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Andy Worthington: An Archive of Guantánamo Articles and Other Writing – Part 22, January to June 2017

Andy Worthington with Refuse Fascism's Carl Dix in Washington, D.C. on January 11, 2017

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.

This article is the 22nd in an ongoing series of articles listing all my work in chronological order. It’s a project I began in January 2010, when I put together the first chronological lists of all my articles, in the hope that doing so would make it as easy as possible for readers and researchers to navigate my work — the nearly 2,950 articles I have published since I first began publishing articles here in May 2007, which, otherwise, are not available in chronological order in any readily accessible form.

I receive no institutional funding for my work, and so, if you appreciate what I do as a reader-funded journalist and activist, please consider making a donation via the Paypal ‘Donate’ button above. Any amount, however large or small, will be very gratefully received — and if you are able to become a regular monthly sustainer, that would be particularly appreciated. To do so, please tick the box marked, “Make this a monthly donation,” and fill in the amount you wish to donate every month.

As I note every time I put together a chronological list of my articles, my mission, as it has been since my research in 2006-07, for my book The Guantánamo Files, first revealed the scale of the injustice at Guantánamo, continues to revolve around four main aims — to humanize the prisoners by telling their stories; to expose the many lies told about them to supposedly justify their detention; to push for the prison’s closure and the absolute repudiation of indefinite detention without charge or trial as US policy; and to call for those who initiated, implemented and supported indefinite detention and torture to be held accountable for their actions.

The period covered by this 22nd list, from January to June 2017, began with a last futile push to get President Obama to close the prison before he left office, and then plunged immediately into the darkness of Donald Trump’s presidency. I was in the US at the time, for my annual visit to call for the closure of the prison on and around the anniversary of its opening (on January 11), and while I was delighted to take part in the huge protest tin New York City the day after his inauguration, the bad news ultimately outweighed the significance of the opposition — his outrageous Muslim travel ban, of example, which I covered closely.

Trying to keep Guantánamo in the public eye was difficult, with so much else to worry about, but I tried my best to keep people aware — via dozens of articles here and on the Close Guantánamo website, which i set up in 2012 with the attorney Tom Wilner, a column for Al-Jazeera about the five men approved for release but still held, and photo campaign via Close Guantánamo, in which people sent in photos of themselves with posters calling for Trump to close the prison.

The frustrating situation in the US, with respect to Guantánamo, was partly responsible for an increase in my UK-based work — via the protest music of my band The Four Fathers, for example, and the release of new songs including ‘Riot’, a warning to the government about the effects of austerity and greed, and ‘London’, about how greed and a housing bubble have negatively transformed the capital over the last 30 years.

I also stopped everything I was doing in June, when the terrible and entirely preventable Grenfell Tower fire happened in west London, and the shock waves from this disaster have led me to focus increasingly on the disdain with which those in social housing are treated by those responsible for their safety.

I also continued to focus on the malignant outcome of the EU referendum in June 2016, and the unexpected general Election, when, surprisingly, Theresa May revealed herself to be a spectacularly incompetent public figure, while Jeremy Corbyn found increasing support.

I also launched a new project, ‘The State of London’, publishing a photo a day on Facebook from the photo archive I’ve built up since 2012, when I first began cycling around the whole of London, on a daily basis, taking photos while getting fit and getting to know the city that has been my home for over 30 years, but which I have never previously explored across all of its 120 boroughs.

I hope this project is of interest to you — and I’ll be following up soon with the next part, covering July to December.

An archive of Guantánamo and Donald Trump articles: Part 22, January to June 2017

January 2017

1. Guantánamo anniversary: Rights Groups, Including Close Guantánamo, Issue Statement in the Run-Up to the 15th Anniversary of the Opening of Guantánamo

2. Prisoners released from Guantánamo: Who Are the Four Guantánamo Prisoners Freed in Saudi Arabia, Leaving 55 Men Still Held?

