Children in Guantanamo

More good news from Guantánamo, as Hassan bin Attash, Guantánamo’s youngest prisoner, who was just 16 or 17 years old when he was first seized in a house raid in Pakistan in September 2002, is approved for release by a Periodic Review Board.

With the death of former US defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, I take a close look at his dreadful legacy, involving the prison at Guantánamo Bay, the use of torture, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, which led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians, and bemoan the fact that, unlikely though it is that any senior US official will ever be held accountable for their crimes against humanity committed in the “war on terror,” Rumsfeld’s death robs us, in his case, of even that slimmest sliver of hope.

My response to the good news that the appeals court has ruled unlawful the British government’s patently unlawful — and cruelly immoral — decision last year to strip the citizenship of Shamima Begum, a British citizen who was just 15 when she travelled to Syria to become a “jihadi bride.”

My analysis of the broken Periodic Review Board system at Guantánamo, a parole-type process introduced by President Obama, to assess whether or not prisoners regarded as “too dangerous to transfer but not feasible for prosecution” could be released. The PRBs recommended 38 prisoners for release under Obama, whilst approving the ongoing imprisonment without charge or trial of 26 others. Under Trump, however, the process has become meaningless, because not a single prisoner has been recommended for release, and, as a result, the prisoners are now boycotting the process, with the most recent example being Hassan bin Attash, a Saudi who was just 16 or 17 years old when he was seized in 2002, and who has now, shamefully, spent over half his life imprisoned without charge or trial.

On the 13th anniversary of three deaths at Guantánamo, contentiously described by the US authorities as suicides, I revisit that terrible night, remembering the men, and recalling the robust challenges that have been made over the years to the official narrative – that the men died by committing suicide.

Following up on a recent Canadian news report about three former Guantánamo prisoners — Uighurs (from China’s oppressed Xinjiang province), who were resettled in Albania and Bermuda. They are seeking permission from the Canadian government to join their wives and children, who are all Canadian nationals, but are finding that discredited allegations from Guantánamo continue to haunt them.

Some rare good news regarding Guantánamo, as a senior Canadian judge has ruled that former child prisoner Omar Khadr’s Guantánamo-related sentence is finally over, five months after it was supposed to have come to an end. Unfortunately, as I also note, former prisoners who never went through any sort of legal process still remain fundamentally without any rights whatsoever.

Promoting the launch of ‘Guantánamo Kid’, the English translation of the powerful graphic novel by Jérôme Tubiana and Alexandre Franc about the experiences of Mohammed El-Gharani, a former child prisoner in Guantánamo.

Please support my work as a reader-funded journalist! I’m currently trying to raise $2500 (£2000) to support my writing and campaigning on Guantánamo and related issues over the next three months of the Trump administration. If you can help, please click on the button below to donate via PayPal.   Canada, contrasting itself with its […]

Please support my work as a reader-funded journalist! I’m currently trying to raise $2500 (£2000) to support my writing and campaigning on Guantánamo and related issues over the next three months of the Trump administration.   Happy belated birthday to former Guantánamo prisoner Omar Khadr, who turned 31 yesterday. Nearly three years since he was […]