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ACLU Slideshow |
Thousands in the US and many more around the world demanded that the Bush administration SHUT DOWN Guantanamo and END torture. Initial reports show a wide range of people wearing orange everywhere in a variety of actions.
January 11 at the Supreme Court
Amnesty International and Witness Against Torture Demand SHUT DOWN Guantanamo – World Can’t Wait.
150 people aged 15 to 80 walked silently, wearing orange jumpsuits and black hoods across the rainy mall near the White House, and around the US Capitol. Their “handlers” in military fatigues kept them two by two, then lined them up in neat rows kneeling before the steps of the Supreme Court. A few were roughly yanked out of the line by stern men and women in black representing the civilian contractors and CIA who carry out the “enhanced interrogation methods.” These prisoners knelt holding signs saying “habeas corpus = fair trial” and “no torture”. Two rows of the prisoners marched slowly up the steps, with more civilians holding “SHUT DOWN Guantanamo” signs. Police stopped them, and they 35 were taken into custody.
Meanwhile, 41 people had entered the Supreme Court. According to Witness Against Torture, “a member of Witness Against Torture delivered a letter to the nine Supreme Court justices regarding Al Odah v. United States and Boumediene v. Bush, the two cases brought by Guantánamo detainees that they are now considering, along with a writ of habeas corpus for each of the 275 current detainees. Other activists attempted to unfurl a banner inside the Court building but were prevented from doing so by police, who began arresting them and shut the front doors to the building. Another group then started reading the names of the Guantánamo prisoners, but were prevented, whereupon they sat down and started chanting, “Shut It Down!” prior to being arrested.
Marchers came from across the U.S. to demand the closure of Guantanamo as the most notorious of US detention camps, but their minds were on ending the whole US torture state. They held signs against torture, secret detention, and the Military Commissions Act. They read poems written by detainees in Guantanamo, and demonstrated waterboarding. “We want the rest of the world to know that, even though George Bush is lying when he says the US does not torture, we are not a nation of torturers. It must stop now, with our actions,” said a college student who was being arrested in civil disobedience. High school student tourists were prevented by their teacher from watching for long, but proudly showed off their “no war” t shirts, and bought orange “no torture” stickers from World Can’t Wait. The action was part of a sustained worldwide effort by Amnesty International to shut down Guantanamo, and according to their website, there were similar actions in 83 places in 30 countries.
San Francisco CA:
Leadership High SchooL:For
the 6th anniversary of the opening of the Guantanamo Bay torture
camp, organizers with the SF Bay Area Chapter of World Can’t Wait and the Bay
Area Revolution Club decided to take up the call of groups like the ACLU and
Amnesty International to make public the outrage that has been growing in the
wake of revelations about destroyed torture tapes and the appointment of an
attorney general (Michael Mukasey) who tacitly approves of waterboarding.
We
felt that it was particularly important to bring this into the high schools
where the moral choices (are you for or against torture?) are less clouded by
the pragmatic considerations that people learn to accept later in life, and
where the enthusiasm and righteousness of the youth could be mobilized to help
get the rest of society off their ass.
In the week leading up to the January 11 national day of action against
torture, student organizers with World Can’t Wait and the Bay Area Revolution
Club spoke in classes and distributed orange armbands at several Bay Area high
schools.
At
Leadership High School, a diverse working class public charter school in San
Francisco, one student activist – tired of hearing her classmates say: “I would
go to the demo, trust me, I know it’s bad and I support you and all; but my
parents would fucking kill me! They don’t just let me do all this crazy stuff.
Do you know how much trouble I would get into?!”- organized a teach-in January
9 featuring revolutionary journalist Larry Everest. 4 young progressive teachers brought their advisory
classes (about 60 students total) to a large room for the presentation. On January 11, over 50 students (out of 200
in the school) at Leadership wore orange to school, and 6 students showed up
for the orange jumpsuit march down Market
Street, bringing energy and militancy to the
protest.
