Moazzam Begg

Linking to a video of ‘The Legacy of the War on Terror: Guantánamo Bay’, a panel discussion at SOAS, in London, on November 21, 2023, featuring Andy Worthington, former prisoners Moazzam Begg and Mansoor Adayfi, and academic Deepa Govindarajan Driver.

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.

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.

The video – with my introduction – of ‘Guantánamo: 21 Years On’, the very first episode of a new English language show, ‘The London Circle’, broadcast by the Arabic news channel Al Hiwar TV, featuring Moazzam Begg and I in discussion with Anas Altikriti.

A cross-post, with my own introduction, of an open letter to President Biden, urging him to close Guantánamo, which was written by seven former prisoners who are also authors: Mansoor Adayfi, Moazzam Begg, Lakhdar Boumediene, Sami Al Hajj, Ahmed Errachidi, Mohamedou Ould Slahi and Moussa Zemmouri.

Promoting “Guantánamo Voices: True Accounts from the World’s Most Infamous Prison,” a powerful new book, written by multi-media journalist Sarah Mirk, and illustrated by a number of talented graphic artists, drawing on interviews with nine people who know the prison well, including former prisoners and lawyers. A perfect gift for enlightened friends, friends who need enlightening, birthdays and Christmas!

A link to, and description of “Unpacking 9/11 19 Years Later,” a one-hour show on Salaamedia in South Africa, on which I appeared with Moazzam Begg and host Inayat Wadee to discuss the sad and shameful legacy of the US’s response to the events of that terrible day.

As Mohamedou Ould Slahi, former Guantánamo prisoner, torture victim and best-selling author, is denied a passport by his home government in Mauritania, I look at how all former prisoners — “enemy combatants” — are fundamentally deprived of rights as “un-people” by the US, and call for this situation to change.

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.   At the start of this month, Donald Trump transferred his first prisoner out of Guantánamo, the Saudi citizen Ahmed […]

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.   I wrote the following article for the “Close Guantánamo” website, which I established in January 2012, on the 10th anniversary […]