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witness against torture
Witness Against Torture Activists Hold Sit-In at Senator Mitch McConnell's Office
Activists call on McConnell to schedule a vote on the War Powers Act, allowing discussion in the Senate regarding the war on Yemen, and to fully support closure of Guantanamo prison.
Jan 10, 2019
Five human rights activists anticipate being arrested, today, for sitting-in at the office of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. They were among a group of about twenty-five Witness Against Torture activists, many of them clad in orange jumpsuits resembling those worn by prisoners in Guantanamo, who entered the office at 3:00 p.m. They delivered a letter requesting McConnell's assistance on two matters concerning human rights violations.
The letter asks him to "schedule a vote on the War Powers Act to end U.S. military involvement with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in the terror attacks on the people of Yemen." The letter also asks that he use his influence to close down the prison facilities at Guantanamo.
Five people willing to risk arrest are seated in a conference room inside the Senator's office. They choose not to leave until they receive a satisfactory response to their letter.
To speak with participants in the sit-in, call Janice Sevre Duszynska at 859 684 4247.
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Groups Gather Today at Noon at White House to Protest 14th Guantanamo Anniversary
Coalition Demands Obama Step Up Pace of Transfers and Review Boards, Take Charge of Insubordinate DOD, and Finally Close Prison
Jan 11, 2016
Today, a coalition of human rights activists, torture survivors, Guantanamo attorneys, and members of diverse faith communities will hold a rally at the White House to mark the 14th anniversary of the first arrival of detainees at Guantanamo on January 11, 2002.
The coalition is calling on the Obama administration in its last, crucial year in office, to close Guantanamo and end indefinite detention. With recent transfers, 104 men remain at Guantanamo, dozens of them cleared for release, the majority from Yemen.
Schedule:
12:00pm: Interfaith service in front of the White House sponsored by the National Religious Coalition Against Torture
12:30pm: Rally and program in front of the White House, followed by procession
1:45pm: Witness Against Torture lead a "homecoming ceremony" in front of the White House, using pictures of the detained men to implore President Obama to close the prison
Visuals:
* A giant, inflatable figure of Shaker Aamer - the last UK resident held at Guantanamo, released in October. The figure was displayed outside the British Parliament where MPs and celebrities posed with it to press for Mr. Aamer's release.
* A banner with a picture of every hostage still remaining
* Signs, posters, and a "detainee procession" of figures in orange jumpsuits and black hoods
Members of the coalition will share the words of Mr. Aamer and of Mohammed Al Hamiri, Ghaleb Al Bihani, Zaher Hamdoun, and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, all of whom remain at Guantanamo.
Also today, in London, former Guantanamo detainees will join activists, MPs, and celebrities to protest outside the U.S. embassy.
The organizations drafted a call to action:
Last Chance for Leadership: Close Guantanamo
President Obama has just one year left to fulfill his first-term promise by closing Guantanamo and ending indefinite detention. Doing so will demonstrate leadership and fidelity to the principles on which he campaigned and won office.
On January 11, 2016, the prison at Guantanamo will enter its 15th year of operation. More than 100 men remain there; the vast majority will never be charged with crimes. Dozens of prisoners are cleared for transfer. Some remain on hunger strike and are force-fed, and a handful are facing charges in unfair trials. There has been no accountability for the torture that many detainees have suffered.
hough Congress has placed obstacles to closing Guantanamo, President Obama can and should make significant progress towards reducing the population and shuttering the prison. He must order the Secretary of Defense to expedite transfers and accelerate the Periodic Review Board process, and tell the Justice Department not to reflexively oppose habeas petitions in federal court. He must also reject a policy of indefinite detention, and formally try or release all detainees.
In addition, President Obama should order all relevant agencies to read the full Senate torture report. Refusing to read the report, more than a year after receiving it, reflects the "bury your head in the sand" mentality that will prevent the country from adequately learning from its past and permanently ending torture. Further, the Obama administration should prompt the Department of Justice to open a new, comprehensive investigation into the clear acts of criminality described in the report.
Now is the time for Obama to accomplish a central goal of his administration by closing Guantanamo. There is today a renewed climate of fear and hate reminiscent of the post-September 11 mindset that led to torture and indefinite detention in the first place. Guantanamo is the bitter legacy of a politics of fear, which must be rejected.
This is the president's last chance to keep his promise and close Guantanamo. If he does not do so, there is a real chance that the current detainees will die there, and that more detainees will join them.