3. Guantánamo anniversary, US visit: Andy Worthington Visits the US for the 15th Anniversary of the Opening of Guantánamo, and for Donald Trump’s Troubling Inauguration

4. Guantánamo media: Teaching Trump About Gitmo (New York Daily News op-ed, with Tom Wilner)

5. Shaker Aamer: Shaker Aamer Interview on 15th Anniversary of Guantánamo Opening: US Government “Lied to Their Own People to Let Their Soldiers Accept Torturing Us”

6. Video, Guantánamo anniversary, US visit: Video: Discussing Guantánamo on the 15th Anniversary of the Prison’s Opening – Andy Worthington, Tom Wilner, Jim Moran and Rosa Brooks at New America

7. Video, Guantánamo anniversary, US visit: Video: Andy Worthington Laments Obama’s Failure to Close Guantánamo – and Fears What Trump Will Do – Outside the Supreme Court on Jan. 11

8. Photos, Guantánamo anniversary, US visit: Photos: The Close Guantánamo Protest Outside the Supreme Court, Jan. 11, 2017

9. Chelsea Manning: Obama Commutes Chelsea Manning’s 35-Year Sentence; Whistleblower Who Leaked Hugely Important Guantánamo Files Will Be Freed in May 2017, Not 2045

10. Prisoners released from Guantánamo: Who Are the Ten Guantánamo Prisoners Released in Oman, Leaving 45 Men Still Held, Including Nine Approved for Release?

11. Guantánamo campaigns, Donald Trump: As Trump Becomes President, New Close Guantánamo Poster and Photo Campaign Launches: “Donald Trump No! Please Close Guantánamo!”

12. Photos, US protest, Donald Trump: Photos: 500,000 Women (and Men) March Against Donald Trump in New York, Jan. 21, 2017

13. Video, Guantánamo anniversary, US visit: Video: Andy Worthington and Ramzi Kassem Discuss Trump, Obama, Guantánamo and Torture at Revolution Books in Harlem

14. Prisoners released from Guantánamo: Who Are The Last Four Men Freed from Guantánamo Under President Obama and Sent to the UAE and Saudi Arabia?

15. Donald Trump, Guantánamo: Donald Trump Proposes to Keep Guantánamo Open, to Prevent Further Releases, and to Reintroduce Torture and “Black Sites”

16. Donald Trump, Muslim ban: Trump’s Dystopian America: The Unforgivable First Ten Days

17. Donald Trump, Muslim ban: Disgraceful: Trump Sacks Acting US Attorney General Sally Yates, Who Refused to Support His Vile Immigration Ban

18. Radio, Guantánamo: Radio: Andy Worthington Discusses Donald Trump and Guantánamo with Brian Becker on Sputnik Radio’s “Loud and Clear”

February 2017

19. Donald Trump, Muslim ban: Heroes of the Resistance: Judge James Robart, Who Has Suspended Donald Trump’s Unacceptable Immigration Ban, and Washington State AG Bob Ferguson

20. Radio, Guantánamo: Radio: Andy Worthington Discusses Life in Trump’s America and the Future of Guantánamo with Chris Cook on Gorilla Radio

21. Donald Trump, Guantánamo: Donald Trump Reportedly Close to Finalizing Executive Order Approving Imprisonment of Islamic State Prisoners at Guantánamo

22. Donald Trump, Muslim ban: As 9th Circuit Judges Uphold Stay on Donald Trump’s Disgraceful Immigration Ban, 29 Experts from The Constitution Project Condemn Spate of Executive Orders

23. Guantánamo campaigns, Donald Trump: Check Out the “Donald Trump No!” Photos on the Close Guantánamo Website, and Please Join Us!

24. Donald Trump, Muslim ban: Court Rules That Donald Trump’s Disgraceful Immigration Ban Discriminates Against Muslims

25. Donald Trump, Guantánamo: Case of Al-Qaeda Suspect Captured in Yemen Seen As Test of Trump’s Plan to Send New Prisoners to Guantánamo

26. Guantánamo, Periodic Review Boards: Review Boards Approve Ongoing Imprisonment of Three More Prisoners at Guantánamo, Even As Lawmakers Urge Donald Trump to Scrap Them

27. Video, protest music, Guantánamo campaigns: New Close Guantánamo Video and Updated Campaign Song By Andy Worthington’s Band The Four Fathers

