Witness Against Torture

Our Lives Begin To End The Day We Become Silent About Things That Matter

Gerald — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 12:54:16 -0600

Short Information Teaser

Message from Witness Against Torture in Washington Plus Sentencing Statements from Those Arrested June 23 for Protesting inside the House of Representatives

Excerpt

A procession of roughly 40 people in jumpsuits, accompanied by guides and supporters, marched two by two to the White House one more time. The men and women in jumpsuits were arranged along the fence encircling the White House, in the “picture postcard” zone, creating what Paki called an “orange out,” obscuring the iconic view of the president’s mansion.

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WAT 2012 – “HUNGERING FOR JUSTICE”

DAY 10 – JANUARY 12, 2012

Dear Friends,

Being together in community allows us to support one another, challenge one another, and collectively push limits. So on our final day of fasting, on the heels of a beautiful gathering of hundreds for January 11th we decided that rather than relax and reflect, we would continue to push forward.

I begin this letter with a full stomach, having recently returned from a delicious and abundant fast-breaking meal hosted by friends at America University’s Washington College of Law. Breaking the fast was a strange time of intermingled celebration and mourning. Along with dinner there was a panel discussion led by Juan Mendez, the Special Rapporteur on torture for the UN, Frida, and Matt. While commending our actions, and those of others advocating for closure of Guantanamo and an end to torture, he shared the dismal news that not only have things not gotten better since he spoke with us last year, but they have gotten worse. And yet, he persists in his efforts to uncover and confront illegal and inhuman acts of torture perpetrated by government’s around the world, including our own. Frida offered a simple and elegant summary of our time here together in D.C. It was a time focused on four things – the trial for the June 23rd action, the 92-hour cage vigil, the January 11 rally, and today’s action. In the coming days we will try to compile some reflections and analysis of our time together in DC, but for now, we share a final daily run-down.

Following our final morning reflection, led beautifully by Chrissy, we rolled out of the church and over to the Superior Court. There we heard sentencing statements (all included below) from Judith, Brian and Carmen, finally able to speak openly about what it is that brought them to trial with an eloquence and sincerity that brought many in the court room to tears. The defendants were given the sentence of 5 days jail time, suspended; 6 months unsupervised probation; 30 hours of community service or $300 to a charity of their choice; a stay away order from Capitol grounds, and $50 to the victims of violent crimes compensation fund. Following the sentencing statements, the standing room only courtroom broke into gentle song… “Courage, Muslim brothers, you do not walk alone. We will, walk with you. And sing, your spirit home,” as we slowly processed out and onto our final action of our time together.

We moved from the court house to the White House with a brief stop at Freedom Plaza to pick up the cage we’d deposited there after the January 11th rally. A procession of roughly 40 people in jumpsuits, accompanied by guides and supporters, marched two by two to the White House one more time. The men and women in jumpsuits were arranged along the fence encircling the White House, in the “picture postcard” zone, creating what Paki called an “orange out,” obscuring the iconic view of the president’s mansion. While those not willing to risk arrest slowly drifted from this zone (where it is forbidden for more than 25 people to stand) 36 remained and after roughly three hours were arrested. Those standing aside in support shared their presence and also words announcing our reasons for taking this stand, namely, the men who remain at Guantanamo. We alternately read the name of each detainee from a list followed by the chant, “we remember you,” read stories from the few we’ve been able to collect backgrounds on and sang, “Courage, Muslim brothers, you do not walk alone. We will, walk with you. And sing, your spirit home.” There was some concern that the long delay between assembling for action and arrest was a strain on those standing in formation. There was concern too that this might prohibit us from breaking this fast as a full community if friend we processed late into the night.

In the end, we all were able to gather tonight and share our first meal together. The event was a closure to this trip, but not to this movement. As Frida said during the panel, “We go home knowing there is a lot of work to be done.” Not much has changed, she conceded, “from a policy perspective,” but our presence and actions here these last ten days, have been both faithful and effective. Many people have been touched, people in the court room and the court house, on the streets, at institutions of power, in this church, amongst our community here and those we remain connected to back home, and perhaps most importantly, in the Guantanamo Bay detention center. Giving thanks for the food, Frida concluded, “this food will nourish us so we can go home and continue the work.” And so we shall.

In Peace, Witness Against Torture

Link to Witness Against Torture’s Website

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Brian Hynes’ Sentencing Statement
January 12, 2012

Judge Fisher: I am Shaker Aamer, aka Brian Hynes. In the interest of justice I request a sentence of time served. I acted on June 23rd in the tradition of civil resistance to injustice. This tradition is to be cherished in a free republic and any fines imposed on me amount to a poll tax for following in that tradition. I would urge you not to impose them.

I have a three part statement to make:

1) I must acknowledge the respect your court shows to all of the defendants brought here. I also acknowledge the respect and fair hearing I personally have received in my bumbling pro se defense. Thank you. The urgent need for, and far reaching social utility of judicial due process are lietmotifs of this trial. You and your clerks and staff clearly promote these goods and I thank all of you.

2) I was willing to accept some sanction for appealing to the House of Representatives on June 23rd and while our removal is understandable, our arrest and charge under this statute was not. The court gave the minimum sanction to sober, informed, cooperative, earnest actions in a campaign of resistance to an ongoing illegal detention regime. We spoke in the people’s house that laws were being broken and were about to be broken by that body. This is a democratic act—it is a democratic process and our charges are grossly out of line with these facts. Like the practice of lynching in the 20th century, Guantanamo is illegal and ongoing. The continued attempts of concerned citizens to redress Guantanamo is not criminal behavior. It places the government and judiciary in crisis, but we did not cause this—we reveal it.

3) I return to an early argument made in this court and deepen its focus and consequences. From the standpoint of the First Amendment and petitioning of our government; while reasonable limits on this right are settled law, the limits are not absolute. To judge our behavior on a standard of tourists in the people’s house reduces the public gallery to an item on a visitors map. The House is indeed the center of power that maintains an illegal regime of military detention, Guantanamo and the undeclared drone wars in Pakistan and Yemen- the extrajudicial execution of U.S. citizens as an aspect of these undeclared wars are a contradiction of the rights of the sovereign people of the United States. I have the unenumerated right to live in a country that abides by its own laws. Article 6—the supremacy clause of our Constitution—underscores that each of us, including you Judge Fisher, are bound by our international obligations against violating national sovereignty with torture and indefinite detention, These contradictions to our own laws and international obligations are the crisis that makes our behavior legitimate—indeed commendable.

The fact that Shaker Aamer, after ten years, has not had his day in court, made our action necessary.

