Author: Witness Against Torture Staff

Daily Update – Day 7 of the Fast for Justice

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Dear Friends,

It is hard to believe that our time together in Washington DC is soon coming to an end.  The days have been full, and today – marking the beginning of the 14th year of indefinite detention for the men in Guantanamo, was no exception.

Tomorrow’s update will bring information about our January 12th activities – and will be written after the authors have had their first solid food in 7 days (folks who are local are invited to join us to break the fast at 10am – First Trinity Church).

A full recap of our January 11th activities is below.  You can find Jeremy Varon’s (WAT) remarks from the White House here, and photos of our presence in DC on Flickr and Facebook.

It was good to be in the streets with many of you today.  And we sign off now, preparing for our last day on the streets together…for now.

In Peace,

Witness Against Torture
www.witnesstorture.org

January 11th Summary

Witness Against Torture marked January 11th, 2015 with a rally that was somber and inspiring, full of fresh energy and momentum even as the anniversary of Guantanamo Bay prison comes around for a thirteenth time.  Though the weather was much more forgiving than it was yesterday, the vigil and march were still a physical challenge for the fasters.  The speakers also challenged us: to continue to love, to connect the issues, to uncover the hidden injustices, and to deepen our compassion and commitment towards the Muslim men on whose behalf we act.

After an interfaith prayer service, a diverse range of people spoke in front of the White House, all speaking with the passion that comes from personal experience, shedding light on the injustice of Guantanamo from their particular perspective.  Performances by the Peace Poets began and ended the White House presence.  Between speakers, people read letters from the detainees out loud as the detainees’ pictures were displayed on posters.  After it all, the fasters in orange jumpsuits lined up, and the crowd of observers grew hushed as they watched.   It was time to march to the Department of Justice.  Leading the procession in body and in spirit were Maha Hilal and other members of the group Muslims Rally to Close Guantanamo.

At the Department of Justice, Jeremy Varon explained the significance of the location, and a friend from Cleveland lifted up our desire for peace, beauty, and the release of our captives.  Upon her invitation, each person from the crowd took one of 127 orange carnations labeled with the name of a current Guantanamo detainee and threw it behind the police barricade, onto the steps of the Department of Justice.

The public space between the D.C. Superior Court, the Federal District Court, and D.C. Central Cell Block was the third and final stop of our march.  People with and without jumpsuits stood in a full circle, a sign of our togetherness.  Emmanuel Candelario called forth our “energy, fury, life, and love” in a series of chants that ended in “Shut down Central!” referring to the prison directly underneath our feet.  Shahid Buttar of the D.C. Guerrilla Poetry Insurgency performed and reminded us, “Sola una lucha hay,” that there is only one struggle.  Finally Uruj thanked us for speaking on behalf of those who cannot speak right now, people who we trust will be standing here one day, beside us, in justice.

Below you will find a summary of each of the speeches today.

Prayer Service

Zainab Chaudry of the Council on American Islamic Relations opened the prayer service, calling the participants together across their differences to ask for justice from the Divine.  She read from the poem “Silence,” by Edgar Lee Masters: There is the silence of a great hatred / And the silence of a great love / … / There is the silence of those unjustly punished; And the silence of the dying whose hand / Suddenly grips yours.

Rabbi Charles Feinberg proclaimed that we can only begin to stop this war by honoring the image of God in human beings.

White House

Luke Nephew performed his poem, “There’s a Man Under That Hood”: to the people in my country, please, / do not pretend to be seeking freedom / or justice, or any common good / until we are ready to recognize the human rights / of every / single / man under that hood. 

Jeremy Varon delivered a beautiful address, highlighting the gift of hope that has emerged in the midst of the injustice of the last year.  More than just promising words, we have 28 real releases to celebrate, each release representing a deliberate political act.  We can see in these actions the power of the Guantanamo prisoners’ hunger strike, and the power of ordinary citizens’ resistance.  “Let us grow that power,” Jeremy exhorted the crowd, “to make 2015 the year of the great Guantanamo jubilee, when the walls of indefinite detention crumble, the wails of torture quiet, when the stone in America’s heart begins to soften, when proud men, unjustly bound, walk free, and all men at Guantanamo are treated as human beings.”

Rev. Ron Stief, executive director of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, quoted Psalm 13 to illustrate agony of indefinite detention: “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?”  Torture is condoned by NO faith tradition, he said.  We must close Guantanamo, in the name of American values, and in the name of God.

Aliya Hussain of CCR told us stories: the story of Fahd Ghazy spending another year away from his daughter Hafsa; of Mohammed al-Hamiri, friends with Adnan Latif, who wonders if he will come out alive or share his companion’s fate; of Ghaleb Al-Bihani who struggles to manage his diabetes and related chronic pain; of Tariq Ba Odah, who has been force-fed daily during the hunger strike he began in 2007.  Stories are important, not numbers, Aliya said.  The only number we want at Guantanamo is zero.

Noor Mir of Amnesty International spoke next, sharing about her hometown of Islamabad, and how her life was shaped by the fear that her father would get picked up.  She spoke against the culture of fear in the United States, fear that allows our sinister foreign policy to continue.  And domestic policy too — Noor reminded us that black bodies, too, wear orange jumpsuits, and our national news supports the same culture of fear.

Debra Sweet of World Can’t Wait emphasized that the prison at Guantanamo was NOT a mistake, but a purposeful and potent symbol of U.S. empire.  What’s more, ending Guantanamo does not end U.S. injustice — our nation has still not recognized that black lives matter.  Today is not just a symbolic anniversary protest, but a REAL DAY when we commit to working together to value the lives of all.

Andy Worthington urged us to keep pressuring the Obama administration, asking them, “What are you doing with those 59 men cleared for release? the 52 Yemenis who need a country to repatriate to?”  And for those not cleared for release, we must acknowledge that the “evidence” against them is useless, the product of bribery and torture, an insult to our notions of fairness and justice.

