Guantanamo media

I look at what we might expect if Joe Biden beats Donald Trump in November’s Presidential Election, noting that it would be impossible for Biden to be worse than Trump, but also noting that, the last time a Democrat was in the White House (Barack Obama), he failed to close the prison at Guantánamo Bay, despite promising to do so on his second day in office.

A cross-post, with my own introduction, of an article about Black Lives Matter and Guantánamo, published in Newsweek and written by the Afghan prisoner Asadullah Haroon Gul, one of the last prisoners to arrive at Guantánamo, in 2007. Gul has never been charged with a crime, and seems to be a case of mistaken identity.

Promoting a letter to defense secretary Mark Esper, initiated by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and also signed by 14 other Senators, asking for clarification of what the Pentagon is doing to protect the prisoners at Guantánamo, and US military personnel, from the coronavirus COVID-19.

Linking to an academic article about my 2007 book “The Guantánamo Files”, which has just been published in the European Journal of English Language and Literature Studies. The article is entitled, “The Use of Power and Ideology in Guantánamo: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Andy Worthington’s The Guantánamo Files.”

For these lockdown days, have a listen to the six-part, four-hour Radiolab series from New York’s WNYC Studios, ‘The Other Latif’, a detailed exploration of the story of Guantánamo prisoner Abdul Latif Nasser, approved for release but still held, by his namesake, Radiolab’s Latif Nasser.

A link to – and my discussion of – an hour-long interview I recently undertook with Chris Cook in Canada for his Gorilla Radio show. We discussed Guantánamo, the ninth anniversary of WikiLeaks’ release of classified military files relating to the Guantánamo prisoners (on which I worked as media partner), the coronavirus, and how it has changed the world to an extraordinary extent (with both positive and negative repercussions), and my photo-journalism project, ‘The State of London.’ Chris also played ‘This Time We Win’, an eco-anthem that is the new single by my band The Four Fathers.

A cross-post, with my own introduction, of an article in the Afghan media by Asadullah Haroon Gul, one of the last two Afghans in Guantánamo, looking at the cases of other Afghans mistakenly held, and urging his government to call for his release.

Following the news that a sailor stationed at Guantánamo has been diagnosed with the coronavirus, and is in isolation, here’s a cross-post, with my own introduction, of reflections on the news by Asadullah Haroon Gul, an Afghan “forever prisoner,” who is still held despite there being no compelling reason for his ongoing imprisonment, and who fears for the health of more vulnerable prisoners, like Saifullah Paracha, Guantánamo’s oldest prisoner, who has had a number of heart attacks.

As the coronavirus spreads around the globe with alarming speed, there are fears for the prisoners held at Guantánamo, especially after a US sailor tested positive for the virus last week. Along with my own thoughts, I cross-post an article published on Just Security by Scott Roehm, the Washington Director of the Center for Victims of Torture, pointing out that a number of the prisoners have serious underlying health problems, and calling for a number of appropriate responses from the Trump administration, beginning with letting the prisoners and their lawyers know what policies are in place to deal with the virus, and also including a call for Congress to allow prisoners to be transferred to the US mainland if they need urgent medical care.

In a historic US court ruling, District Judge Rosemary Collyer has ordered the US government to allow tortured Guantánamo prisoner Mohammed al-Qahtani, who has long-standing and profound mental health issues, to be assessed by “a mixed medical commission,” consisting of a US medical officer, and two doctors from a neutral country chosen by the International Committee of the Red Cross, to determine whether he should be returned to Saudi Arabia for treatment.