Category: Campaigns

Come to DC for WAT’s Fast for Justice: Jan. 7-13, 2020

Campaigns // Film

A week of witness against Guantanamo and all it represents

Witness Against Torture will begin to gather on Tuesday evening, January 7th, to embrace the 40 Muslim men still locked up in Guantanamo and the hundreds of others forever scarred and haunted by the trauma of having been there.  We will remember, we will witness and we will move forward in community with each other.

The highlight will be Saturday, January 11th, with a rally and action marking 18 years since the U.S. landed the first plane full of Muslim men bound for that house of horrors.  We’re also planning an evening performance event, a panel addressing mass incarceration, and a showing of Justice for Muslims Collective’s poster display Shattering Justice & Re-Making the Muslim Threat.  See our schedule here.

We invite you to join us to sing, create, plan, witness, act, fast if you wish, and celebrate our community.  RSVP by emailing witnesstorture@gmail.com:  include your name, phone number and the dates you plan to be there.  We will get back to you with housing and other information.  

Fasting-Tips-2020

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No Separate Justice: No SAMs

#foreverhumanbeings Campaign // Film

By Jeremy Varon, a member of Witness Against Torture.

Under murky skies at dusk, a small but determined group held vigil on June 5 at the foot of what is perhaps Manhattan’s most monstrous building: the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC).  The ugly, imposing structure — strangely hidden amidst a thicket of government facilities — is a federal prison.  It continues to house “war on terror” suspects under what are among the most inhumane conditions in the United States’s entire penal system.

The vigil was held by No Separate Justice (NSJ), a coalition that includes the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), the National Coalition to Protect Civil Freedoms, Amnesty International, the Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement, and Witness Against Torture (WAT).  The focus of the vigil was the use in federal prisons of Special Administrative Measures, or “SAMs.” Shrouded in great secrecy and overwhelmingly used against Muslim inmates, SAMs impose staggering restrictions on inmates’ access to human contact within the prison, to knowledge of the outside world, and to family members.  The vigil’s speakers provided both information and a picture of the suffering caused by SAMS.  Legal researchers conveyed what little is publicly known of SAMs.  Advocates from CCR read heartrending letters from the siblings of Abu Ahmed Ali, incarcerated for years at the ADX “supemax” prison in Florence, Colorado under SAMs restrictions.

The attention to SAMs brought No Separate Justice full circle.  The vigils got their start in 2009 to protest the treatment of MCC inmate Fahad Hashmi.  A US citizen of Pakistani origin, Hashmi was arrested in England in 2003 on suspicion of material support for terrorism. Extradited to the United States, he faced heavy charges based on an achingly tangential connection to an Al Qaeda operative turned state’s witness.  Hashmi was subject to more than two years of SAMs when in pre-trial detention.  With his physical and metal health failing from the extreme isolation, he accepted in 2010 a plea deal carrying a 15-year sentence.  No Separate Justice started a new round of vigils in 2015.  The group continues to highlight his case, as well as other abuses with federal “war on terror” investigations, prosecutions, and imprisonment.

* * *

The June 4 vigil began with chilling reflections from its MC, Abi Hassan.  Hassan is a civil rights lawyer working with the Black Movement Law Project.  Hassan contended that the United States’ legal and civic infrastructure, much like its physical infrastructure, is collapsing.  “Different classes of people” such as the poor, African Americans, and many immigrants, “have different systems of law.” The country has reached a point, Hassan contended, where even upholding the “ideal” of the rule of law appears “antiquated.”  SAMs, with their Kafkaesque administration and draconian measures, represent the further chipping away at a proper system of law.

Following Hassan, four recent Yale Law School Graduates (Andrew Walchuck, Tasnim Motala, Andy Udelsman, and Allison Frankel) glossed summarized the major findings from their years of research on SAMs.  Created in 1996 to deter the potential criminal plots of prisoners, SAMs metastasized after 9/11.  These measures prohibit nearly any direct human contact whatsoever with the prisoner, while greatly censoring trickles of reading material (Barack Obama’s Tales of My Father was in one case banned, for fear that it would disrupt order within the prison).  Infrequent phone calls are permitted, only to immediate family. Crucially, SAMs impose gag orders on the inmates, their attorneys, and family members.  As a result, little is known about SAMs themselves and any public advocacy for the inmates is severely hampered.  Last, SAMs are often applied in pre-trial detention and may therefore be used coercively.  A prisoner may well accept a plea deal in hopes that the SAMs will then be lifted.

