From the Archive
Fast for Justice 2013: Day 5
Dear Friends,
Early this morning, a small group of fasters reflected on the daily scripture readings from the Catholic lectionary. Frank commented that he was seeing a connection between these readings and Chrissy’s sharing yesterday about the integration of the micro and macro. We have a political agenda, he said, but we begin with coming together, taking care of each other; we identify with the humanity of individual detainees and of others who are oppressed, and that is what drives us.
Gathering together with the larger group for the day’s opening circle, Luke led us in a poetic reflection that demonstrated how the personal can indeed influence and integrate with the political when what we love moves us to action. “What I have to say is basically a series of questions,” he said, and this is what followed:
If Life
If I love life,
Then how can I not love you?
If I love walking,
How can I not be in pain from the chains that bind you?
If love my family,
How can I not mourn every minute you’ve missed of your children growing up and your parents growing old? … births, breakfasts, tea…
If I love to hold the hand of my lover,
How can I not shudder when I discover your loves so shattered by indefinite detention?
If I love justice,
How can I not be disgusted, lit by rage at the torture of your lives, the ravaging of your rights?
If I love liberation by pen,
How can I not write for you?
If I love to listen,
How can I not honor every cry you pry through the bars of that prison?
If I love living,
How can I not protest your dying?
If I love you,
How can I not feel held tight by the knowledge despite everything we are together?
If we are together
How can I not at least try to survive this desert…
Thirsting uncontrollably for the water of our freedom!
(See Johnny’s video below for an earlier draft of the poem that Luke read this morning.)
“In solidarity,” Luke added, “there’s so much sense.” There is a logic to these ‘if – then’ statements that we discover as we express them. And so he invited us to bring our own into the circle, expanding the poem:
“If love is to make a difference, then it needs resilience.”
“If I really am moved by, really haunted by the Guantanamo situation, then how can I go back to normal life, be complicit, forget?”
“If people are overwhelmed with the suffering in their own lives so as not to enlarge our circle, then they must be facing
their own imprisonment.”
“From my experience with the people in El Salvador in the 1980s, I asked myself: If they are able to take such life risks, then what risks am I willing to take that are commensurate with those taken around the world for justice, life, freedom, love.”
“Yes, if there is so much beauty in the world, then it is a beautiful necessity to struggle to protect it.”
We must identify our loves in order to appreciate them. Once identified, there is an urgency – this has to be said. This forms our movement, roots and expands our action. And so, on this eve of the 11th anniversary of Guantanamo, as we continue to resist as an expression of our loves, we invite you too to contemplate these questions, and to offer your own.
With love and peace,
Witness Against Torture
In This Update
1) “I am Still Waiting”, by Chrissy Nesbitt
2) Morning Reflection with Luke Nephew, by Ted Nee Walker
3) A Reflection by Dan Wilson
4) Andy Worthington and Todd Pierce Presentation, by Jake Olzen
5) A List of Those Currently Detained at GTMO
Links
6) Images of the Day, a video by Johnny Barber, http://vimeo.com/57184123
7) “Protesters Demonstrate About ‘Zero Dark Thirty’” NBC Channel 4 News, http://tinyurl.com/b7yo2v7
8) “The Moral Test of ‘Zero Dark Thirty’,” by Josie Seltzer, http://tinyurl.com/bc4jqgr
“I am Still Waiting” by Chrissy Nesbitt
Mr. President, the men at Guantánamo are still waiting.
In the days immediately following the last inauguration, a powerful symbol of hope and change was President Obama’s executive order to shut down the human rights black hole that is Guantánamo Bay. Four years later, we arrive at another inauguration only to find that even more obstacles have been established to block the closure of this horrific place.
We wish the men held at Guantánamo could be present at Obama’s second inauguration, to confront him about his broken promises. They will not be here on January 21st, but today we sat in the inauguration bleachers on their behalf, with the message: We Are Still Waiting. Here is a sampling of the signs we carried.
I am still waiting for justice
I am still waiting to go home
I am still waiting for my day in court
I am still waiting to see a judge
I am still waiting to be released
I am still waiting to be free
I am still waiting for you to free me, Shaker Amer, cleared for release
I am still waiting to embrace my family
I am still waiting for due process
I am still waiting for change
I am still waiting for hope & justice
I am still waiting for you to choose love
I am still waiting for your humanity
I am still waiting for you to see me
I am still waiting for you to hear me
Finally, one sign said simply, ” ‘I am still waiting.’ -Ahmed Belbacha.”