Maha Hilal spoke on behalf of the group Muslims Rally to Close Guantanamo, demanding that Guantanamo be closed.  She urged Muslims especially to take an active role in condemning what is essentially an American prison for Muslims in the world.

Mary Harding of TASSC shared the solidarity of torture survivors, who know the “sense of abandonment, pain, dread” and family members’ pain that the men at Guantanamo experience.  She called for accountability, and said the Senate Torture Report will be important only insofar as the movement gives it strength.  Accountability should be domestic as well, because don’t U.S. citizens suffer?  “What about Riker’s Island? Those people are OUR CHILDREN!”

Talat Hamdani of September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows told the story of her son, who died in his work as a first responder.  Instead of being honored, he was investigated.  She stressed that nonviolent response to 9/11 was and is possible, and is the best way to prevent future attacks.  “The America I believe in WILL close Guantanamo! Guantanamo is America’s SHAME.”

Department of Justice

Jeremy Varon explained how the Department of Justice contributed to legal messiness that plagues all efforts to close Guantanamo.  Early in the Obama administration, the DOJ chose to overturn a decision that would have allowed the U.S. military to resettle more than a dozen Uighurs in the DC metro area.  The DOJ is part of America failing to live up to our ideals, instead creating conditions that foster the continuing carnage.  “I am frankly sick of it.  Sick of being told this machinery makes us safe.  Claiming the mantle of the rule of law, these officials have done damage to all of us.”

D.C. Superior Court / Federal District Court / D.C. Central Cell Block

An excerpt from Shahid Buttar’s “Welcome to the Terrordrome”:

There was a time our nation offered the world inspiration
Today our policies encourage human rights violations
They push you off a plane, you can’t tell if it’s night or day
You don’t know know where you are, you’ve never been there anyway
But here, at Camp X-Ray, for years you will stay
Welcome to the Terrordrome.
Gitmo, Bagram, the presidents change, the abuses go on
We can’t
apply the law
equally
Until we jail Judge Bibey and imprison Dick Cheney.

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HandsUp Coalition DC to Bring ‘Coffin’ to Department of Justice

Press Releases // Film

Up CoalitionDC  To Bring ‘Coffin’ to Department of Justice 

January 13, 2015, Washington, D.C .—Washington-based Hands Up Coalition DC will deliver a coffin to its ‘Justice Monday Vigil’ at the Department of Justice Monday, January 12, 4:00 PM. The coffin symbolizes the deaths of two mentally ill African Americans recently killed in police custody. We will also honor the life of unarmed Emmanuel Okutuga murdered by police.

“While most Americans observed the year-end holiday season, the slave patrol/ police force did not,” said Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo. Citing the deaths of Matthew Ajibade, a bipolar sufferer who died in solitary confinement in Savannah, Georgia on New Years Day; and a January 2 ruling of homicide as the cause of death of schizophrenic, Tanisha Anderson in a Cleveland jail late last year. “Sadly,” Coleman-Adebayo added, “we mourn two more blacks killed while in police custody.”

Justice Mondays began after grand juries failed to indict the police officers responsible for the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo and Eric Garner in New York City.

This week the Hands Up Coalition DC will be joined by Witness Against Torture who will be emphasizing the link between Ferguson and Guantanamo. They will be highlighting the connection between white silence and state violence and calling for resistance to both anti-black racism and Islamaphobia. As a community that has focused largely on accountability for the government’s policies and practices of torture, they’re joining the Black Lives Matter movement in demanding accountability for rampant police brutality and murder of black people across the United States.

“There are specific, immediate and urgently-needed steps that Attorney General Eric Holder can take today,” said Kimone Freeman, Program Director of We Act Radio. “In the two years since AG Holder promised to investigate  Trayvon Martin’s murder, George Zimmerman has threatened to kill 4 other people. Just this week, the courts took his guns away.”

Why we march in front of the DOJ

  1. According to the Supreme Court: “[to] act willfully…[is to] act in open defiance or reckless disregard of a constitutional requirement…” of the Fourth Amendment right to be free from excessive force. Travon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice and countless othersdeserved those same protections. AG Holder—with existing court precedents—could bring charges against the officers in these cases—today.
  2. In civil rights investigations regarding the murders of unarmed black boys and men, DOJ should release it’s findings as to whether the evidence merits bringing cases to trial. AG Holder could bring charges against the officers in these cases—today.
  3. There is no place in domestic policing for the militarization of police forces nationwide. AG Holder could withdraw all funding for militarization of police—today.
  4. There is widespread misuse of the Grand Jury process in cases involving police killing of blacks. Robert McCullough’s handling of the Michael Brown Grand Jury is a perfect example. McCullough is under investigation for ethics violations and a Michael Brown grand juror has sued to be relieved of a gag order. AG Holder could reopen that case—today.
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Jeremy Varon’s Full Remarks from the White House Rally

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– Rally at the White House, January 11, 2015

Today we enter into the 14th year of the operation of a prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba that never should have existed. Many of us have been coming to the White House every January 11th since 2007, with an unbending message:

– to close Guantanamo

– to end torture and indefinite detention

– to ensure accountability for the torturers

– to win justice for the victims

We bring that same message today. We will carry this message as long as it is needed.

But we also bring today new things, even new gifts that grace our gathering this year in a special glow, like the bright sunshine on this uncommonly warm January day.

Above all, we bring a true hope that the dream of closing Guantánamo may indeed become a reality.

That hope isn’t based in any executive order, or presidential promise, or speech, or vague confession that the United States has drifted from its values. All these have proven themselves to be of little or no consequence.

No, our hope is based at last in concrete action from the administration housed behind us to set innocent men free.

This last year, 28 men at Guantánamo were repatriated or resettled – many of them in the last few weeks. Dozens more releases may be quickly to come.

More prisoners have left Guantánamo this year than at any year since 2009, when Obama first took office.

Why, and why now? It is important to recognize that nothing in the twisted legal machinery of Guantánamo is responsible. No judge or administrative procedure can compel the military to release prisoners. No law frees them.

