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'...
Who Is Binyam Mohamed?
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...
Bad News and Good News for the Guantánamo Uighurs
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...
Who’s Running Guantánamo?
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,...
How Cooking For the Taliban Gets You Life in 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...
For Detainees, Obama Off to Good Start
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...
Chaos and Lies: Why Obama Was Right to Halt the Guantánamo Trials
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...
Judge Orders Release of Guantánamo’s Forgotten Child
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 –...
Seven Years of Guantánamo,
Seven Years of Torture and Lies
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...
The Dying Days of the Guantánamo Trials
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...