Chris,
Hi Friends — we're pushing for more events to
Close Guantanamo on Friday May 23. Yes, it's the day before Memorial Day weekend, but importantly, it's one year since Obama promised again to close Guantanamo. As our friend Chuck in Albany pointed out yesterday at a rally against solitary confinement, that ain't happened.
Visible protest is really important. You can get out on the street with a few people and signs, and still — because of the significance of the day — still get media coverage and notice. Take the example of the Close Guantanamo Coalition in Chicago who has been demonstrating in orange jumpsuits every Friday. They always talk to people who are surprised — and interested — to know what the U.S. is doing in Guantanamo.
Let's hear from more cities where readers of this newsletter live! Los Angeles, Seattle, San Diego, Houston, Miami, Atlanta, Madison, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Iowa City, St. Louis, Rochester, Buffalo, Syracuse, Philadelphhia, Richmond, Charlotte, Portland ME... and dozens of other cities, campuses, and towns. We could easily double the number of locations of protests on May 23. Who's down for this?
Write me!
We will send you flyers, posters to print, orange jumpsuits, buttons, press release templates. What else do you need?
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Chuck Nasmith of Averill Park protests the state prison system Monday with the New York State Prisoner Justice Network and Capitol Area Against Mass Incarceration in cooperation with more than 40 prison justice organizations across New York. Photo: troyrecord.com.
Stop the Torture! Close Guantanamo! End the War Crimes and Violations of Fundamental Rights!
166 men remain imprisoned at Guantanamo. Most are on hunger strike and for many it is more than 100 days that they have been refusing food. Some are near death, many imprisoned for more than ten years. They have lost hope of ever being released, although a majority were cleared to leave years ago. As Adnan Latif, a detainee, wrote during an earlier hunger strike, "Where is the world to save us from torture? Where is the world to save the hunger strikers?" Mr. Latif was cleared for release as well, but he died in September 2012, still waiting for justice.
President Obama had said nothing about Guantanamo for years. Facing a growing outcry, he blames Congress for blocking closure. Even under Congress’ existing criteria, however, Obama could have released most of the detainees years ago. He closed the office responsible for processing prisoners’ releases; made it harder for lawyers to meet with their clients by recently banning commercial flights to the prison and barring emergency calls by attorneys to the detainees; ordered forced feeding through excruciating means and by strapping prisoners down (a violation of medical ethics and torture in itself); and authorized an April 13, 2013 assault in which guards fired rubber bullets on hunger strikers. Obama does not need Congressional approval: as Commander-in-Chief, he has the power to shut the prison down now.
The continuing torture at Guantanamo is part of larger and alarming developments. When he ran for office, Obama promised to restore the rule of law. Instead he has claimed and exercised unchecked executive powers beyond what George Bush used. He refuses to prosecute officials for their use of torture, yet aggressively prosecutes any whistle-blowers who expose war crimes, most flagrantly in the torture, slander and draconian legal charges against Bradley Manning. By signing the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012, Obama made indefinite detention, based on merely an accusation, the law of the land. These actions amount to institutionalizing and, in important respects, escalating the “Bush Doctrine.”
In the name of “security,” our government has tortured at least one hundred people to death. In the name of the “war on terror,” thousands have been detained without a chance to face their accusers or even know what charges they are held under. In opposition to international law, Obama has implemented a policy of killing with drones across sovereign borders, deciding who will die by Hellfire missiles - without charges, trials, or any evidence other than what only Obama and his close advisers deem sufficient. At least 176 children have been killed by drones in Pakistan alone and between 3-4,000 non-combatants have died in drone attacks. John Bellinger, who drafted Bush’s justifications for targeted killings, concludes that the Obama administration has decided to kill people with drones so that they don’t have to imprison them.
Fundamental civil liberties have been eviscerated. In the name of safety, fear, or revenge, American presidents cannot be allowed to arrogate to themselves the power of judge, jury and executioner. Actions that utilize de facto torture, that run roughshod over the rule of law and due process, and that rain down terror and murder on peoples and nations, amount to war crimes. Such actions cannot in any way be morally justified in the name of “protecting Americans.” The lives of people living here are not more precious than any other people's lives.
It is up to the people to stand up for principle and morality when their institutions and public officials refuse to do so. The fates of those who are maimed or killed by our government’s policies are inextricably intertwined with our own: we must listen and respond to their cry for justice. We demand the release of the cleared Guantanamo prisoners now, and an end to indefinite detention without charge for the others, before they lose their lives.*
*Obama has been using preventive detention – holding people indefinitely on the grounds that they might do something bad – which is an express violation of the principles under which due process and the rule of law operate: you should not be punished for something that you have not done. He announced this policy publicly in a May 9, 2009 speech at the National Archives. See here for a further discussion of this and other related points.
