27.10.22
In the sixteen years and eight months since I began working on Guantánamo on a full-time basis, I’ve built up an unprecedented archive of nearly 2,500 articles telling the stories of men held there, following their efforts to secure release from the prison, and, in the cases of all but the 36 men still held, writing about their release, and, in some cases, their lives afterwards.
In 2009, I first compiled a definitive Guantánamo prisoner list, listing all the men (and boys) held at the prison, providing references to where I told their stories in my book The Guantánamo Files, published in 2007, and also providing links to all my articles mentioning them. I updated the list in 2010 (twice), 2011, 2014, 2016 and 2018, and have now updated it for the eighth time, adding links to the articles I’ve written over the last four years.
I hope this is of interest, and you can find the six articles here: Part 1 (ISN prisoner numbers 1-133), Part 2 (134-268), Part 3 (269-496), Part 4 (497-661), Part 5 (662-928) and Part 6 (929-10029).
For anyone who may not be familiar with my work over the last sixteen years and eight months as an independent, reader-funded investigative journalist, commentator and activist, I began by piecing together the men’s stories from 8,000 pages of documents that the Pentagon was required to release through Freedom of Information legislation in 2006, when, it turned out, I was the only journalist to do so, weaving the men’s stories— and accounts of their capture — into a narrative of the prison’s history that became The Guantánamo Files.
After the 14 months it took me to write the book, I began writing and publishing articles on a regular basis, on my website and elsewhere, including, since 2012, on the website of the Close Guantánamo campaign, which I established with the attorney Tom Wilner, following every aspect of Guantánamo’s story as it unfolded over the years, under George W. Bush, under Barack Obama, under Donald Trump, and now under Joe Biden.
Throughout all these years, I have maintained a particular focus on key aspects of the prison’s story. These include the habeas corpus cases that took place from 2008 to 2011, when cynical appeals court judges largely gutted habeas of all meaning for the Guantánamo prisoners after their success in their Supreme Court case Boumediene v. Bush, in June 2008. This ruling had led to the only sustained period in Guantánamo’s history when the law had any sway over the prison’s operation, and judges ordered the release of over 30 men because the government had failed to demonstrate that they had any meaningful connection to Al-Qaeda or the Taliban.
Other significant projects include the classified military files released by WikiLeaks in 2011 (on which I worked as a media partner), when the stories of the first 201 prisoners to be released were revealed for the first time (see here and here), and when I forensically analyzed over 400 of the files, and the Periodic Review Boards.
A parole-type process that began under Obama in 2013, the PRBs were set up to review the cases of 64 men who had previously been recommended for ongoing imprisonment without charge or trial, or had previously been recommended for prosecution, and they led to 38 men being approved for release under President Obama (all of whom were eventually released), and, after four years of Trump, in which most of the prisoners boycotted their hearings, having correctly concluded that they had become a sham, another 19 under President Biden (although most of them, shamefully, have yet to be freed).
In the early days, I also spent some time covering the military commissions — first under George W. Bush, and then when they were ill-advisedly revived under President Obama, although in recent years my coverage has only been sporadic, as the entire broken system is caught up in an endlessly looping Groundhog Day of futility.
The prison is now closer to closure than it has ever been, with just nine men facing charges, one convicted and serving a life sentence, two having agreed to plea deals (one of whom is awaiting release), and three still held indefinitely as ”forever prisoners,” in addition to the men approved for release — 21 in total.
As a result, it now seems reasonable to think that Guantánamo may, indeed, finally be closed one of these days, but as campaigners have learned over the years, progress on getting the prison closed is rarely straightforward, and in the meantime I will continue to write about it, and the men held there, and to call for its closure.
Thanks for all your support — and I hope this list helps all the activists, academics, lawyers and others in the US and around the world who recognize the importance not only of getting Guantánamo closed, but also, one day, of holding responsible those who authorized its existence and maintained it for all these years.
On that front, please do get in touch if you’d like to be involved in the Guantánamo Accountability Project that I’ll be launching on the 21st anniversary of the prison’s opening, on January 11, 2023.
Andy Worthington
London
October 27, 2022
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Andy Worthington is a freelance investigative journalist, activist, author, photographer (of an ongoing photo-journalism project, ‘The State of London’), film-maker and singer-songwriter (the lead singer and main songwriter for the London-based band The Four Fathers, whose music is available via Bandcamp). He is the co-founder of the Close Guantánamo campaign (and see the latest photo campaign here) and the successful We Stand With Shaker campaign of 2014-15, and the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison 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 you can watch it online here, via the production company Spectacle, for £2.50).
In 2017, Andy became very involved in housing issues. He is the narrator of the documentary film, ‘Concrete Soldiers UK’, about the destruction of council estates, and the inspiring resistance of residents, he wrote a song ‘Grenfell’, in the aftermath of the entirely preventable fire in June 2017 that killed over 70 people, and he also set up ‘No Social Cleansing in Lewisham’ as a focal point for resistance to estate destruction and the loss of community space in his home borough in south east London. For two months, from August to October 2018, he was part of the occupation of the Old Tidemill Wildlife Garden in Deptford, to prevent its destruction — and that of 16 structurally sound council flats next door — by Lewisham Council and Peabody. Although the garden was violently evicted by bailiffs on October 29, 2018, and the trees were cut down on February 27, 2019, the struggle for housing justice — and against environmental destruction — continues.
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, The Complete Guantánamo Files, 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.
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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4 Responses
Andy Worthington says...
When I posted this on Facebook, I wrote:
Here’s my latest article, introducing an update to my six-part definitive Guantanamo prisoner list, which I first put together in 2009, listing the 779 men held at the prison since it opened on January 11, 2002, and which links to my articles about the prisoners, drawing on the 2,500 articles I’ve written about Guantanamo since 2007.
I’ve updated it several times since 2009, most recently in 2018, and this latest update adds links to all the articles I’ve written over the last four years. As I say in the article, “I hope this list helps all the activists, academics, lawyers and others in the US and around the world who recognize the importance not only of getting Guantanamo closed, but also, one day, of holding responsible those who authorized its existence and maintained it for all these years.”
...on October 27th, 2022 at 7:53 pm
Anna says...
Great to have these updates, thanks so much ! Already needs another update, with Mr Paracha finally released and back in Pakistan :-).
...on October 29th, 2022 at 5:50 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Thanks for appreciating the updates, Anna. Such great news about Saifullah’s release. I’ll be writing about it very soon.
...on October 30th, 2022 at 11:46 pm
Andy Worthington says...
For a Spanish translation, on the World Can’t Wait’s Spanish website, see ‘Guantánamo: mi lista de detenidos definitiva, de seis partes, actualizada para el 2022 con enlaces a mis 2,500 artículos desde el 2007’: http://www.worldcantwait-la.com/worthington-gtmo-mi-lista-de-detenidos-definitiva-de-seis-partes.htm
...on January 8th, 2023 at 3:38 pm