On Wednesday (August 7) campaigners for the closure of the prison at Guantánamo Bay marked 18 months of monthly coordinated global vigils for the prison’s closure at seven locations across the US — Washington, D.C., New York, San Francisco, Detroit, Minneapolis, Cobleskill, NY and Los Angeles — and in London and Brussels, with a delayed vigil taking place the day after in Mexico City. The campaigners represent numerous organizations committed to the closure of Guantánamo, including Amnesty International, Witness Against Torture, the World Can’t Wait, NRCAT (the National Religious Campaign Against Torture) and the UK Guantánamo Network, with numerous other supporting organizations.
Campaigners outside the White House in Washington, D.C. on August 7, 2024. On the right of the photo, the Rev. T.C. Morrow, a staff person with the National Religious Campaign Against Torture and a United Methodist clergy person, issued the following statement: “Teenagers in two different groups visiting our nation’s Capital today looked at our banner as we stood in front of the White House and stumbled over the pronunciation of ‘Guantánamo’ as they asked what we were protesting. They are part of a whole generation born since the opening of the detention center at Guantánamo Bay in 2002. Steve Lane [on the left of the photo] explained how 16 men are cleared for transfer from the prison but languish in limbo, and that campaigns to close the prison stretching back over a decade and a half are still necessary. Against the backdrop of last week’s reversal of a plea deal with three of the 9/11 defendants that would have brought some measure of closure to family members of 9/11 victims, and could have been an important step towards closing the prison, I reflected on what lessons these young people on group trips to Washington, D.C. are learning. Trips to D.C. are often steeped in US history and ideals. A few young people today also learned about this remote prison on the island of Cuba and the history of torture and abuse of hundreds of men at the hands of the US that occurred there — all of which is contrary to those ideals. The United States can and should do better. We continue to call on President Biden and the Administration to at least take needed action for the transfer of the 16 men cleared for transfer, and to use its power to fulfill the pledges of both the Obama and Biden Administrations to close Guantánamo once and for all.”Close Guantanamo campaign, an international protest held monthly on the first Wednesday of each month. Parliament Square, London, UK, 7 August 2024
Campaigners with the UK Guantánamo Network in Parliament Square in London on August 7, 2024. Andy Worthington, a Network member and the co-founder of the
campaign, stated, “Around a dozen campaigners from across London and the south east came together on Wednesday to continue to highlight the need for the lawless prison at Guantánamo Bay to be closed, and for the 16 men long approved for release to be freed as swiftly as possible.” Thanks to the photographer Richard Keith Wolff for taking photos, and also for sharing
about Parliament Square’s greatest campaigner, Brian Haw, who held a permanent anti-war vigil here for ten years, from June 2001 until his death in 2011.
Campaigners on the steps of the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue on August 7, 2024. Debra Sweet, the national director of the World Can’t Wait, wrote, “It was a bit of a rainy mess, and we suggested to the Raging Grannies not to come out. I went along just to be sure people didn’t feel abandoned, and took only a couple of signs and flyers, but 13 people showed up — without most of the usuals. Deirdre from Amnesty brought her child who is studying colonization, and a South Asian immigration attorney stopped and listened for a long time.”
Campaigners in San Francisco on August 7, 2024. Gavrilah Wells wrote, “Our vigils have been quite small, which can feel a bit disappointing at times. It has been hard for me and Curt [Wechsler, of the World Can’t Wait] to get a lot of folks out on a monthly basis. Still, the regulars including Martha, Adrienne, Alan and now Alan’s older brother Larry joined and we met a few new friends including a lovely woman named Tika. It is important that we are there, showing up regularly, talking about the 16 men cleared for release and the human rights abuses at Guantánamo, particularly with the recent disappointing news about the plea deals.”
Campaigners outside the European Parliament in Brussels on August 7, 2024. Previously adding a Guantánamo protest to their regular vigils for Julian Assange on a Monday, the group have continued to call for Guantánamo’s closure since his release, and have now joined the global vigils on the first Wednesday of every month.
Campaigners with the Peacemakers of Schoharie Country in Cobleskill, NY on August 7, 2024. Sue Spivack (in the center of the photo) wrote, “Four Peacemakers showed up this afternoon to stand for a return to Constitutional Law in the US by closing GITMO, transferring the 16 cleared prisoners to their own or safe home nations and resolving the cases of the other 14 through plea deals or through releasing them if they have never been charged.”
Amnesty International campaigners on Handshake Bridge between the Sculpture Garden and Loring Bridge in Minneapolis on August 7, 2024. Thanks to Wilbur Ince for the photo.
Amnesty International campaigners, with Detroit Amnesty, outside the Federal Building in Detroit on August 7, 2024. Thanks to Geraldine Grunow (on the right) for the selfie.
