Please Write to the Guantánamo Prisoners, to Let Them Know We Remember Them
15 of the 16 men still held at Guantánamo who have been approved for release. Top row, from L to R: Moath Al-Alwi, Khalid Qasim, Ridah Al-Yazidi, Muieen Abd Al-Sattar, Toffiq Al-Bihani. Middle row: Said Salih Said Nashir, Uthman Abdul Rahim Mohammed Uthman, Sharqawi Al-Hajj, Abdulsalam Al-Hela, Sanad Al-Kazimi. Bottom row: Suhayl Al-Sharabi, Gouled Hassan Dourad, Omar Al-Rammah, Mohammed Abdul Malik, Hassan Bin Attash.
If you can, please make a donation to support our work in 2023. If you can become a monthly sustainer, that will be particularly appreciated. Tick the box marked, "Make this a monthly donation," and insert the amount you wish to donate.
By Andy Worthington, July 23, 2023; postal address updated January 31, 2024
It’s 13 years since two Muslim activist friends in the U.K. initiated a project to get people to write to the Guantánamo prisoners still held at that time — 186 in total — and I adopted it, and have been running it ever since; initially, once or twice a year, although more sporadically in recent years.
When I last posted a request for people to write to the men still held, just over a year into the Biden presidency, 39 men were still held at the prison. That number has now fallen to 30, but, after a flurry of releases earlier this year, a kind of dreadful deadly stasis has once more descended on Guantánamo.
Although 16 of the men still held have been unanimously approved for release by high-level government review processes — mostly via the Periodic Review Boards (PRBs), introduced in 2013 —no one can say when they might actually be freed. This is because the majority of them cannot be sent back to their home countries, as a result of bans imposed by Republicans every year in the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), meaning that third countries must be found that are prepared to offer them new homes.
Under President Obama, numerous countries were successfully prevailed upon to resettle men who couldn’t be safely returned home, but in the last decade, as demands on governments have increased regarding refugees, and many governments have shifted to the right politically, the willingness to help has dwindled, leaving these men still facing an uncertain future.
In addition, as Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms while Countering Terrorism, recently demonstrated in a devastating report about Guantánamo (which I wrote about here) following the first ever visit by a U.N. Rapporteur, earlier this year, the men still held remain profoundly isolated.
In her report, the U.N. Rapporteur pointed out that the ban on receiving visits from family members, and the compromised nature of communications with family members via phone calls or video calls, meant that every prisoner and family member that she spoke to "evidenced unrelenting grief and trauma related to the inadequate and arbitrary access to their family at Guantánamo."
These problems, along with repressive surveillance and security measures, "structural and entrenched physical and mental healthcare deficiencies," the failure to "provide any torture rehabilitation to detainees," and the "ongoing, arbitrary detention characterized by fair trial and due process violations," led her to conclude that "the totality of these factors, without doubt, amounts to ongoing cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment at the Guantánamo Bay detention facility, and may also meet the legal threshold for torture."
As a result of this ongoing isolation and abuse, supporters of the prison’s closure can be assured that efforts to let the remaining prisoners know that they have not been forgotten may well be appreciated, not just by the 16 men approved for release, but also the 14 others: three still held as "forever prisoners" — those whose ongoing reviews have recommended them for ongoing imprisonment without charge or trial — and 11 others charged in the military commissions, the broken trial system at Guantánamo that is fundamentally incapable of delivering justice.
Of these eleven men, nine are in seemingly endless pre-trial hearings, while one other agreed to a plea deal last year, and is supposed to be freed next year, and another man is serving a life sentence after a one-sided trial back in 2008, in which he refused to mount a defense.
In the list below, I have divided the remaining 30 prisoners into those approved for release, the "forever prisoners" whose ongoing imprisonment has been approved by Periodic Review Boards, and those charged or tried in the military commissions system. I have also included some additional information — their nationalities, and links to my reports on their cases.
Please note that I have largely kept the spelling used by the U.S. authorities in the "Final Dispositions" of the Guantánamo Review Task Force, which was released through FOIA legislation in June 2013. Even though these names are often inaccurate, they are the names by which the men are officially known in Guantánamo — although, primarily, it should be noted, those held are not referred to by any name at all, but are instead identified solely by their prisoner numbers (ISNs, which stands for "internment serial numbers").
Writing to the prisoners
If you are an Arabic speaker, or speak any other languages spoken by the prisoners besides English, feel free to write in those languages. Do please note that any messages that can be construed as political should be avoided, as they may lead to the letters not making it past the Pentagon’s censors, but be aware that your messages may not get through anyway — although please don’t let that put you off.
When writing to the prisoners please ensure you include their full name and ISN (internment serial number) below (these are the numbers before their names).
Please address all letters to:
Detainee name
JTF-GTMO SJA
PSC 210 ISN (detainee number here)
FPO AA 34010
Please also include a return address on the envelope, and, if you’re outside the U.S., add U.S.A. to the address.