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Sentencing Statement by Judith Kelly
January 12, 2012

“OUR LIVES BEGIN TO END THE DAY WE BECOME SILENT ABOUT THINGS THAT MATTER. Martin Luther King, Jr.”

Judge Fisher, thank you very much for conducting a fair and orderly trial. I personally feel honored to be here, despite family circumstances that prevented me from participating fully. Between the June 23 nonviolent direct action in the House Gallery and this trial, my mother passed, quite suddenly, on Oct. 20. I did not have the necessary energy for trial preparation, but I agreed to stay on as a silent co-defendant. I thank the original co-defendants and our attorney advisors for their patience and understanding. I believe any of the co-defendants could be standing here and would do justice to this important opportunity. [Co-defendants, please stand]

My solidarity with the Guantanamo prisoners dates from August of 2005 when I signed a petition developed by Fr. Joseph Mulligan, a Jesuit priest in Managua, Nicaragua, that called for international religious leaders and people of faith to fast in support of the Guantanamo prisoners on hunger strike. The prisoners were using their own bodies as their sole means of resistance. I did a liquids-only fast from August 10-20. Since then I have tried to maintain a Friday fast. There are many in the room fasting in solidarity with the Guantanamo prisoners who are on hunger strike right now. [Fasters, please stand]

When the core group of 25 Catholic activists went to Cuba in December 2005, I followed their activities carefully and joined Witness Against Torture in 2006, participating in actions every year since. Despite all my best efforts –with arrests at the Supreme Court, the White House and the Capitol steps –this is the first time I have been before a court and found guilty. That I am in court at the tenth year since the creation of the Guantanamo concentration camp is important to me as I am now officially on the record for resisting this shameful stain on our country.

On June 23, 2011, I felt a real sense of urgency to participate, given the disturbing language on Guantanamo in the Defense Appropriations Bill. I felt our action would be timely, relevant and, in a sense, necessary to prevent a greater crime. I believed our statement had to be read to Congress and those with strong voices tried to do so. I chose to say something else, just once: “We walk in shame and grief and anger.” I did speak out to the many representatives, staffers and visitors on the House floor, but with all the noise in that cavernous hall, I don’t believe my voice carried very far. The jeers and boos I heard coming from the House floor drowned out the message I tried to deliver. Before being escorted out of the gallery, I also called out: Please, close Guantanamo!

I especially wanted to be part of this action in June in response to my travel with a peace delegation to Afghanistan in March with Voices for Creative Nonviolence. Several of my co-defendants and friends also traveled there and we established strong bonds with the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers, who seek an end to the war through nonviolence.

My experience in Afghanistan motivated me to attend a series in Maryland on Christian/Muslim matters in June. Imam Johari Abdul-Malik of the Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church spoke on June 20, and I raised a difficult question with him about his predecessor, Imam Anwar Al-Awlaki, who had spoken at an interfaith panel I attended in Oct. 2001. I remember that I agreed with his critique of US policies in the Middle East. How had he become so radicalized that the US had him on its “target list?” Imam Johari told us that he truly believed that his friend Al-Awlaki, a US citizen of Yemeni heritage, was a moderate in 2001, but that his arrest and torture in Yemen (that he believed to be at the bidding of the US government) changed him into a radical anti-American. Anwar Al-Awlaki was on my mind when I spoke up in the House Gallery on June 23.

As we now know, Anwar Al-Awlaki was killed, with several others, in a US drone strike in Yemen in late September. The death of this US citizen and the lack of any due process must be condemned. The recent approval by Congress of the National Defense Authorization Act that permits the indefinite detention of US citizens and that keeps the remaining 171 prisoners in Guantanamo indefinitely must also be condemned.

I appreciate very much being able to speak about these, as King would say, “things that matter.” I cannot be silent. My heritage is Polish, and Lech Walesa, the leader of the Solidarity movement in Poland in the 1980s, once said, “I just keep doing the same things, and some days they lock me up and some days they give me the Nobel Prize.” I trust that someday our persistent actions with Witness Against Torture will be recognized.

Judge Fisher, I believe that you are very fair, and perhaps even supportive of our efforts. You praised the jury for completing their civic responsibilities, and rightly so. I suggest you consider our efforts as part of our civic duty as concerned and committed US citizens. As to my case, I respectfully ask that you sentence me to time served. If you must impose a fine, I hope that I can support a worthy cause that we can agree on.

I wish you and our prosecutors well in the pursuit of justice. May we each take our piece of the truth and grow it into something we can all be proud of. I’ll close with Corinthians II, verse 6:3-10.

We take pains to avoid giving offense to anyone, for we don’t want our ministry to be blamed. Instead, in all that we do we try to present ourselves as ministers of God, acting with patient endurance amid trials, difficulties, distresses, beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger. We conduct ourselves with innocence, knowledge, patience and kindness in the Holy Spirit, in sincere love, with the message of truth and the power of God, wielding the weapons of justice with both right hand and left –regardless of whether we are honored or dishonored, spoken of favorably or unfavorably. We are called impostors, yet we are truthful; we are called unknowns, yet we are famous; we are said to be dying, yet we are alive; punished, but not put to death; sorrowful, though we are always rejoicing; poor, yet we enrich many. We seem to have nothing yet we possess everything!

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Carmen Trotta’s Sentencing Statement
January 12, 2012

Shaker Aamer is a prisoner at Guantánamo. He has been held there without charge or trial for every one of that peculiar institution’s ten years. A British resident, Aamer has a ten-year-old boy he has never met. He is at death’s door as we speak, if we do not decry his current condition we may be complicit in his murder.

Like the vast majority of the 779 prisoners that have passed through Guantánamo, and (according to the Obama administration itself) the majority of the prisoners presently held, Mr. Aamer is guilty of nothing but being in the wrong place at the wrong time and being Muslim.

Judge Fisher, I assume, you recall the delayed release of the photographs from Abu Ghraib in 2004. The mêlée of a different generation, these images seared our consciences. We do well to remember, Judge Fisher, that a second set of photos has never been released. They are kept from the American people, a national security secret, because they are deemed to dismaying to look upon. Let us remember, because surely we know less that half of what has gone on at Guantánamo.

Subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and torture, in 2005 Shaker Aamer organized a hunger strike at Guantánamo. A charismatic leader and an English speaker, after weeks of fasting, Mr. Aamer was able to negotiate an end to the fast, having gained certain concessions from the base. Just a few weeks later the concessions were withdrawn and Mr. Aamer went back on strike.

