Alfred,
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?
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 WitnessTorture@gmail.com 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 HavenFacebook 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
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.
|
|
Share this message:
|
 |
 |
World Can't Wait Conversations:
10pm Eastern / 7pm Pacific
 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’ http://politicalticker…
This Saturday, May 10 in Berkeley, join us (World Can't Wait and many
others) to PROTEST at the Berkeley Law Commencement!
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...
|
|
No comments:
Post a Comment