To obtain critical documents for their research, the legal team had to sue the US government for violation of its obligation to properly release material in response to Freedom of Information Act requests.  After four years the researchers were finally handed nearly 1,000 pages of documents.  At the vigil, the Yale team enumerated constitutional objections to SAMS.  The measures potentially violate: equal protection, given their discriminatory application against Muslim prisoners; the First Amendment, in both their restrictions on the speech of inmates and attorneys and limits on religious liberty (Muslims prisoners, eg, are denied group worship); and prohibitions on cruel and unusual punishment, in light of the devastating effects of this severe form of solitary confinement.  The law school grads concluded their presentation with the key recommendations of their report; prepared in conjunction with CCR, it will be released in a month of so.  It calls for an end to SAMs and, failing that, greater government transparency about their use and the lifting of SAMs gag orders.

The greatest emotion of the vigil came when letters from the siblings of Abu Ahmed Ali were read.  He was arrested in Saudi Arabia in 2003.  Age 22, he was studying at university.  After torture and 47 straight days of interrogation, Ali signed a “confession” to criminal activity.  This “confession” played the key role in his conviction in the United States for material support for terrorism and related charges.  He was initially sentenced to 30 years, though the judge conceded that no person was harmed by his alleged actions.  On government appeal, his sentence was then extended to life in prison. He has been under SAMs for 11 years.

Abu Ahmed Ali’s brother and sister testify in their letters to the terrible effects of SAMs.  Their mother keeps permanent vigil by the phone in anticipation of his short, unscheduled, and infrequent phone calls.  His remote detention in Florence Colorado makes visits extremely difficult.  He can never hear the voice of extended family, such as in-laws.

No Separate Justice speaks out for true equality under the law.  Sadly, the SAMs are but one example of the separate standard of justice now being applied in domestic “war on terror” prosecutions and detentions.  The collapse of the rule of law, Abi Hassan stressed at the vigil’s start, is not due to neglect but is instead an act of will.  Only with our persistent courage and defiance can the ideal of equality under the law — always badly compromised in the United State’s checkered history— be given new life.

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Day 1 – Sufyian Barhoumi #foreverhumanbeing

#foreverhumanbeings Campaign // Film

Today, on the eve of Ramadan, Witness Against Torture begins its #ForeverHumanBeings & #41MenAtGitmo campaign, which is dedicated to renewing calls to close Guantanamo prison as well as uplifting the stories of the 41 men who remain imprisoned behind its walls. We just released a new video for our first profile – Sufyian Barhoumi –  in collaboration with the Center for Constitutional Rights. Please check it out here and share widely.

There are a number of other ways that you can participate in the campaign and we encourage you to get involved and spread the word!

1) Sign-up For our Rolling Fast:  

You are free to choose how you fast, whether it is from sunrise to sunset or for 24 hours, or if you drink liquids or simply water.  For Muslims who are observing Ramadan, we ask that you dedicate your fast to the prisoner of the day and remember them in your prayers and your supplications when breaking your fast. Sign up here to join the fast and receive reminders and inspiration for your day of fasting.

2) Share and Like our Campaign:

Find us on Facebook and Twitter and share our daily profiles of the men who are currently detained. Also, share your messages of solidarity on facebook and/or twitter with a picture of you with #ForeverHumanBeings & #41MenAtGitmo signs. Please use the banner photo above as your Facebook cover photo!

3) Get Educated:

Take time to learn about the history of Guantanamo Bay and the men currently detained via our website and social media.  This link has a list of resources. You can join us on June 15th from 1-2pm for a webinar on Communication Management Units (CMU- often referred to as #GitmoNorth) and the role of Institutionalized Islamophobia in the War on Terror.  Registration details forthcoming.  

4) Call Your Representatives

You can find your House and Senate representative’s contact information here.

Call the White House (202-456-1111 or 202-456-1414), the US embassy in Cuba (305-326-2755) and Southern Command (305-437-1213), which oversees the running of the prison.