Rather, every release has been in essence a political act, meaning that at last President Obama is doing what we have long implored: asserting his political will, and exercising true leadership to do what is right, no matter how long overdue.

And what brought the president to this point? First and foremost, it was the resistance of the detainees — their hunger, their eloquence, and the irrepressible power of their cause — who insisted that they would not be forgotten in that dusty gulag, discarded, buried alive.

But the pressure came also from advocates: attorneys, human rights professionals, professors, students, journalists, faith leaders, poets, artists and songwriters, marchers, and pilgrims, and righteous disobedients dressed in orange, and pink, and black, ordinary Americans and everyday people from all over the world – people like you and me and all of us here

Let us dwell for a moment on that awesome power — in this case, the power to help free men from cruel bondage — even as we know it is never enough. And let us grow that power to make 2015 the year of the great Guantánamo jubilee: when the walls of indefinite detention crumble, the wails or torture quiet, when the stone in America’s heart begins to soften, when proud men, unjustly bound, walk free, and all men at Guantánamo are treated as human beings.

Our voices today are amplified by something else, quite grave. I speak here of the US Senate report on CIA interrogations, that verifies to all but the most benighted or self-serving that the US committed torture, with both ingenious and banal cruelty. We are all haunted by this shameful fact.

Part of our struggle is to define what it means for this country and the world. The report — assembled from the CIA’s own documents — should compel the prosecution of all those who designed, authorized, ordered and carried out torture policies. Either the rule of law is universal, and indivisible, or it is no rule, no law, at all.   Part of our work is stitch together the fragments of these shattered ideas — to assemble into living truths the democratic catechism of “liberty and justice for all” mumbled by every American schoolchild, because the whole world indeed is watching what this country is and what it does. If American law won’t honor itself by prosecuting its desecrators, we can at least convict the torturers in the courts of common sense, and deliver our own sentence of public shaming — like we did yesterday at the doorsteps of John Brennen and Dick Cheney.

Last, the spirits of this movement have been lifted, as its horizons have been expanded, by the movement for racial justice rising in response to the murders of Michael Brown and Eric Garner. Roughly two years ago the anti-Guantánamo movement began seriously exploring the connections between domestic incarceration and foreign military detention. Perhaps most obviously, solitary confinement – likened to torture by medical and human rights bodies – is practiced on a massive scale in US prisons. Solitary is part of the regime in Guantánamo, along with other “behavior modification” techniques that were first developed in US domestic prisons. In 2013, inspired by the mass hunger strike in Guantánamo, tens of thousands of prisoners in California and other states went on hunger strikes to protest solitary confinement.

This brave act, in turn, inspired anti-Guantánamo activists to engage in solidarity hunger fasts lasting as long as 100 days. News of this solidarity made it through lawyers to the hunger strikers at Guantánamo, whose expressions of thanks caused us to push harder. Here we have global solidarity, not only among prison advocates, but among imprisoned human beings themselves. Let us dwell also on the awesome power of this fact, and the world-changing potential it has.

The #blacklivesmatter movement has brought into sharper focus a series of chilling parallels in the operation of state violence and white supremacy domestically and abroad. Just as police offices can kill black men with impunity, elected officials, the military, and rogue lawyers can, as of now, torture with impunity. So many people of color are incarnated as a consequence of racial profiling; the men at Guantánamo are themselves victims of religious and racial profiling.

Here and there, the rule of law is broken, because applied unequally. And mass incarceration, police brutality, and Guantánamo are ultimately tolerated by much of American society based on the toxic assumption that some lives are more worth defending than others. Today we reject that poison as something alien, incompatible with our understanding of life.

As we make these connections between here and there, diverse oppressions, and the particular techniques of a many-headed apparatus of economic, military, and racial domination, the problems seem to grow bigger, more complicated — even impossibly complex. But as we develop new solidarities, learn from and with each other, we grow more powerful. We become better able to speak out for human rights, true equality, freedom and human dignity with all the thoughtfulness and majesty these proud ideas deserve.

Jeremy Varon
Witness Against Torture

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Daily Update – Day 6 of the Fast for Justice

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Dear friends,

Today was a busy one – and tomorrow and Monday will be busier still.

Still lots of organizing and planning and meeting and acting – all of which become a little more difficult as we go deeper into our fast.  But a spirit has also descended on our community here, now numbering over 70 people…a spirit of connection, and gratitude, and resolve.

Today we joined friends in Code Pink for the Torture Tour, visiting the Virginia homes of John Brennan and Dick Cheney (where two were arrested), then going to CIA headquarters in Langley for a vigil and speaking event.  A photo album of the tour can be found here.  In the afternoon, some of our group joined a planning meeting for organizing an anti-militarization mobilization in DC in March, and some went to a rally to remember Leelah Alcorn and honor Leelah’s wishes for folks to stand up for the rights of transgender and gender non-conforming people everywhere. The day ended with our From Ferguson to Guantanamo panel discussion.

And tomorrow we will be at the White House at 1pm for a demonstration marking January 11th.

Thanks to those who responded to our invitation to share resources for the breaking of our fast on Monday.  More details on how to join us if you are local – but much more to happen before (and shortly after) then.