With Ahmed, we wait and work and hope.
for photos, click here.
Morning Reflection with Luke Nephew
compiled by Ted Nee Walker
Luke Nephew, a part of the Witness Against Torture community, and peace poet, arrived last night and graciously offered this morning’s group reflection. Well practiced in leading poetry workshops and using poetry as a response to humanitarian crisis’, Luke led us in a series of go-arounds. First, one by one, we cleared and warmed our early morning voices saying boldly the word “hope.” Then he asked us to speak, loud and clearly for our ever-widening and awakening circle, a word that describes where we are at this moment. Finally, you will find in this list below, the things said when Luke asked each of us to articulate from where we draw strength.
“I gather my strength from…”
… the generosity of others
… friends
… the acceptance of community
… the cause
… good conversation
… the Gospel
… people and their stories
… family
… safety in community
… arrival of good people
… coffee (and community)
… stories of vulnerability
… children’s joy
… family of origin, anger, and the
beauty of the world
… the light inside of me
… love
… the power of everlasting love
… hope in the ordinary
… faith in community
… quiet
… finding connections
… Gandhi, Martin Luther King
and the cloud of witnesses
… commitment
… courage
… trees
… legacy of resistance
… suffering people in solidarity
… smile
… moments of forgiveness, even
impossible forgiveness
… life of Jesus
… victims
… working side by side with others
… stillness
… being around marvelous people
… human interaction
… working the land and wild spaces
… the power of collective action
… pictures of baby animals
… chicken broth and lemon
… philosophy
… receiving love
… stories of struggle
… perseverance against adversity
… Palestinian people, all are one
… the wonder of humankind
Luke drew together all our words saying, “Thank you. It is a great gift to each other to know where our strength comes from, because this work takes strength. There are lights inside each one of us, and how many sources we have to feed this light and give us power!”
A Reflection by Dan Wilson
Being a Minnesotan, I have always hated conflict. Not in the sense of desiring peace or an end to global war, but just a sheer dislike for disagreements. Minnesotans have made an art out of avoiding conflicting opinions and making sure there is an appearance that we all agree. Because of this natural aversion anytime I go outside in an orange jumpsuit, a black hood, and with a sign that says “Close Guantanamo” my insides go up into my throat. This image is startling to behold. The sight of America’s dark secret — out walking in broad daylight — is what first brought me to Witness Against Torture.
Despite the power of this image, I still find myself filled with self-doubt. I often find myself apologizing mentally to the people who look visibly upset by the spectacle. Every time I put on that hood there is a need to examine why I feel compelled to come to Washington and protest in the streets. As a person of privilege (young, white, able-bodied, male, upper-middle-class upbringing) I have long been comfortable with labeling other people. Often these labels dehumanize and devalue others; criminals, the poor, radicals, degenerates etc.
I was also raised in a culture that preferred to take people that made us uncomfortable and put them in places where we would never see them. So when I learned about Guantanamo in high school I was relieved. Finally, a place far away from me where they can put the worst men so they won’t be able to hurt me. I was told that these “terrorists” were different than other bad people. They worshipped a God of war, they hated our freedoms, and they hated our country. Because they hated us so much, and were so dangerous, they deserved to be tortured. They needed to be tortured in order to protect ourselves and our soldiers overseas. How relieving it was to hear that our government had captured these men and were keeping us safe. Guantanamo Bay fit into the story of privilege that I had been told my entire life.
Several years later at the Catholic Worker I started to live with men that I had been taught to be scared of. I learned how to bake bread from a felon, was taught how to play cards by a sex offender, and learned how to pray with a drug addict. I heard stories from men who had been wrongly imprisoned and abused by police officers. Over years of living at the Catholic Worker my childhood classifications began to dissolve and be replaced by beautiful and complicated human beings.
When I first came to D.C. and heard the stories of the men in Guantanamo and heard their poems I felt the same feeling that I often felt at the Catholic Worker. The feeling of relief and compassion as I learned to see them as human beings. This feeling was accompanied by a deep sense of horror learning about the atrocities that happen daily in Guantanamo. It was much easier to justify torture when it was done to a “terrorist” rather than a “brother.” When we dehumanize others we dehumanize ourselves, which also makes it easier to torture another.