Taking Guantanamo
Bay to Leadership High School
“Would
you guys be surprised if I told you that what’s going on in Guantanamo would affect your whole
future?” Yes. “It’s a surprise because you”re being lied to
by the media and the government.” Larry
continued: “Do you think Americans” lives are more important than other
people’s lives?” Except for one student
trying to be a smart ass, all the students say No. “Should people from another country, or
another religion, or people who aren’t white, be subjected to things that white
Americans aren’t?” No. This set the tone
of serious engagement that continued for the rest of the presentation. Students were rowdy at first, but before long
you could hear a pin drop.
Larry
called for volunteers. A bunch of students step to the front of the class. They are getting into it now. “Imagine” here we are in San
Francisco, in school, and all of a sudden a hundred thousand
heavily armed troops from Afghanistan
parachute into your country.” Larry
points to one of the students: “You”re in a gang. Put on a jumpsuit..” He takes money out of his wallet and offers
it to students to snitch out their friends, citing the ACLU statistics that 95%
of Guantanamo detainees were turned over to the U.S. for
money. Pointing to another student,
“Someone turned you in. Get in a
jumpsuit. They said you were in a gang.” Soon, all the volunteers were in jumpsuits,
and the room was in suspense. “We don’t
tell you anything, you don’t get a phone call, or a lawyer, you don’t get to
talk to your mom. We just tell you to
come with us or we”ll kill you. You
can’t see anything or hear anything. You
don’t know what’s happening to you and you don’t know when it’s going to
end.” One courageous volunteer lies down
on one of the tables as Larry describes what it’s like to be waterboarded.
Larry
continues: “This is real. I’m not making
this stuff up. This is what George Bush,
Dick Cheney, and the rest of the U.S. government have started doing,
and they”re saying it’s OK. And this is
what Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards refuse to stop.” The students take their hoods off. One of the
students that was put in the jumpsuit was noticeably shaken and hugged a friend
for a long time after. Larry asks them how it felt; could they imagine
themselves in this position? One student
says she felt like shit. Another said
she felt helpless. Someone said he felt
scared. The last student said, “I feel
sorry for those people. And part of that
is because I didn’t know about it” which makes me a little bit guilty because
of that. And I wish I could do something
about it.” Well, there is something you
can do about it! We tell them about
wearing orange, and the protest on January 11, and how it’s on us to change
things – we can’t wait for the “leaders” to do it, since they”re the ones who
started all this.
We spend
the rest of the period in Q&A. The
students ask the tough questions about whether protesting makes a difference,
and what role do the people play in making change? One student says we need to get organized and
proposes writing letters to politicians and going on tour to other states to
make people all over the country aware of what’s going on. At the end of the discussion, most of the
students come up to us to get orange, and many stay to talk about what they can
do.
Overall,
this was a very exciting experience.
Students were extremely serious and engaged. In fact, students commented that they”ve
never seen people so quiet and attentive at Leadership High, which is an
accomplishment in and of itself! This
did not happen because students were afraid Larry and the Revolution Club were
going to discipline them, or because they were tired or secretly listening
their ipod. It’s because Larry succeeded
in grabbing their attention and walking them through the situation in Guantanamo (and the
direction the Bush Regime is taking this country and the world more generally)
in a way that made the feel the injustice of it all. This was a major breakthrough, both in terms
of working with teachers to set up this assembly, but also tactically in our
ability to reach high schoolers.
The torturer’s side of
torture?! An “extreme personal
viewpoint”?!
Of
course, such a breakthrough would not go unchallenged, even in “liberal” San Francisco, by those
who feel threatened by young people acting outside of “official” channels. After the presentation, teachers were
instructed to take students back to their classes and “debrief.” It seem clear, from our conversations with
students, that at least two of the teachers told their students that Larry’s
presentation was “one-sided” and “extreme.”
The administration was now going to introduce a curriculum to teach the
“other side” of torture, which one of the teachers described as the “Bush
Administration’s point of view.” At
least one of the teachers has already started teaching this, asking his
students, “If there are 100 people in Guantanamo
and 98 are guilty and 2 are innocent, wouldn’t it be alright to torture the two
innocents also?” One of the student
organizers responded by reading out the ACLU fact sheet pointing out that none
of the victims held in Guantanamo have had a trial (to determine “guilt” or
innocence”) and that some 300 have been released. Another said that, “There is
no good side to torture. It is wrong no matter how you look at it.”
