Welcome to Andy Worthington

My report about a stunning Supreme Court dissent by Justice Gorsuch, a Conservative, in the case of Abu Zubaydah, who was seeking to compel the architects of the torture program to testify about what happened to him when he was held in a CIA “black site” in Poland. Shamefully, the government sought to block the testimony because it regards all mention of a “black site” in Poland as a “state secret,” even though it is common knowledge, and only Gorsuch, and Justice Sotomayor, who joined his dissent, disagreed.

My review of BAC Beatbox Academy’s ‘Frankenstein: How To Make A Monster’, the top-rated show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2019, which is back on tour after two years off the road because of Covid. If you get the chance to see it, don’t miss it!

My reflections on meeting the author and former Guantánamo prisoner Mohamedou Ould Salahi for the very first time in London last week, during his ongoing UK speaking tour, 16 years after I first began following his case, and 13 years after Mohamedou first saw me on TV in Guantánamo calling for the prison’s closure.

Good news, as torture victim Mohammed al-Qahtani has finally been released from Guantánamo, where it was eventually recognized that his schizophrenia could not be dealt with adequately at the prison. At Guantánamo, meanwhile, 38 men are still held, half of whom have been approved for release, and more releases must follow soon.

My latest quarterly fundraiser to support my work on Guantánamo, including news of an imminent update to my six-part definitive Guantánamo prisoner list, and the early stages of a new campaign, the Guantánamo Accountability Project, which will publicize the need for those responsible for Guantánamo to be held accountable, and will also call for the stigma of being an “enemy combatant” to be brought to an end.

I’m delighted to publicise the first ever UK speaking tour — throughout March 2022 — by former Guantánamo prisoner, torture victim and best-selling author Mohamedou Ould Salahi (aka Slahi), with events in cities including London, Cambridge and Edinburgh, and also in Brighton and Tunbridge Wells, where I’ll be joining him. Some of the events will also feature screenings of ‘The Mauritanian’, the film based on Mohamedou’s memoir, ‘Guantánamo Diary’, featuring Tahar Rahim, Jodie Foster and Benedict Cumberbatch.

For my birthday, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has just published what scientists are describing as the “bleakest warning yet” about the perils of catastrophic climate change, and the need for urgent action now to try to prevent global temperatures from rising by more than For my birthday, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has just published what scientists are describing as the “bleakest warning yet” about the perils of catastrophic climate change, and the need for urgent action now to try to prevent global temperatures from rising by more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, in an effort to keep the world habitable.

Encouraging opponents of Guantánamo’s continued existence to write to the 39 men still held at the prison. Although 15 of these men have been approved for release under President Biden, bringing to 20 the number of men still held who have been approved for release, just two men have been freed in the last five years. And with Covid also increasing the remaining prisoners’ already unprecedented isolation over the last two years, it is to be hoped that they will be glad to hear that they haven’t been forgotten.

The latest quarterly fundraiser for my ongoing, reader-supported photo-journalism project ‘The State of London’, for which I have no institutional backing whatsoever. Every day I cycle in London taking photos, choose a photo to post, research it and write about it, share it on social media, and interact with my supporters. It’s a labour of love, but if you can make a donation to support it that will be very much appreciated.

My report about the decision by a Periodic Review Board at Guantánamo to approve for release Ghassan al-Sharbi, a Saudi once put forward for trial by military commission as an alleged al-Qaeda bomb-maker, although the charges were subsequently dropped. The decision means that over half of the men still held — 20 of the remaining 39 prisoners — have now been approved for release.