We have provided some talking points below. You can read our News updates and also follow us on Twitter and Facebook for more up to date information on what is happening at Guantánamo Bay Prison.

– Each Guantánamo detainee must either be charged and fairly tried in federal court, or be released to countries that will respect their human rights.

– Release the names of the men who are on hunger strike.

– Expedite the release of those that are cleared. 5 of the current prisoners have been cleared for release, yet they continue to languish behind bars. Justice delayed is justice denied.

– Release the men who have been tortured, to a competent and fair international body if necessary. The US is a signatory of the UN Convention Against Torture. The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture has reported that the Guantánamo Bay prison is non-compliant to this Convention and has named indefinite detention as a form of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment. The U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee’s Torture Report has extensively documented instances of torture by the CIA. Some of the victims are currently housed in Guantánamo.

– Provide reasonable resettlement options, including torture treatment services and reparations. To ensure accountability for torture and indefinite detention, released prisoners should be provided with critical social services to facilitate their re-entry into society. 

– Publicly acknowledge and apologize for the egregious human rights violation at Guantánamo during the War on Terror. This acknowledgement is essential for preventing torture, indefinite detention, and other violations from being perpetrated by future administrations.

– Close the base. The U.S. must immediately relinquish Cuba’s sovereign territory.

5) Write to the men

– Messages should be kept to simple messages of greeting and goodwill.  Do not include political comments.

– Only send non-religious cards, and avoid referring to religion in your message.  For example: rather than writing “you are in our prayers,” write “you are in our thoughts.”

– Include your name and address (including country) in your message.  If you receive a reply, please send a copy to witnesstorture@gmail.com.- 

– Write your message in simple English, unless specifically stated otherwise.

Send your letter to the following address or in some cases, we may know a particular prisoner’s attorney, so if you are interested in sending the letter through them (the chances are higher that they will get it this way), email us witnessagainsttorture@gmail.com.

Detainee Name
Detainee ISN (listed here)
U.S. Naval Station
Guantánamo Bay
Washington D.C. 20355
United States of America

Please join us in remembering the men locked away, now forever, at Guantánamo and working to close the prison!

www.witnessagainsttorture.com
#foreverhumanbeings
#41menatGitmo

Witness Against Torture formed in 2005 when 25 Americans went to Guantánamo Bay and attempted to visit the detention facility. They began to organize more broadly to shut down Guantánamo, end indefinite detention and torture and call out Islamophobia. During our demonstrations, we lift up the words of the detainees themselves, bringing them to public spaces they are not permitted to access. Witness Against Torture will carry on in its activities until torture is decisively ended, its victims are fully acknowledged,Guantánamo and similar facilities are closed, and those who ordered and committed torture are held to account.

 

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#foreverhumanbeings Rolling Fast

#foreverhumanbeings Campaign // Film

WAT has initiated a rolling fast during Ramadan and beyond to lift up the stories of the 41 men detained at Guantanamo Bay Prison.  Starting Friday May 26, several people each day will fast, make phone calls to people in power, contribute a photo to the anti-Guantánamo social media campaign, and send a letter to a prisoner at Guantánamo. We encourage you to get to know the men detained at Guantanamo. We will be posting stories and profiles of them each day of the campaign, so check our facebook and twitter account and please send us thoughts, drawings and reflection that you have during your fast.

If you have not chosen one or several days yet, please sign up here. We will be sending out reminder emails to folks who have signed up, so even if you think we know you’re fasting, please make sure you have filled out the form.

Fasting

You are free to choose how you fast, whether it is from sunrise to sunset or for 24 hours, or if you drink liquids or simply water.  For Muslims who are observing Ramadan, we ask that you dedicate your fast to the prisoner of the day and remember them in your prayers and your supplications when breaking your fast. Please email us if you have any questions.

Call Your Representatives

You can find your House and Senate representative’s contact information here.

Call the White House (202-456-1111 or 202-456-1414), the US embassy in Cuba (305-326-2755) and Southern Command (305-437-1213), which oversees the running of the prison.

We have provided some talking points below. You can read our News updates and also follow us on Twitter and Facebook for more up to date information on what is happening at Guantánamo Bay Prison.

~ Each Guantánamo detainee must either be charged and fairly tried in federal court, or be released to countries that will respect their human rights.