I should mention that it was this first hunger strike, a call for mercy by a beleaguered group of Muslim men to what they consider the Christian world, which offered almost no response – this hunger strike led myself and twenty-four friends to travel to Cuba, to, as Jesus taught, visit the prisoners in December 2005.

In 2006, we have good reason to believe, Mr. Aamer was subjected to a torture session with three other prisoner: Yasser al Zahrani, Mani al Utaybi and Ali Abdullah Ahmed. Those last three prisoners (all cleared for release at the time) all died during the torture session.

According to the military version of these events, the three prisoners, highly trained al Qaeda operatives, had committed simultaneous suicide, as a “publicity stunt,” an act of “asymmetrical warfare” against the American people. Informed voices – lawyers, ex-Guantánamo prisoners and investigative journalists – believe that Shaker Aamer is being held at Guantánamo to suppress his knowledge of these events.

We call for his immediate release, Judge Fisher, and we ask you to join us.

I lament that a jury of American citizens would not immediately nullify a case against nonviolent protesters, protesting the existence of the interrogation center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. I am not, however, surprised for two reasons. I believe it is still true that the average citizen of the United States still receives their news about the wider world from mainstream media outlets, which is to say Corporate-controlled media. They have very definite, anti-democratic interests. The media coverage of Guantánamo, with rare exception, has been atrocious. For me, with eight years of the Bush administration, the American people were told incessantly that the prisoners at Guantánamo represented the “worst of the worst”! One military commander, when asked why the prisoners were cuffed, shackled, strapped, hooded and put in ear muffs when transported, responded that “these men are so dangerous that they would gnaw through the hydraulic lines of a C137 aircraft to being it down, just to kill Americans.” It is this absurd mentality, or perhaps spurious affectation put on by the hawks in the Pentagon and that wake of vultures that is Congress, that prevails because it is not subject to serious critique, or any critique at all in the media.

And thus the general public is dumbed down and the hysterical politics of the present proceed apace. These are the politics of the very Congress we attempted to petition. It was attempting to pass legislation that would make it nearly impossible to transfer the prisoners presently in Guantánamo anywhere, including to courts in the United States, where they could be tried. Because, ostensibly, these highly-trained al Qaeda operatives are super human in their powers and would be a threat to the American populace. Again, the real threat to be American people is the narcotic, hypnotic power of the Big Lie, and the conformity of so many elements of civil society to that lie.

The antidote to the Big Lie, to Propaganda – the crude politics rightly and eschewed by the courts – is the truth and the search thereof; in our case, by an impartial judge and jury. The judge is trained in the law as an ever-evolving development of human civilization. Our Constitution, of course, chief among these developments, is the revolutionary document of a democratic experiment, generous and optimistic regarding human capacities.

This court could have served as a vital democratic forum, robustly fulfilling its role in the balance of powers, if it had allowed itself to explore the question that the defendants tried to put to it. To wit: is it possible that a variety of circumstances could be such as to allow that speaking out a critique of proposed legislation in the House gallery might be recognized as a valid form of petitioning our government for redress of grievances?

Unfortunately – and this is the second reason that I am not surprised – you seem to have ruled the question out in advance. I can only speculate that you do so in conformity to the strictures of an atrophied professional culture. Decent judges seem to blanche at the term “judicial activism”, and leaving the field of play open to the radical statist reactionaries like those who have gutted habeas corpus of all meaning.

No, Judge Fisher, we were neither a group of tourists, nor mere visitors in the House gallery on June 23rd; we were a group of engaged and responsible citizens, who acted in the extraordinary circumstances of the present. We knew from the beginning that our petition, our witness, would not be limited to the Chamber of the House, but would extend to the court too. We petition you to join us. If the courts were healthy, George Bush’s ploy to create an offshore interrogation center where prisoners could be tortured and experimented on beyond the reach of the constitution would have been laughed away as an adolescent prank. Instead, as it stands, it may be deemed a political masterstroke.

As I mentioned at trial, Guantánamo remains a metastasizing cancer. I beg you to consider in depth the NDAA of 2012. Guantánamo has come home and we hope you’ll fight it.

As far as sentencing, Judge Fisher, you must follow your conscience. I think I deserve a commendation along with my codefendants. Indeed, I lament that an American judge would not, at this point, immediately nullify any sentence against nonviolent protesters, protesting Guantánamo. And while I am not surprised, I remain hopeful.

Link to Witness Against Torture’s Website

Guantánamo Prisoners Stage Peaceful Protest and Hunger Strike on 10th Anniversary of the Opening of the Prison

Gerald — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 09:29:41 -0600

Short Information Teaser

By Andy Worthington

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by Andy Worthington
January 10, 2012

Today, prisoners at Guantánamo will embark on a peaceful protest, involving sit-ins and hunger strikes, to protest about their continued detention, and the continued existence of the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, three years after President Obama came to office promising to close it within a year, and to show their appreciation of the protests being mounted on their behalf by US citizens, who are gathering in Washington D.C. on Wednesday to stage a rally and march to urge the President to fulfill his broken promise.

Ramzi Kassem, a law professor at the City University of New York, and one of the attorneys for Shaker Aamer, the last British resident in Guantánamo, said that his client, who is held in isolation in Camp 5, told him on his last visit that the prisoners would embark on a peaceful protest and hunger strike for three days, from Jan. 10 to 12, to protest about the President’s failure to close Guantánamo as promised.

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by Andy Worthington
January 10, 2012

He explained that the men intended to inform the Officer in Charge ahead of the protest, to let the authorities know why there would be protests, and added that the prisoners were encouraged by the “expression of solidarity” from US citizens planning protests on Jan. 11, the 10th anniversary of the opening of the prison. Kassem also said that another of his clients, in Camp 6, where most of the prisoners are held, and where, unlike Camp 5, they are allowed to socialize, stated that prisoners throughout the blocks were “extremely encouraged” by reports of the protests in Washington D.C.

The prisoner, who does not wish to be identified, also said that banners and signs had been prepared, and that there would be peaceful sit-ins in the communal areas. He added that the prisoners were concerned to let the outside world know that they still reject the injustice of their imprisonment, and feel that it is particularly important to let everyone know this, when the US government, under President Obama, is trying to persuade the world that “everything is OK” at Guantánamo, and that the prison is a humane, state of the art facility.

He also explained that the prisoners invited the press to come to Guantánamo and to request interviews with the prisoners, to hear about “the toll of a decade” of detention without charge or trial, and said that they “would like nothing more” than to have an independent civilian and medical delegation, accompanied by the press, be allowed to come and talk to the 171 men still held. In Camp 5, Shaker Aamer and the other men still held there will not be able to stage a sit-in, as they are unable to leave their cells, but they will participate in the protests by refusing meals.

