever.
As I mentioned above, your support is essential, as the only other regular income I receive is from the “Close Guantánamo” campaign, which I established with the US attorney Tom Wilner in January 2012. Most of my work, however, is only possible because of your support — for example, the majority of the 50+ articles I have written since my last fund-raising appeal in December, and the additional projects I have undertaken, like my definitive Guantánamo prisoner list, which I first published in March 2009, and which I have just updated — for the first time since April 2012 — and expanded from four parts to six parts. The prisoner list contains links to everything I have written about the prisoners over the last eight years, in over 1,500 articles, and is intended to provide a powerful resource for those researching Guantánamo.
In addition, in February, I updated my definitive Guantánamo habeas corpus list, analyzing the results of the prisoners’ habeas corpus petitions from 2008, when they provided the opportunity for innocent men and insignificant prisoners to leave Guantánamo, to 2010 and 2011, when judges in the appeals court in Washington D.C. shut down habeas corpus as a means whereby the prisoners could be released.
I do hope you can help me continue working as an independent voice calling for the closure of Guantánamo, and an end to the lies told by those who want to keep it open. Indefinite imprisonment without charge or trial is unacceptable under any circumstances, and the regime at Guantánamo must be brought to an end.
With thanks, as ever, for your support,
Andy Worthington
London
March 10, 2014
Andy Worthington is a freelance investigative journalist, activist, author, photographer and film-maker. He is the co-founder of the “Close Guantánamo” campaign, and 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. He is also the co-director (with Polly Nash) of the documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (available on DVD here — or here for the US).
To receive new articles in your inbox, please subscribe to Andy’s RSS feed — and he can also be found on Facebook (and here), Twitter, Flickr and YouTube. Also see the six-part definitive Guantánamo prisoner list, and “The Complete Guantánamo Files,” an ongoing, 70-part, million-word series drawing on files released by WikiLeaks in April 2011. Also see the definitive Guantánamo habeas list and the chronological list of all Andy’s articles. Please also consider joining the “Close Guantánamo” campaign.
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, singer/songwriter (The Four Fathers).
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10 Responses
Andy Worthington says...
On Facebook, Willy Bach wrote:
dunnit
...on March 11th, 2014 at 12:15 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Thank you, Willy. That’s very kind.
...on March 11th, 2014 at 12:15 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Martin A Gugino wrote:
Nice to see the “monthly” option. Never noticed that before… Blind?
...on March 11th, 2014 at 12:15 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Thank you, Martin. I hope all is well with you. I only noticed the recurring payment option about six months ago. Perhaps it didn’t exist before.
...on March 11th, 2014 at 12:16 pm
Mrs. Anonymous says...
Would you accept bitcoin donations?
...on March 11th, 2014 at 4:19 pm
Andy Worthington says...
I suppose so, Mrs. Anonymous, but I am sadly ignorant of the details of how the whole Bitcoin enterprise works.
...on March 11th, 2014 at 5:33 pm
Andy Worthington says...
George Kenneth Berger wrote:
I will donate soon, Andy.
...on March 12th, 2014 at 12:52 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Thank you, George. That’s very kind of you.
...on March 12th, 2014 at 12:52 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Dejanka Bryant wrote:
Oh, Andy, I forgot. Of course, any time dear friend. What’s the number on your Guantanamo clock now?
...on March 12th, 2014 at 12:52 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Thank you, Dejanka. That is very much appreciated. The GTMO Clock is now marking 293 days since President Obama’s promise to resume releasing prisoners, with just 11 men released, while 77 others, cleared for release are still held. Moreover, it’s now 71 days since anyone was released. Perhaps he thinks we’ve forgotten. I’ll be promoting the GTMO Clock again for its 300th day on March 19: http://gtmoclock.com/
...on March 12th, 2014 at 12:53 pm