War on Terrorism

Guantánamo’s Refugees

by Andy Worthington February 9, 2009

The continued imprisonment of at least 61 prisoners at Guantánamo, who have been cleared for release after multiple military review boards (or, in recent months, after rulings in a U.S. court), was an affront to notions of justice when the Bush administration was in power, and is even more so now that Barack Obama, who has pledged to ...

Don’t Forget Guantánamo

by Andy Worthington February 6, 2009

At first glance, this might seem to be an unnecessary headline, given that Barack Obama has been president for only two weeks and that one of his first acts was to sign a presidential order declaring that the notorious “war on terror” prison at Guantánamo Bay will be closed within a year. However, I believe it is appropriate, not ...

U.S. Detentions in the War on Terror: What Was Old Is New Again (video)

by Joseph Margulies January 30, 2009

On June 8, 2008, Joseph Margulies gave the following Speech at FFF’s conference Restoring the Republic 2008: Foreign Policy and Civil Liberties. The speech can viewed below in its entirety.

Refuting Cheney’s Lies: The Stories of Six Prisoners Released from Guantánamo

by Andy Worthington January 26, 2009

In the Bush administration’s “war on terror,” the gulf between rhetoric and reality was always pronounced, and never more so than when Vice President Dick Cheney spoke out. Cheney’s lies and distortions were on open display in the last month before his departure from the White House, as he sought to leave his legacy of fear burnished on ...

Bush Era Ends with Guantánamo Trial Chief’s Torture Confession

by Andy Worthington January 20, 2009

Forget the president’s lame, reality-defying farewell speech and Dick Cheney’s last-ditch attempts to claim that the administration in which he served as vice president has never engaged in torture. The Bush era came to an end last Wednesday when, in one short interview, Susan J. Crawford, the senior Pentagon official overseeing the military commissions at Guantánamo — ...

No End in Sight for the “Enemy Combatants” of Guantánamo

by Andy Worthington January 12, 2009

On the seventh anniversary of the opening of the “war on terror” prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba (on January 11, 2002), this is perhaps a rather bleak title, given that Barack Obama has pledged to close the prison, but recent events in a U.S. District Court — largely overlooked in the mainstream media — have demonstrated how difficult ...

A New Year Message to Barack Obama: Free the Guantánamo Uighurs

by Andy Worthington January 5, 2009

The omens have never been good for the 17 Uighurs in Guantánamo, even though they have justice on their side. Refugees from Chinese oppression who had sought shelter in Afghanistan, only to be captured and sold to U.S. forces as “terror suspects”, the 17 men were the first Guantánamo prisoners to be cleared of being “enemy combatants,” after an ...

An Interview with Guantánamo Whistleblower Stephen Abraham, Part 2

by Andy Worthington December 30, 2008

Part 1 | Part 2 In the first part of this interview with Lt. Col. Stephen Abraham, Andy Worthington, the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison, examined why the government’s allegations against the prisoners at Guantánamo are unreliable. A veteran of U.S. Army intelligence, Lt. Col. Abraham worked for OARDEC ...

An Interview with Guantánamo Whistleblower Stephen Abraham, Part 1

by Andy Worthington December 22, 2008

Part 1 | Part 2 Since the election of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States, the closure of the “War on Terror” prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba has become a hot topic. Throughout his election campaign, Obama pledged to close Guantánamo, and he reiterated his promise during his first TV interview as President-Elect, on ...

Will Europe Take the Cleared Guantánamo Prisoners?

by Andy Worthington December 15, 2008

As rumors continue to fly regarding Barack Obama’s plans to close the notorious “war on terror” prison at Guantánamo Bay, one country in the European Union, Portugal, took the opportunity offered last Wednesday by the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights — one of whose Articles declares, “Everyone has the right to seek and ...

Lost In Guantánamo: The Faisalabad 16

by Andy Worthington December 8, 2008

On the evening of March 28, 2002, an armed group of FBI agents and Pakistani commandos, accompanied by a hundred local police, stormed Shabaz Cottage, an apartment in a quiet neighborhood in the city of Faisalabad, Pakistan. Their target, who had been tracked by the careless use of a satellite phone, was Zayn al-Abidin Muhammad Husayn, more commonly ...

Torture, Preventive Detention and the Terror Trials at Guantánamo

by Andy Worthington December 1, 2008

In the real world outside the U.S. Naval Base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, Barack Obama’s pledge to close Guantánamo and scrap the military commissions (the system of trials for “terror suspects” that was established in the wake of the 9/11 attacks) has provoked a rare outburst of frenzied media coverage. With no concrete plans announced by the President-elect’s transition team, ...