No one knows how the authorities will respond to the protests, especially as the new commander of Guantánamo, Navy Rear Adm. David Woods, has gained a reputation for punishing even the most minor infractions of the rules with solitary confinement.

According to Kassem, prisoners have complained that the new regime harks back to the worst days of Guantánamo, between 2002 and 2004, when punishments for non-cooperation were widespread.

Of the 171 men still held at Guantánamo, 89 were “approved for transfer” out of Guantánamo by a Task Force of career officials and lawyers from the various government departments and the intelligence agencies, and yet they remain held because of Congressional opposition and President Obama’s unwillingness to tackle his critics. 36 others were recommended for trials, and 46 others were designated for indefinite detention without charge pr trial, on the basis that they are too dangerous to release, but that there is insufficient evidence against them to put them on trial.

That is a disgraceful position for the government to take, as indefinite detention on the basis of information that cannot be used as evidence indicates that the information is either tainted by torture, or is unreliable hearsay. It remains unacceptable that President Obama approved the indefinite detention of these men in an executive order last March, even though he also promised that their cases would be subject to periodic review.

Just as disgraceful, however, is the fact that all of the 171 prisoners still at Guantánamo face indefinite detention, as none of them can leave the prison given the current restrictions. That ought to trouble anyone who cares about justice and fairness, and the protests by the prisoners, on the 10th anniversary of the opening of Guantánamo, ought to convey, more eloquently than any other method, why the pressure to close the prison must be maintained.

Andy Worthington is the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison

Witness Against Torture Press Conference January 1, 2012

Gerald — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 20:21:15 -0600

Short Information Teaser

Anti-Torture Activists to go on Trial for Speaking Out Against Guantánamo, Indefinite Detention and the NDAA

Excerpt

WITNESS AGAINST TORTURE

Press Advisory, For Immediate Release

January 3, 2012

Press Contacts:

Frida Berrigan, , 347-638-4928

Helen Schietinger, , 202-344-5762

Jeremy Varon, , 732-979-3119

ANTI-TORTURE ACTIVISTS TO GO ON TRIAL FOR SPEAKING OUT AGAINST GUANTANAMO, INDEFINITE DETENTION, AND THE NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT (NDAA)

PRESS CONFERENCE SCHEDULED FOR WEDNESDAY, 1/4

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WITNESS AGAINST TORTURE

Press Advisory, For Immediate Release

January 3, 2012

Press Contacts:

Frida Berrigan, , 347-638-4928

Helen Schietinger, , 202-344-5762

Jeremy Varon, , 732-979-3119

ANTI-TORTURE ACTIVISTS TO GO ON TRIAL FOR SPEAKING OUT AGAINST GUANTANAMO, INDEFINITE DETENTION, AND THE NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT (NDAA)

PRESS CONFERENCE SCHEDULED FOR WEDNESDAY, 1/4

DEFENDANTS TO PUT GUANTANAMO AND TORTURE ON TRIAL

A jury trial for five anti-torture activists begins on Tuesday, January 3, 2012 in D.C. Superior Court before Judge Fisher. They are charged with unlawful conduct in the citizen’s gallery at the House of Representatives on June 23, 2011, and face jail time if convicted.

“Our strategy is to put Guantanamo on trial,” says Josie Setzler, a human rights advocate and grandmother from Ohio, “and demand that Congress and the President close Guantanamo and restore the U.S. Constitution.” The press conference will discuss the court case and the larger issues of torture, Guantanamo, and the NDAA.

The defendants — Brian Hynes of the Bronx, NY, Judith Kelly of Washington, DC, Mike Levinson of New Rochelle, NY, Carmen Trotta of New York City, NY, and Josie Setzler of Freemont, Ohio—were among fourteen originally arrested and charged. All are members of Witness Against Torture, which will maintain a solemn presence of “detainees” in orange jumpsuits and blacks hoods outside the courthouse for the duration of the trial.

PRESS CONFERENCE

WHEN: 8:30AM, Wednesday, January 3, 2012

WHERE: Grassy area directly across from the main entrance to Superior Court, 500 Indiana Ave, NW (where Indiana intersects 5th Street, NW).

WHAT: Brief statements by the defendants, legal experts and anti-torture activists

WHO: Josie Setzler, defendant in the case

Jeremy Varon, history professor at New School University, NYC

Frida Berrigan, activist with Witness Against Torture from New London, CT

According to court documents, the case is known as “Shakir Ami (aka Bryan Hynes) et al Co-Defendants” — a garbled reference to Shaker Aamer, a British resident of Pakistani descent who is one of the longest-held men at Guantanamo. Witness Against Torture activists sometimes take the names of detainees when arrested, so as to symbolically give them the day in court denied by the Bush and Obama administrations.

The courthouse is located at 500 Indiana Avenue NW, near the Navy Archives Metro stop. Activists will fill the courtroom each day of the trial and hold vigil outside in the mornings, lunch time and evenings.

The trial kicks off a ten-day “Hungering for Justice” campaign which will include a daily presence at the Moultrie Courthouse, as well as activities throughout the city to call attention to the terrible injustice that is Guantanamo and Bagram and secret prisons throughout the world. It will culminate in a “Ten Years Too Many” mass mobilization on Wednesday, January 11 at Lafayette Park across from the White House organized by a coalition of groups, including Amnesty International and National Religious Campaign Against Torture.

www.2012.witnesstorture.org

Witness Against Torture Press Release 12/27/2011

Gerald — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 14:45:31 -0600

Short Information Teaser

Anti-Torture Activists to “Occupy” Washington, JAN. 2-12

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WITNESS AGAINST TORTURE
Press Advisory, For Immediate ReleaseDecember 27, 2011

Press Contacts:Malachy Kilbride, on the trial, , 571-501-3729 Helen Schietinger, on the fast, , 202-344-5762Jeremy Varon, on January 11, , 732-979-3119

ANTI-TORTURE ACTIVISTS TO “OCCUPY” WASHINGTON, JAN. 2-12 MARKING 10TH ANNIVERSARY OF GUANTANAMO, EVENTS TO INCLUDE 10-DAY FAST, COURTROOM SUPPORT FOR ACTIVISTS WHO SPOKE OUT IN CONGRESS, AND A HUMAN CHAIN FROM THE WHITE HOUSE TO CONGRESS WASHINGTON, D.C. — January 11 will mark the tenth anniversary of the first detainees’ arrival at the U.S.-controlled detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. To remember this travesty, Witness Against Torture is planning 10 days of activities in Washington, D.C. demanding an end to torture and indefinite detention at Guantanamo, Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, and elsewhere, and that the president reject the just-passed National Defense Authorization Act. Jan. 2-12: WAT sponsors Hungering for Justice, a 10-day fast highlighting the ongoing crimes at Guantanamo and Bagram. Dozens of activists are expected to participate in the fast in Washington as well as other cities. Locations of daily activities in support of the fast to be announced.