One of
the teachers and the administration have also singled out and intimidated the
main student organizer, calling her in for meetings, telling her they didn’t
like the politics of the presentation, and that she doesn’t think for herself
because she reads Revolution newspaper.
Other students have been asked to remove their orange bandannas and told
they look like gangsters for wearing them. A letter from the principal was sent
out to the families of all students who attended the presentation stating: “We
know that the information presented was not balanced with alternative view
points. Additionally, the speaker used the opportunity to voice extreme
personal views on the nation’s political climate and administration.” Is it “extreme” to talk to give students the
facts about what their government is doing in other parts of the world? Should we present the “other side” of the
Nazi Holocaust – the Nazi perspective – and give it credence as just another
point of view? Should we teach
creationism in biology class in order to provide “balance” with the science of
evolution?
As a
letter that was sent by a World Can’t Wait organizer to the teachers who hosted
the presentation put it:
I understand that there is some controversy
about the “one-sided” nature of the presentation, which I’d like to
speak to briefly. First of all, I
completely agree with the spirit of critical thinking that we should be fostering
in students. People need to be able to
hear different sides of an issue and figure out for themselves what is
true. Debate and argumentation are good
ways of getting at the truth. But
ultimately what we are after is not simply “balance,” but truth. In terms of the presentation on Wednesday, I
thought that what Larry was mostly speaking to was the reality of what it’s
like to be a detainee at Guantanamo. That’s why we had the students get into the
orange jumpsuits and Larry described what it would be like to be taken away
from your family by people who don’t speak your languange, who don’t allow you
a lawyer, who don’t tell you what you’re being charged with, who torture you,
etc. This is not propaganda. This is reality. It’s well documented by human rights
organizations and the ACLU. George Bush
doesn’t even deny that this is happening… what he does is he tries to justify
it and legalize it. Before this presentation
very few students knew what Guantanamo
was, and even fewer knew that our government was practicing torture there. I’m sure you are all glad that the students
got informed about an important aspect of what their government is doing.
It is
understandable, given the current political climate in this country that school
administrations and teachers might feel defensive about exposing students to
ideas that contradict the Bush Regime’s official narrative. There are real fears about “rocking the
boat.” But what is most need right now
is to rock the boat” and not just with our opinions, but with the truth. Rather than isolating and repressing students
that take political initiative, these educators should feel proud to have
students that care so much about their future and the future of the planet. After all the school is called “Leadership.” Shouldn’t these students be leading the
way?
The San Francisco chapter of
World Can’t Wait and the Bay Area Revolution Club plan to continue working with
the students at leadership high in building for the national
“No-business-as-usual” day of action on January 31. Many of the students are still wearing orange
around school.
San Francisco “ACT Against Torture” Protest:
Photos 1 Photos 2 VIDEO & Photos Interview with WCW youth
At 4:45 PM,
a high-energy, yet somber “silent procession” starting from the steps of the
Federal Courthouse – many in chains and wearing black hoods – began marching
through downtown San Francisco
as the commute traffic swelled.
This action
was called for by Act Against Torture and supported/mobilized for by many
others: the ACLU, Amnesty International, a number of religious groups, Code
Pink, 911 Truth Alliance,
and World Can’t Wait. This march was impressive,
numbering about 200 at the start with over half wearing orange jumpsuits and our
numbers grew along the way. Our demonstration down Market Street, in a fluid and diverse procession,
50 yards long, standing 5 abreast, was remarkably intense in spirit. We were of
many backgrounds and all ages, carrying many homemade banners and signs.
