Category: News

The Pentagon announced today it transferred two Yemeni men — Mahmud Umar Muhammad Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammad Salih Al-Dhuby – from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to Ghana.
Both men had been in Guantanamo for 14 years. 

105 men remain in the prison. 

Daily Update – Days 2 & 3 of the Fast for Justice

Days 2 & 3 of our fast have now ended, and we write as we enter Day 4.

“If there is no struggle, there is no justice.  –Frederick Douglass quote in the National Portrait Gallery

Action at the National Portrait Gallery

Our second day began with reflection about the idea of home – what do each of us think of when we think of home? 

We spent some time on Day 2 at the National Portrait Gallery’s “Struggle for Justice” exhibit, which features portraits, art and quotes relating to historical activists, movements, and struggles.

Our presence in the gallery – wearing orange jumpsuits and black hoods – served to augment the current exhibit of famed justice struggles with a showcase of Guantanamo prisoners.

One of the fasters, Brian Terrell, reflected: “We put the men in Guantanamo in context with the other men and women who have struggled for justice in (and sometimes against) the United States.”

Reflecting on our solemn procession back to First Trinity Church, our home for our time in DC, Chrissy Stonebraker-Martinez said this was her first time putting on the orange jumpsuit and black hood.  “As one of the ones in an orange jumpsuit, the isolation, the confusion of the black hood, and the dependency on others, was really moving today.”

The procession was interrupted at one point on the walk by a man who stopped his car to ask what this was all about.  After a brief explanation, he voiced his agreement with closing Guantanamo, and added “shut down all the prisons.”

Fort Dix Five

On the evening of Day 2, many of our community left for Camden NJ, where a court hearing in the case of the Duka Brothers was to take place. 

The Duka brothers received life sentences plus 30 years for their tenuous-at-best role in a government-manufactured “conspiracy” to attack the Fort Dix military base. At their trial in 2008, the government’s own witness (an informant paid to entrap the brothers) conceded that they had never been told about any conversation regarding Fort Dix. But under federal law, in a conspiracy case all associates are considered equally culpable, even if they do not know of the existence of a plan. The Duka brothers were convicted for a plot they literally had never heard of. They are as much victims of Islamophobia as the men in Guantanamo are.

Day 3 began with allies from No Separate Justice and others outside Federal Court in Camden, NJ.  Despite the bitter cold, our group and others stood outside the courthouse for more than 4 hours. We held banners and signs while chanting for the release of the brothers. The Duka brothers’ family showed up to the hearing in large numbers. Only 40 people were allowed to sit in the courtroom, and those seats were mostly filled by family.  

Action in DC

While half of our community was in NJ today, the other half stayed in DC where we woke up at 7am to walk around the neighborhood and tie donated scarves to the street poles.  The scarves were tagged with notes that encouraged those who need a scarf to stay warm to take one.  By 9am, all 75 donated scarves were claimed.  The rest of the day was spent meeting and building towards tomorrow (Thursday’s) action. 

You’re invited to join the Witness Against Torture community from January 3-13 to fast, reflect and lift the voices of the men unjustly detained at Guantanamo Bay Prison in the streets of Washington, DC.

January 11th, 2016 marks 14 years of torture and indefinite detention at the prison, as well as President Obama’s 8th year of broken promises. This is our final chance to hold his administration accountable to their promise to release those unjustly detained and close the prison. Right now 107 men remain detained, 48 of whom have been cleared for release and are held without charge or trial.

Let us come together to use our creative energy and direct action to encourage citizens and government officials to see the humanity of the men and call for the closure of the prison.

If you only come for one day, join us for the rally with our coalition partners on January 11^th @ 12:30 in front of the white house.

You are also invited to join us from afar. Every year people join us in fasting and organizing actions in their communities.

For more information email witnesstorture@gmail.com.

Greetings from Guantanamo

Fourteen members of Witness Against Torture have been in Guantanamo province for 3 days now, vigiling in solidarity with the 107 men remaining at the US detention camp.  See a full set of high-resolution photos here.

As the group left from Havana, we were moved to hear a solidarity statement given by Shaker Aamer, released from Guantanamo just weeks ago.  It reads:

I give thanks to my lord and then to all the good people all over the world who’ve worked so hard over the years for my release and to support justice. I’m grateful to Witness Against Torture for travelling so far and carrying a message of hope to my brothers in Cuba. I want my brothers to understand that everyone is working hard for their release and ask them to work together to help each other so that others can help them. No one in the world should accept what’s happening in this prison. Guantanamo has been built for one reason and that is to destroy human beings, mentally, physically and spiritually. I truly thank Witness Against Torture, Save Shaker and We Stand With Shaker for telling the whole world about the suffering of my brothers still there. Thank you to all and every one and every group and establishment who stands for justice. May Our Lord Allah, guide us all. 

–Ex-hostage 239, Shaker Aamer

Action on the Ground

At dusk on Wednesday, we established camp at El Mirador – scenic grounds overlooking the base from a distance of 2-3 kilometers.  To close our first day, Peace Poet Frank Lopez led us in a Four Directions ceremony that came from the traditions of the Arawak peoples, who are indigenous to Cuba.

On Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, we faced the base directly and announced one-by-one our political, personal and spiritual intention in being there.  Each person’s words were followed by the somber singing of “Courage, Muslim Brother”:

Courage, Muslim brother

You do not walk alone

We will walk with you

And sing your spirit home.  