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WITNESS AGAINST TORTURE
Press Advisory, For Immediate ReleaseDecember 27, 2011

Press Contacts:Malachy Kilbride, on the trial, , 571-501-3729 Helen Schietinger, on the fast, , 202-344-5762Jeremy Varon, on January 11, , 732-979-3119

Jan. 3: The jury trial of 14 anti-torture activists is scheduled to begin in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, Moultrie Courthouse, 500 Indiana Ave., N.W. In June 2011, the 14 stood one by one in the Gallery of the House of Representatives to petition lawmakers to uphold the Constitution by not making funding for Guantanamo permanent. WAT will stand with the 14 in the court room, outside the courthouse, and around the city as their trial proceeds. On Wednesday, January 4 the defendants will convene a press conference outside the courthouse before they go into trial for the day (time and exact location TBA).

Jan. 11: A dramatic Human Chain from the White House to the Capitol Building marks the 10th anniversary of detention at Guantanamo. WAT joins a broad coalition of human rights groups in sponsoring this vigil, which will begin after a noontime rally in Lafayette Park. During the rally and vigil, activists will be wearing orange jumpsuits and holding signs and other visuals demanding that the detention center be closed.

“Despite his campaign pledge to shut down Guantanamo, President Obama has continued the Bush administration’s practice of indefinite military detention there and at Bagram,” says Jeremy Varon, professor of history at the New School and an organizer with WAT. “Now, Obama says he will sign the National Defense Authorization Act, which extends this abusive regime by allowing the president to order U.S. citizens, as well, to be held indefinitely without due process on American soil. Not one more year – not one more day – of such policies is acceptable. Witness Against Torture is here in Washington to add our message to the ‘Occupy’ movement’s call for a return to a just political and economic system by demanding an end to the national disgrace that is Guantanamo.”

Witness Against Torture is a grassroots movement that came into being in December 2005 when 24 activists walked to Guantanamo to visit the prisoners and condemn torture policies. Since then, it has engaged in public education, community outreach, and non-violent direct action. January 2012 will be the sixth year the group has “occupied” Washington, DC to call for justice, accountability and mercy. To learn more, visit www.witnesstorture.org

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Save the Dates. Witness Against Torture Chicago Activities

Gerald — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 14:07:59 -0600

Short Information Teaser

January 2-11, 2012 - Fast and Vigil to End Torture and Indefinite Detention / January 11, 2012 - National Day of Action Against Guantanamo

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Save the Dates

January 2-11, 2012 - Fast and Vigil to End Torture and Indefinite Detention

January 11, 2012 - National Day of Action Against Guantanamo

Join a rally in Chicago and help create a memorial to indefinite detention remembering individuals still detained without charge or fair trial at Guantanamo and Bagram and victims of Chicago police torture and Illinois detainees.

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Save the Dates

January 2-11, 2012 - Fast and Vigil to End Torture and Indefinite Detention

January 11, 2012 - National Day of Action Against Guantanamo

We will raise our voices and demand:

· Close Guantanamo and end abuses at Bagram

· End indefinite detention and unfair military commissions

· Close the “torture loophole” in Appendix M of the Army Field Manual

· End solitary confinement in Illinois prisons

· Pass the Resolution to make Chicago a torture-free zone

· Charge and fairly try detainees or release them

· Ensure accountability for torture; investigate, prosecute and provide remedy for victims

· Fight Islamophobia, Racism and Politics of Division

With few exceptions the Bush detention regime has been more deeply institutionalized by the Obama administration, and the failure to close Guantanamo is but one in a string of unkept promises. While the media has largely abandoned the issue, a bipartisan consensus is emerging to commit permanently to terrible policies. We need to speak out with a new determination to reach policy-makers, the media and the public.

For more information

Fast and Vigil contact Witness Against Torture Chicago or 773-856-0315

January 11 Action contact Christian Peacemaker Teams or 773-376-0550

Read the flyer

Justice Obstructed at Bagram as at Guantanamo - Ten Years is Too Long!

Gerald — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 14:33:51 -0500

Short Information Teaser

US Uses Accusations of a Lax Afghan Criminal Justice System to Justify Violating Prisoners' Human Rights in Bagram and Guantanamo

Excerpt

by Brian Terrell
October 4, 2011

Despite ten years of occupation and untold millions of dollars spent on rebuilding Afghanistan’s broken judicial and criminal justice system, the Afghan courts are “still too weak,” the Washington Post reported on August 12, for the United States to relinquish its control over the Parwan Detention Center on Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. On September 21, the same paper reported that the U.S. military is seeking contractors to significantly increase the capacity of the prison there.

Body

by Brian Terrell
October 4, 2011

The number of Afghans detained at Bagram has tripled over the past three years to more than 2,600 and the new construction will raise the capacity to 5,500 prisoners. Capt. Kevin Aandahl, a spokesman for the U.S. task force that oversees detention operations in Afghanistan, told the Post that the expansion was necessary to “accommodate an increase in the number of suspected insurgents being detained as a result of intelligence-based counter- terrorism operations, which we conduct with our Afghan partners.”

Many of those held at Bagram have been there since the U.S. occupied the former Soviet air base in 2001, and some two thirds of prisoners there have not been charged with or convicted of any crime. Corruption is rampant in Afghan courts and among police there as it is in many other places but the major fear of the United States is not that the Afghan courts will not function according to their constitution and accepted norms of law, but that they will. In order for Afghanistan to take sovereignty over its own judiciary and prison system, the Afghans must first fix the “cracks of an undeveloped legal system” and adopt essential “reforms,” including adoption of the U.S. practice of detaining suspected insurgents indefinitely without trial.

Included among the “weaknesses” of Afghan law that the United States needs to see addressed is a guarantee that a prisoner in Afghanistan must be formally charged with a crime within three days or be released. To be convicted of a crime, Afghan law requires that evidence against a defendant be presented in open court and that hearsay evidence and evidence gained by torture be excluded. (How primitive is that!) Such protections exist, on paper at least, in most countries, and the U.S. Constitution guarantees these rights as well. A more mature and robust legal system such as our own, however, U.S. officials seem to suggest, can be counted on to set aside such protections to “deal with the demands of wartime criminal justice.”

