Friday November 16, 2007, 12:41 pm
“Guantánamo Bay is a legal black hole, just as the Bush administration planned it to be, and this book is the closest many of the prisoners will come to a fair trial. Andy Worthington has done the most thorough work to date on Guantánamo, using the US government’s own documents to prove that large swathes of innocent people were swept up in the post-9/11 panic. This is important work, impressively written. Read this book, and then take action.”
Clive Stafford Smith, Legal Director of Reprieve, and author of Bad Men: Guantánamo Bay and the Secret Prisons

“Operation Enduring Freedom paved the way for what has become the most sinister and flagrant violation of human rights perpetrated by any sovereign nation in recent times. Extraordinary rendition, false imprisonment, inhumane treatment – including torture and death in secretive detention sites like Kandahar, Bagram and Guantánamo Bay – has forever destroyed and reshaped the lives of hundreds of men, of whom I was one. The subject matter of this book is imperative, being the first of its kind to collate and describe accounts from the prisoners themselves and pitting them against the purported reasons for their incarceration for years without charge or trial.”
Moazzam Begg, former Guantánamo detainee, spokesperson for Cageprisoners and author of Enemy Combatant: A British Muslim’s Journey to Guantánamo and Back

“The Guantánamo Files is an important and disturbing work of contemporary history, which paints a grim portrait of Guantánamo as a failed experiment in extra-judicial detention, unworthy of a country dedicated to the rule of law. The sheer accumulation of detail in this book is stunning, and undermines claims by the US administration that the prison camp is filled with vicious killers and terrorists. Worthington introduces us to the detainees as individuals, including many of those who have been released, those who remain, and the handful who have died by their own hand at the prison camp. There are revelations on every page, as we learn about contradictory and nonsensical evidence, and about detentions predicated on the words of madmen or the tortured. As the author makes clear, the credulousness of the camp commanders is outweighed only by the craven manner in which they extract ‘intelligence’ from the detainees. No one who reads this book will rest easy knowing that hundreds of men are still wasting away in America’s illegal prison.”
Marc Falkoff, lawyer for 17 Yemeni prisoners and editor of Poems from Guantánamo: The Detainees Speak

“Andy Worthington has written a deeply researched, ground-breaking book that for the first time draws back the curtain on the lives and stories of the hundreds of prisoners inside the Guantánamo prison camp. The faceless men in orange jumpsuits become flesh and blood in this fascinating and well-written book.”
Peter Bergen, author of Holy War, Inc. and The Osama bin Laden I Know

“This is an important book. If you care about our Government’s complicity in these illegal and horrific acts then this book provides the evidence. Carefully researched and documented, it reveals a story of appalling brutality. The people are not mere ciphers but, as their stories unfold, their pain becomes our concern.”
Ken Loach, film director

“The Guantánamo Files is a meticulous piece of documentation about torture at the beginning of the twenty-first century. In this bracing book, Andy Worthington chronicles the ordeals of the prisoners at Guantánamo with the same sense of poignancy, compassion and outrage with which Goya, in the nineteenth century, painted ‘The Third of May 1808,’ and Picasso, in the twentieth century, painted ‘Guernica.’ This is an extremely vital and important piece of work.”
Martin Fisher, Co-Producer of Alex Gibney’s film, ‘Taxi to the Dark Side,’ about US torture in Afghanistan, Guantánamo and Iraq

“The Guantánamo Files is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand how Guantánamo came to be the torture chamber of the United States. This comprehensive and well-researched exposé reveals the stories of the many tragic men and boys who were picked up after 9/11 by, or at the direction of, the US government, and also clearly demonstrates the frightening and unchecked power of the Bush administration and the failures that have followed on from its miserable, inept and criminal policies. Perhaps most disturbing, from a personal point of view, is the author’s unraveling of the US government’s manipulation of classified information, not to protect national security, but in a vain attempt to hide the truth about Guantánamo. The fact that the prison’s real story has been ignored by our corporate media, by politicians on both sides of the aisle and, most distressingly, by the judiciary, makes this book an important historical contribution to this dark period. If the US happens to survive this episode of cruelty and lawlessness, The Guantánamo Files will be an important tool for coming to grips with how we as a nation allowed indefinite detention without charge, extraordinary rendition and torture to become national policies.”
Candace Gorman, lawyer for two Guantánamo prisoners

Published by Pluto Press, October 2007.
230 x 150 mm, 352 pages, 1 map.

ISBN-10: 0745326641 Paperback £16.99
ISBN-10: 074532665X Hardback £55.00
ISBN-13: 978-0-7453-2664-1 Paperback $24.95
ISBN-13: 978-0-7453-2665-8 Hardback $80.00

About the book


On 11 January 2002, exactly four months after the terrible events of 9/11, the first of 774 prisoners arrived at a specially constructed prison on a US naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Until recently, it was impossible to tell the stories of these men. Held without charge, without trial, without access to their families, and, initially, without access to lawyers, they are part of a peculiarly lawless experiment conducted by the US administration, which has chosen to disregard both the Geneva Conventions and the established rules of war, holding the men not as criminals or as Prisoners of War, but as “illegal enemy combatants,” a category of prisoner which is itself illegal.

