WarCriminalsWatch Events

Broken Promises, Broken Laws, Broken Lives

10:15 am          Gather at the White House for a brief program
10:45 am          Begin procession to Supreme Court (mile and a half walk)

This will be a silent and solemn procession of people dressed in orange
jumpsuits and black hoods. We will have suits available. 

12:15 pm         Arrive at the Supreme Court (across the street from the
U.S. Capitol) for vigil with "Broken Promises, Broken Laws, Broken
Lives" banners.

Witness Against Torture is a grassroots movement that came into being
in December 2005 when 24 activists walked through Cuba to the Guantanamo
base to condemn the prison camp and torture policies. Since then, it has
engaged in public education, community outreach, and non-violent direct
action.

Fast and Vigil for Justice

The administration must be held to its words and promises. Its failures
cannot be masked with rationalizations and false deference to the
constraints of partisan bickering and legal complexities. The inability
to fulfill the mandate of the Executive Order to close Guantanamo within
a year is just such a failure, making still more urgent the demand for
true justice.

And so, Witness Against Torture marked January 11, 2010 - the date eight
years ago that the first men captured in the "war on terror" arrived at
Guantanamo - as a Day of National Shame and launched an 12 Day Fast and
Vigil for Justice. More than 150 people from around the country joined
the fast, 50 of them vigiling and meeting daily in Washington, DC. The
fast ends on January 22 - the Obama administration's widely proclaimed,
and now-voided, deadline for closing Guantanamo.

To conclude our fast and vigil for justice, we walk as Guantanamo
prisoners from the White House to the Supreme Court and near the U.S.
Capitol, highlighting all of the institutions that have failed to
execute their most basic function - justice.