In Peace,

Witness Against Torture
www.witnesstorture.org

Links to Media Coverage of Torture Tour

Two anti-torture protesters arrested at Dick Cheney’s house

Human Rights Activists Protest Torture Policies on Former VP Dick Cheney’s Porch

Demonstrators mark 14th anniversary of opening of Guantanamo prison with torture protest on Dick Cheney’s lawn

Dick Cheney Has Anti-Torture Protesters Arrested At Demonstration Outside of His House

Two Arrested After Protests At The CIA And Home Of Dick Cheney [VIDEO]

WITNESS AGAINST TORTURE SOCIAL MEDIA

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Saturday, January 10 – Day 6

John Brennan’s home, in a modest suburban neighborhood, was remarkably unprotected. Only a few police officers and cars were there to meet us when we arrived (although more showed up soon). Medea Benjamin led the group from the street up the short driveway that led to a cluster of houses in a circle, including Brennan’s house. Singing what has become our theme song (“we’re gonna build a nation/that don’t torture no one/but it’s gonna take courage/for that change to come”), we walked past the police officers who tried to stop us and moved directly in front of Brennan’s house. There, using our sound system, we spoke directly to Brennan. Several people from the group spoke, condemning the CIA’s and his actions. After about a half hour of speaking, singing, holding banners, and capturing images, and with a police force growing in size and agitation, we filed away from Brennan’s home, singing ‘we’re gonna build a nation…’

At Dick Cheney’s house, police stood in front of the front door.  Our group processed toward a gate that was slightly ajar which led to the back door, where we could easily see through the windows.  When the police who were out front did arrive in the back yard, Tighe Barry of Code Pink was wearing a mask representing Dick Cheney and standing behind a prop for prison bars.  Members of the group encouraged the police to arrest Dick Cheney, and they did, but they actually had nabbed Tighe.  Eighty-three year old Eve Tetaz, longtime Witness Against Torture community member, was also arrested, apparently for moving too slowly.   Both were released a few hours later.

The planning meeting for the spring anti-war action brainstormed ideas and debated some organizing strategies for a national call to action. At the moment, it appears there will be a mobilization in Washington DC March 20-21 that would consist of town hall type meetings, live streaming, and localized teach-ins. Stay tuned for more information in the near future.

In the shadow of the old Carnegie Library, the city’s former central library, a crowd of more than 500 concerned citizens rallied to remember and honor Leelah Alcorn, the transgender teen who committed suicide last month when she walked out into a highway near her Ohio home. Lordes, one of the speakers, said that at 38 years old she was already three years past the average lifespan of transwomen in the U.S. “We are here to declare that Leelah’s life mattered, and that she commissioned all of us to fix society.” Following the rally the large group marched in the cold streets to the Department of Justice (DOJ) with a stop at the Family Research Council where a memorial for Leelah was built. Once at the DOJ, the group’s list of demands were read. The demands include an immediate ban to the dangerous pseudo-scientific “conversion therapy,” required sensitivity training for teachers, parents and other public officials, and greater access to needed hormone treatment for those transitioning. It was a powerful and dramatic march and rally and the organizing group pledged further actions in the near future in the pursuit for full trans rights and respect.

The evening panel discussion took place in the sanctuary of the church where we are staying and begun with powerful poems from the Peace Poets. They performed “Power Concedes Nothing” (derived from Frederick Douglass), “Everything is Possible,” and “Sweet, sweet solidarity.”

The panel that followed was challenging and affirming, engaging and instructive.  The four panelists were Marsha Coleman-Adebayo (DC Hands-Up Coalition), Salim Adofo (National Black United Front), Aliya Hana Hussain (Center for Constitutional Rights), and Kathy Kelly (Voices for Creative Nonviolence) –  with facilitation of the panel by Jerica Arents (Witness Against Torture).

Among some of the reflections panelists shared:

Ferguson turned a moment into a movement.

Ferguson and Guantanamo have in common White Supremacy, impunity for police, and so many innocents who have been jailed.

We have to deal with this White Supremacy Beast.

What feeds the Beast of White Supremacy is the constant promotion of fear, that white people need to protect what they have and their “security.”

Prisoners at Guantanamo talked about Ferguson, saying “They’re being treated like non-humans, like us.

One of the challenges of activism is stepping out and not knowing what you’re going to find on the other side.

People in our movement have actually been given strength from the mothers whose children have been killed.

We are getting better at working together, forming coalitions. It’s hard because people come to the table with all their isms and schisms.

Attica is connected to South Africa is connected to Guantanamo is connected to Ferguson. We have to look at the global picture.

Malcolm X said, “Don’t be surprised that I was in prison. Don’t you know that if you’re black in America, you’re in prison?”

I want us to question uniforms. Because someone wears a uniform and has been trained to kill does not mean he should be exalted.

About being allies: You have to give people the space to solve the problem on their own.

We need to enlarge our understanding of what genocide means.

We need to have brutally honest conversations with each other.

We need to teach our children and young people about militarism.

All of these struggles are preparing us for the really big struggle where we confront the class of people who are destroying life on this planet.

We need to stick in there for the long haul.

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Daily Update – Day 5 of the Fast for Justice

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Dear friends,

This update feels incomplete as we write, but it is getting late and we are leaving in a few short hours for the Torturer’s Tour, and preparing for a panel discussion Saturday night entitled From Ferguson to Guantanamo….followed by Sunday’s  demonstration marking January 11th, and breaking the fast and actions on Monday.

This powerful 3 minute film of our presence at the White House is well worth watching and sharing, and these images capture some of the beauty of holding Fahd Ghazy’s portrait in the National Portrait Gallery.

Our days are full thru Tuesday and we will be gathering to break our fast Monday morning.  We have a space reserved for our meal together, and are now asking for our extended community to help provide that meal.  If any folks are able to help us either coordinate food locally, or share some resources to help us have food brought in, please be in touch to let us know.

In Peace,

Witness Against Torture
www.witnesstorture.org

Links to Press Releases

“Torturers Tour” at Homes of John Brennan and Dick Cheney, Followed by Vigil at CIA Headquarters

Groups to Rally Sunday at White House on 13th Guantánamo Anniversary

WITNESS AGAINST TORTURE SOCIAL MEDIA

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Friday, January 9 – Day 5

Today, we did a variation of the performance we did on Tuesday at Union Station focusing on the words and image of Fahd Ghazy. This time we did it at the White House with a larger group. We dramatically positioned Frank in a jumpsuit and hood kneeling on the ground to represent Fahd during the readings.

At the end, right after reading Fahd’s words, “Now that you know, you cannot turn away,” we had each person in our troupe come to the microphone to finish the phrase: “I will not turn away because…” The voice and expression of each person, one after the other, was a powerful and moving testament to our commitments and an invitation to those watching to also refuse to turn away.

