Video: For We Stand With Shaker, Frankie Boyle Discusses Shaker Aamer’s Case with Sara Pascoe
31.12.14
I’m pleased to announce that a video of the legendary comedian Frankie Boyle being interviewed by his fellow comedian Sara Pascoe, and discussing the case of Shaker Aamer, is the third video to be made available by the We Stand With Shaker campaign, of which I am the co-director, with Joanne MacInnes, following on from the official campaign video (featuring my band The Four Fathers playing “Song for Shaker Aamer”, the campaign song I wrote), and the Human Rights Day video, featuring Juliet Stevenson reading from Shaker’s Declaration of No Human Rights, written in Guantánamo, and David Morrissey also providing commentary.
Frankie is a long-time supporter of Shaker. In December 2012 he donated the money he was awarded in a libel victory to Shaker’s legal costs, and last July, during a prison-wide hunger strike in Guantanamo, he embarked on a hunger strike in solidarity with Shaker.
We were delighted when he agreed to be interviewed for the campaign, and it was great to get Sara Pascoe on board to interview him. Unfortunately, I was playing a gig that day and couldn’t meet him myself, but it’s great to see the results of that meeting, admirably filmed and edited by Billy Dudley, the talented film student who made the promotional video for the campaign.
The video of Frankie and Sara is below:
If you like it, please feel free to share it as widely as possible. And please also follow us on Facebook and Twitter, if you don’t already, and check out our website, including the photos of celebrities standing with the giant figure of Shaker that is at the heart of the campaign, and of supporters standing with signs that read, “I Stand With Shaker.” You can submit your own photo here, and we encourage you to do so!
Andy Worthington is a freelance investigative journalist, activist, author, photographer and film-maker. He is the co-founder of the “Close Guantánamo” campaign, the director of “We Stand With Shaker,” calling for the immediate release from Guantánamo of Shaker Aamer, the last British resident in the prison, 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, the full military commissions list, and the chronological list of all Andy’s articles.
Please also consider joining the “Close Guantánamo” campaign, and, if you appreciate Andy’s work, feel free to make a donation.
Who's still at Guantánamo?
9 Responses
Anna says...
“This video is not accessible in your country” but congratulations for having it made anyway :-).
And a peaceful and Happy 2015 to all.
May it see at the very least all the currently eligible prisoners released to countries where they will be welcomed as warmly as the ‘lucky six’ in Uruguay.
...on December 31st, 2014 at 4:22 pm
Andy Worthington says...
I’m sorry to hear that, Anna – presumably that involves copyright issues because of the music at the end of the video by a musician called Charlie Winston. As soon as the video was made and this little bit of doleful incidental music was added to it, lawyers had it blocked all over the place. That was supposed to have been dealt with, but obviously it hasn’t been. I’ll try and look into it.
Anyway, happy new year to you, my friend. Good news today as well, with another five men released, three Yemenis and two Tunisians – in Kazakhstan of all places!
...on December 31st, 2014 at 4:35 pm
Andy Worthington says...
On Facebook, Monique D’hoohge wrote:
awesome… gladly sharing
...on December 31st, 2014 at 5:17 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Monique D’hoohge wrote:
and the pic i am taking for shaker aamer is gonna arrive in a day or two (prolly tomorrow)
...on December 31st, 2014 at 5:18 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Thanks for sharing, Monique. And looking forward to seeing your photo. Anyone can upload a photo holding a sign. Just go to: http://westandwithshaker.org/submit/
...on December 31st, 2014 at 5:18 pm
Murphy Pendleton says...
I doubt Aamer and Omar Hamzayavich Abdulayev will be released anytime soon because they refuse to return to their birth countries (Saudi Arabia and Tajikistan). Obama will probably transfer a few Yemenis and a few of the other last non-Yemenis (there are five) next month like he did yesterday. Aamer and Abdulayev will likely be the last to be freed because Obama needs to find a country that will take them.
...on December 31st, 2014 at 7:21 pm
Arthur S says...
Glad to see your activism gaining more traction, Andy.
Hope you have a write up on the Kazakhstan transfers.
Happy New Year!
...on December 31st, 2014 at 8:58 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Thanks, Arthur. Very good to hear from you, and a happy new year to you too!
...on January 1st, 2015 at 5:43 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Good to hear from you, Murphy, but I do hope your analysis isn’t correct. I hope to see both Umar and Shaker released very soon – Umar to a third country, and Shaker to the UK.
...on January 1st, 2015 at 5:44 pm