Media Alert: May 26, 2009
Media Contact: Linda Rigas
Office 866-973-4463/Cell 714-235-8213
Protests This Week Throughout U.S. Demand Release of Torture Photos by Obama Administration, Prosecution of Bush Era War Crimes
What: Highly Visual, Dramatic Protest Demonstrations/Photo Ops
When: May 26-27-28
Where: 15 cities: New York City; Los Angeles; Chicago; San Francisco; Boston; Seattle; Atlanta; Houston; Cleveland; Philadelphia; Honolulu; Fresno; Greensboro, NC; Portland, OR; Benton Harbor, MI
(New York City, NY) In the face of the Obama administration’s refusal to release a reported 2,000 additional photographs of detainee abuse, in spite of being ordered by a federal court to do so, torture opponents will hold visible protests to demand that the government make the photos public. In 15 cities, they will also call for prosecution of those who ordered, legally justified and carried out torture in US detention and secret prisons during the Bush years.
These protests, called by the national World Can’t Wait organization and others, will respond to the growing body of evidence of the construction of a torture apparatus and policies led from the top of the Bush administration as part of the global “war on terror” after 9-11. Torture opponents are also critical of Barack Obama’s plan for preventive “prolonged” detention of people who the US government thinks may commit crimes as announced in his May 21 speech on national security.
“The Bush regime floated the idea of preventive detention, but never tried it. This has never been done by the US in its history. What does it mean that Obama stated flatly that habeas corpus – the right to know charges against you and be able to defend yourself – will be indefinitely denied to a class of people?” said Debra Sweet, Director of World Can’t Wait. Sweet called on “people who care about humanity to takea stand against US torture, indefinite and preventive detention.”
Highlights of the planned protests:
Los Angeles Outside President Obama’s appearance at the Beverly Hilton, 3:30 pm Wednesday May 27, Los Angeles, displaying enlarged photos believed to be among the 2000 not yet released.
New York City Inside Grand Central Station, 5:00 pm Thursday May 28, a dramatic tableau will protest the US torture regime, followed by a march to the Union League Club where John Negroponte, former Director of National Intelligence presents an award to General David Petraeus, CENT COMM Commander, responsible for US military occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Michigan One of the first protests of George W. Bush in the United States since he left office, 5:00 pm at Lake Michigan College, Benton Harbor, MI.
Three co-ordinated protests at court houses within the Ninth US District, where Judge Jay Bybee, author of recently released “torture memos” sits on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. San Francisco, Portland, and Fresno will see dramatic protests demanding Bybee’s prosecution for war crimes. In San Francisco, the protest will feature an installation of “The Bybee/Bush Museum of Torture.”
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