Guantanamo

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.

My report about the inspiring visit to the Houses of Parliament last week by former Guantánamo prisoner Mansoor Adayfi, where he was welcomed by Chris Law MP, the co-chair of the recently established All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for the Closure of the Guantánamo Detention Facility.

Linking to and discussing my recent interview with Chris Cook on his Gorilla Radio show in Victoria, Canada, in which we discussed Guantánamo, the coordinated monthly vigils for its closure, which I initiated earlier this year, the ongoing assault by Israel on the civilian population of Gaza, and the global outpouring of support for the Palestinians.

Promoting ‘The Legacy of the War on Terror: Guantánamo Bay’, an inspiring panel discussion about Guantánamo, taking place in SOAS in London on Tuesday November 21, featuring myself, and former prisoners Moazzam Begg and Mansoor Adayfi.

Photos from, and my report about the ten coordinated global vigils for the closure of Guantánamo that took place on November 1, 2023 in London, Washington, D.C., New York City, San Francisco, Mexico City, Copenhagen, Detroit, Minneapolis, Cobleskill, NY and Los Angeles. The ongoing vigils take place on the first Wednesday of every month, and, as well as calling for the closure of the prison, also highlight the plight of the 16 men (out of the 30 still imprisoned) who have been approved for release but are still held — as of November 1, between 404 and 5,031 days since the US authorities first decided that they no longer wanted to hold them.

Remembering the long campaign to free Shaker Aamer, the last British resident in Guantánamo, who was finally released eight years ago, on October 30, 2015, and the We Stand With Shaker campaign, involving photos of MPs and celebrities standing with an inflatable figure of Shaker, which I ran with the activist Joanne MacInnes in the last year of Shaker’s imprisonment.

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.

Two weeks into Israel’s relentless bombing of Gaza, as the death toll reaches 5,926, including 2,450 children, I discuss ongoing western complicity, focusing on President Biden’s visit to Israel last week, his hypocrisy, his rambling and often contradictory speech, and his absurd claim that Hamas’s attacks on October 17 were not only Israel’s equivalent of the 9/11 attacks, but, “for a nation the size of Israel, it was like 15 9/11s.” Making a comparable assessment, I explain how, for the people of Gaza, their deaths to date are equivalent to 285 9/11s. I also discuss “administrative detention” in Israel, comparable to indefinite imprisonment without charge or trial at Guantánamo, and also reflect on how a Guantánamo analogy can be made regarding the 2.3 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip, which is an open air prison, and where those held are all regarded as guilty of Hamas’s crimes, according to Israel’s President, Isaac Herzog. Finally, I look at the growing body of evidence that Israel’s attacks on Gaza constitute genocide, with particular reference to a UN report last week, in which nine Special Rapporteurs stated “There is an ongoing campaign by Israel resulting in crimes against humanity in Gaza”, and adding that “there is also a risk of genocide against the Palestinian People.”

Photos from, and my report about the eleven coordinated global vigils for the closure of Guantánamo that took place on October 4, 2023 in Washington, D.C., New York City, San Francisco, Raleigh, NC, Mexico City, Los Angeles, Cobleskill, NY, Detroit, Brussels, Copenhagen and Minneapolis, with photos from London’s belated vigil on October 11 added a week later. The ongoing vigils take place on the first Wednesday of every month, and, as well as calling for the closure of the prison, also highlight the plight of the 16 men (out of the 30 still imprisoned) who have been approved for release but are still held — as of October 4, between 376 and 5,003 days since the US authorities first decided that they no longer wanted to hold them.

Promoting a very special event on Sunday 22nd October in Conway Hall in London, ‘Grassroots Protest: Activism from Below’, in which I’ll be discussing the We Stand With Shaker Aamer campaign of 2014-15, and my ongoing work on Guantánamo, and writer, editor and activist Leila Hassan (Race Today) will be discussing her involvement in the anti-racist movement of the ‘70s and ‘80s.