I will not turn away because…

“… I see beauty in the eyes of each person.”

“… I am a mother who has lost a son.”

“… I am a human being, a Muslim, a target of the war on terror.”

“… I am blessed to know love and family, and will never deny that to another.”

“… the existence of the prison at Guantanamo is illegal and immoral.”

“… we need the courage to face the truth of the ugliness.”

“… I am a human being horrified at enforced hopelessness.”

“… I too, in a small way, have suffered.”

“… the U.S. does this in my name and I never gave my permission.”

Then, some of our group took our action to the National Portrait Gallery. The gallery’s entrance leads into a lovely, large atrium.  Seeing the space, and noting that about 50 people, seated at small tables, were conversing over meals, we decided that we would begin with soft singing.

We quickly arranged ourselves in a V-formation.  In the center, Brian and Paulette held the banner carrying a portrait of Fahd Ghazy’s face.  Leaflets were distributed to onlookers.  No one expressed animosity.  A little girl seemed especially pleased to see us, and when she approached, her parents seemed not to mind.

Frank Lopez invited people to open their hearts to Fahd Ghazy’s story and see his humanity.  Our soft singing was interspersed with excerpts from Fahd’s letter. We unraveled Fahd’s portrait. Onlookers were reading the leaflets and many were listening.  Some would have seen a security guard approach Brian to tell him that he couldn’t show that portrait in this place.  Some might have heard the guard tell Chrissy, as she read, “This can’t happen here.”  Kathy walked forward to read the next excerpt, we continued singing, and then Frank, in the role of Fahd, began to recite his excerpt as the security guard, joined by other armed guards, ordered Frank to stop.

Slowly he rose, and slowly we processed out of the National Portrait Gallery.  Frank, who had memorized the final excerpt from Fahd’s letter, filled the space with Fahd’s words:  “Now that you have heard me, you cannot turn away.”  The little girl, wide-eyed, watched us every step of our way.

Luke rejoined us on the front steps for a brief closure time. He had stayed behind to thank the onlookers.

As we go through this week living in community with the focus of calling attention to the horrors of Guantanamo and torture, we challenge ourselves to look at ways of practicing compassion within a system of such widespread dehumanization. A sense of hope is brought to the public while we stand in front of the White House singing “We’re gonna build a nation that don’t torture no one…” Taking action as a spiritual practice also raises the question of who has the power to forgive? Fahd Gazy wrote that there is no guilt or innocence in Guantanamo, but there is right and wrong.  It is difficult to see what is in a person’s heart and what leads to a change of heart. In our creation of community here in DC we envision a true world house where all belong, where there are no winners and losers. Fahd’s story invites us to admit mistakes, and forgive. We want to liberate the prisoners and make amends.

Chris Spicer wrote this reflection today:

When I write a letter to a detainee it must begin politely. Great greetings of peace, Yes peace! And I know you have peace, have a peaceful heart, that you long for peace; and as a follower of the way of peace I acknowledge anger and resentment, brutal wrongdoing. As a follower of the way of peace, I send my hope for your patience.

Because when I write a detainee I trust the final end of all knowing, the great return to our common origin, this nature and destiny of the human being, and wanting really to put this act of knowing in the service of recognizing your dignity, your way of peace; I consider this act enabling liberty for both of us, preserving our endowment for the right to choices of faith, family, friends, a corner to mark private.

Composing words through which to meet you in power’s place, at rest in peace, I exercise the desire for shared ground, for a place where truth resides, for a moment, lasting, with a freedom that has the ground of peace. Finally I move the pen. I hail you, I fast for you.

How’s a busy mom supposed to find the time to protest Guantánamo?

By Frida Berrigan

This is how it starts.

I am sitting on the floor in the living room. My son Seamus — a two-and-a-half-year-old — is cuddled in my lap. I am talking to my sister on the phone and then, suddenly, I am covered in vomit.

“Ah, Kate. I am going to have to call you back. Seamus just hurled all over me.”

I throw down the phone and carry my screaming son upstairs and into the bathtub. He has the flu.

Meanwhile, my friends are fasting in Washington, D.C. They are vigiling, witnessing and organizing to shut down Guantánamo, end torture and ensure accountability for the perpetrators. They are wearing orange jumpsuits and black hoods (over very warm coats). They are at the Pentagon, the White House and the Capitol, as the new Congress is sworn in. They are embodying solidarity by showing up for demonstrations against police brutality and U.S. military aid to Mexico. They are waking up early, going to bed late and sleeping on mats on the floor. They are hungry and cold. They are meeting, planning, praying and singing.

I am not there. I am missing it and I am missing them.

Witness Against Torture started nearly 10 years ago as a small group of people looking at the issues of torture, indefinite detention, collective punishment, scapegoating, racism and violence in the George W. Bush administration’s Global War on Terror. Through prayer, study and building community, we were able to stretch ourselves over fear to do what our consciences told us was right. We got on a plane, flew to Cuba and began walking to Guantánamo. We aimed to walk right onto the U.S. naval base and visit the men (at the time there were more than 700 Muslims and Arabs and others interred there). We got pretty close to the base and there we vigiled and prayed and fasted for five days while we held press conferences, did international media work and called the U.S. base incessantly asking to be let in. Flying back to Newark, N.J., we told customs agents that we had been to Cuba, hoping that we’d be tried for violating travel and financial restrictions. We never were.

Nine years later, those Cuba travel laws are all changing, but the reality for the more than 100 men still at Guantánamo remains the same. More men (nine) have died at Guantánamo than have been tried for their alleged crimes by military commissions (eight). Sixty-three of those still imprisoned at Guantánamo have been cleared for release by both the Bush administration and the Obama administration. Shaker Aamer, Fahd Ghazy and 61 others: These are the men my friends are fasting for in D.C. and beyond. This coming Sunday will mark 12 years of indefinite detention and separation for the men at Guantánamo.

Since coming home from Cuba in December 2005, Witness Against Torture has grown from 25 people to thousands. We have worked to make January 11a day of national shame. Each year, we have gathered in Washington, D.C., in anger, outrage and the hope that we won’t have to do it again the following year. And then we do it again the next year, and now it is 2015.