28. Life after Guantánamo: The Anguish of Hedi Hammami, A Tunisian Released from Guantánamo in 2010, But Persecuted in His Homeland

March 2017

29. Life after Guantánamo: Life After Guantánamo: Yemeni Released in Serbia Struggles to Cope with Loneliness and Harassment

30. Donald Trump, Muslim ban: Donald Trump’s New Immigration Ban Is Still Unconstitutional, Barring Muslims From Six Countries Despite No Evidence That They Pose a Security Threat

31. Donald Trump, Guantánamo: Donald Trump’s Latest Outrageous Guantánamo Lie

32. Video, Life after Guantánamo, Mohamedou Ould Slahi: Video: On CBS’s 60 Minutes, Former Guantánamo Prisoner, Torture Victim and Best-Selling Author Mohamedou Ould Slahi Tells His Story

33. Donald Trump, Muslim ban: Another Legal Hero in the Struggle Against Trump’s Bigotry: Hawaii’s Judge Derrick Watson Issues Nationwide Restraining Order on Immigration Ban

34. Guantánamo media: Karen Greenberg on Why America, and Its Values, Remain Imprisoned at Guantánamo As Long As The Prison Stays Open

35. Donald Trump, Guantánamo: Paul Lewis, Former Envoy for Guantánamo Closure Under Obama, Urges Donald Trump to Close Guantánamo

36. Radio, Guantánamo: Radio: Andy Worthington Discusses the Limbo of Guantánamo under Trump and Obama’s Failure to Close the Prison with Scott Horton

37. Abu Zubaydah, Guantánamo, torture: 15 Years of Torture: The Unending Agony of Abu Zubaydah, in CIA “Black Sites” and Guantánamo

38. Donald Trump, Guantánamo: It’s Groundhog Day: Lawyer Clive Stafford Smith Reports from Guantánamo After 70 Days of Trump’s Presidency

April 2017

39. Guantánamo, hunger strikes: After Four-Year Legal Struggle, Judges Support Government Claims That Videotapes of Force-Feeding at Guantánamo Must Remain Secret

40. Abu Zubaydah, Guantánamo, torture: Convincing the US He Wasn’t Part of Al-Qaeda: Abu Zubaydah’s 2008 and 2009 Declarations Regarding His Torture

41. Guantánamo, torture: US Military Lawyer Submits Petition to Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on Behalf of Mohammad Rahim, CIA Torture Victim Held at Guantánamo

42. Deaths at Guantánamo: Death at Guantánamo: Psychologist and Author Jeffrey Kaye Speaks to the Talking Dog

43. Guantánamo, Donald Trump: Shutting the Door on Guantánamo: The Significance of Donald Trump’s Failure to Appoint New Guantánamo Envoys

44. Guantánamo, military commissions: Guantánamo Lawyer Michel Paradis: Military Commissions are Based on Legal Apartheid

45. Torture: North Carolina Citizens’ Group Launches Investigation of CIA’s Bush-Era Rendition and Torture Program

46. Guantánamo campaigns, Donald Trump: 100 Days of Trump: Join Us in Telling Him to Close Guantánamo

47. Video, torture: Blast from the Past: “Reckoning with Torture,” Video of Andy Worthington, Mimi Kennedy, Ray McGovern and Others in Berkeley in 2010

May 2017

48. Life after Guantánamo: Life After Guantánamo: Egyptian in Bosnia, Stranded in Legal Limbo, Seeks Clarification of His Rights

49. Life after Guantánamo: Life After Guantánamo: Yemeni Freed in Estonia Says, “Part of Me is Still at Guantánamo”

50. Guantánamo, Periodic Review Boards, Donald Trump: Under Trump, Periodic Review Boards Continue at Guantánamo, But At A Glacial Pace

51. Chelsea Manning: Prior to Chelsea Manning’s Release on Wednesday, Here’s What She Wrote to President Obama

52. Abu Zubaydah, Guantánamo, military commissions: Abu Zubaydah Will Not Testify at Guantánamo Military Court Because the US Government Has “Stacked the Deck” Against Him