Under the orange jumpsuit I am reminded that those at Guantanamo are just as human as me. They are taxi drivers, humanitarians, teachers, dreamers, poets, and they have a future just like me. But I also find that the lies of privilege are not so easily escaped. I still fear the other and doubt my own conscience, which is why I feel compelled to action, in someway, somehow, knowing that I work out my own salvation. That as I work for the salvation, the liberation of
others, I am often the first person to be liberated and free to become more human myself.
Andy Worthington and Todd Pierce Presentation
by Jake Olzen
Four years ago, President Obama promised to close the infamous gulag that is Guantanamo. Tonight, the eve of the 11th anniversary of Guantanamo, we are reminded that the prospects of that happening are as grim as ever. Thirteen prisoners have been released in last two and a half years and two prisoners have died in custody. As Witness Against Torture prepares for another day of protest – a small but demanding act – we were joined by journalist Andy Worthington and former detainee defense counsel Todd Pearce.
Andy, who has spent the past ten years telling the stories of the men imprisoned at Guantanamo and tirelessly advocating on their behalf, summarized the dark reality of the prison. Where are we now?
Frankly, the prison remains open because it was politically inconvenient for Obama to fulfill his promise as president. The facts at Guantanamo: over half those remaining have been cleared for release by the Guantanamo Review Task Force. By are large, those 86 men fall into one of two categories – those who are cleared immediate release and those held in conditional detention. Yemenis are being held until it is regarded that the security situation is “improved” in Yemen due to the failed underwear bombing in Detroit in 2010. These men have been condemned to indefinite detention and death because of their nationality alone – its totalitarianism.
According to Andy, the tragedy of the Obama administration is that it continues the particular horrors of the Bush detention regimes. The government continues to act, and believe, that there is a category of people who are so dangerous that they need to be held without charge or trial, indefinitely, even as the government lacks evidence to prosecute the prisoners. Such practice is the height of criminality.
“The clock is ticking, Mr. Obama, history will judge you. This is your last chance to be a decent man,” said Andy.
Todd, when he spoke, clearly connected indefinite detention to torture. “We should not delude ourselves,” he said. “With indefinite detention, we’ve created a more sophisticated form of torture.”
After a brief but sordid history of military commissions and martial law, Todd denounced the National Defense Authorization Act as a form of lawlessness that construes the US as a battlefield – and constitutional rights have never been recognized on a battlefield.
A vibrant discussion ensued about moving forward for a world without Guantanamo and an end to the war on terror. Simply put, we must confront two embarrassing things about the war on terror: the idea that the “worst of the worst” are held at Guantanamo is not true and that the “intelligence” found out in Guantanamo and through torture was mostly lies from nobodies. That is, the myths of Guantanamo – such as those popularized by films like Zero Dark Thirty – still hold tremendous sway in the American consciousness.