Just as with the detainees held for these past ten years at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo in Cuba, few of those held at Bagram would be convicted in a fair trial. Most have been captured on the strength of tips by informers and other hearsay and with no forensic evidence. “Right now,” a senior U.S. official is quoted in a January 30, 2011 article published in the Guardian, “if we turned them over to the Afghans tomorrow, they’d be in a position, under their laws and their constitution, that they may be released.”

While the number of prisoners held at Guantanamo is slowly decreasing, the number of those held at Bagram is skyrocketing, due to increased “intelligence-based counter- terrorism operations,” a euphemism for what are more accurately called night raids. The Open Society Foundations and The Liaison Office in Kabul released a report on September 19, “The Cost of Kill/Capture: Impact of the Night Raid Surge on Afghan Civilians.” In their Executive Summary, the reports’ authors state, “Nighttime kill and capture operations (“night raids”) by international military have been one of the most controversial tactics in Afghanistan. They are as valued by the international military as they are reviled by Afghan communities. Night raids have been associated with the death, injury, and detention of civilians, and have sparked enormous backlash among Afghan communities. The Afghan government and the Afghan public have repeatedly called for an end to night raids.”

This report cites a sharp escalation in raids that has “taken the battlefield more directly into Afghan homes sparking tremendous backlash among the Afghan population.” While civilians not directly participating in hostilities are supposed to be protected from such attacks by the Geneva Conventions, these raids are often “heavily (if not primarily) motivated by intelligence gathering.” One U.S. military officer responsible for authorizing night raids explained, “If you can’t get the guy you want, you get the guy who knows him.” Often in night raids, all male adolescent and adult members of a household or even of a whole village are bound and held, and techniques such as masked informants giving thumbs up or down, noting who has a beard or who lacks the calloused hands of a farmer, are used to decide who is taken to a U.S. base for further questioning. Such are the “intelligence-based counter- terrorism operations” that are taxing the capacity of the U.S. prison at Bagram.

After gutting its own constitution in the name of a “war on terror,” the United States is now adding to the injury and insult of a brutal occupation by demanding of the Afghan government that it pledge to be as lawless as the U.S., to continue our oppression of its people in our absence before we will give them sovereignty over their own judicial system.

Ten years ago this month the United States attacked and occupied Afghanistan and began a system of illegal and irrational detention at Bagram that on January 11, 2002, was exported to Guantanamo. Ten years is far too long. Our first concern needs be for those harmed by our nation’s policies, those who suffer torture and deprivation of liberty in places like Bagram and Guantanamo and their families and communities. We need be concerned as well for what happens to us, to our souls, to our schools, churches, to our nation, if we stand silent in the face of such crimes done in our name. It is time to rise up anew to say no to torture and call for the closure of Bagram and Guantanamo, accountability for the torturers, and justice for the victims of U.S. abuse.

Please consider joining human rights organizations, legal collectives, grassroots groups, and people of conscience in Washington on January 11, 2012 for a protest against U.S. detention policies, rallying to form a human chain from the White House to Congress and to demand real change — by far the biggest such demonstration since the “War on Terror” began.

Brian Terrell is a co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence and lives on a Catholic Worker Farm in Maloy, Iowa. For more information on the National Day of Action Against Guantanamo, see http://witnesstorture.org/.

Update: Witness Against Torture 2011, Washington D.C.

Gerald — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 13:35:16 -0600

Short Information Teaser

Jerica Arents, Mary Dean, Kathy Kelly and Gerald Paoli Participate in the Fast For Justice

Excerpt

Fast for Justice
January 17, 2011
Washington D.C.

Dear Friends,

Greetings from Washington, DC and Day Seven of the Fast for Justice. We are 40 or so in Washington, DC and over 100 throughout the country.

In this brief note, we hope to share with you some sense of what our days have been like as we pass the halfway mark of the Fast for Justice.

Body

Fast for Justice
January 17, 2011
Washington D.C.

Day 1 – Day 2 – Day 3 – Day 4 – Day 5/ 6 - VIDEO!

Dear Friends,

Greetings from Washington, DC and Day Seven of the Fast for Justice. We are 40 or so in Washington, DC and over 100 throughout the country.

In this brief note, we hope to share with you some sense of what our days have been like as we pass the halfway mark of the Fast for Justice.

We have been getting to know Washington “under the hood” - so to speak- as we process in black hoods and orange jumpsuits. It is a strange and revelatory perspective on our Nation’s Capitol.

The landscape in DC is studded with monuments to war heroes, epic battles, and larger than life political figures. Our time here is not as enduring as granite and marble, bronze and steel, but we hope that our impermanent memorials to injustice can be striking and affecting as we render tableaus of silent suffering in black and orange, and interject the humanity of the imprisoned, tortured men through the repetition of their names and recitation of their poetry. We are a living monument, the injustice we mark is still happening.

We began our time together with a day of resistance and our presence blocking the entrances to the Department of Justice resulted in the building be closed for business for the better part of an hour but no arrests. We walked away from the Department of Justice knowing that we would be back each day to continue that witness, to surround the building with orange and black— until we see action and results consistent with justice.

We are interspersing action with education and analysis, and so far we have spent time with investigative journalist Andy Worthington, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan Mendez and Leili Kashani from the Center for Constitutional Rights. We will continue to draw on their rich wisdom in the coming days.

Part of being in Washington and “walking with” those unjustly held is underlining and dramatizing the legal and political work that others are doing. In that vein, we spent time outside the Federal District Court while the American Civil Liberties Union argued on behalf of nine Iraqis tortured by Americans. Many of our group who sought to observe the oral arguments were turned away from the court building by security officers. Turns out that—in the minds of the Federal Court—the color orange is now not only synonymous with Guantanamo’s injustice but with actions for justice on behalf of the men held there.

Convinced that we must use all the tools in our toolbox, we also brought our message to Capitol Hill in traditional lobby visits with Senators and Representatives and a “letter drop” of the “Close Guantanamo With Justice Now” statement. We amplified that lobbying by conducting “Guantanamo Ghost Walks” through the halls of their buildings—haunting the consciences of those power brokers with the uncomfortable image of voiceless orange figures. We will return to this witness in the coming days.