Today is day five of their fast. Our fast? I am not fasting. I am still nursing a 17-pound, 10-month-old and her demand for liquid nutrition is near constant. I am not fasting, but I have sworn off sweets and beer until the Witness Against Torture fast ends with breakfast on Tuesday, January 13.

It does not feel like enough, especially because I am not in D.C.

Seamus has stopped vomiting, but he still has a fever and is miserable. It is just by grace (and the bionic nursing baby immune system) that Madeline has not gotten his nasty bug, but she is teething and has a runny nose. While my friends have been marching, vigiling and singing, I have been marooned in various rooms in our house, with Seamus whining on one side of my lap and Madeline nursing on the other. My clothes are covered in kid snot, I have not been able to go to the bathroom by myself, and all I want at the end of the day is a beer and a brownie. (This unmet want makes me feel like my token fast is some small sacrifice after all. I guess that is something.)

I planned to take the kids to Baltimore to see their Grandma Liz and then on to D.C. on Wednesday, and then on Thursday, and now maybe Friday or evenSaturday. We will see how they feel. I am struggling so much with this! I am still getting used to this being responsible for other people phenomenon called motherhood: I have to think about the health and warmth, food and nutrition, well-being and safety of two very little people. When we went to Cuba in 2005, I was not a mother, I was not nursing and I had never been covered in baby snot or toddler vomit. It doesn’t seem like so long ago and I am not a different person, but it is hard to be here when my friends and part of my heart are in D.C., working so hard for justice, accountability and all that I hold so dear.

Thank you friends. I am with you in spirit. But those of you with immune systems degraded by cold, fasting and tiredness are surely happy I am not any closer.

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“Torturers Tour” at Homes of John Brennan and Dick Cheney, Followed by Vigil at CIA Headquarters

Press Releases // Film

Washington DC — On Saturday, January 10th, the eve of the anniversary Guantanamo Bay Prison’s opening, anti-torture activists from human rights groups CODEPINK and Witness Against Torture will gather to demonstrate at the homes of high-ranking officials who have previously authorized torture. These officials include former VP Dick Cheney and current Director of the CIA John Brennan. Activists will then hold a vigil at the CIA headquarters in Virginia. Between 30-60 protesters are expected to attend, most wearing orange Guantanamo-style prison orange jumpsuits and black hoods.

Schedule of events for Saturday, January 10, 2015:

8:00am: Meet at Frying Pan National Park in Herdon, VA

8:10: Leave park for John Brennan’s house right down the road (13351 Point Rider Lane, Herndon VA)

9:00: Leave John Brennan’s house

9:30: Arrive at Dick Cheney’s house (1126 Chain Bridge Road, McLean, VA)

10:00: Leave Dick Cheney’s house to go to CIA (1000 Colonial Farm Road, McLean, VA)

10:10-11:30: CIA Protest and Vigil

“The release of the Torture Report at the end of 2014 exposed the American government’s horrific human rights record,” said Alli McCracken, National Coordinator of the peace group CODEPINK. “The war criminals who lied about torture, and are getting away with it, should be prosecuted and Guantanamo prison must be closed now.”

“Giving a pass to yesterday’s torturers, like Dick Cheney, by failing to prosecute them,” said Witness Against Torture organizer Jeremy Varon, “gives a green light to tomorrow’s torturers and may doom the United States to repeating this awful crime.  We the people can judge Cheney and others for what they did, in hopes that the law might soon as well.”

“Dick Cheney has not only justified the US use of torture, but has said he’d do it all over again,” said CODEPINK cofounder Medea Benjamin. “We’re going to his house, and John Brennan’s house, to show that there are Americans who have moral values and are disgusted that these ‘leaders’ are not behind bars.”

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Groups to Rally Sunday at White House on 13th Guantánamo Anniversary

Fast for Justice 2015 // Film

Washington, DC – A coalition of human rights activists, torture survivors, Guantánamo attorneys, 9-11 family members, and members of diverse faith communities is holding a rally at the White House followed by a march to the Justice Department on Sunday, January 11, to mark the 13th anniversary of the first arrival of detainees at Guantanamo.  The event, titled “A Promise Still to Keep: Close Guantánamo, Stop Torture, and End Indefinite Detention,” will follow an interfaith service in front of the White House at 1pm.

The coalition is calling on the Obama administration and Congress to close Guantánamo, end indefinite detention, ensure accountability for torture, and reaffirm the absolute legal ban on torture.  The rally will be followed by a visually powerful “detainee procession” of figures in orange jumpsuits and black hoods and signs marking the anniversary.

The groups involved drafted a call to action:

On the second day of his administration, President Obama pledged to close the detention facility at Guantánamo and reaffirmed the ban on torture. But Guantánamo remains open.

On January 11, 2015 the detention facility will enter its 14th year of operation. Despite the recent release of some detained men, more than 100 remain at Guantánamo, including dozens who are cleared for transfer — the great majority of whom are from Yemen. Those still detained suffer the torment of separation from their families and ongoing, indefinite detention. Some detainees remain on hunger strike and are brutally force-fed.

The Senate report on the CIA’s Detention and Interrogation Program describes acts of torture that shock the conscience. President Obama banned the CIA torture program by executive order when he took office, but that is insufficient to ensure that torture and other ill-treatment are never used again. Obama’s Justice Department has refused to prosecute those who authorized, ordered, designed, and carried out a torture program that is in plain violation of U.S. law and treaty obligations.

President Obama, whose second term will soon end, must fulfill his promise to close the detention facility and end torture. The time to act is now.

1:00pm Interfaith service in front of the White House sponsored by the National Religious Coalition Against Torture and Interfaith Action for Human Rights

1:30pm Rally in front of the White House followed by a march to the Justice Department

Sponsors: Amnesty International USA, the Blue Lantern Project, the Center for Constitutional Rights, CloseGitmo.net, Code Pink, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, Reprieve, September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, the Torture Abolition and Survivor and Support Coalition, Veterans for Peace, We Stand with Shaker, Witness Against Torture, World Can’t Wait, and others. 

