Welcome to Andy Worthington

Linking to, and discussing, The New Arab’s podcast, “Searching for Justice at Guantánamo: Tainted evidence and the fight for accountability,” in which Nadine Talaat tells the story of the prison, and, in particular, the case of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, through interviews with myself, Katie Carmon, one of his military commission lawyers, and former prisoner Mansoor Adayfi.

Promoting the second meeting of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Closing the Guantánamo Detention Facility in the Houses of Parliament on Monday June 26, attended by former prisoners Mohamedou Ould Slahi and Mansoor Adayfi (on his first UK visit), followed by an event at Amnesty International’s UK headquarters in London on Wednesday June 28, at which Mohamedou and Mansoor will discuss writing in prison, and I will be moderating.

Reflecting on the toxic orange skies that recently engulfed New York City and Washington, D.C., caused by ferocious wildfires in Canada, I ask whether they were alarming enough to effect significant political change, or whether the endless cycle of distraction in the mainstream media, and the entrenched and corrupt power of the fossil fuel companies will continue to prevent urgent action to curb their homicidal and ecocidal activities. I look at the Paris Agreement, C40 Cities (featuring the Mayors of nearly 100 cities worldwide), and the governments involved in BOGA (the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance), with particular reference to the need for all new fossil fuel extraction to be stopped, and how we might meet our commitments to cut fossil fuel emissions by 50% by 2030, and I call on the media, in particular, to start discussing the gravity of the climate crisis, educating people about what cuts are needed, and which are possible, to start the urgent national and transnational conversations that are required.

My report about a devastating opinion issued by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, regarding Abd Al-Rahim Al-Nashiri, held and tortured in CIA “black sites” for nearly four years, between 2002 and 2006, and at Guantánamo since September 2006. Although he has been charged in the military commissions, the Working Group concludes that his treatment has been so lawless and brutal that it constitutes arbitrary detention, and calls for his immediate release. The opinion follows a similarly devastating opinion relating to Abu Zubaydah, which I wrote about at the end of April.

Remembering the Grenfell Tower Fire on its sixth anniversary, and noting how it led to the deaths of 72 residents, who were failed by everyone responsible for their safety. As well as explaining that no one has yet been held accountable, I also look at the ongoing cladding scandal across the country, and the always shocking reality that cladding as flammable as petrol has ever been allowed to be used at all.

My latest fundraiser, in which I ask you, if you can, to make a donation to support my work on Guantánamo for the next three months. I have no institutional backing, and so am dependent on your generosity to enable me to continue to function as a reader-funded, and truly independent, journalist and activist.

Remembering Yasser al-Zahrani, Mani al-Utaybi and Ali al-Salami, the three men who died on this day at Guantánamo 17 years ago. The official narrative — that they committed suicide — is no more plausible than it was then, and other deaths at Guantánamo, also described as suicides, also remain suspicious.

Photos from, and my report about the eleven coordinated global vigils for the closure of Guantánamo that took place on June 7, 2023 in locations including London, Washington, D.C., Minneapolis, Detroit, Brussels, Copenhagen, Mexico City, Morocco, Serbia and the Netherlands. 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 June 7, between 257 and 4,884 days since the US authorities first decided that they no longer wanted to hold them.

My call for England’s water companies to be re-nationalised, as the mostly foreign and largely unaccountable private companies running them (since their privatisation in 1989) have presided over persistent sewage spills, killing our rivers and polluting our beaches. This is because their purpose is to make profits for their shareholders (and their overpaid CEOs) rather than investing in their infrastructure to provide clean water and to prevent sewage spills.

My review of four decades of repressive public order legislation by the Tories, marking the 38th anniversary of the Battle the Beanfield, running from the 1986 Public Order Act to the 1994 Criminal Justice Act, and on to the 2022 Police, Crime Sentencing and Court Act and the latest version of the Public Order Act. Aimed at criminalising the way of life of Gypsies and Travellers, the legislation is also aimed at criminalising any form of even mildly disruptive protest, of the kind currently being undertaken by climate protestors, whose actions would chime with the beleaguered travellers, festival-goers and environmental activists of 38 years ago.