Andy Worthington

I‘ve just published the first definitive list of the 779 prisoners held in the U.S. prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, which is available in four parts. Click on the following links for Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4. The list is the result of three years’ research and writing about Guantánamo, which … Continue reading “Guantánamo: The Definitive Prisoner List”

As British resident Binyam Mohamed stepped off a plane at RAF Northolt on Monday Feb. 23, six years and 10 months since he was first abducted by the Pakistani authorities at Karachi airport, it was impossible not to sympathize with the words written in a statement by the tall, thin, slightly stooped 30-year-old and delivered … Continue reading “Who Is Binyam Mohamed?”

First, the good news. Adel Abdul Hakim, one of five Uighurs (Muslims from China’s oppressed Xinjiang province), who was released from Guantánamo in May 2006, has had his asylum claim accepted by the Swedish government. The Uighurs’ story It has been a long journey for Adel. Seized in Pakistan and sold to U.S. forces in … Continue reading “Bad News and Good News for the Guantánamo Uighurs”

On Jan. 20, the answer to that question seemed obvious. In his inaugural speech, with George W. Bush standing just behind him, President Obama pointedly pledged to "reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals" – a clear indication that, as he promised in a speech in August 2007, he would dismantle … Continue reading “Who’s Running Guantánamo?”

Those of us who prefer justice to arbitrary and unaccountable detention without charge or trial were delighted when, last week, Barack Obama fulfilled a long-stated promise and issued a presidential order stating that Guantánamo will be closed "as soon as practicable, and no later than one year from the date of this order," and establishing … Continue reading “How Cooking For the Taliban Gets You Life in Guantánamo”

Finally! 2569 days after the prison at Guantánamo opened – but just two days into the new presidency – Barack Obama signed three executive orders and a presidential memorandum that mark a decisive break with the "War on Terror" policies of the Bush administration. As he signed the orders, he reiterated a comment that he … Continue reading “For Detainees, Obama Off to Good Start”

Two separate universes were in evidence on Tuesday. In the world of Barack Obama, the sense of change, the optimism and the intelligence were palpable, as two million Americans from every part of the United States – and numerous visitors from around the world – flocked to Washington D.C. to watch his inauguration as the … Continue reading “Chaos and Lies: Why Obama Was Right to Halt the Guantánamo Trials”

Just two weeks ago, in a habeas corpus case in a Washington, DC, court, Judge Richard Leon turned the clock back to January 11, 2002 (the day Guantánamo opened) by ruling that the US government could continue holding two prisoners at Guantánamo – the Yemeni Muaz al-Alawi and the Tunisian Hisham Sliti – because the … Continue reading “Judge Orders Release of Guantánamo’s Forgotten Child”

Seven years ago, on Jan. 11, 2002, when photos of the first orange-clad detainees to arrive at a hastily erected prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba were made available to the world’s press, then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld reacted to the widespread uproar that greeted the images of the kneeling, shackled men, wearing masks and blacked-out goggles … Continue reading “Seven Years of Guantánamo,
Seven Years of Torture and Lies”

Since the last blowout at Guantánamo on December 8, when dozens of reporters and relatives of victims of the 9/11 attacks watched as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) and his alleged co-conspirators tried – and failed – to plead guilty so that they could die martyr’s deaths, few observers have witnessed the Commissions go through the … Continue reading “The Dying Days of the Guantánamo Trials”