Organizational Quotes

“We urge President Obama to continue to release men from Guantanamo and to bring renewed attention in particular to cleared Yemeni men – including our clients, Tariq Ba Odah, Mohammed Al Hamiri, Fahd Ghazy, and Ghaleb Al-Bihani – to put an end to their indefinite detention based on their Yemeni citizenship. Whatever pretense of authority to detain the men at Guantánamo existed during combat operations in Afghanistan, it has evaporated: it is past time to close the prison and bring a swift end to 13 years of indefinite detention without charge or trial.” ~ Baher Azmy, legal director, Center for Constitutional Rights

“The Guantanamo Bay prison facility is a travesty of our justice system that has globally tarnished America’s reputation. Continued detainment of these prisoners under such dire, harsh conditions without due process is unethical and unconscionable. Many inmates were cleared for release years ago, yet they still remain imprisoned. The Council on American-Islamic Relations calls on President Obama to hold true to his promise, bring all the detainees to trial or release them, and shut down Guantanamo once and for all.” ~ Zainab Chaudry, spokesperson, Council on American-Islamic Relations and board member, Interfaith Action for Human Rights

“Thirteen years on, it is a scandal that more than a hundred people remain imprisoned at Guantanamo without charge or trial, half of them long cleared for release. While the latest wave of transfers out of the prison is encouraging, there are still abuses happening at Guantanamo every day – and the White House continues to try to bury the evidence. Instead of covering up the failings of the prison, in 2015 Obama must redouble his efforts to close it once and for all.” ~ Cori Crider, strategic director, Reprieve, and a lawyer for several Guantanamo detainees

“Despite the White House’s efforts to close Guantanamo, 59 men who have already been cleared for release remain. TASSC calls on President Obama to fulfill his promise to close Guantanamo and on Congress not to hinder the Administration’s efforts to close Guantanamo.” ~ Gizachew Emiru, Esq., executive director, Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition

“As we count a grim thirteenth year since Guantanamo opened, dozens of men continue to languish there with no idea when or even if their detention will end. The president has momentum and the legal authority to finally shut down Guantanamo, and must act quickly. Congress should not seek to restrict or slow these efforts.” ~ Noor Mir, associate field organizer, Amnesty International USA 

“Guantanamo symbolizes two immoral acts – torture and imprisonment without trial.  It should have been closed more than a decade ago.  The National Religious Campaign Against Torture applauds the Administration for transferring 28 detainees in 2014, now it’s time to close Guantanamo and sign legislation that permanently ends torture.” ~ Rev. Ron Stief, executive director, National Religious Campaign Against Torture

“The Bush regime opened the torture camp at Guantánamo Bay not just to imprison captives but to send a message to the world that the U.S. could operate with impunity outside the norms of international law.  The Obama administration has had six years to close it, punish those who ordered the torture, and forever repudiate indefinite detention and secret rendition as national policy, but to its great discredit, has not.  We who care about justice demand the closure of Guantanamo immediately.” ~ Debra Sweet, director, World Can’t Wait

“The Yemeni prisoners cleared for release or transfer still held at Guantánamo have waited more than a decade to see their families.  It will take the administration years to carry out its strategy of finding third countries where these 50+ men can be strangers.  Send them home today!” ~ Nancy Talanian, No More Guantanamos

“With the Senate report on CIA interrogations, we decisively know that the United States committed torture.  The ongoing operation of the prison at Guantanamo extends injustices that are hardly now in the past.  The eyes of the world are vigilantly watching to see if President Obama fulfills his pledge to close the prison, and will judge his presidency and the country he leads based on whether he succeeds.” ~ Jeremy Varon, Witness Against Torture

“We congratulate President Obama for his progress towards closing Guantanamo in the last year, but much more remains to be done – the release of the 59 men still held who have long been approved for release, and trials or release for all the other men still held. The president has two more years to fulfill the promise to close Guantanamo that he made when he took office six long years ago. He must not fail!” ~ Andy Worthington, CloseGuantanamo.org

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Daily Update – Day 4 of the Fast for Justice

Campaigns // Film

Dear friends,

As another day in DC comes to a close…and the last few remain in our makeshift office – a small room off the larger church basement space were other folks are sleeping – conversation continues about planning, and remembering, and resisting, and learning.

Our update is shorter today, as much of our time has been spent planning our next few days which include a Torturer’s Tour, a From Ferguson to Guantanamo panel discussion, and a demonstration marking January 11th and the beginning of 14 years of torture and indefinite detention.

We were also able to put together two short videos of some of our public presences this week, focused on #FreeFahd & #WeStandWithShaker.  Please take two minutes to watch and share.

We have also included in this update a poem written by Luke Nephew, penned under the influence of reading the words from Guantanamo of Samir Naji al Hasan Moqbel – which follow Luke’s words below.

In Peace,

Witness Against Torture
www.witnesstorture.org

*Please share your fasting experiences with us so we can pass them on to the larger community.*

CLICK HERE FOR OUR WASHINGTON, DC SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

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Thursday, January 8

Today was Day 4 of our fast and the temperature in Washington was well below freezing all day. People are tending to each other very well as we get hungrier, spacier, and (arguably) funnier.

This morning we welcomed some new members to our community (we’re up to 40 now) and did some planning and community-building. Later, we all went to see the movie Selma. It’s a very powerful and moving film about Martin Luther King and the struggle in Selma in the 60’s that led to the Voting Rights Act. The spirit of activism from the civil rights movement fed our own spirits. The images of the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church evoked thoughts of other children and places around the world where our military’s bombs fall from drones.