Read and share the statement above, published one year ago in The New York Times.
Global Day of Action to Close Guantánamo & End Indefinite Detention
On May 23, 2013, President Obama again promised to close the prison camp at Guantánamo. His pledge came in response to the mass hunger strike by men protesting their indefinite detention and to the renewed, global condemnation of the prison.
Since Obama’s speech, only 12 men have been released. 154 remain, nearly all of whom have never been charged with a crime. 76 were cleared for release by the US government years ago. 56 men are from Yemen, the largest national group at Guantánamo, but they remain subject to an effective moratorium on their release based on their nationality. No one from Yemen has been freed since the May speech. And the Senate report on CIA torture has still not been made public.
Up to 40 men at Guantánamo continue to hunger strike, and many are being subjected to forced feeding — a practice condemned by international human rights organizations, medical associations, and members of the US Congress. New lawsuits in US courts lay bare the extreme cruelty of the forced feeding at Guantánamo. To quell the public outcry against the prison, the US military in December 2013 stopped reporting the numbers of hunger strikers. More recently, it has classified their protest, in Orwellian fashion, as “long term non-religious fasting.”
Read more...
The May 23 Day of Action is being coordinated by Witness Against Torture in collaboration with Amnesty International, Blue Lantern Project,Center for Constitutional Rights, CloseGitmo.net, Code Pink, London Guantanamo Campaign, National Religious Campaign Against Torture,Torture Abolition and Survivor Support Coalition, Veterans for Peace, World Can’t Wait, September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, No More Guantanamos, and others.
Contact
[email protected] if your organization would like to sign-on as an endorser.
Facebook event: invite your friends!
Albany Facebook Event; Baltimore; Boston Facebook Event; Chicago Facebook event; Cleveland; Dallas; Grand Rapids; Hartford; Honolulu; Memphis; New Haven Facebook Event; New York City Facebook Event; Raleigh Facebook Event; Oklahoma City Facebook Event; Pioneer Valley, MA; Portland, OR; San Francisco; Tiffin, OH; Toledo; Tuscon; Washington, DC Facebook Event; Worcester, MA Facebook Event
International events: London Facebook Event, Mexico City, Munich Facebook Event; Sydney, Toronto Facebook Event
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The Impossibility of Being Released from Guantánamo
Andy Worthington writes about the periodic review boards Obama set up for the "forever" prisoners who the government has not chosen to charge, but also won't release:
For Ali Ahmad al-Razihi, a Yemeni prisoner at Guantánamo, a wish he has cherished for the last 12 years was granted on Wednesday, when a Periodic Review Board, made up of representatives of the Departments of State, Defense, Justice and Homeland Security, as well as the office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, recommended his release from the prison. The unclassified summary of the board’s final determination states, “The Periodic Review Board, by consensus, determined continued law of war detention of the detainee is no longer necessary to protect against a continuing significant threat to the security of the United States.”
However, in a vivid demonstration that the prison at Guantánamo Bay remains a profoundly unjust place, over 12 years since it first opened, it is not known when — if ever — he will actually be released.
Because — he's from Yemen. Outrageous!
Phony Justice in a Phony War
L. Michael Hager writes:
Once again the legitimacy of the judicial process at Guantanamo is called into question, this time by the interference of a US government agency. The New York Times of April 19, 2014, reported that "two weeks ago, a pair of FBI agents appeared unannounced at the door of a member of the defense team for one of the men accused of plotting the 9/11 terrorist attacks." They asked questions about the legal teams for some of the accused terrorists due to stand trial before the military commissions - courts designed to provide the appearance, but not the substance, of a fair trial. The FBI's "covert inquiry" was a serious breach of attorney-client privilege, showing that even the government disdains the process.
Debra Sweet, Director, The World Can't Wait
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Thursday May 15: Conversation with Carlos Warner, a federal defender and attorney for Guantanamo prisoners, as we prepare for protests May 23 to Close Guantanamo NOW.
Follow Carlos on Twitter: @Carlos_Warner. Recent Tweet:
Everyone has a Constitutional Right to be a fool- Palin: ‘Waterboarding is how we baptize terrorists’
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This Saturday, May 10 in Berkeley, join us (World Can't Wait and many others) to PROTEST at the Berkeley Law Commencement!
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7:30 AM: Meet up at Kroeber Plaza fountain
Bancroft Way & College Avenue
8 - 9 AM: Flyer Commencement guests
Hearst Greek Theatre 2001 Gayley Road
Why protest with us? Why make the early morning trek to Berkeley -- this year, even more so than last? (And if you have come with World Can't Wait every graduation since the Bush Years, why should you return for the 2014 graduation?)
Find out...