We come from all over the country—Kansas, Ohio, Massachusetts, Iowa, New York, Illinois—for a specific purpose in this period between January 11th and 22nd. But it is also important for us to stand with the broader peace and justice community. On Martin Luther King’s birthday—the day he would have been 82 years old—we gathered to mark 20 years since the beginning of the original “shock and awe,” the first Gulf War, and to draw strength and inspiration and challenge from King’s prophetic insight: “There is nothing, except a tragic death wish, to prevent us from reordering our priorities, so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war, there is nothing to keep us from molding a recalcitrant status quo with bruised hands until we have fashioned it into a brotherhood and sisterhood. We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent co-annihilation.”

The community of fasters grows and shrinks, as people join the group for what days they can. One of our group has spoken repeatedly of the incandescent flash of power that occurs when anger and hunger connect like live wires. We are angry at injustice, angry at cruelty, angry at torture and we try to connect that anger with our hunger, so that our powerful hunger for food is transformed into an even more powerful hunger for justice—one that we channel into action and resistance.

And so, ever mindful of both Dr. King’s words and our own hunger for justice, we move forward into day seven, eight and beyond of our fast, knowing that what we are doing—though small and inadequate—is as necessary as it is difficult.

In Solidarity, for Peace and Justice

Witness Against Torture

Former Chicago Police Commander convicted in torture case

Joshua Brollier — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 16:07:01 -0500

Short Information Teaser

Update on the Burge trial, Police torture scandal and The Illinois Coalition Against Torture

Excerpt

July 1st, 2010
The Burge trial, Police torture scandal, and The Illinois Coalition Against Torture

With the recent conviction of former Chicago Police commander Jon Burge for perjury, Voices for Creative Nonviolence is excited to see some progress towards justice in the Chicago police torture scandal. Starting in the 1970s and continuing into the 1990s, Jon Burge and officers under his command allegedly tortured and extracted coerced confessions from more than 100 victims, almost all of them black men from Chicago’s South and West sides.

In July of 2006, the United Nations Committee Against Torture recommended that the government: “promptly, thoroughly and impartially investigate all allegations of acts of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment by law-enforcement personnel and bring perpetrators to justice…” It was not until Burge’s 2008 indictment that any formal charges were filed in the police torture cases.

With the statute of limitations being expired for relevant crimes relating directly to torture, Jon Burge was convicted on Monday of federal perjury and obstruction of justice charges for lying about the torture and now faces a possible 45 years in federal prison.

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July 1st, 2010
Update on the Burge trial, Police torture scandal, and The Illinois Coalition Against Torture

Voices for Creative Nonviolence, a member of the newly formed Illinois Coalition Against Torture, has supported groups such as Black People Against Police Torture, The People’s Law office, The Campaign Against the Death Penalty and individuals and families as they organized to seek justice for the police torture victims. The conviction of Jon Burge is a major victory in a long struggle, but more steps remain to secure justice for torture victims. These steps include:

• The full investigation and prosecution of others in positions of authority (including but not limited to the Chicago Police Department, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office and the Chicago Mayor’s office) who had knowledge of police torture but interfered in or prevented investigations and prosecutions of those responsible from taking place.
• Payment of reparations to victims of police torture and their families; including providing for the full health and mental care needed to recover from the trauma of being tortured.
• New trials for the remaining Chicago Police torture victims who were convicted of crimes based on coerced confessions and remain incarcerated in the State of Illinois.
• Implementation of legislation that explicitly prohibits the crime of torture as defined by Article I of the United Nations Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment and Punishment and maintain no statute of limitations for the crime of torture.

Read an Associated Press account of the trial

Check out coverage of the trial on Democracy Now

Read about Voices’ previous participation in the campaign against police torture in Chicago:

April 6, 2009- 6 Years Without Justice

January 11th, 2008- Witness Against Torture in Chicago

January 12, 2008 -Citizens Indictment of the United States for Torture and other International Law Violations

Read more news and perspectives on torture from Voices, including updates about Witness Against Torture— The Campaign to Close Down Guantanamo and End Torture.

Check out the Illinois Coalition Against Torture

VCNV Author

Joshua Brollier

Dying-In to End the Wars

Dan Pearson — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 10:55:18 -0500

Short Information Teaser

Chris Gaunt: a poem and a letter about ending war

Excerpt

June 29, 2010

On February 22, 2010, Chris Gaunt began conducting a weekly sit-in at the local offices of her US Senators, Chuck Grassley and Tom Harkin, in Des Moines, Iowa, urging them to refuse any further funding for war. A number of other local peace activists joined Chris in conjunction with The Peaceable Assembly Campaign. As part of the sit-ins which took place during office hours, Chris made a point of connecting with the office staff, person-to-person, while she endeavored to educate them on the dire urgency of ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Despite these efforts, it was clear that the Senators themselves were not willing to seriously consider voting against war funding or even listen to the rationale that Chris and others were offering. Chris recognized that, to be taken seriously, more had to be done.

On March 11, 2010, Chris changed the weekly peaceful sit-in to a peaceful die-in. She lay down on the floor as if she were dead, with a note explaining that she would remain there until she could get a straight answer from the senator about cutting off funds for the wars. The office staff called on the police to physically remove and arrest her. She and others have returned to conduct die-ins nearly every week, a total of eleven times, since. Speaking of the results, Chris describes the opportunities she has had to interact with a variety of people, including Senate staffers at all levels, both in Iowa & DC, Federal Building Security Officers, Police Officers, Prosecutors, and now Judges.

Below is a poem Chris wrote about her experience as well as an excerpt from a letter to Senators Grassley and Harkin and their staffs.

Body

June 29, 2010

Below is a poem Chris wrote about her experience as well as an excerpt from a letter to Senators Grassley and Harkin and their staffs.

Dan Pearson is a Co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence (www.vcnv.org)

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Dying to End the Wars by Chris Gaunt

Dying-In, I should say.
Dying in the Federal Building in Des Moines, Iowa, 7th floor.
Dying in the offices of Senators Grassley & Harkin.
Dying to stay until my Senator starts voting NO on continuing to fund these wars.

Staying dead past 5 pm closing time? … YES.

Return to die again the next Wednesday.
Get to know the office staff before you die.
Let them get to know who you are and what you want.

Come in a spirit of resistance.
Nonviolent resistance.
Arm yourself only with LOVE.

Care to join me?
Dare to raise your voice by using your body.
Speak loudly in the dead silence.

Come, die-in with me to end these damn wars.
Pick your day.
Choose your own way to simply say:

NO MORE $$$ FOR WAR

+++++++++++++++++++

From a June 17, 2010 letter to Senators Grassley and Harkin and to staffers Nick Podsiadly, Kurt Kovarik, Tom Buttry, Rosemary Guiterrez, Aaron McKay, Derek Miller and Rob Barron:

The message I have been bringing to your Iowa offices since last February is:

NO MORE $$$ FOR WAR.

