PRESS RELEASE
January 11, 2011, 5:00 p.m.
Contacts: Frida Berrigan – 347-683-4928, frida.berrigan@gmail.com
Jeremy Varon- 732-979-3119, jvaron@aol.com
WASHINGTON – Sixty anti-torture activists blockaded the entrances to the Department of Justice for an hour and a half this afternoon. The action was to protest Washington’s failure to close the Guantánamo detention center and continued use of torture against detainees at Guantánamo and other prisons that comprise the “gulag” operated by the military and security agencies around the world.
“Sixty people blocked three entrances to the Justice Department,” said Matt Daloisio of Witness Against Torture, which organized the day of action against torture. No arrests were made. “Warnings were issued at one point, but the police appeared to change their plans and called off bringing buses to take away the blockaders. U.S. authorities have deeply disgraced this country by refusing to end torture and provide its War-on-Terror prisoners with speedy trials. Rather than call more attention to this fact by detaining activists who put themselves at risk today to bring this message to the public, they backed off.”
The Day of Action extended beyond Washington. Ten were arrested at the Federal Building in Chicago, Illinois this afternoon, and actions were also held in Miami, Pittsburgh, Madison and elsewhere.
“This first day of action was a significant success,” said Cooke. The actions kick off an 11-day Fast for Justice to end torture and close Guantánamo. Over 100 people around the country have signed up for the 11-day, liquid-only fast. Close to 50 fasters will be in Washington for the entire period, holding a vigil each day in front of the Justice Department.
The blockade followed a rally at the White House attended by more than 350 people and that included Witness Against Torture, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Amnesty International, and British journalist Andy Worthington, author of The Guantánamo Files and co-director of the documentary Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo.
As a victim of prison violence in the 1970’s, I was proud to be at the protest and prouder to be amongst those who care about HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES. Thank-you.
I am grateful to those who are willing to risk arrest in order to demand the closing of Guantanamo and the end of US illegal extrajudicial imprisonment, murder, and torture.
It is always good when people are not arrested. It may also be a sign of growing fear of the government of those who protest and of the potential for much more dissent. Let us hope so and let us work ever more diligently to close these prisons and stop torture.