Guantanamo media

Photos from, and my report about the 21 vigils that took place across the US and around the world on January 11, 2024, marking the shameful 22nd anniversary of the opening of the “war on terror” prison at Guantánamo Bay. Monthly vigils resume on the first Wednesday of every month next month, on February 7.

Publicizing the shameful and unforgivable 22nd anniversary of the opening of the prison at Guantánamo Bay on January 11, listing the online events taking place, and the 20 vigils and rallies across the US, and in London and Mexico City, and also asking supporters to take a photo with the Close Guantánamo campaign’s poster marking 8,036 days of the prison’s existence on January 11, and urging President Biden to close it without further delay.

Linking to, and discussing my recent interview with the US radio host and activist Misty Winston on TNT Radio, in which we discussed Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and the imminent 22nd anniversary of the opening of the prison at Guantánamo Bay.

Photos from, and my report about the nine coordinated global vigils for the closure of Guantánamo that took place on December 6, 2023 across the US and around the world, coinciding with 8,000 days of the prison’s existence, marked by a photo campaign involving former prisoners, lawyers, politicians and campaigners from around the world, for which we received an impressive 170 photos.

Promoting an important date in Guantánamo’s calendar: December 6, when the prison will have been open for 8,000 days. Please join me in marking this terrible milestone by taking a photo with the 8,000 days poster via the Close Guantánamo campaign, and, if possible, joining one of the dozen or so monthly coordinated global vigils for the closure of Guantánamo, which take place on the first Wednesday of every month, and which, on December 6, happen to coincide with 8,000 days of the prison’s existence.

The video of my speech at the inspiring “Close Guantánamo!” event at the European Parliament on September 28, 2023, hosted by the Irish MEPs Clare Daly and Mick Wallace, at which I stressed how the men still held at Guantánamo are as fundamentally without rights as they were when the prison first opened nearly 22 years ago, and called on EU countries to help resettle the men approved for release but who cannot be repatriated.

My detailed report about, and the video of ‘Close Guantánamo!’, an extraordinary and hugely powerful three-hour event held at the EU Parliament on September 28, 2023, featuring nine speakers, including Mansoor Adayfi (on what was only his second trip to freedom since he finally got a passport earlier this year) and two other former prisoners, two lawyers, a UN Rapporteur, myself and others, hosted by the inspiring independent Irish MEPs Clare Daly and Mick Wallace. As the event highlighted, the priorities for anyone concerned with justice, and with bringing to an end Guantánamo’s vile existence, are to resettle 16 men still held who have been approved for release (for which the countries of EU can help), providing adequate medical care for everyone still held at the prison, reminding the US government that it continues to have an obligation to ensure the welfare of former prisoners, even after their release, and, eventually, seeking accountability for the crimes that the US government has committed, and still continues to commit at Guantánamo.

Linking to, and discussing my recent interview with Scott Horton about a recent damning ruling against the government by the trial judge, Col. Lanny Acosta, in the military commission case of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, accused of being the mastermind of the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000. The ruling specifically prohibits the use of self-incriminating statements made by al-Nashiri to a so-called “clean team” of interrogators at Guantánamo after he had been held and tortured for nearly four years in CIA “black sites,” and Col. Acosta’s devastating conclusion was that al-Nashiri’s torture and “conditioning” in the “black sites” was so severe that he was incapable of delivering any kind of self-incriminating statement on a voluntary basis.

Linking to, and discussing my recent interview about Guantánamo with Kevin Gosztola and Rania Khalek for their “Unauthorized Disclosure” podcast, including a discussion about the recent damning ruling against the government by Col. Lanny Acosta, the military judge in the case of “black site” torture victim Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.

The first of two articles about the devastating report about Guantánamo that was issued on June 26 by Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms while Countering Terrorism, following her visit to Guantánamo in February, which was the first ever visit to the prison by a Special Rapporteur. Despite improvements in conditions under President Obama and President Biden, she concluded that the detention regime at the prison continues to represent “ongoing cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment”, and “may also meet the legal threshold for torture.”