At first,
the procession was silent and very dramatic, as was the plan for the entire
march. The energy coming from the folks
in our demonstration was strong, and we sensed that we commanded the attention
of the vast majority of onlookers. There
were a lot of youth in the procession and some could not resist seizing this
opportunity to make their stand against torture unmistakably clear. One young man with a bull horn was able to cite
Act, after Act, after Act, by name and number, what rights have been
obliterated, what dangers result, and that only us, the people, can set it
straight. A few blocks later, some chanting
began. By midway, the march was together in full blown chain-rattling chants,
mainly “ACT AGAINST TORTURE, SHUT DOWN GUANTANAMO!” and “HEY-HEY, HO-HO,
GUANTANAMO HAS GOT TO GO!” Every so often the procession paused and “prisoners”
staged a tableau, with costumed “guards and interrogators” holding cardboard
cut-out military “weapons” to their heads.
As we
made our way down Market, the busiest and most important street in San Francisco, we got
bigger. Many passersby simply joined in — freely walking and chanting along
with us. There were ordinary shoppers
and office workers, as well as some very well-dressed people. Suddenly,
a stranger you”d never seen at this, or any other march was walking next to
you, chanting as loudly as the organizers.
There were other people who stopped, saw, and began to applaud, or to say
thanks for doing this.
Of course,
there was also some negative reaction, people complaining about traffic
disruption, or bad mouthing the antiwar protestors. However, today, positive
vibes far outstripped the insignificant. It was very exciting to see people’s startled
faces as they caught sight of the 100 bright orange jumpsuits, their eyes and
smiles lit up, their busy agendas just forgotten — imagine the possible impact
of 500!
Some of
us were leafleting for World Can’t Wait, getting out several hundred flyers
with the January 2008 Statement and a pitch for January 31. Also, another 100
original Calls went out as we talked to lots of new people in and alongside the
procession. We heard some businessmen saying “Thank God somebody is saying
this!” Passersby asked us, “Why orange?”
“Where is Guantanamo?”
“What is waterboarding, anyway? It’s on
the news, yet they don’t say what it is . . .”
This “Act
Against Torture/Shut Down Guantanamo” march was so compelling, that every time we
crossed a street, it snarled traffic.
Many of our detainees were chained together, which necessitated crossing
as a single unit. At four-way crosswalks,
the prisoners would occupy all four corners – soon detainees were morosely
walking in every direction. The patrolling
police got increasingly antsy about this. There was a lot of honking, much of
it positive, some negative, it wasn’t difficult to tell the difference. Some youth in jumpsuits would sit down or
kneel in the middle of these intersections several times in this way, and the
whole procession would stop traveling for ten or fifteen minutes. There were no arrests, as eventually everyone
would move on to the next stop. The
procession ended on the Embarcadero, at the foot of Market Street, with a final one of these
“stops.”
Right after the procession, World Can’t Wait had an organizing meeting
at a nearby arts f acility. A good number of people came for their
first time at a WCW program – again, very diverse and all ages. We
screened an excerpt of the Bush Crimes Commission DVD, and the 2007
Nickelodeon News segment featuring high school World Can’t Wait
activism against torture and the whole Bush trajectory. There was a
good brainstorm over the new 2008 WCW plans for January thru March, and
a lot of enthusiasm for joining into and building a movement to “bring
all this to a halt,” both from new friends who have been politically
active in their past, and others for whom this is a first.
Honolulu, HAWAII
In an action called by World Can’t Wait, about 50 people from many organizations and perspectives came together Friday night in the heart of Waikiki holding signs and banners against torture and calling for Guantanimo to be shut down. New people whom we in World Can’t Wait had never met before stepped forward to demonstrate and some of them donned orange detainee jumpsuits and black hoods and kneeled in front of the passing throngs. Participants ranged from people in their eighties to punkers in their teens. Several people from Friends of Sabeel (a pro Palestinian group), including a Muslim man were there, along with Amnesty International and a supportive off duty cop.
On one corner of the street, hula dancers entertained crowds of tourists. On the other corner, three hooded “prisoners” dressed in orange kneeled in front of a brilliant orange “Stop Torture” banner, flanked by protesters holding signs.
One of the wonderful things about Waikiki is that everyone is carrying a camera, video or cell phone, and you get the sense that your message is being instantly beamed around the world. Tonight was no exception, and the message was clear: “Stop Torture!”, “Shut Down Guantanamo,” “WaterBoarding is Torture.”