Amnesty International campaigners in Mexico City on August 8, 2024. This, and the photo below, are screenshots from a video by campaigner Alli McCracken, which is
In addition, in Los Angeles, Jon Krampner held a solo vigil outside the US Post Office in the Los Feliz (90027) neighborhood of Los Angeles, but no one was available to take a photo of him. Describing his vigil, Jon stated, “The main person who engaged me, a pleasant middle-aged man with a vaguely Mittel-European accent, said I should emphasize how absurdly expensive it is per prisoner, rather than the human rights angle, since no one seems to care much about human rights these days.”
* * * * *
I initiated the vigils last February, initially with just London and Washington, D.C. on board, although other locations swiftly joined in, following up on monthly vigils initiated in London in September 2022 , which were themselves a revival of an extraordinary run of weekly vigils in Parliament Square that used to take place when British prisoners were still held. The vigils take place on the first Wednesday of every month, and anyone anywhere around the world is welcome to join us. If there isn’t vigil near you, feel free to start your own!
My intention, when I initiated the vigils last February, was not just to keep Guantánamo in the public eye, beyond the annual vigils that take place on January 11 every year, marking the anniversary of the prison’s opening, but also to provide a local focus every month for campaigners to regularly find and celebrate solidarity with each other through their shared interest in the largely forgotten scandal of Guantánamo, but also to celebrate this through a global sense of solidarity, in which each local group is empowered by knowing that, elsewhere, other like-minded people are doing the same.
It’s fair to say, I think, that it has been successful in this intent, even though the mainstream media remain resolutely uninterested. There may not be many of us involved, but we have become a global community, reminding each other that the effort to highlight the monstrous, chronic and ongoing injustice of Guantánamo is always worth the effort, and that, although our numbers are small, our hearts are big, and anything that helps shine a regular light on Guantánamo, lost in the mists of the United States of Amnesia, is fundamentally worthwhile.
On the vigils, we continue to focus not just on demands for the closure of the prison, but also particularly on the plight of the 16 men (out of the 30 still held) who have long been approved for release by high-level US government review processes, but who continue to be held because the decisions taken to release them were purely administrative, meaning that no legal mechanism exists to compel the Biden administration to free them if, as is apparent, they have no desire to prioritize their release. As of August 7, these men had been held for between 684 and 1,378 days since the decisions to approve them for release were taken, and in three outlying cases for 5,311 days.
The Biden administration’s indifference to these men’s continued imprisonment particularly became evident in May, when news broke that eleven of the men had been supposed to be freed in October, and resettled in Oman, which has successfully resettled dozens of former prisoners, but that their flight had been cancelled, while their plane was on the runway at Guantánamo, because of the perceived “political optics” following the attacks in Israel by Hamas and other militants on October 7. Shamefully, no new date has been set for their release.
We were also all acutely aware, at this particular vigil, that the US defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, had just revoked plea deals for three of the other men still held, all accused of involvement in the 9/11 attacks. This was profoundly dispiriting news, because the plea deals, which prosecutors have been working on for the last 27 months, represent the only grown-up realization that successful prosecutions are impossible, as a result of the torture to which the men were subjected in CIA “black sites.” This position, taken by those who’ve been bogged down in pre-trial hearings for 12 years, is in marked contrast to the position taken by Lloyd Austin, who, for nakedly political reasons, has refused to acknowledge this painful truth.
We hope you can join us next month, on Wednesday September 4, as we continue to call for Guantánamo’s closure, for freedom for the 16 men approved for release, and for justice for the other 14 men still held.
Another photo of the campaigners outside the White House in Washington, D.C.Sara Birch with Andy Worthington holding a list of 16 men approved for release from Guantanamo, and how long they have been held since those decisions were taken. Some ranging tragically back as far as 2010. Parliament Square, London, UK, 7 August 2024
In London, Sara Birch and Andy Worthington hold up Andy’s posters showing the 16 men approved for release from Guantánamo but still held, and how long they have been held since those decisions were taken (Photo: Richard Keith Wolff).
A more detailed photo of the poster showing how long the 16 men approved for release from Guantánamo have been held since those decisions were taken (Photo: Andy Worthington).
In London, Noel Hamel holds up the poster showing the 16 men long approved for release from Guantánamo (Photo: Andy Worthington).
The coolest accordion in the world at the New York vigil.
Another photo from the New York vigil.
Skateboarders join the vigil in San Francisco.
Another photo from the vigil in San Francisco.
Another photo from the vigil in Brussels. I particularly like the posters comparing Gaza and
Guantánamo.
The fourth Peacemaker of Schoharie Country, with a poster marking the 11th anniversary of the opening of Guantánamo, in 2013, when 166 men were still held.
Another photo from Minneapolis.
Another photo from Mexico City.
Close Guantanamo campaign, an international protest held monthly on the first Wednesday of each month. Parliament Square, London, UK, 7 August 2024
And finally, another couple of photos from London by Richard Keith Wolff.
Close Guantanamo campaign, an international protest held monthly on the first Wednesday of each month. Parliament Square, London, UK, 7 August 2024