For four years, those in overall charge of Guantánamo – George W Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld – maintained such a strict veil of secrecy that they refused even to reveal the names of the prisoners, and it was not possible to provide a comprehensive overview of the prisoners and their stories until spring 2006, when, in response to a Freedom of Information lawsuit, the Pentagon was forced to reveal the names and nationalities of all the prisoners held in Guantánamo, as well as 7,000 pages of transcripts of tribunals convened to assess their status as “enemy combatants.”

The tribunal process was, like everything else at Guantánamo, both illegal and deeply flawed. The prisoners were not allowed legal representation, and were prevented from seeing the classified evidence against them, which often consisted of allegations based on hearsay or torture, but they were at least allowed to tell their own stories, which were otherwise completely unknown. Through a detailed study of these documents, as well as discussions with lawyers representing the prisoners, and an analysis of press reports, interviews with released prisoners and other reports compiled by human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, I have been able to put together the first detailed history of Guantánamo and its prisoners.

Beginning with the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001, The Guantánamo Files explains, in detail, the genesis of the prison, its counterparts in Afghanistan, its development from 2002 to the present day, its role as a prison devoted to interrogation and torture, the legal challenges that have been launched against the administration, and the network of secret prisons that underpins Guantánamo’s brutal illegality. More importantly, The Guantánamo Files allows the prisoners to tell their own stories, explaining who they are and the circumstances of their capture. In contrast to the administration’s claims that they are the “worst of the worst,” what the stories reveal most of all is that very few of them had anything to do with al-Qaeda, and the vast majority were either Taliban foot soldiers, recruited to fight an inter-Muslim civil war in Afghanistan that began long before 9/11, or humanitarian aid workers, religious teachers and economic migrants, who were, for the most part, sold to the Americans by their allies in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Bringing these stories to life for the first time, The Guantánamo Files vividly demonstrates the human cost of the administration’s ill-conceived and violently executed “War on Terror.”

Ordering details

For further information, or to order copies, see the websites of Pluto Press or the University of Michigan Press. The book is also available through Amazon. Click on the following links for the US, the UK or Canada. Other good deals are available at Word Power (UK) and Tower.com (US).

To order a copy from the author (UK only) for the reduced price of £16.50, send a cheque for £19 (£16.50 plus £2.50 postage & packing) to:

A. Worthington
164A Tressillian Road
Brockley
London
SE4 1XY

Cheques payable to: ‘A. Worthington’.

If you’d like a signed copy and/or a dedication, let me know.

Friday November 16, 2007, 3:38 pm
Eleanor, thank you so much for bringing this story to everyone's attention!

Friday November 16, 2007, 4:19 pm
Thanks Eleanor for the story.

Friday November 16, 2007, 6:21 pm
Nated and thanks, Eleanor.

Friday November 16, 2007, 6:23 pm
Thanks Eleanor! Noted!

Now will someone please explain to me why the World Court has not indicted the malefactors in charge as war criminals?

Friday November 16, 2007, 7:03 pm
Thanks Eleanor and Lisa! It gives a full documentation of the strong violation of basic human rights.

Friday November 16, 2007, 7:04 pm
Noted. Than Eleanor.

Saturday November 17, 2007, 2:11 am
Everyone should go to this website and read the sad stories listed on the right of the page. Of innocent people who were detained, tortured or died, without charge, kept for years, and were even SO-CALLED convicted in fake trials to cover up the fact that they were innocent to begin with.

Article brief:

The story of Guantánamo detainee Lofti Lagha, which I first broke here, and subsequently reported on here and here, reached a predictably sad conclusion last week when he was sentenced to three years in prison. The 39-year old, who had traveled to Afghanistan in 2001 after several years as an illegal immigrant in Italy, was captured in Pakistan at a time when bounty payments for Arabs were commonplace, and has claimed that his fingers, which were affected by frostbite as he escaped Afghanistan through the Tora Bora mountains, were unnecessarily amputated while he was in prison at the US airbase in Bagram.

Lagha’s trial – four months after his repatriation from Guantánamo – bore all the hallmarks of an unjust show trial. Allegations that he received military training in Afghanistan and fought with the Taliban regime were dropped, and he was, instead, convicted of “associating with a criminal group with the aim of harming or causing damage in Tunisia,” even though, as the Associated Press reported, the Tunisian authorities “did not name the group that Lagha was said to participate in or specify what its planned violence was,” and even though Lagha himself insisted during the trial, “I haven’t been involved in any terrorist activity. I went to Afghanistan for work.” Speaking after the verdict was announced, his lawyer, Samir Ben Amor, said he was “disappointed” with the verdict, and stated that he would lodge an appeal, adding, “We thought he would get justice in his own country after what he endured at Guantánamo.”