The response from those who passed was mixed. Many, many stopped to thank us. Hundreds took leaflets and nodded agreement. But a surprisingly large number openly defended torture and made ugly and threatening comments. Organizers estimated about 60% of the passersby were against torture, and 40% seemed to be for it or think it was necessary.
GREENSBORO NC
Greensboro was back out on the streets for the nationwide SHUT DOWN GUANTANAMO actions, with large orange banners, orange jumpsuits, and a harrowing waterboarding demonstration. About 35 people took part in the downtown street corner demonstration, including students from UNC-Greensboro and Guilford Tech Community College, amongst whom were several international students. Also on hand were people from the Greensboro chapter of World Can’t Wait, Chapel Hill’s Grass Roots Impeachment Movement (a.k.a.GRIM), the Winston-Salem Green Party and various others.
The response from passing cars was very positive, with lots of honks and thumbs up in support. There was also a pretty large contingent of cops gathered for the size of the crowd demonstrating, including the one demonstrators call “Taze” who tasered a non-violent protester exactly one year ago at this same intersection during a civil isobedience against the “troop surge”. This time the cops caused no problems.
We were proud to be in the company of people like Witness Against Torture, who that day committed a brave act of civil disobedience at the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, DC and others around the country (and the world!) who refuse to let the next generation inherit the US as a torture state.
LOS ANGELES
On Thursday, January 10th in Los Angeles, seventy people gathered at the
Echo Park United Methodist Church to hear Michael Rapkin, an ACLU lawyer who
represents a Guantanamo detainee, Dennis Loo PhD. who is a member of the World
Can’t Wait national steering committee, Sunsara Taylor, writer for Revolution
newspaper and member of the World Can’t Wait advisory board, and John Heard, a
noted actor and activist, speak about the horrors of codified torture and why
we must all act to put an end to it and the Bush program that seeks to justify
the unjustifiable.
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Michael Rapkin shared his profoundly disturbing first-hand experiences in
coming face to face with atrocities visited on detainees as they languish in
inhumane conditions at the prison in Guantanamo, and have little legal recourse
or hope toward a day of release and return to their homes and families. The
depth of the cruelty that he has uncovered toward detainees as he has worked
tirelessly for their release left the audience breathless with horror at times.
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John Heard’s reading of a poem selected from the recent compilation of writings
of detainees, Poems of Guantanamo, was intensely delivered. People in the
audience were visibly moved and some fought back tears as he finished and read
the bio of the author: Al Anazi, a humanitarian worker who had been arrested by
bounty hunters on his hospital bed after undergoing a leg amputation, who is
forced to walk painfully on ill-fitting prosthetics held together with duct tape and has been suffering in
that prison since 2002, with no hope of release.
Sunsara Taylor spoke about the importance of understanding this critical period
in our history, finding opportunities to break through the din of the electoral
process that immobilizes people, and pointed to the necessity of sharply
truthful discussions throughout society about mobilizing a mass movement from
below to break out and demand an end to all of this.
Dennis Loo Photo by John Gannon
Dennis Loo PhD discussed the pivotal importance of 2008, the nature of
group dynamics in the face of the abdication of moral leadership, and gave
examples of the difference that even one individual can make in dramatically
altering “pluralistic ignorance.” He painted a picture of what “a scene seen by
all” would look like, with orange evident everywhere, and counterposed
traditional ways of looking at political organizing to the endemic change that
DIN/333 reflect.
UCLA Campus: At noon on Jan. 11 at UCLA, the everyday rush between classes was pierced by the sharp shouts of two men, as they grabbed a student and accused him of being a terrorist. Despite his repeated insistence that he knew nothing of what they were talking about, and as a crowd gathered around, the men quickly forced him to wear an orange jumpsuit and threw the student onto a reclining board. To the crowd’s shock, they then proceeded to pour water onto his face, causing him to choke and feel as if he were drowning.
