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By Debra Sweet
What would it take? We are wrangling over this. A lot of people thought that to close Guantanamo it would take electing Barack Obama. Our guest on World Can't Wait's national conference call this past Thursday evening, Carlos Warner, said he thought that in 2008. A federal public defender for Northeast Ohio, Carlos represents 13 men still detained there, which he has visited "at least 30 times." He describes his clients as "artists, poets, musicians, and some just regular guys who have had a very difficult life." These are the stories and voices we will bring to life this coming Friday in protests around the world.
Our conversaiton was revealing and inspiring, and delved into the relationship between the devastating impact of Obama's drone attacks and the revelations about the NSA scandal, topics for future discussions. Carlos continues to argue powerfully that Guantanamo MUST be closed, that Obama has the power to do that, and that what we do - out in the streets, around the country and around the world - is critical to accomplishing that goal. We think rousing people to demand an end to Guantanamo and indefinite detention is the most important, and missing, piece of what it will take to back the torturers down.
The prisoner, Abu Wa'el Dhiab, a father of four, is a Syrian national, who is confined to a wheelchair as a result of his deteriorating health during his 12 years in U.S. custody. Significantly, he was cleared for release by President Obama's high-level, inter-agency Guantanamo Review Task Force in 2009, but is still held, along with 74 other men cleared for release by the task force. The majority of these men are Yemenis, who have not been freed because of US concerns about the security situation in Yemen, but in Dhiab's case, he is still held because of the civil war in his home country and the need for a third country to be found to take him in." Read more here. Breakthrough on Guantánamo: Judge Orders US Government to Stop Force-Feeding Syrian Prisoner and to Preserve Video Evidence - See more here.
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After All These Obama Years...
Close the USA's Torture Camp at Guantanamo NOW! End Indefinite Detention!
Five years into the Obama regime, why is America's Torture Camp still open? And what can we do to close it?
Our government has done its best to hide the torture practiced at the experimental prison camp of Guantanamo. But thanks to the courageous hunger strike of over 100 prisoners in 2013, which continues today
despite U.S. military efforts to withhold the current tally of participants, we now know more details of continuing brutality. Excuses of ignorance about what is transpiring, short of deliberate head-turning, are no longer plausible.
The hunger strike by the Guantanamo prisoners is their cry to the world, which we must hear and support. Right now, today – our voices and our actions can make a difference.
Evidence against some prisoners is tainted, usually because of a tortured confession. There is no legal way to get a conviction. Political calculation notwithstanding, in a free and just society, anyone detained by the government must be charged, given fair trials, or released. And that won’t happen by the secret military tribunal system that President Obama has established to replace real justice. The hated prison camp could be closed with the stroke of a pen.
Below is the ad 800 people funded which was published in The New York Times May 23, 2013, the day Obama spoke at the National Defense University. All seven prisoners whose photos appeared in The Times for the first time -- even though via Chelsea Manning & Wikileaks the Times had these images for several years -- are still at Guantanamo. Adnan Latif had died by this time last year.
We urge you to read the statement and think about whether anything it says has changed for the better. You can still sign this message online. See in Spanish here. |
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