Note: When we first posted this article, the address that campaigners had been told was accurate was different to the one above. However, several people reported that they had had letters returned, marked with a sticker saying that it was an invalid or closed address box. We subsequently found a new address, which was confirmed by two separate sources, but that too proved problematical. As of January 2024, we have been told that the address above is accurate, but please do provide us with feedback if you use it and get letters returned.
The 16 prisoners approved for release by high-level government review processes under Presidents Obama, Trump and Biden
- ISN 027 Uthman Abd al-Rahim Muhammad Uthman
A Yemeni, he was approved for release by a PRB in May 2021 - ISN 028 Moath Hamza Ahmed Al-Alwi
A Yemeni, he was approved for release by a PRB in December 2021 - ISN 038 Ridah Bin Saleh Al Yazidi
A Tunisian, he was approved for release by the Guantánamo Review Task Force in January 2010 - ISN 242 Khalid Ahmed Qasim
A Yemeni, he was approved for release by a PRB in July 2022 - ISN 309 Muieen A Deen Jamal A Deen Abd al Fusal Abd al Sattar
Listed as being from the UAE, although of uncertain nationality (a Rohingya from Myanmar, he may have a Pakistani passport), he was approved for release by the Guantánamo Review Task Force in January 2010 - ISN 569 Suhayl Abdul Anam al Sharabi
A Yemeni, he was approved for release by a PRB in November 2021 - ISN 708 Ismael Ali Faraj Ali Bakush
A Libyan, he was approved for release by a PRB in September 2022 - ISN 841 Said Salih Said Nashir
A Yemeni, he was approved for release by a PRB in October 2020 - ISN 893 Tawfiq Nasir Awad Al-Bihani
A Yemeni, he was approved for release by the Guantánamo Review Task Force in January 2010 - ISN 1017 Omar Mohammed Ali Al-Rammah
A Yemeni, he was approved for release by a PRB in December 2021 - ISN 1453 Sanad Al Kazimi
A Yemeni, he was approved for release by a PRB in October 2021 - ISN 1456 Hassan Bin Attash
A Yemeni (although listed as a Saudi), and Guantánamo’s youngest prisoner, he was approved for release by a PRB in April 2022 - ISN 1457 Sharqawi Abdu Ali Al Hajj
A Yemeni, he was approved for release by a PRB in June 2021 - ISN 1463 Abd Al-Salam Al-Hilah
A Yemeni, he was approved for release by a PRB in June 2021 - ISN 10023 Guleed Hassan Ahmed
A Somali, he was approved for release by a PRB in November 2021 - ISN 10025 Mohammed Abdul Malik Bajabu
A Kenyan, he was approved for release by a PRB in December 2021
The 3 remaining "forever prisoners" whose ongoing imprisonment has been approved by Periodic Review Boards
- ISN 10016 Zayn al-Ibidin Muhammed Husayn
A stateless Palestinian, better known as Abu Zubaydah, the first victim of the U.S.'s post-9/11 torture program, he is still awaiting the decision of his latest PRB in July 2021 - ISN 10017 Mustafa Faraj Muhammad Masud al-Jadid al-Usaybi
A Libyan, his ongoing imprisonment without charge or trial was approved by a PRB in August 2022 - ISN 10029 Muhammad Rahim
An Afghan, his ongoing imprisonment without charge or trial was approved by a PRB in April 2022
The 9 prisoners facing trials
- ISN 10011 Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi
A Saudi, he is one of five men charged in connection with the 9/11 attacks - ISN 10013 Ramzi Bin al-Shibh
A Yemeni, he is one of five men charged in connection with the 9/11 attacks - ISN 10014 Walid Muhammad Salih Bin Attash
A Yemeni, he is one of five men charged in connection with the 9/11 attacks - ISN 10015 Abd al-Rahim Hussein Muhammad Abdah al-Nashiri
A Saudi, he is charged in connection with the attack on the USS Cole in 2000 - ISN 10018 Ammar al-Baluchi
A Pakistani, he is one of five men charged in connection with the 9/11 attacks - ISN 10019 Riduan Isomuddin
An Indonesian, better known as Hambali, he is charged in connection with terrorist attacks in south east Asia - ISN 10021 Mohd Farik Bin Amin
A Malaysian, he is charged in connection with terrorist attacks in south east Asia - ISN 10022 Bashir Bin Lap
A Malaysian, he is charged in connection with terrorist attacks in south east Asia - ISN 10024 Khalid Shaykh Muhammad
A Pakistani, he is one of five men charged in connection with the 9/11 attacks
The 1 prisoner sentenced via a plea deal
- ISN 10026 Nashwan abd al-Razzaq abd al-Baqi
An Iraqi, he agreed to a plea deal in June 2022, and is supposed to be freed next year
The 1 prisoner serving a life sentence after a trial by military commission
- ISN 039 Ali Hamza al-Bahlul
A Yemeni, he was convicted of involvement with Al-Qaeda after a one-sided trial in 2008, in which he refused to mount a defense, and was given a life sentence, most of which has been served in solitary confinement
Note: For further information about the prisoners, see my six-part definitive Guantánamo prisoner list (Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five and Part Six).