~ Release the names of the men who are on hunger strike.

~ Expedite the release of those that are cleared. 5 of the current prisoners have been cleared for release, yet they continue to languish behind bars. Justice delayed is justice denied.

~ Release the men who have been tortured, to a competent and fair international body if necessary. The US is a signatory of the UN Convention Against Torture. The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture has reported that the Guantánamo Bay prison is non-compliant to this Convention and has named indefinite detention as a form of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment. The U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee’s Torture Report has extensively documented instances of torture by the CIA. Some of the victims are currently housed in Guantánamo.

~ Provide reasonable resettlement options, including torture treatment services and reparations. To ensure accountability for torture and indefinite detention, released prisoners should be provided with critical social services to facilitate their re-entry into society.

~ Publicly acknowledge and apologize for the egregious human rights violation at Guantánamo during the War on Terror. This acknowledgement is essential for preventing torture, indefinite detention, and other violations from being perpetrated by future administrations.

~ Close the base. The U.S. must immediately relinquish Cuba’s sovereign territory.

Write a letter

~ Messages should be kept to simple messages of greeting and goodwill.  Do not include political comments.

~ Only send non-religious cards, and avoid referring to religion in your message.  For example: rather than writing “you are in our prayers”, write “you are in our thoughts.”

~ Include your name and address (including country) in your message.  If you receive a reply, please send a copy to witnesstorture@gmail.com.

~ Write your message in simple English, unless specifically stated otherwise.

Detainee Name
Detainee ISN (listed here)
U.S. Naval Station
Guantánamo Bay
Washington D.C. 20355
United States of America

Please join us in remembering the men locked away, now forever, at Guantánamo and working to close the prison!

www.witnessagainsttorture.com

#foreverhumanbeings

#41menatGitmo

Witness Against Torture formed in 2005 when 25 Americans went to Guantánamo Bay and attempted to visit the detention facility. They began to organize more broadly to shut down Guantánamo, end indefinite detention and torture and call out Islamophobia. During our demonstrations, we lift up the words of the detainees themselves, bringing them to public spaces they are not permitted to access. Witness Against Torture will carry on in its activities until torture is decisively ended, its victims are fully acknowledged,Guantánamo and similar facilities are closed, and those who ordered and committed torture are held to account.

 

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Request to Join in Solidarity with Fasting for Yemen April 10 – 16

Campaigns // Film

Witness Against Torture (WAT), which has long condemned US crimes in its “war on terror,” is both appalled and saddened by the escalating conflict in Yemen and its attending, humanitarian crisis. Recent US airstrikes in Yemen, recklessly ordered by the Trump administration, have claimed dozens of civilian lives.  The United States continues to back Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen, adding to the devastation of the impoverished, war-torn country.  A sea-blockade of rebel areas by the US backed, Saudi-led coalition threatens famine for millions of Yemenis.  Meanwhile, the Trump administration appears to be weakening measures to avoid civilian deaths in various wars the United States is fighting, with the predictable result that more civilians are dying.

Witness Against Torture joins Voices for Creative Nonviolence, the New York Catholic Worker community, Code Pink, the Upstate NY Coalition to Ground the Drones and End the Wars, and other groups in participating in a week-long fast from April 10-16 at the United Nations in New York City.  WAT members will have a presence at the Isaiah Wall at the UN, where daily vigils and demonstrations will take place. WAT will also be active in parallel efforts in Washington, D.C. We urge our friends and supporters to participate in these actions, to learn about the crisis in Yemen, to educate their communities, and to demand from US political leaders that US aggression in Yemen end.

If you are interested in supporting this effort by fasting in solidarity, please contact Beth at brockman.beth@gmail.com with details of how and when you plan to fast. You can join the fast in any way you like and for any length of time you like, from one day to all seven days. Even if you are regularly part of WAT’s Fasting for Justice, please email and let Beth know you are fasting and how.

For more information about the fast and vigil in NYC, and the situation in Yemen, click here.

Join Fasting for Yemen on Twitter and Facebook.

#FastingForYemen #YemenIsStarving #RememberYemen

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Daily Update – Day 8 of the Fast for Justice

Campaigns // Film

Dear Friends,

A powerful day of action!

Please see our press release below, press coverage in Roll Call and the Washington Post, as well as a more detailed overview of the day.

