The Guantanamo Files
The Guantanamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America's Illegal Prison is a well received book, compiled largely from public documents, that profiles most of the individuals who were held in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. Since its 2007 publication Andy Worthington, its author, has published several hundred online supplements, also built around public information, so every captive and former captive has been covered.
Michelle Shephard, author of Guantanamo's Child, when summing up other books on Guantanamo, described his book as: "Perhaps the single most important book to cover the big picture of Guantanamo."[1] Stephen Grey, writing in The New Statesman, called the book: "a powerful, essential and long-overdue piece of research".[2]
Mike Phipps, in Labour Briefing, wrote[3]:
- "This book is one of the grimmest I have ever read. Its subtitle, The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison, underlines just what a thorough job Andy Worthington has done in piecing together this shocking tale of depravity."[3]
According to a review published in the New Internationalist in January 2008 the book was "...the first to concentrate not on the processes of the camp but on the lives of those trapped within its walls and wire.".[4] The review, paraphrasing Worthington's findings, stated that the vast majority of the captives "...committed no crime more heinous than being in the wrong place at the wrong time."
References
- ↑ Michelle Shephard (2008-11-23). "Guantanamo: A place that will live in infamy". Toronto Star. http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/article/541216. Retrieved 2008-11-23. mirror
- ↑ Stephen Grey (2007-12-06). "The Guantanamo Files: the Stories of the 774 Detainees in America's Illegal Prison". The New Statesman. Archived from the original on 2010-02-09. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newstatesman.com%2Fbooks%2F2007%2F12%2Fguantanamo-files-prisoners&date=2010-02-09. Retrieved 2008-09-28.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Mike Phipps. "“US Torture Chamber”: A Review of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison". Labour Briefing. Archived from the original on 2014-03-31. https://web.archive.org/web/20140331181436/http://old.cageprisoners.com/articles.php?id=23128. Retrieved 2014-03-31.
- ↑ "The Guantánamo Files". The New Internationalist. 2008-01. Archived from the original on 2008-03-09. https://web.archive.org/web/20080309184551/http://www.newint.org/columns/media/books/2008/01/01/guantanamo/. Retrieved 2014-03-31. "Drawing on Pentagon documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act and on the testimonies of the men themselves, Worthington pieces together their stories before, during and – for the fortunate – after their incarceration."
