Welcome to Andy Worthington

In the dark farce that is the Obama administration’s counter-terrorism policy, decisions are now, it seems, being made by whoever makes the most noise, regardless of whether what they are shouting for actually makes sense.
Since last November, when Attorney General Eric Holder first announced that five men — including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed — would face [...]

Friday marked the seventh anniversary of the illegal invasion of Iraq, but by now, it seems, the American people have become used to living in a state of perpetual war, even though that war was based on torture and lies. Protestors rallied across the country on Saturday, but the anti-war impetus of the Bush years [...]

If you’re looking for confirmation that discussions of torture and imprisonment without charge or trial can galvanize the public, then a crowd of 500 students in Kent watching a film about Guantánamo on Thursday evening ought to provide conclusive proof. The film in question is the new documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo,” [...]

I’m pleased to announce that, via YouTube, a short trailer (1:16) is available for the new documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo,” co-directed by filmmaker Polly Nash and journalist Andy Worthington, author of The Guantánamo Files:

The film was launched in October 2009, and has already been screened as part of the Human Rights, [...]

Getting even vaguely carried away at a political protest has always had a tendency to attract the wrath of judges in the UK, but recent activities by the British police, and by a judge in a courtroom in Isleworth, are nothing short of despicable.
In response to a protest about the Israeli attack on Gaza in [...]

Are there no depths to which the Republican Party will not sink in its unprincipled assaults on President Obama’s counter-terrorism policies? The latest unconstitutional monstrosity from the right’s lunatic fringe came courtesy of Keep America Safe, a toxic organization headed by Liz Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, who recently put out [...]

Throughout this year, I’m touring the UK with former Guantánamo prisoner Omar Deghayes, showing the new documentary, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (which I co-directed with filmmaker Polly Nash). In the last few weeks, Omar and I (often accompanied by Polly) have screened the film in London, Oxford, Bradford and Norwich, and this week [...]

To coincide with the publication of my article, “What Torture Is, and Why It’s Illegal and Not ‘Poor Judgment,’” in which I revisited the scandalous whitewash of the Justice Department report into the conduct of John Yoo and Jay Bybee (the lawyers who sought to redefine torture in the notorious “torture memos” of August 2002), [...]

It’s now over three weeks since veteran Justice Department lawyer David Margolis dashed the hopes of those seeking accountability for the Bush administration’s torturers, but this is a story of such profound importance that it must not be allowed to slip away.
Margolis decided that an internal report (PDF) into the conduct of John Yoo and [...]

I have just been informed that Sarah Meyer, a wonderfully supportive friend in the struggle for a better world, recently died of cancer. A retired UK registered homoeopath, Sarah had studied Jungian psychology for 30 years, while simultaneously studying Tibetan Buddhism, and, after retiring, worked as a freelance researcher, investigating human rights abuses worldwide from [...]