And look through and share these powerful images.

Thank you for taking this journey with us as you have been able…and thank you for continuing on the journey.

In Peace,

Witness Against Torture
www.witnesstorture.org

Day 8 – Monday, January 12

Today, we conducted 1 action in 2 locations. At the Capitol, one group of us went in to the Senate Gallery and another group went to the Visitor’s Center. Later, yet another group went to the Department of Justice, then proceeded to the DC Central Cell Block.

In the Gallery, eleven people got arrested. Sitting in three different locations, they waited while Senator Dick Durbin, the only Senator on the floor, made a speech that began with expressing solidarity with French terror victims and then focused on Homeland Security and the Dream Act.  While he was talking about supporting the immigration reform bill, our group rose in three waves and chanting:

U.S. Torture
It’s official
Prosecute now! 

Waterboarding
It’s official
Prosecute now!

Rectal feeding
It’s official
Prosecute now!

Within five or so verses of “Prosecute now” they were ushered out of the chamber. They continued chanting while being removed into the hallway. There, they were interviewed by reporters and handcuffed. Surrounded by officers and members of the press, they called for Dick Cheney’s arrest and continued to chant loudly, “Prosecute torture,” “Torture is a crime,” and “Shut down Guantanamo,” their voices echoing through the tiled hallways as we observers walked away.

The action in the Visitors’ Center was set into motion as the observers returned from the Gallery.  Banner holders and chanters took their place, forming a large circle in the middle of the open floor.  The banners read, “Ferguson 2 Guantánamo: White Silence = State Violence” and “We Demand Accountability for Torture & Police Murder.”  A reading took place mic-check style, with three members of the group taking turns as the leader.  Police soon descended on the group, pushing observers out of the room and making arrests. Nine were arrested.

At 4 pm, we joined the Hands Up Coalition for their weekly vigil at the Department of Justice. With the enormous help of Tighe Berry of Code Pink, we arrived with three cardboard caskets draped in canvas, labeled with the names of Emmanuel Okutuga, Tanisha Anderson, Matthew Ajibade, three young people murdered by the police.

Olubunmi Oludipe, mother of Emmanuel Okutuga (“Mama Emmanuel,” as Marsha affectionately calls her) shared her grief with those gathered, crying at the microphone and saying, “My children do not want me to be out here because they do not think that I can get justice.  But I am here because I want to help save other mothers from going through this pain.  I don’t wish this on my worst enemy.”

Marsha Coleman-Adebayo of the Hands Up Coalition criticized the hypocrisy of our elected officials, who ostentatiously empathize with French victims of terror and say, “Je suis Charlie,” when we have never heard them say, “Je suis Tanisha Anderson.”  She called out the “pattern of abuse, genocide, reckless abandonment of laws of this country” and invited Witness Against Torture to describe the relationship between our two campaigns.

Uruj Sheikh spoke for WAT, saying that just as the military occupies Afghanistan, so the police occupy our streets here, picking off brown and black bodies. Incarceration and murder are not solutions to the problems of our society.  We challenge the white supremacy that underlies anti-black racism and islamophobia both, and we are here to break the silence.

We processed from the door of the DOJ down the block led by Emmanuel’s mother and the caskets carried by an honor guard of four, followed by the orange jump-suited and hooded detainees. As we walked we sang, “We remember all the people/the police kill/we can feel their spirits/ they are with us still.” Then several people spoke to the group, including Emmanuel’s mother, who cried as she talked about her son. She moved all of us so much.

We then took to the streets – took the streets – and marched with caskets and detainees to the Central Cell Block stopping traffic as we went, singing “I can hear my brother saying I can’t breathe/Now I’m in the struggle singing I can’t leave/Calling out the violence of the racist police/We ain’t gonna stop ’til our people are free/We ain’t gonna stop ’til our people are free.” There was a lot of visible support from people on the street.

Many of us stayed on the outside of the building, holding banners and singing. Each of us who identified as white took the mic and said why we were “breaking white silence” and invited other white people around the country to also break their silence and stand against racism. We also read the names of those black people murdered by the police this past year.

We had impromptu participants as well.  One man of color who stopped to listen and watch shared that he has been brutalized twice by the police.  A woman came forward as well, sharing her struggle as an African-American lawyer who cannot enter a courtroom without using hair product, as the very hair that grows from her head is criminalized.