I am asking our two long-serving and hard-working Iowa Senators to vote NO on war spending bills AS A MATTER OF PRINCIPLE. I was proud of Senator Harkin’s vote for the Feingold amendment to the supplemental war spending bill because it sent a strong message that 20% of the Senate say it is time for an exit strategy in Afghanistan. A much larger majority of the people out here are sick and tired of these wars that continue to drain our treasury at a time when we need to be addressing pressing concerns here at home. President Obama’s 30,000 troop surge in Afghanistan costs us $1 million per troop per year, while the average annual income of people living in Afghanistan is $300.

Congress holds the purse strings, and thus the decision to continue or END these illegal occupations is in your hands. I refuse to give up on either Senator.

The American people and the world will be proud of our two fine Iowa Senators for doing the right thing and voting to end these wars.

Chris Gaunt {GAUNT@grinnell.edu} is a vegan hog farmer from Grinnell Iowa.

VCNV Author

Dan Pearson

Project

Peaceable Assembly Campaign

Guantánamo and Inflaming Passions in the Courthouse and the World

Gerald — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 14:08:18 -0600

Short Information Teaser

Johhny Barber Writing from Washington DC

Excerpt

January 9, 2012

Witness Against Torture 2012, Washington DC

Four members of Witness Against Torture were found guilty in a jury trial at D.C. Superior Court on January 5, 2012. The jury brought back guilty verdicts in the cases of defendants Brian Hynes of the Bronx, NY, Mike Levinson of White Plains, NY, Judith Kelly of Arlington, Virginia, and Carmen Trotta of New York City, NY. Josie Setzler of Fremont, Ohio was acquitted mid-trial after the prosecution’s witnesses failed to identify her.

The demonstrators were charged with one count of disorderly and disruptive conduct on Capitol grounds. The charges stemmed from protests against a Defense Appropriations Bill—a precursor to the recently passed National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 (NDAA)—that took place in the citizen’s gallery at the House of Representatives on June 23, 2011. The protests were in response to provisions in the bill that make it essentially impossible to close the prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba and that legalize indefinite detention.

Body

January 9, 2012

Witness Against Torture 2012, Washington DC

Prior to the start of the trial, the Prosecutor Brandon Long asked District of Columbia Superior Court Judge Gerald Fisher to disallow any statements regarding Guantánamo into the courtroom fearing that mentioning the detention center and the torture that occurred there “could possibly inflame the jury”. Judge Fisher readily agreed, saying, “Speaking about Guantánamo is inappropriate for the purposes of this trial.” Carmen Trotta responded that it was vital for him to mention Guantánamo Bay because “due process everywhere is being threatened and we have the privilege of due process here, right now.” The judge rejected Trotta’s argument, saying, he “does not want an improper politicization of the defendants’ charge.”

In addition, the judge barred any mention of indefinite detention, torture, President Obama and his policies, including the recently signed NDAA, or the former President Bush and his establishment of Guantánamo, Bagram and various CIA black sites around the world.

Defendants were also unable to appeal to international law as justification for their actions. The Nuremburg principles? The Universal Declaration of Human Rights? These defenses are not appropriate in DC Superior Court.

The judge even disallowed a reading of the statement the defendants were attempting to deliver to Congress, saying, “The statement made from the gallery is not appropriate for the purposes of this trial.”1

As the trial progressed the prosecutor was intent on focusing on the minutia of the regulation. What is important is a regulation was broken. Decorum was lost! Voices were raised! When the prosecutors claimed that distracting Congress members “causes inefficiencies in the process” I laughed out loud.

The prosecutors relied on the tried and true “time and place” restrictions on free speech, saying the House of Representatives was neither the time nor the place to voice disapproval of Congress, even though they were in fact voting on a bill with provisions to keep Guantánamo open, the very issue the activists went to Congress to discuss.

In closing, Prosecutor Long said, “Rules are rules, the law is the law.” He asked the jury, “Why does it matter? Why should you care that the four defendants stood up and yelled in the House of Representatives?” Answering his own question he said, “It matters because it is the law, the law is important.” Apparently the complete hypocrisy of this statement eluded him. For 10 long years the very government Brandon Long represents have been breaking international and domestic law. There have been no repercussions, no accountability and the current administration continues to act with impunity. After 10 years Guantánamo remains open, 89 men cleared for release remain imprisoned there, many others are imprisoned without due process, and the recently signed National Defense Authorization Act makes their release virtually impossible. Rules are rules, laws are laws!

Bahraini national Jumah al-Dossari was taken into custody by the Pakistani army while trying to leave Afghanistan. According to the testimony he gave Amnesty International, he was imprisoned, robbed, tortured, and then sold to American soldiers searching for potential terrorists. He was detained in Guantánamo for over five years. According to the US military, he attempted suicide at least 12 times during his detention. In a letter written to his lawyer and published in the Los Angeles Times newspaper on 11 January 2007, Jumah al-Dossari wrote, “The purpose of Guantánamo is to destroy people, and I have been destroyed. I am hopeless because our voices are not heard from the depths of the detention centre.” He wrote this poem as part of a suicide note sent to his lawyer.

Take my blood. Take my death shroud and The remnants of my body. Take photographs of my corpse at the grave, lonely. Send them to the world, To the judges and To the people of conscience, Send them to the principled men and the fair-minded. And let them bear the guilty burden before the world, Of this innocent soul. Let them bear the burden before their children and before history, Of this wasted, sinless soul, Of this soul which has suffered at the hands of the “protectors of peace.”

Indeed. The point of our witness is to enflame passion in the courthouses and the streets! The time and place is here and now, always and everywhere, until Guantanamo is closed and torture is not the law of the land. Join us in our continuing fast and witness and culminating in a mass mobilization in Washington DC Jan 11, 2011. See www.witnesstorture.org for additional information and ways you can support this effort.

1 The statement barred in the House of Representatives and in court as irrelevant read as follows: “Today the House of Representative is in the process of contemplating not the passage of a bill but the commission of a crime. Provisions in the proposed Defense Appropriations Bill grant the United States powers over the lives of detained men fitting of a totalitarian state that uses the law itself as an instrument of tyranny. The law would make the prison at Guantánamo permanent by denying funds for the transfer of men to the United States, even for prosecution in civilian courts.”

VCNV Author

Johnny Barber