From the Archive

Video: WAT Benefit Concerts Now Online

Starting in 2011, Iowan members of Witness Against Torture began organizing benefit concerts for TASSC. You can enjoy highlights from the concerts below, and help us spread the concerts’ reach by sharing the links with your friends. The most recent footage is from January, 2013.

4 Things We Can Do in 2013 to Close Guantánamo

2013 has been a busy year at Amnesty already. From protesting torture at the Washington, DC premiere of the film Zero Dark Thirty to people across the US and around the world spending January 11 (the 11th anniversary of “war on terror” detainees arriving at Guantanamo) marching against the continued human rights violations being committed by the US government, we have some real momentum to start the new year.

Fast for Justice 2013: Day 7

Dear Friends,

We hope you all enjoyed a nourishing meal today and are feeling renewed. For those of us in D.C., the breaking of the fast followed a vigil at the CIA organized by a local chapter of Pax Christi and others. This was WAT’s second time bringing the presence of jumpsuit and hood to the CIA and many were pleasantly surprised by the favorable response of those passing by. Not far from the CIA, a very different organization welcomed us. With weary bodies and growling stomachs we stumbled over to the Langley Hill Friends Community for a sumptuous pot-luck style fast-breaking meal.

Fast for Justice 2013: Day 6

*small disclaimer: it is late/early, and six days into the fast. please forgive our fasting brains if we do not make complete sentences… or sense!

Dear Friends,

Chantal, Jerica and Amy brought folks together this morning with a rousing version of “Woke up this morning with my mind stayed on freedom.” We gathered today to prepare to mark the eleventh anniversary of the Guantánamo Bay detention center. Our mood was both somber and ready – there was much work to do: speeches, a long procession, the risk of arrest at the White House. And to gather courage for a long day ahead, we reflected on the following words of Fr. Daniel Berrigan…

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…

Fast for Justice 2013: Day 4

Dear Friends,

Brian Hynes from New York will be happy to know that this year we have recreated his “Plato Meter” – a clever system of gauging (mimetically, not ideally) how far we have come in our fast and how far we have yet to go. In short, in the corner of the main room there is a table with two stacks of dinner plates. For each potential meal during the day, we pass one plate from the larger stack on the right over to the ever-growing stack on the left. Friends, yes indeed, today we have passed the halfway mark!

Fast for Justice 2013: Day 3

Dear Friends,

Beth B. opened our first circle of the day reminding us to take care of ourselves during this fast that challenges our bodies and our spirits. “In taking care of ourselves, we take care of the rest of the world. Our own suffering is linked to the suffering of all. Our own liberation is linked to the liberation of all.” Her words encouraged us not only to self-care, but to remembering again the interconnectedness of all lives. And her words were echoed in the lines of a poem by Abdulla Majid al Noaimi, “The tears of someone else’s longing are affecting me; my chest cannot take the vastness of emotion.” So we were reminded too of the suffering that can arise from connection, and from connections severed, as the two poems by detainees that we read over the course of the day speak of longing for loved ones far away.

Fast for Justice 2013: Day 2

Dear Friends,

Today is the second day of our fast, our first full day without food. We began the day early, rising to be at the Pentagon when the morning shift came in to work. The Pentagon was the first of three vigils today. After coming back for some rest and some reflection on our time together, we went out for a second time — this time to the White House. We processed as far as we could around the perimeter of the White House grounds, weaving in between recently erected fences that surround the grandstands, bleachers, and viewing stands that are being set up for the inauguration.

Fast for Justice 2013: Day 1

Dear Friends,

January 11, 2013 marks the eleventh anniversary of the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, the seventh anniversary of Witness Against Torture’s January 11 presence in D.C., and our fifth liquids fast. Here we are again, pilgrims from across the country, gathering in D.C. Though it is not to pay homage to the nation’s capital that we come, but to honor a common cause, a divine mandate in fact, “love one another.” Even enemies, even strangers, undoubtedly those unjustly detained.

First Trinity has once again graciously allowed us their space and at a modest rate, though we are still looking to raise funds to cover the cost of rent, as well as liquid sustenance of juice and tea. The fast began this afternoon after a farewell-to-eating feast of pizza. Though it is a somber cause for which we gather, the atmosphere was paradoxically celebratory as many friends who haven’t seen each other for months, or even since last year, are reunited. As this struggle continues, we find joy in community. And it is a community that is continually growing. “We are a large circle,” Matt D. said at our first meeting of fasters, “but our circle is larger than faces you see.” We know many of you across the country (and farther) are joining us, and very much feel your presence here.

Our January 2013 Schedule

Here’s a detailed list of our actions for each day of our stay in Washington, DC this January. Join us!