Twenty of our group went inside the police station. They read the names of those killed by police. When they tried to go through the metal detectors, they were stopped by a black police officer. He said he agreed with the message, but asked us personally not to take it to the next level by pushing through to get arrested. He asked our group to just make their presence without coming further. Our group agreed and stayed for 28 minutes representing black men getting killed every 28 hours by a police officer, security agent, or vigilante.

Later in the evening, we met in a circle that included Mama Emmanuel. She thanked us and told us about how the police destroyed evidence, saying it’s as if her son weren’t killed by the police. She said she believes her son’s spirit is coming back from the grave to keep his case alive.

At this writing, our 22 comrades remain in jail. The word is that they will be there for the night. We can’t wait to see them soon.

As the week comes to a close, we are all exhausted, grateful, and so very moved. We hope we don’t have to come back again next year, but we are prepared to do so.

When I say we are, you say together. When I say we are, you say one family…

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21 Arrested: Demonstrators Interrupt US Senate; Block DC Central Cell Block Entrance

Campaigns // Film

Washington, D.C.— Witness Against Torture held two actions in Washington, DC condemning domestic racism and the violation of human rights in the War on Terror.

Banner Wide Straight

Inside the United States Senate chamber at 2:30 pm, thirteen demonstrators interrupted Senate proceedings to call for prosecutions of those who committed torture, as detailed in the US Senate report on CIA interrogations. Chanting “Torture, It’s Official, Prosecute Now!” the protestors addressed the Senate before being arrested by Capitol Police. In the Senate Visitors Center, another group held banners with such slogans as “Accountability for Police Murder, Accountability for Torture.” Nine were arrested in the Visitors Center.

At 4:45 pm, members of Witness Against Torture obstructed the entrance to DC Metro Police headquarters for 28 minutes, in recognition that a person of color is killed by police or vigilantes every 28 hours in the United States. They recited the names of dozens of victims of police violence and spoke the words of men indefinitely detained in Guantánamo Bay calling for justice. Activists from the DC Hands Up Coalition stood outside chanting and singing.

Earlier at the Department of Justice, Witness Against Torture joined the Hands Up DC Coalition at their Justice Monday Vigil to call for the indictment of law enforcement officers who have killed people of color. The two groups brought coffins marking the deaths of three African-Americans killed by police to the doors of the Justice Department and were addressed by the mother of Emmanuel Okutuga, killed in 2011 in Silver Spring, Maryland. They also conveyed the stories of men still detained at Guantanamo, despite being clear for release by the US government years ago.

“Grand juries refused even to indict the police murderers of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, just like the Justice Department has refused to prosecute CIA torturers, whose crimes are detailed in the Senate report,” said Marie Shebeck, from Chicago Illinois. “Where is justice if we are not equal under the law, if some people can literally get away with murder and torture.”

“We came to the US Senate, the Justice Department, and a DC jail,” says Uruj Sheikh, from New York City, “to convey with a new voice that racism and Islamophobia, torture tactics in US prisons like extended solitary confinement and the torture of indefinite detention at Guantánamo are two parts of the same system of white supremacy and militarized violence.”

The actions were the culmination of a week-long series of demonstrations calling for the closure of Guantánamo Bay prison, an end to torture, mass incarceration, and police violence. Activists are available for interviews.

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January 11th, 2015: Videos

Campaigns // Film

“There Is a Man Under That Hood” by Luke Nephew

Jeremy Varon from WAT

Andy Worthington from We Stand with Shaker

Chris Knestrick Reads a Letter from Mohammed al Hamiri

Debra Sweet from World Can’t Wait

Aliya Hana Hussain from CCR

Zainab Chaudry from CAIR

Rabbi Charles Feinberg

Noor Mir from Amnesty International

NRCAT Litany

Rev. Ron from NRCAT

Dr. Maha Hilal from Muslims Rally to Close Guantánamo

“Welcome to the Terrordrome” by Shahid Buttar

Circle Closing

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Daily Update – Day 7 of the Fast for Justice

Campaigns // Film

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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Jeremy Varon’s Full Remarks from the White House Rally

Campaigns // Film

– 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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