This was, of course, a simulated waterboarding,conducted by 3 students from a nearby arts college. A local radio station covered the enactment, and reported it in the afternoon. The reporter asked students what they thought about the demonstration; manjority talked about how disturbing it was to see adding that this was torture. While some students hurried past without missing a beat, others stopped to watch, and some took orange, and a few signed up. A German student thanked us for doing this, and was to get involved. A high school student who met us during IFAW Week came in orange tights and an orange scarf, and made plans to work toward Jan. 31.
Incredible black & bright orange stenciled pictures of a kneeling Guantanamo prisoner were seen around campus on banners hung from stairwells and buildings, on posters that read “Stop Torture” taped on walls, and on butcher paper on the sidewalk. Plans are being made to produce many more of these to transform the
scene.
SAN DIEGO
In San Diego World Can’t Wait joined the Witness Against Torture rally held in front of the federal courthouse in downtown San Diego. Representing the spectrum of participants is a California organizer for Dennis Kucinich, activists from Vets for Peace, S.D. Peace Resource Center and S.D. Coalition for Peace and Justice and an organizer of a chapter of SDS at S.D. State University.
MINNEAPOLIS
Around 60 people at the height gathered with banners and orange jump suits at a busy intersection uptown Minneapolis. Highly visible banners were an orange one calling for the US to close Guantanamo and a one from Iraq Veterans Against the War. People had smaller signs saying “No Torture. About 10 people were in orange jumpsuits. This action was organized jointly by the ACLU and Impeach for Peace/Minneapolis WCW.
NEW YORK CITY
Prayer Vigil Against Torture at Foley Square
Torrential rain, visible here, didn’t deter the dozens of attendees at the prayer vigil to end torture and shut down Guantanamo at Foley Square, New York City, on January 11, 2008. Organized by Metro New York Religious Coalition Against Torture, the protest featured prayers offered in turn by an imam, a rabbi and a minister. Those attending represented, in addition to the members of the religious coalition, such as Fellowship of Reconciliation (FoR), several secular groups as well, including World Can’t Wait, Amnesty International, Code Pink and Center for Constitutional Rights.
Waterboarding Demonstration at Times Square:
Actors from several off-Broadway theater groups, including Subjective Theater, LAByrinth Theater and Artists Network, joined with World Can’t Wait to stage an exhibition right on Broadway in Times Square. The victim, hooded and in an orange jump suit, was dragged in by black-suited “private contractors”, who demanded “Give us the names!”
In spite of a steady rain, a crowd quickly gathered as the screaming victim was forced onto the board, a towel thrown over his face and the water began to flow. The graphic demonstration made clear once again that waterboarding is not “enhanced interrogation”;it is torture.The action was covered by Reuters, Associated Press,and Agence France-Presse.
The actors enthusiastically took this up, all with a maximum of 48 hours notice, clearing schedules and urging others to join in. They applied their skills to working out how to do the demonstration in the most powerful way possible. Afterwards, they talked about how the intensity and inhumanity of torture, even though acting it, greatly effected them. They volunteered to do this again and want to remain in touch with WCW for its future plans.
ATLANTA
In Atlanta on January 11, there was a small protest of about 20 people to say No to Torture and Shut Down Guantanamo. The ACLU partnered with a weekly anti-war vigil that has a presence outside a high rise in midtown every Friday at noon. World Can’t Wait Atlanta participated in and helped promote the protest.Since the protest was held at noon, we were able to talk with many of the hundreds of people that walked by during the course of their lunch hour and were visible to the traffic passing by. The ACLU brought out orange armbands, Shut Down Guatanamo T-shirts and fact sheets. WCW brought orange jumpsuits, flyers, orange ribbons, and bracelets. We had four people dressed in the orange jumpsuits, always a provocative action. And we had a very large banner that said, “Stop Torture Wear Orange on Jan. 11, worldcantwait.org”. This was intermixed with the regulars who came out with anti-war signs, and a couple regulars had Impeach Bush for War Crimes posters.
The crowd that walked by was very mixed. About 25% took flyers, and about ¾ of them took orange ribbons to wear, many of them attaching the ribbon to their clothes immediately, and about 2% were openly for torture. Several people we talked with were torn and wanted to know what will stop the terrorist from hurting Americans, many people didn’t know what Guatanamo was!, and almost everyone did not know that the U.S. has made torture legal with the Military Commissions Act.