Anger, compassion, hope, and tears flowed during the two-hour ceremony.  Cuban visitors at the overlook observed our act, adding their humble support for a moving cause.  Many of the speakers referenced the years of demonstrations all over the world to close the base and the countless people who have participated in them.  Two of the intentions are shared at the end of this email.

To conclude the day, we performed a Thanksgiving ritual titled “Forced-Feeding, Not Feasting at Guantanamo.”  Twelve persons, all fasting for the day, sat at a table in front of empty plates to represent the terrible pain endured by hunger strikers, past and present, at Guantanamo.  At the head of the table, one WAT member dressed as a detained man sat in front of the terrible apparatus of forced feeding.  Forced-feeding continues to be used to wound the bodies and break the spirit of hunger-striking men.

The journey so far has generated powerful experiences, stories, images, and insights.  Some media have reported our trip and published our reflections.  See:

• The Guardian
• Common Dreams
• Center for Constitutional Rights
• Public Seminar
• Democracy Now
• Telesur

For up-to-date photos, reports and materials, follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Flickr. 

Global allies have joined us in acts of protest and solidarity.  Nearly 50 members of Code Pink, in Cuba for a conference opposing the presence of the US naval base in Guantanamo, fasted on Thanksgiving Day.  Members of We Stand with Shaker, which helped to bring Shaker Aamer from Guantanamo to the UK, held a vigil at the US embassy in London.  

Witness Against Torture will be at the US naval base until Sunday, and in Cuba until Tuesday.  We will continue to bear witness in powerful and creative ways and build a global community calling for justice at Guantanamo and the world.

We thank our families, who have made this important trip possible; the kindness of friends and allies, who have supported us with their solidarity efforts and well wishes; the Cuban people for their hospitality and to whom Guantanamo rightfully belongs, and the detained men themselves, who have inspired us with their courage.

We would like to invite you to participate in a pilgrimage of prayer, meditation and fasting through December 1st. We ask folks who sign up to fast in any form they like for 24 hours on the date they sign up on.  Please click here to sign up to join the rolling fast.

Will I Rise? 

By Uruj Sheikh

13 years, 7 months & counting. That’s how long Guantanamo bay has been used as a torture chamber for hundreds of men whose crime is being Muslim after 9-11. Currently, 107 men remain inside. Collectively, nearly 1500 years lost. That’s countless changes in seasons. That’s children being born and living full lives, over and over again for generations. That’s countless revolutions in human civilization.  I am sorry for those almost 1500 of life lost. I am sorry for the years I spent doubting if I could make a difference.

I’m here now in Guantanamo Bay to get painfully closer to one of the most heinous manifestations of anti-Muslim violence, a stain on humanity. As the men inside those cages are trapped in hellish conditions, I, as a Pakistani-American Muslim, am reminded that we are not meant to survive. This was a painful reality I had avoided for years since the War on Terror took full force because I had internalized a state sponsored fear mongering that made me work so hard to be the good Muslim or just not draw attention to myself as a Muslim. Looking at Guantanamo Bay with own eyes, I am confronted with a choice: will I allow myself to be trapped, too, or will I rise? Will I answer my Muslim brothers calls to struggle with them? The answer is very clearly yes because as more time goes by with metal bars secured with red, white and blue, I comply with my own oppression and am complicit in the destruction of my own brothers’. 

A call to action is met with a thousand calls–to answer, to give up fear, to connect to a force more powerful than us. I am committed to continue answering this call and to work so others can hear it too. 

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.

Democracy Now, teleSUR, and Public Seminar have now published articles about our journey to Guantánamo. Read Jeremy Varon’s update below:

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

A delegation from Witness Against Torture is gathering in Guantanamo Province in Cuba, in hopes of staging a days-long vigil in protest of the detention camp at the US Naval Base at Guantanamo. I am among that group. Our messages are simple: that the detention camp must close immediately; that GTMO not simply move to the US, by holding men without charge or trial in federal prisons; that the US bring legitimate terror suspects into a proper court system; and that the US military vacate its lease and leave the island of Cuba.

** We hope to generate media from and about our trip. We urge you to keep an eye out for it — read, share, like and post word of our actions — and to keep us and the men at GTMO in your thoughts and prayers. Activities to support our trip, including solidarity fasts and a prayer chain, are being organized by Beth Brockton at brockman.beth@gmail.com. To receive updates, send an email to witnesstorture@gmail.com. **

Our trip will coincide with the US holiday of Thanksgiving (which itself papers over the history of Euro-American colonization). On Thanksgiving day we will fast in solidarity with the detained men, some of whom remain on hunger strike and are brutally force fed. Away from our own families, we hope to mark the cruel separation of the prisoners from their loved ones and communities. 48 of them have been cleared for release by the US government itself. None have ever had family visits, despite that the vast majority have been held without charge for more than a decade.

We abhor terrorism. But we know well the terrible things done in the name of combatting it. Guantanamo is the tragic, criminal legacy of the US reaction to 9-11, which the United States has yet to squarely confront. And we are acutely aware of the xenophobia, nativism, and Islamophobia that have raged over the last 10 days. Our hope is to help pierce the prejudice and fear and stand in solidarity with men — many of whom are guilty of nothing — whom much of American society has demonized, and whom our government has persecuted with the pain of physical abuse, mental torment, and open-ended detention.

Last, while we appreciate well-wishes, communication will be spotty and we need to keep our inboxes clear for various things related to our trip

Peace, with Justice

Jeremy Varon with Witness Against Torture