We cannot let that happen. Close Guantanamo now.
***Sponsors: Amnesty International USA, Bill of Rights Defense Committee and Defending Dissent Foundation, Center for Constitutional Rights, CODEPINK, Council on American-Islamic Relations, CloseGuantanamo.org, Interfaith Action for Human Rights, National Coalition to Protect Civil Freedoms, National Religious Campaign Against Torture, No More Guantanamos, September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition (TASSC), Witness Against Torture, and others.
Organizational Quotes
"Every year, for the last seven years, concerned activists and citizens have called on President Obama to fulfill his promise during his first year in office and demanded that Guantanamo be closed once and for all; every year, these calls have remained unheeded. This is President Obama's final year in office. That means this is also his final opportunity to follow through on his promise, shut down Guantanamo, and restore some semblance of dignity to our justice system. This opportunity must not be left ignored." ~ Dr. Zainab Chaudry, Interfaith Action for Human Rights
"It's not enough for President Obama to say he tried, but that Congress and other obstacles are preventing him from closing Guantanamo. Obama has the authority to make significant progress. He is the Commander in Chief, yet officials within the Department of Defense openly defy his policy objectives and derail closure efforts. He could order the Department of Justice not to fight the habeas petitions of cleared men like 74-lb Tariq Ba Odah, but he hasn't. There are more than 40 men, cleared for release, who could go home today, yet they continue to languish as the prison enters its 15th year. The president has real choices in front of him. Now is the time for him to take meaningful action. The clock is ticking." ~ Aliya Hussain, Center for Constitutional Rights
"In November 2015, a CODEPINK delegation traveled to Guantanamo Bay and met with members of the Cuban government and civil society who are calling for the base to be closed immediately and the land given back to the Cubans. The Cubans are horrified that the United States government has committed torture on their land and continues to indefinitely detain prisoners who have never been charged with any crime. The prison facility within the naval base is a stain on US foreign policy, and we urge President Obama to issue an executive order to close the prison -- and the base -- immediately." ~ Nancy Mancias, organizer, CODEPINK
"One day let alone 14 years is too long for the U.S. to imprison one hundred men at Guantanamo without charge or trial. For seven years the president has promised to close this prison - a blemish on our nation's commitment to the rule of law - yet the situation has not improved. We are responsible for safeguarding the constitutional values which are meant to protect all Americans, persons who reside in the U.S., and those in our custody from the abuses of indefinite detention and lack of due process. We must shut down Guantanamo." ~ Nihad Awad, national executive director, Council on American-Islamic Relations
"It must be stated clearly and boldly that the premise upon which Guantanamo Bay prison exists is illegal. Moreover, the prison symbolizes the ways in which Muslims have been dehumanized, while at the same time, criminalizing the Muslim identity by virtue of housing a population of men adhering to Islam. While the number of prisoners has decreased from its height at 779 to 104, it is disturbing that the United States government continues to house men cleared for release while holding others hostage in protracted military commissions that seemingly have no resolution in sight. We call on President Obama to close the prison once and for all and end the destructive policies of the War on Terror that have so callously targeted Muslims." ~ Dr. Maha Hilal, executive director, National Coalition to Protect Civil Freedoms
"After fourteen years, our experience with an official policy of detaining suspected terrorists without trial has not brought us security, but only more fear, more terrorism and worst of all, a deep stain on our honor and debasement of our most basic values. It's long past time for us to end this inhumane and profoundly ineffective experiment with lawlessness." ~ Bruce Miller, president, No More Guantanamos
"As an organization that serves torture survivors from all over the world, TASSC is appalled by the fact that Guantanamo -synonymous with a U.S. torture chamber - is still open after 14 years. During his last year in office, President Obama should honor his promise to finally close this facility and either release the detainees or transfer them to other locations where they have access to justice." ~ Gizachew Emiru, Esq., executive director, Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition (TASSC)
"As Guantanamo enters its fifteenth year of operation, there is a real risk it is becoming a permanent offshore prison for an endless global war. The longer Guantanamo stays open, the more likely it is to become a fixture of U.S. counterterrorism--and a permanent system of American injustice. President Obama has just one year left in office to make good on his commitment to close Guantanamo. His human rights legacy, and that of the nation, are on the line. It won't be easy, but President Obama can and must come through." ~ Naureen Shah, director of Amnesty International USA's Security With Human Rights Program
"Guantanamo is a moral disaster zone where the U.S. tortured people and continues to hold people without charge or trial, some for more than a decade. It would be a grave sin and a national disgrace for President Obama to leave office without closing Guantanamo." ~ Rev. Ron Stief, executive director, National Religious Campaign Against Torture
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A Most Unhappy New Year at Guantanamo
Dec 31, 2015
As the clock counts down to the New Year and the world welcomes 2016, another clock will continue ticking, counting the days, hours, minutes and seconds since May 23, 2013, the day President Barack Obama promised to free all those prisoners at the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay who have been cleared for release.