The most disturbing element of the day was that most of the people did not want to engage at all. They would rush by us, so they wouldn’t have to deal with it. We tried to do some agitation, because we had a captive audience when there was a crowd waiting for the light to turn so they could walk across the street, about living in a torture state and is that ok with everyone, don’t you think we should be debating this everywhere we go, what kind of world do we want to live in. This did provoke more people to take flyers and the pro war and torture side to speak out too. One guy asked us what to do with the terrorists, when he was asked him if he thought everyone in Guantanamo was a terrorist, he replied that he didn’t know who was in Guantanamo. We pointed out that this was one of the problems with Guantanamo, and he said that he trusts the elected representatives to make sure there are not mistakes. We suggested that he do some research.
Even though it was small we were able to talk with lots of people in a short amount of time, confront them with the reality of the world we live in and break into their isolated lives if only for a few minutes.
SEATTLE
Photo Slideshow
The Seattle Chapter of World Can’t Wait Jan 11th WE WON’T LIVE IN A TORTURE STATE event was attended by many organizations and about 150 people. Most people saw that torture was a shameful aspect of the Bush regime, that the Bush regime should be held criminally accountable, they should be driven out, and that the elections will not solve the problems we face because there has been no accountability. All agreed it is a moral imperative that the practice of torture needs to stop now, today.
The crowd was almost silent while the “waterboarding” demonstration was being enacted. The press was leaning in close for the best picture. People were very affected by this demonstration and their faces showed a variety of emotions: shock, shame, and sadness even though everyone knew that this was a demonstration only. The crowd listened intently as James Yee, former US Army Muslim Chaplain at Guantanamo Bay, and author of “For God and Country” spoke about the deplorable conditions at Guantanamo Bay. Many other speakers spoke out loudly against torture including: Representatives from Amnesty International, World Can’t Wait, Washington State Religious Campaign Against Torture, State Senator Eric Oemig, Judith Shadduck from Progressive Democrats of America*, Washington State NLG Chapters and Congressman Jim McDermott. Seattle WCW was joined by: Amnesty International, ACLU Close Guantanamo, Washington for Impeachment, EFOR, Neighbors for Peace, The Backbone Campaign, United for Peace of Pierce County, Witness Against Torture, Center for Constitutional Rights, National Religious Campaign Against Torture, the Peace Corps and many others.
WASHINGTON DC: Quotes from Friday Jan 11 protest at the Supreme Court:
Amanda Daloisio, of Witness Against Torture, told how the group
started in 2005, without professional skills, but knowing they must
“bring hope to people held and abused in secret a mere 90 miles from
our shores, but seemingly far outside the reach of our courts. Stories
of the prisoners haunt and compel us. These accounts are brutal,
vicious, difficult to hear, and almost impossible to comprehend.
Stories too of families left behind, mothers pacing the floor, waiting
for their babies to be returned, boys who are taken at 12, 13, 14 years
of age. Parents weeping for their children, fathers wrenched from
their families, and year after year, for six years, missing births and
deaths, missing out on life.”
Jill
Flores, from Psychologists for Social Responsibility, who traveled from
Texas for the protest, said “I think that I represent lots of people
who would like to be here today, but who are here in spirit,
psychologists from all across the country that are withholding their
dues from the American Psychological Association [for allowing their
members to participate in US government interrogations], taking action,
communicating what psychological torture is and educating people. I’m
just one person out of many, a growing number of us. Psychological
torture is different from physical torture. By design, it’s hidden and
insidious in its effects. When we talk to victims of torture, they say
that the psychological torture has such long lasting effects. The
physical torture is something that’s identifiable and painful to
outsiders. Psychological torture, on the other hand, leaves no marks
and has much longer hidden effects that are trauma-ridden.”
