Free the Guantánamo 16! Two Letters to President Biden; Signatories Include Former Prisoners, Ex-US Government Officials, UK Parliamentarians

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100 Former Guantánamo Prisoners, Ex-US Government Officials, Lawyers, Academics, Psychologists, Public Figures and Rights Organizations Send Letter to President Biden Urging Him to Free the 16 Men Still Held at Guantánamo Who Have Long Been Approved for Release; Second Letter is Sent by 40 British MPs and Peers, Academics and CEOs of UK Rights Organizations

Today, December 6, 2024, 100 individuals and organizations — including 36 former Guantánamo prisoners, 36 ex-US government officials, lawyers, academics, psychologists and public figures, and 28 rights organizations — have written to President Biden, with a second letter sent simultaneously by 40 British MPs and peers, academics and the CEOs of UK rights organizations, to urge him to take urgent action to free 16 men still held in the prison at Guantánamo Bay (out of 30 in total) who have long been approved for release.

These decisions, which were unanimously agreed through robust, high-level US government review processes, took place many years ago — between two and four years ago, and in three outlying cases nearly 15 years ago.

The former prisoners signing the US and international letter include the authors Mansoor Adayfi and Mohamedou Ould Slahi, and the supporters include Larry Wilkerson, the former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, and the musician and activist Roger Waters.

The UK letter includes 20 Parliamentarians, the Chief Executive of Amnesty International UK, and the film director Kevin Macdonald (‘The Mauritanian’).

As the signatories explain in the letters:

“In total, these 16 men have been held for between 17 and 22 years without charge or trial. All were subjected to long years of fundamentally arbitrary imprisonment before the decisions were taken to release them, and the failure to free them only adds salt to an already bitter wound that thoroughly undermines the US’s supposed commitment to fundamental norms regarding the deprivation of liberty. It is time for this lingering injustice to be swiftly brought to an end.”

The signatories to the US and international letter are:

Antonio Aiello, writer and editor
Stephen Benson Ph.D., retired psychologist
Trudy Bond, Coalition for an Ethical Psychology
Marshall Carter-Tripp, retired Foreign Service officer and political science professor
Mary Pelton Cooper, PsyD, psychologist, Professor of Psychology (Retired)
Gale Coskan-Johnson, Brock University
Roy Eidelson, PhD, Coalition for an Ethical Psychology
Mark Fallon, Deputy Commander, Department of Defense Criminal Investigation Task Force (DOD-CITF) at Guantanamo, 2002-04
Kevin Gosztola, journalist
Karen J. Greenberg, Director, Center on National Security at Fordham Law
Nancy Hollander, international criminal defense attorney
Jeffrey S. Kaye, PhD, psychologist (ret.) and author of “Cover-up at Guantanamo”
Deborah Kory, PsyD.
Linda Lewis, Associate Member of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
Dr. Alexandra M. Lossada, Assistant Professor of Ethnic American Literatures, Berry College
M. Brinton Lykes, PhD, Professor Emerita, Boston College
Ray McGovern, former CIA Presidential Briefer
Alexandra Moore, Binghamton University
Elizabeth Murray, former Deputy National Intelligence Officer for the Near East, National Intelligence Council (ret.)
Bradley D. Olson, PhD, National Louis University
Sara Olson, Committee member, Women Against Military Madness and Tackling Torture at the Top
Todd E. Pierce, MAJ, Judge Advocate, US Army (Ret.)
Steven Reisner, Psychoanalyst and founding member, Coalition for an Ethical Psychology
Coleen Rowley, retired FBI agent and former Minneapolis Division Legal Counsel
E. Martin Schotz, MD
Stephen Soldz, President-elect, Society for Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychology (APA Division 39)
Richard Sroczynski, convenor, Close Guantanamo Coalition
Elizabeth Swanson, PhD, Professor of Literature and Human Rights, Babson College, Wellesley, MA
Don E. Walicek, Professor, University of Puerto Rico
Belinda Walzer, Associate Professor of English, Appalachian State University
Roger Waters, musician/activist
Deborah M. Weissman, Reef C. Ivey II Distinguished Professor of Law, University of North Carolina School of Law
Esther Whitfield, Brown University
Lawrence B. Wilkerson, COL, USA (Ret), former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell
Thomas Wilner, Counsel for Khalid Qassim
Sarah G. Wilton, CDR (ret.) USNR; Defense Intelligence Agency (retired), member, Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity

Former Guantánamo prisoners

Mahmood Abdulaziz
Abdualmalik Abud
Mohammed Al-Adahi
Mansoor Adayfi
Ahmed Adnan
Mohsen Alaskari
Hammad Alli
Saad Almalky
Djamel Ameziane
Mohammed Ansi
Khalid Al-Asmar
Mohammed Al-Badawi
Sufyian Barhoumi
Ahmed Belbacha
Belkacem Bensayah
Ghalib Al-Bihani
Lakhdar Boumediene
Younous Chekkouri
Omar Deghayes
Jamil Elbanna
Ahmed Errachidi
Din Muhammad Farhad
Abdulrahman Al-Ghaith
Fahad Ghazi
Sadeq Mohammed
Waleed Mohammed
Samir Naji
Abdellatif Nasser
Bashir Nassir
Mohammed Al-Odainy
Ahmed Rabbani
Saeed Ahmed Al-Sarem
Mohamedou Ould Slahi
Hisham Sliti
Muktar Al-Wrafi
Moussa Zemmouri