53. Video, Guantánamo: Video: “Zone of Non-Being: Guantánamo,” Featuring Andy Worthington, Omar Deghayes, Clive Stafford Smith, Michael Ratner

54. Guantánamo campaigns: Witness Against Torture Launch “Forever Human Beings,” a 41-Day Campaign for the 41 “Forever Prisoners” Still Held at Guantánamo

55. Life after Guantánamo: Guantánamo’s Difficult Diaspora: Former Prisoner Hussein Al-Merfedy, in Slovakia, Still Feels in a Cage

56. Guantánamo, Periodic Review Boards: Review Boards Approve Ongoing Imprisonment of Saifullah Paracha, Guantánamo’s Oldest Prisoner, and Two Others

57. Guantánamo: Ten Years of Writing About Guantánamo: Please Support My Work!

58. Deaths at Guantánamo: Another Sad, Forgotten Anniversary for Guantánamo’s Dead

59. Guantánamo, Supreme Court: Two Guantánamo Cases Make It to the Supreme Court; Experts Urge Justices to Pay Attention

60. Torture: In Ongoing Court Case, Spotlight On James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, Architects of the Brutal, Pointless CIA Torture Program

61. Torture: On the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, It’s Time for Someone to Leak the Whole of the US Senate Torture Report

62. Torture: Challenging the Nomination of 2005 “Torture Memo” Author Steven Bradbury as a Lawyer in the Trump Administration

63. Guantánamo: Abdul Latif Nasser: Facing life in Guantánamo (for Al-Jazeera)

An archive of articles about British politics, January to June 2017

January to March 2017

1. Obituaries, counter-culture: Reflections on Mortality, on the Death of One of My Oldest Friends, Nick Parsons (1962-2017)

2. Brexit: YES! The Supreme Court Tells Would-Be Tyrant Theresa May That Act of Parliament is Required to Trigger Article 50 and Leave EU; Now MPs Must Fight to Scrap Brexit

3. Brexit: On Brexit, What a Pathetic, Leaderless Country We Have Become

4. Protest music: Andy Worthington’s Band The Four Fathers Complete Mixes for New Album, ‘How Much Is A Life Worth?’

5. Brexit: Why the Left is Betraying Us Over Brexit, and How It Leads to the Hypocrisy of Protesting Against Donald Trump But Not Theresa May

6. Brexit: On Brexit, MPs Give Away Sovereignty, Vote to Allow Theresa May to Do Whatever She Wants

7. Brexit: On Brexit, the British Public Finally Turns on Would-Be Tyrant Theresa May

8. Save the NHS: Save the NHS From Its Would-Be Killers, Theresa May and Jeremy Hunt: Please Join the National Protest in London This Saturday, March 4, 2017

9. Brexit: House of Lords Defends Right of EU Nationals to Stay in the UK Post-Brexit, as the Tyrant Theresa May Vows to Overturn Amendment

10. Photos, Save the NHS: “Wake Up People! Save Our NHS!” Photos from the National March and Rally in London, March 4, 2017

11. Brexit: On Brexit, the House of Lords Do What MPs Wouldn’t Do, and Pass An Amendment Guaranteeing Them A Final, Meaningful Vote on Any Deal to Leave the EU

12. Refugees, racism: Please Join the March Against Racism National Demo in London This Saturday, March 18, 2017

13. Brexit: Worthless MPs Refuse to Challenge Tyrannical Theresa May on Their Own Right to Vote on Final Brexit Deal or on the Rights of EU Nationals in the UK

14. St. Patrick’s Day, Pogues: Rebel Music: Memories of St. Patrick’s Day in London, 1986

15. Save the NHS: My Heartfelt Defence of the Wonderful NHS, Exactly Six Years After My Major Illness

16. Brexit: Unite for Europe: Join the National Demo in London on March 25 to Tell Theresa May That 16 Million Of Us Don’t Accept Her “Hard Brexit” Insanity

17. Terrorism: London Terror Attack: I Endorse Simon Jenkins’ Mature and Responsible Assessment of the Media’s Dangerous and Irresponsible Coverage