David Swanson, AfterDowningStreet.org said, “The US detention camp
at Guantanamo needs to be shut down, not modified, tweaked, nor
improved. The majority of the prisoners there are known to be
innocent. Many of them were purchased for $5,000 in Afghanistan, as if
you wouldn’t get the wrong people that way. They are being denied any
hope of exit, of judicial process, of contact with the outside world.
They are going on hunger strikes or killing themselves, and our
government, when they kill themselves, says, “that’s an unfair act of
war against us.” These are people committing suicide because of what
we”ve done to them.”
Press release from Witness Against Torture:
DIRECT ACTION TODAY DEMANDED SHUT-DOWN OF GUANTANAMO AND AN END TO TORTURE AND INDEFINITE DETENTION
WASHINGTON, DC – Early this afternoon, 70 activists organized by
Witness Against Torture delivered a message to the U.S. Supreme Court
demanding the shut-down of the U.S. prison at Guantánamo and justice
for those detained there. 35 activists were arrested inside the Court
building and another 35 on the steps. The arrests followed a solemn
march from the National Mall of 400 persons that included a procession
of activists dressed like the Guantánamo prisoners in orange jumpsuits
and black hoods – part of an International Day of Action that was
endorsed by over 100 groups and that included 83 events around the
world.
Inside, a member of Witness Against Torture delivered a letter to
the nine Supreme Court justices regarding Al Odah v. United States and
Boumediene v. Bush, the two cases brought by Guantánamo detainees that
they are now considering, along with a writ of habeas corpus for each
of the 275 current detainees. Other activists attempted to unfurl a
banner inside the Court building but were prevented from doing so by
police, who began arresting them and shut the front doors to the
building. Another group then started reading the names of the
Guantánamo prisoners, but were prevented, whereupon they sat down and
started chanting, “Shut It Down!” prior to being arrested.
At
approximately the same time, activists dressed in orange jumpsuits and
black hoods representing the men imprisoned at Guantánamo, knelt on the
steps of the Court building and eight others unfurled a banner on the
steps. They were arrested as well. Each arrestee had previously
surrendered his or her ID, and was taken into custody under the name of
one of the Guantánamo prisoners.
“This group brought the names of the victims of Guantánamo right to
the Supremem Court,” said Elizabeth McAlister, a member of the Jonah
House community in Baltimore and the mother of one of the persons
arrested inside the Court. “The Court has listened and listened to the
views of the imprisoned, but ha not heard them.”
Outside the Court, advocates read testimonies and names of
prisoners, performed street theater, and handed out information. One
performance was a simulation of waterboarding, one of the most
controversial torture tactics used at Guantánamo and in other U.S.
detention centers.
January
11, 2008 marks six years of detention without hope of release for
nearly 300 men at Guantánamo. “Lawyers are working hard to bring the
cases of the prisoners into the courts,”said Susan Crane of the Jonah
House Community, who participated in today’s action. “But lawyers can
only do so much. These prisoners, who have been illegally detained,
tortured, abused, and kept from their families for years, are not even
able to communicate openly with their lawyers. Thats why we were here
today to appeal to the Supreme Court justices to stand up now and end
this abuse.”
Witness Against Torture is calling on the U.S. government to:
* Repeal the Military Commissions Act and restore Habeas Corpus;
* Charge and try or release all detainees;
*
Clearly and unequivocally forbid torture and all other forms of cruel,
inhuman, and degrading treatment, by the military, the CIA, prison
guards, civilian contractors, or anyone else;
* Pay reparations to current and former detainees and their families for violations of their human rights; and
* Shut down Guantánamo, Abu Ghraib, Bagram, and all secret CIA detention facilities.
About Witness Against Torture
This action is the latest by
Witness Against Torture, which came into being in December 2005 when a
group of 24 friends walked to Guantánamo to visit the prisoners – an
action following the nonviolent tradition of Dorothy Day and the
Catholic Worker. Upon returning to the U.S., they continued the work
with public education and community outreach, networking and resource
sharing, and acts of nonviolent civil resistance to draw attention to
the plight of prisoners in Guantánamo and victims of the war on
terrorism everywhere.
The International Day of Action launches a concerted campaign to Shut Down Guantánamo. For more information, please visit www.witnesstorture.org.