Ban Killer Drones
Brooklyn for Peace
CAGE International
Close Guantánamo
CODEPINK
Defending Rights & Dissent
Dorothy Day Catholic Worker
5C Cultural Center
Granny Peace Brigade
Guantánamo Survivors Fund
Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace (ICUJP)
Muslim Counterpublics Lab
Muslim Solidarity Committee, Albany, NY
New York Progressive Action Network (NYPAN)
North Carolina Stop Torture Now
NYC Metro Raging Grannies
Pax Christi New York State
Peacemakers of Schoharie County
Project SALAM (Support And Legal Advocacy for Muslims), Albany, NY
September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows
Tea Project
United Muslim Alliance of Albany
Uptown Progressive Action
Veterans for Peace Chapter 27
Veterans for Peace – NYC Chapter 34
Witness Against Torture
World BEYOND War
World Can’t Wait

The signatories to the UK letter are:

Moazzam Begg, Senior Director, CAGE International, former Guantánamo prisoner
Apsana Begum MP, UK Member of Parliament (Labour)
Baroness Natalie Bennett, Member of UK House of Lords (Green)
Siân Berry MP, UK Member of Parliament (Green)
Sara Birch, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Brighton, Secretariat, APPG for Closing the Guantánamo Bay Detention Facility
Sir Peter Bottomley, Former Father of the House of Commons (Conservative)
Rt. Hon. Tom Brake, former Deputy Leader of the House of Commons (Liberal Democrats)
Ellie Chowns MP, UK Member of Parliament (Green)
Hedley Christ, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Brighton
Martyn Day, co-founder and Senior Partner, Leigh Day & Co., human rights lawyers
Sacha Deshmukh, Chief Executive, Amnesty International UK
Dr. Deepa Govindarajan Driver, academic and trade unionist
Lord Dubs, Member of UK House of Lords (Labour)
Prof. Susan Edwards, Professor of Law, University of Northumberland, barrister
Prof. Conor Gearty, Professor of Human Rights Law. London School of Economics
Dr. Felicity Gerry KC, Libertas Chambers, London
Prof. Kris Gledhill, Professor of Law, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand, barrister, 25 Bedford Row, London
Jodie Gosling MP, UK Member of Parliament (Labour)
Baroness Sally Hamwee, Member of UK House of Lords (Liberal Democrats)
Lord Hendy KC, Member of UK House of Lords (Labour), barrister
Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb, Member of UK House of Lords (Green)
Gillian Keenan, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Brighton
Baroness Helena Kennedy LT KC, Member of UK House of Lords (Labour), barrister
Chris Law MP, UK Member of Parliament (SNP) Chair, APPG for Closing the Guantánamo Bay Detention Facility
Kevin Macdonald, Oscar-winning film director and producer, director of ‘The Mauritanian’
Mike Martin MP, UK Member of Parliament (Liberal Democrats)
Rachael Maskell MP, UK Member of Parliament (Labour)
Brian Mathew MP, UK Member of Parliament (Liberal Democrats)
Dr. Kasey McCall-Smith, Senior Lecturer in Public International Law. University of Edinburgh
John McDonnell MP, UK Member of Parliament (Labour)
Baroness Mobarik CBE, Member of UK House of Lords (Conservative)
Prof. Rachel Murray, Human Rights Implementation Centre, University of Bristol Law School
Prof. Ilan Pappé, Professor, College of Social Sciences and International Studies, University of Exeter
Lord Russell of Liverpool, Member of UK House of Lords
Vikki Slade MP, UK Member of Parliament (Liberal Democrats)
Clive Stafford Smith, human rights lawyer
Will Stone MP, UK Member of Parliament (Labour)
Natasha Tsangarides, Associate Director of Advocacy, Freedom from Torture
Andy Worthington, journalist, co-founder, Close Guantánamo
Anna Yearley OBE, Joint Executive Director, Reprieve

For further information, please contact:

Richard Sroczynski, convenor of the Close Guantánamo Coalition in the US on 732-763-6513
Sara Birch, co-convenor of the UK Guantánamo Network in the UK on +44 7710 789616
or Hugh Sandeman, co-convenor of the UK Guantánamo Network in the UK on +44 7785 502759

Or feel free to send me an email.

* * * * *

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 (see the ongoing 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, in 2018, he was part of the occupation of the Old Tidemill Wildlife Garden in Deptford, to try to prevent its destruction — and that of 16 structurally sound council flats next door — by Lewisham Council and Peabody.

Since 2019, Andy has become increasingly involved in environmental activism, recognizing that climate change poses an unprecedented threat to life on earth, and that the window for change — requiring a severe reduction in the emission of all greenhouse gases, and the dismantling of our suicidal global capitalist system — is rapidly shrinking, as tipping points are reached that are occurring much quicker than even pessimistic climate scientists expected. You can read his articles about the climate crisis here.

To receive new articles in your inbox, please subscribe to Andy’s new Substack account, set up in November 2024, where he’ll be sending out a weekly newsletter, or his 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.