A List of Those Currently Detained at GTMO
1. 004 Wasiq, Abdul-Haq (Afghanistan)
2. 006 Noori, Mullah Norullah (Afghanistan)
3. 007 Fazil, Mullah Mohammed (Afghanistan)
4. 026 Ghazi, Fahed (Yemen)
5. 027 Uthman, Uthman Abdul Rahim Mohammed (Yemen)
6. 028 Al Alawi, Muaz (Yemen)
7. 029 Al Ansi, Mohammed (Yemen)
8. 030 Al Hakimi, Ahmed (Yemen)
9. 031 Al Mujahid, Mahmoud (Yemen)
10. 033 Al Adahi, Mohammed (Yemen)
11. 034 Al Yafi, Abdullah (Yemen)
12. 035 Qader Idris, Idris (Yemen)
13. 036 Idris, Ibrahim (Sudan)
14. 037 Al Rahabi, Abdul Malik (Yemen)
15. 038 Al Yazidi, Ridah (Tunisia)
16. 039 Al Bahlul, Ali Hamza (Yemen)
17. 040 Al Mudafari, Abdel Qadir (Yemen)
18. 041 Ahmad, Majid (Yemen)
19. 042 Shalabi, Abdul Rahman (Saudi Arabia)
20. 043 Moqbel, Samir (Yemen)
21. 044 Ghanim, Mohammed (Yemen)
22. 045 Al Rezehi, Ali Ahmad (Yemen)
23. 063 Al Qahtani, Mohammed (Saudi Arabia)
24. 088 Awad, Adham Ali (Yemen)
25. 091 Al Saleh, Abdul (Yemen)
26. 115 Naser, Abdul Rahman (Yemen)
27. 117 Al Warafi, Muktar (Yemen)
28. 128 Al Bihani, Ghaleb (Yemen)
29. 131 Ben Kend, Salem (Yemen)
30. 152 Al Khalaqi, Asim (Yemen)
31. 153 Suleiman, Fayiz (Yemen)
32. 163 Al Qadasi, Khalid (Yemen)
33. 165 Al Busayss, Said (Yemen)
34. 167 Al Raimi, Ali Yahya (Yemen)
35. 168 Hakeemy, Adel (Tunisia)
36. 170 Masud, Sharaf (Yemen)
37. 171 Alahdal, Abu Bakr (Yemen)
38. 174 Sliti, Hisham (Tunisia)
39. 178 Baada, Tareq (Yemen)
40. 189 Gherebi, Salem (Libya)
41. 195 Al Shumrani, Mohammed (Saudi Arabia)
42. 197 Chekhouri, Younis (Morocco)
43. 200 Al Qahtani, Said (Saudi Arabia)
44. 202 Bin Atef, Mahmoud (Yemen)
45. 223 Sulayman, Abdul Rahman (Yemen)
46. 224 Muhammad, Abdul Rahman (Yemen)
47. 232 Al Odah, Fawzi (Kuwait)
48. 233 Salih, Abdul (Yemen)
49. 235 Jarabh, Saeed (Yemen)
50. 238 Hadjarab, Nabil (Algeria-France)
51. 239 Aamer, Shaker (UK-Saudi Arabia)
52. 240 Al Shabli, Abdullah (Saudi Arabia)
53. 242 Qasim, Khaled (Yemen)
54. 244 Nassir, Abdul Latif (Morocco)
55. 249 Al Hamiri, Mohammed (Yemen)
56. 251 Bin Salem, Mohammed (Yemen)
57. 254 Khenaina, Mohammed (Yemen)
58. 255 Hatim, Said (Yemen)
59. 257 Abdulayev, Umar (Tajikistan)
60. 259 Hintif, Fadil (Yemen)
61. 275 Abbas, Yusef (Abdusabar) (China)
62. 280 Khalik, Saidullah (Khalid) (China)
63. 282 Abdulghupur, Hajiakbar (China)
64. 288 Saib, Motai (Algeria)
65. 290 Belbacha, Ahmed (Algeria)
66. 309 Abdal Sattar, Muieen (UAE)
67. 310 Ameziane, Djamel (Algeria)
68. 321 Kuman, Ahmed Yaslam Said (Yemen)
69. 324 Al Sabri, Mashur (Yemen)
70. 326 Ajam, Ahmed (Syria)
71. 327 Shaaban, Ali Hussein (Syria)
72. 329 Al Hamawe, Abu Omar (Syria)
73. 434 Al Shamyri, Mustafa (Yemen)
74. 440 Bawazir, Mohammed (Yemen)
75. 441 Al Zahri, Abdul Rahman (Yemen)
76. 461 Al Qyati, Abdul Rahman (Yemen)
77. 498 Haidel, Mohammed (Yemen)
78. 502 Ourgy, Abdul (Tunisia)
79. 506 Al Dhuby, Khalid (Yemen)
80. 508 Al Rabie, Salman (Yemen)
81. 509 Khusruf, Mohammed (Yemen)
82. 511 Al Nahdi, Sulaiman (Yemen)
83. 522 Ismail, Yasin (Yemen)
84. 535 El Sawah, Tariq (Egypt)
85. 549 Al Dayi, Omar (Yemen)
86. 550 Zaid, Walid (Yemen)