After the movie, many of us fanned out to various sites around the city to scout out possibilities for our actions on the 11th and 12th. Then in the evening, we circled up and got in small groups to think through different options for those days. Looking forward…

History’s Most Necessary Writer
By Luke Nephew

The hunger that the Samir feels
Is no longer knowing at his stomach
It grates over his entire being,
Shredding his peace into pieces
Beating salt into his mind’s open wounds
Most of the time he must focus on just breathing
In
And out
Don’t begin
To doubt
Just in and out of now, out of here
Traveling as far as memory and imagination can take him
He leaves
He breathes- this how he escapes from the most powerful military in history
An innocent man versus marines, sergeants, racist privates,
His hungry stuttering breadth is the extent of his riot
Can no longer waste fury on the injustice of his engagement
He can only breathe in and out the belief this hunger strike will change it,
He is dying
His pain enflaming
His anguish knotting him tighter and tighter
Today he has become
History’s most necessary writer
Capital Letters: AMERICAN TORTURE: THIS HOW FAR WE HAVE NOT COME
They publish a piece of his breadth in the New York Times, will he survive?
His exhale prays that he is not the scribe of a suicide note for the 164 lives
Living death inside the prison, he coughs out curdled fear,
he is still here- that fact alone makes him the writer of a million poems of resistance:
His inhale is filled with tales of Love
Stories his memory paints before he faints, prayers for fresh air, his mother’s face,
His cough is a soliloquy to honor the laughter of daughters, eyes glowing as they look at their father, he is wheezing an ode to hugs
he wants to be hugged
after the force feeding sessions when he’s thrown back in his cell he sighs
a slow trembling elegy, a goodbye
and hours later his breadth scripts the small gifts his imagination lifts into haikus
for little pleasures he remembers buying vegetables, drinking tea and talking softly as the sun sets-
His pen is his breadth- He is STILL writing for for life in the grip of death
History’s most urgent writer- taken, tortured, force-fed-
Composing you chapters to document the devastation of his capture,
and the miraculous survival of human hope-
He’s not done loving
Not yet
I beg him to keep pen to paper, air in lungs-
Please don’t get tired of cutting through the wire
Of revealing our reality, our truth set on fire
Never stop burning for freedom
Please  Please do not stop breathing.

Gitmo Is Killing Me
By Samir Naji al Hasan Moqbel

GUANTÁNAMO BAY, Cuba

ONE man here weighs just 77 pounds. Another, 98. Last thing I knew, I weighed 132, but that was a month ago.

I’ve been on a hunger strike since Feb. 10 and have lost well over 30 pounds. I will not eat until they restore my dignity.

I’ve been detained at Guantánamo for 11 years and three months. I have never been charged with any crime. I have never received a trial.

I could have been home years ago — no one seriously thinks I am a threat — but still I am here. Years ago the military said I was a “guard” for Osama bin Laden, but this was nonsense, like something out of the American movies I used to watch. They don’t even seem to believe it anymore. But they don’t seem to care how long I sit here, either.

When I was at home in Yemen, in 2000, a childhood friend told me that in Afghanistan I could do better than the $50 a month I earned in a factory, and support my family. I’d never really traveled, and knew nothing about Afghanistan, but I gave it a try.

I was wrong to trust him. There was no work. I wanted to leave, but had no money to fly home. After the American invasion in 2001, I fled to Pakistan like everyone else. The Pakistanis arrested me when I asked to see someone from the Yemeni Embassy. I was then sent to Kandahar, and put on the first plane to Gitmo.

Last month, on March 15, I was sick in the prison hospital and refused to be fed. A team from the E.R.F. (Extreme Reaction Force), a squad of eight military police officers in riot gear, burst in. They tied my hands and feet to the bed. They forcibly inserted an IV into my hand. I spent 26 hours in this state, tied to the bed. During this time I was not permitted to go to the toilet. They inserted a catheter, which was painful, degrading and unnecessary. I was not even permitted to pray.

I will never forget the first time they passed the feeding tube up my nose. I can’t describe how painful it is to be force-fed this way. As it was thrust in, it made me feel like throwing up. I wanted to vomit, but I couldn’t. There was agony in my chest, throat and stomach. I had never experienced such pain before. I would not wish this cruel punishment upon anyone.

I am still being force-fed. Two times a day they tie me to a chair in my cell. My arms, legs and head are strapped down. I never know when they will come. Sometimes they come during the night, as late as 11 p.m., when I’m sleeping.

There are so many of us on hunger strike now that there aren’t enough qualified medical staff members to carry out the force-feedings; nothing is happening at regular intervals. They are feeding people around the clock just to keep up.

During one force-feeding the nurse pushed the tube about 18 inches into my stomach, hurting me more than usual, because she was doing things so hastily. I called the interpreter to ask the doctor if the procedure was being done correctly or not.

It was so painful that I begged them to stop feeding me. The nurse refused to stop feeding me. As they were finishing, some of the “food” spilled on my clothes. I asked them to change my clothes, but the guard refused to allow me to hold on to this last shred of my dignity.

When they come to force me into the chair, if I refuse to be tied up, they call the E.R.F. team. So I have a choice. Either I can exercise my right to protest my detention, and be beaten up, or I can submit to painful force-feeding.

The only reason I am still here is that President Obama refuses to send any detainees back to Yemen. This makes no sense. I am a human being, not a passport, and I deserve to be treated like one.

I do not want to die here, but until President Obama and Yemen’s president do something, that is what I risk every day.

Where is my government? I will submit to any “security measures” they want in order to go home, even though they are totally unnecessary.

I will agree to whatever it takes in order to be free. I am now 35. All I want is to see my family again and to start a family of my own.

The situation is desperate now. All of the detainees here are suffering deeply. At least 40 people here are on a hunger strike. People are fainting with exhaustion every day. I have vomited blood.

And there is no end in sight to our imprisonment. Denying ourselves food and risking death every day is the choice we have made.

I just hope that because of the pain we are suffering, the eyes of the world will once again look to Guantánamo before it is too late.

Samir Naji al Hasan Moqbel, a prisoner at Guantánamo Bay since 2002, told this story, through an Arabic interpreter, to his lawyers at the legal charity Reprieve in an unclassified telephone call.

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