That clock was created by independent journalist Andy Worthington and is on the Internet at gtmoclock.com. Jan. 22, will mark the seventh anniversary of the day Obama signed Executive Order 13492, ordering the closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison within one year.
As Obama's time in the White House winds down, the prospects of closing the notorious gulag grow bleaker. Currently there are 107 men imprisoned there, 48 of whom have been cleared for release for almost six years. While the Republican-led Congress has long thwarted efforts to close the island prison, Reuters recently reported that the Pentagon itself, which is supposed to be under the civilian control of Commander-in-Chief Obama, may be resisting the order to close Guantanamo.
Obama's executive order in 2009 created the Guantanamo Review Task Force, chaired by then-Attorney General Eric Holder. It included representatives from the Departments of Justice, Defense, State, Homeland Security, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. All prisoners cleared for release have received unanimous consent from those authorities. While some of those prisoners have been released, it shocks the conscience to think that scores of men are suffering indefinite detention with no charges against them, many held for more than a decade.
Tariq Ba Odah is one of those men who was cleared for release. "He was assigned to Guantanamo in February of 2002. He's nearing the 14-year mark of indefinite detention, nearly nine years of that time on hunger strike and detained in solitary confinement," his attorney, Omar Farah of the Center for Constitutional Rights, told us on the Democracy Now! news hour. "The president has to insist that the Department of Defense and all other agencies fall in line behind what he says is his objective and ensure that Mr. Ba Odah is released immediately."
The hunger strike Farah described has reduced Tariq Ba Odah to a shadow of his former self. "I visited Mr. Ba Odah in March and April of this year and found him in utterly disastrous physical condition," Omar Farah said. "According to the government, not me, Mr. Ba Odah is just 74 and a half pounds, and that's 56 percent of his safe body weight." Ba Odah is forcibly fed twice daily through a nose tube. The force with which the U.S. military jailers insert the tube causes extreme pain, and has been deemed torture by the United Nations Human Rights Commission.
Tariq Ba Odah is from Yemen, but, because of the civil war there, the Obama administration will not release Yemenis directly to their home nation. Farah told us: "There is a foreign country, a third country, ready to accept him and help provide him medical care and rehabilitate him. This is a person who's desperately, desperately ill. And the last step of that negotiated release, it seems, is the simple task of forwarding his medical records." The Pentagon refuses to release his medical records, citing privacy rules. "That's a lie. And it's a bad lie," Farah told us. "I sat with Mr. Ba Odah while he provided his informed written consent to release his medical records to me as his counsel and also for the specific purpose of negotiating his release."
Reuters reporters Charles Levinson and David Rohde (the former New York Times reporter who was held captive by the Taliban in Afghanistan for seven months, until he escaped) cite Ba Odah's case in their latest article, writing, "Pentagon officials have been throwing up bureaucratic obstacles to thwart the president's plan to close Guantanamo."
While the Pentagon says it will release the first of 17 prisoners in January, you never know. However, what you can be sure of, like clockwork, peace activists from Witness Against Torture, wearing orange jumpsuits like the Guantanamo prisoners, will vigil as they do every Jan. 22 to mark the anniversary of Obama's executive order to close Guantanamo.
Last Thanksgiving, a delegation from Witness Against Torture went to Cuba, within view of the U.S. base, to hold a symbolic "Forced-Feeding, Not Feasting at Guantanamo." They described their action: "Twelve persons, all fasting for the day, sat at a table in front of empty plates to represent the terrible pain endured by hunger strikers, past and present, at Guantanamo. At the head of the table, one member dressed as a detained man sat in front of the terrible apparatus of forced feeding." They also wore orange jumpsuits, and each spoke about their reasons for coming. After each speaker, the group sang:
"Courage, Muslim brother
You do not walk alone
We will walk with you
And sing your spirit home."
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