87. 552 Al Kandari, Fayiz (Kuwait)
88. 553 Al Baidhani, Abdul Khaliq (Saudi Arabia)
89. 554 Al Assani, Fehmi (Yemen)
90. 560 Mohammed, Haji Wali (Afghanistan)
91. 564 Bin Amer, Jalal (Yemen)
92. 566 Qattaa, Mansoor (Saudi Arabia)
93. 569 Al Shorabi, Zohair (Yemen)
94. 570 Al Qurashi, Sabri (Yemen)
95. 572 Al Zabe, Salah (Saudi Arabia)
96. 574 Al Wady, Hamoud (Yemen)
97. 575 Al Azani, Saad (Yemen)
98. 576 Bin Hamdoun, Zahir (Yemen)
99. 578 Al Suadi, Abdul Aziz (Yemen)
100. 579 Khairkhwa, Khairullah (Afghanistan)
101. 680 Hassan, Emad (Yemen)
102. 682 Al Sharbi, Ghassan (Saudi Arabia)
103. 684 Tahamuttan, Mohammed (Palestine)
104. 685 Ali, Abdelrazak (Algeria)
105. 686 Hakim, Abdel (Yemen)
106. 688 Ahmed, Fahmi (Yemen)
107. 689 Salam, Mohamed (Yemen)
108. 690 Qader, Ahmed Abdul (Yemen)
109. 691 Al Zarnuki, Mohammed (Yemen)
110. 694 Barhoumi, Sufyian (Algeria)
111. 695 Abu Bakr, Omar (Omar Mohammed Khalifh) (Libya)
112. 696 Al Qahtani, Jabran (Saudi Arabia)
113. 702 Mingazov, Ravil (Russia)
114. 707 Muhammed, Noor Uthman (Sudan)
115. 708 Al Bakush, Ismael (Libya)
116. 713 Al Zahrani, Mohammed (Saudi Arabia)
117. 722 Diyab, Jihad (Syria)
118. 728 Nassir, Jamil (Yemen)
119. 753 Zahir, Abdul (Afghanistan)
120. 757 Abdul Aziz, Ahmed Ould (Mauritania)
121. 760 Slahi, Mohamedou Ould (Salahi) (Mauritania)
122. 762 Obaidullah (Afghanistan)
123. 768 Al Darbi, Ahmed Mohammed (Saudi Arabia)
124. 832 Omari, Mohammed Nabi (Afghanistan)
125. 836 Saleh, Ayoub Murshid Ali (Yemen)
126. 837 Al Marwalah, Bashir (Yemen)
127. 838 Balzuhair, Shawki Awad (Yemen)
128. 839 Al Madhwani, Musa’ab (Yemen)
129. 840 Al Maythali, Hail Aziz Ahmed (Yemen)
130. 841 Nashir, Said Salih Said (Yemen)
131. 893 Al Bihani, Tawfiq (Saudi Arabia)
132. 894 Abdul Rahman, Mohammed (Tunisia)
133. 899 Khan, Shawali (Afghanistan)
134. 928 Gul, Khi Ali (Afghanistan)
135. 934 Ghani, Abdul (Afghanistan)
136. 975 Karim, Bostan (Afghanistan)
137. 1015 Almerfedi, Hussein (Yemen)
138. 1017 Al Rammah, Omar (Zakaria al-Baidany) (Yemen)
139. 1045 Kamin, Mohammed (Afghanistan)
140. 1094 Paracha, Saifullah (Pakistan)
141. 1103 Zahir, Mohammed (Afghanistan)
142. 1119 Hamidullah, Haji (Afghanistan)
143. 1453 Al Kazimi, Sanad (Yemen)
144. 1456 Bin Attash, Hassan (Saudi Arabia)
145. 1457 Sharqawi, Abdu Ali (Yemen)
146. 1460 Rabbani, Abdul Rahim Ghulam (Pakistan)
147. 1461 Rabbani, Mohammed Ghulam (Pakistan)
148. 1463 Al Hela, Abdulsalam (Yemen)
149. 10001 Bensayah, Belkacem (Bosnia-Algeria)
150. 10011 Al Hawsawi, Mustafa (Saudi Arabia)
151. 10013 Bin Al Shibh, Ramzi (Yemen)
152. 10014 Bin Attash, Waleed (Saudi Arabia)
153. 10015 Al Nashiri, Abd Al Rahim (Saudi Arabia)
154. 10016 Zubaydah, Abu (Palestine-Saudi Arabia)
155. 10017 Al Libi, Abu Faraj (Libya)
156. 10018 Al Baluchi, Ammar (Ali Abd Al Aziz Ali) (Pakistan-Kuwait)
157. 10019 Isamuddin, Riduan (Hamlili) (Indonesia)
158. 10020 Khan, Majid (Pakistan)
159. 10021 Bin Amin, Modh Farik (Zubair) (Malaysia)
160. 10022 Bin Lep, Mohammed (Lillie) (Malaysia)
161. 10023 Dourad, Gouled Hassan (Somalia)
162. 10024 Mohammed, Khalid Sheikh (Pakistan-Kuwait)
163. 10025 Malik, Mohammed Abdul (Kenya)
164. 10026 Al Iraqi, Abd Al Hadi (Iraq)
165. 3148 Al Afghani, Haroon (Afghanistan)
166. 10029 Rahim, Muhammad (Afghanistan)
Join us on social media