Saturday November 17, 2007, 4:14 am
Thanks Elenaor. When will the madness end?!?

Saturday November 17, 2007, 6:29 am
I can't wait to read this...thanks for posting

Saturday November 17, 2007, 7:06 am
Thanks Eleanor....interesting that Pluto Press is a publisher of the book. In astrlogy, Pluto represnts the energy of exposing evil secrets and bringing that which is detrimental to the evolution of the human soul to light! I'm ordering the book from Amazon right now!

Saturday November 17, 2007, 12:19 pm
Thank you Eleanor for posting this book on C2. I visited the site and read the article, but I was not surprised by anything I read. I am pleased to know that someone had the courage to come foreward and write the truth about the Bush Criminal Regime, and how it operates with the CIA, FBI, and other federal agencies to kidnap innocent people and detain them without the benefit of counsel, held without being charged for a crime, and held incommunicado indefintely. Thanks to Bush's rubber stamp Congress while they were in control of all three branches of government were able to get some of these illegal bills passed without the consent of Congress or the Senate. John Warner's Military Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007 is one such example. It never made to the House floor for full debate, and was signed by Bush behind closed doors. In this bill the "posse comitatus" was suspended giving the military authority to take over the duties of law enforcement agencies in every state, city and town in the U.S., all that is needed is for Bush to declare a "national emergency" and we are under Martial Law within moments. Almost every city and town in America has a National Guard Unit and an Armory that may be willing to follow Bush's orders. But it has been suggested by military experts, that if Bush attempts to declare Martial Law the National Guard will revolt against the Bush Regime. I truly hope that if this happens that our troops at home will obey a direct order to take over police duties. It is the only hope we have under this "Criminal Occupation of our country."

Saturday November 17, 2007, 1:51 pm
Thnx Elenor...NOTED

Saturday November 17, 2007, 2:53 pm
Noted with thanks, Eleanor.

Saturday November 17, 2007, 5:04 pm
This Criminal Concentration Camp needs to be exposed to the whole world so that we can all see the kind of people in charge of the USA and its disasterous foriegn policy. The keeping of kidnapped people for so long without charge or trial, depriving them of legal representation and so forth is a story the world has to know about coming from the land of the so called free. This evil nazi group care not for the law nor the rights of man. It is just such a shame that we over this side of the pond hand been dragged into it all like reluctant poodles by the arch poodle Blair.

Gauntanamo Bay will live in imfamy as the worst violation of basic human rights since WW11 and as a war crime that has shocked the world. In the face of it the Islamic nations have shown great restraint and patience.

Saturday November 17, 2007, 11:55 pm

Thank you Eleanor.

Sunday November 18, 2007, 1:17 pm
I don't even want to believe that this can happen in a place tat I lived most of my life, a country I called home and that I thought truley believed in human rights and freedom for all...I cry to think of it. Thank you Eleanor for posting this very important information!!

Monday November 19, 2007, 8:39 am
Noted! Thanks Eleanor for the very enlightening story.

Tuesday November 20, 2007, 5:19 pm
A very important document, thanks Eleanor.

Thursday November 22, 2007, 4:12 pm
Thanks Eleanor - as usual, you are right on the mark for peace, justice and mercy - Ned

Friday November 23, 2007, 5:20 pm
thanks noted/shared

Sunday November 25, 2007, 5:45 pm
so noted and indeed a worthy read~ Make the investment guys and gals and buy the book-- In the meanwhile, trust you all had blessed holidays and that none of your loved ones were/are enduring at the criminal concentration camp known as Guantánamo Bay-- But, then again, I have compassion and even understanding for those who serve no matter where their assigned tour of duty~

Saturday January 12, 2008, 11:11 pm
In his criticism of the US military commissions, Fraser finds himself in good company.

In 2006, no less than 422 eminent members of the United Kingdom and European parliaments in their submission in the Hamdan case said this: "The threat of terrorism is real. Governments around the world confront the dangers and the hard choices posed by confronting those dangers. To meet the danger, the world needs not only military might but renewed and sustained commitment to the rule of law and to fundamental principles of human dignity and respect for human rights.

In short, the world needs the United States to resume its role as a standard bearer for the principles of the rule of law and the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms which are the shared heritage of a civilised world."

In the interests of international legal order, Australia would do well to awaken its ally, the US, and encourage it to regain its position as the global leader in advancing the cause of human rights.

Peter Vickery, QC, is Special Rapporteur, International Commission of Jurists, Victoria.

FROM:
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2008/01/12/1199988639932.html?page=2