18. Photos, Brexit: Photos: Huge Turnout for Unite For Europe March in London, to Tell Theresa May and Isolationist Tories that 16 Million of US Say No to Brexit

19. Brexit: On Brexit, the Observer Pulls No Punches With a Suitably Savage Editorial Just Before Theresa May Triggers Article 50

April to June 2017

20. Racism, Brexit: Listen to Andy Worthington Discuss “Demonising ‘The Other’: Tackling the Rise of Racism and Xenophobia” at Brockley Festival of Ideas for Change

21. Music: Andy Worthington’s Band The Four Fathers Release ‘Dreamers’, New Online Single Written for a Friend’s 50th Birthday

22. Brexit: Theresa May: An Unstoppable Undemocratic Disaster in a Dismal Brexit Britain Without Adequate Opposition

23. Brexit: Taking on Theresa May and Her Hard Brexit Dystopia: Open Britain Targets Pro-Brexit MPs

24. General Election: Local Elections: As UKIP Voters Join the Tories to create Super-UKIP, Labour and Other Parties MUST Unite in a Progressive Resistance

25. Protest music: Andy Worthington’s Band The Four Fathers Release ‘Riot’, New Online Single Tackling Austerity and Inequality

26. London photos: Andy Worthington Celebrates Five Years of Photographing London for His Project, ‘The State of London’

27. Racism, Brexit: Ismail Einashe, British Citizen of Somali Origin, Describes How The Status of Migrants is “Permanently Up for Review” in the New Intolerant UK

28. Counter-culture: DIY Cultures 2017: The Counter-Culture Is Alive and Well at a Zine Fair in Shoreditch

29. Housing crisis: London’s Horrendous Housing Crisis: Slums, Unfettered Greed and the Unacceptable Exploitation of Workers

30. Battle of the Beanfield, Stonehenge, civil liberties: Never Trust the Tories: It’s 32 Years Today Since the Intolerable Brutality of the Battle of the Beanfield

31. General Election: The Spectacular and Unforeseen Collapse of Theresa May and the Tories

32. Protest music, General Election: Video: Andy Worthington’s Band The Four Fathers Play ‘Stand Down Theresa’, An Updated Version of The Beat’s ‘Stand Down Margaret’

33. General Election: On Eve of Election, Theresa May Returns to Her Default Position, That of a Grubby Racist Scaremonger with Contempt for the Law

34. General Election: Corbyn Rises, Theresa May Falls; Hard Brexit Now Looks Untenable

35. Grenfell Tower fire: Deaths Foretold at Grenfell Tower: Let This Be The Moment We The People Say “No More” to the Greed That Killed Residents

36. Photos, Theresa May protest: Photos: The Protest Against Theresa May Outside Downing Street, June 17, 2017

37. Grenfell Tower fire: As Grenfell Tower Death Toll Reaches 79, Calls for an Urgent Public Inquiry in the Face of Systemic Failures of Government, Council and Management

38. Brexit: As Brexit Talks Begin, It’s Clear That We’re Doomed Unless We Ditch the Tories

39. Stonehenge, civil liberties: Summer Solstice 2017: Reflections on Free Festivals and the Pagan Year 33 Years After the Last Stonehenge Festival

40. Protest music, Grenfell Tower fire: After Grenfell, Andy Worthington’s Band The Four Fathers Release New Single, ‘London’, A Savage Portrait of the UK Capital Hollowed Out By Greed

Andy Worthington is a freelance investigative journalist, activist, author, photographer, film-maker and singer-songwriter (the lead singer and main songwriter for the London-based band The Four Fathers, whose music is available via Bandcamp). He is the co-founder of the Close Guantánamo campaign (and the Donald Trump No! Please Close Guantánamo initiative, launched in January 2017), the co-director of We Stand With Shaker, which called for the release from Guantánamo of Shaker Aamer, the last British resident in the prison (finally freed on October 30, 2015), and the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison (published by Pluto Press, distributed by the University of Chicago Press in the US, and available from Amazon, including a Kindle edition — click on the following for the US and the UK) and of two other books: Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion and The Battle of the Beanfield. He is also the co-director (with Polly Nash) of the documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (available on DVD here — or here for the US).