Joe Biden

The stories of Abdulsalam al-Hela and Sharqawi al-Hajj, the two Guantánamo prisoners approved for release last week by Periodic Review Boards, and what they tell us about how difficult it is for men designated as “forever prisoners,” held for nearly 20 years without charge or trial, to convince the US authorities that they do not pose a threat, and can be safely released.

A cross-post, with my own introduction and detailed analysis, of an op-ed for the Nation by retired Rear Admirals Donald J. Guter and John Hutson, calling for the prisoners still held at Guantánamo who have not been charged with crimes to be freed — 28 men in total out of the 40 still held; eleven already approved for release (two just today), and 17 others, aptly described as “forever prisoners.”

My analysis of an NBC article last week that suggested that President Biden is “quietly” moving to “start closing Guantánamo ahead of the 20th anniversary of 9/11,” but that doesn’t live up to its promise, not least in its suggestion that Biden wants to begin releasing prisoners, but doesn’t yet want to re-establish the role of the Special Envoy for Guantánamo Closure, even though it is impossible to work out how prisoners might be freed without the envoy’s assistance.

A detailed examination of the current Guantánamo cases before the US courts, some involving a long-running struggle for due process rights, others involving the imminent end to the war in Afghanistan, and another involving severe mental health issues. There are glimmers of hope in the litigation, but it already seems clear that the Biden administration is intent on resisting judicial interference when it comes to Guantánamo, and is more interested in making decisions about whether or not to release prisoners through the purely administrative Periodic Review Board process, which, just last month, approved three long-standing “forever prisoners” for release.

My detailed report about some extremely encouraging news from Guantánamo: that three men, including the prison’s oldest inmate, Saifullah Paracha, have been approved for release from the prison by Periodic Review Boards, the high-level government review process established under President Obama.

A cross-post, with my own introduction, of a New York Times op-ed calling for the closure of Guantánamo by Lee Wolosky, who was the Special Envoy for Guantánamo Closure from 2015-17 under President Obama, and whose words ought to carry weight with the Biden administration.

My most recent interview about Guantánamo, and the prospects for its closure under Joe Biden, with the indefatigable Scott Horton, who has conducted over 5,500 interviews since 2003, and who I have been talking to on a regular basis since 2007.

A cross-post, with my own introduction, of a recent op-ed calling on President Biden to close Guantánamo, which was published in The Hill, and written by Anthony Lake, national security adviser to President Clinton from 1993 to 1997, and the attorney Tom Wilner, with whom I co-founded the Close Guantánamo campaign in 2012.

An important letter from 24 Democratic Senators to President Biden, urging him to close the prison at Guantánamo Bay, including, most significantly, a call to release all the prisoners who are not going to be charged with crimes. The signatories include Dick Durbin, Patrick Leahy, Dianne Feinstein, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.

84 days into Joe Biden’s presidency, I look at how his lack of prompt action regarding Guantánamo — in the first instance, by not reviving the Office of the Special Envoy for Guantánamo Closure in the State Department — has left six men approved for release between 2009 and 2020 still languishing at the prison. It is also impacting on the lives of men already released, who, as under Donald Trump, have no one within the administration to communicate with when they face life-threatening problems, which, in the case of Lutfi bin Ali, a Tunisian, recently led to his death.