Obama said he’d close Guantánamo — these activists are pushing Biden to finish the job
Jeremy Varon | March 17, 2021 This article was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.
What should have been an end to the Guantánamo saga in 2012, was only the beginning of more grueling work for this anti-torture coalition.
I remember, as if in a distant dream, repeating through sobs of joy and exhaustion, “It’s over. It’s over.” On live TV President Obama had just signed, as his first official act in January 2009, an executive order mandating the closure of the prison at Guantánamo. To Obama’s right stood a proud Vice President Biden, gently coaching his neophyte boss through the momentous ceremony.
As my tears began to drain away, so too did the sting of years of torture, wars based on lies, and the grotesque contortions of the law making up Bush’s War on Terror. All the work of Witness Against Torture and other anti-GTMO activists — the frigid White House rallies, the endless press releases, the many fasts, the arrests for civil disobedience — had borne fruit. Tortured men could now go home, or stand trial before a fair tribunal.
Meet the Veterans in We Are Not Your Soldiers
UPDATE: You can watch the recoded panel discussion here:
Yemenis Aren't Starving. They are BEING starved.
In a welcome development, Biden has announced US plans to re-enter the Iran nuclear agreement, reversing Trump's withdrawal from the agreement negotiated under Obama. He also announced the US will end support for Saudi Arabia's offensive actions against Yemen.
The people of both countries have suffered horribly from US imperialist intervention.
In Iran, domestic tyranny has been strengthened by US sanctions against that country. Iran's prisons are bulging with political prisoners who are opponents of the Islamic Republic while uncounted hundreds of thousands have died from lack of food, medicines and other essentials caused by US sanctions.
The US has actively supported Saudi aggression on Yemen. Over 100,000 Yemenis have died in the Saudi war -- from airstrikes, coordinated and paid for by the US, and spreading famine and disease.
In fact, two Yemeni families have filed a petition against the US government to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights over the “unlawful” killing of 34 relatives, including nine children, in counterterrorism operations between 2013 and 2018.
These conditions have made the Covid epidemic far worse in each country.
‘The Mauritanian’ rekindles debate over Gitmo detainees’ torture – with 40 still held there
Click here to read the orginal post on theconversation.com
“The Mauritanian,” directed by Kevin Macdonald, is the first feature film to dramatize how the war on terror became a war in court.
As a sociologist of law and a journalist, I have spent the past two decades researching and writing about the kinds of legal battles the film accurately portrays. My research has included 13 trips to observe military commission trials at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The film stars Tahar Rahim as a Mauritanian named Mohamedou Ould Slahi who is captured and held at the Guantanamo detention center, where many suspected terrorists were sent. Jodie Foster and Shailene Woodley play Nancy Hollander and Teri Duncan, Slahi’s attorneys. Benedict Cumberbatch plays Lt. Col. Stuart Couch, who is assigned to prosecute Slahi’s case.
Trump, Trumpism, and 21st Century Fascism
This article was submitted by long-time World Can't Wait supporter and prolific writer Dr. Steven Jonas. You can read more of his articles on BuzzFlash and OpEdNews.
The U.S. is a capitalist country governed by a constitutional government that controls the apparati of the “State:” legislative, executive and judicial. Governments use these principal State elements primarily to maintain the power of the dominant economic class – that is the “ruling class.” Within the country, this class controls the means of production, distribution and exchange. For capitalists, the primary function of the economy is the production of profit – in other words, the excess value arising from production, distribution, and exchange, both for the expansion of those functions and for personal use.
Will Guantanamo stay the forever prison?
Is the torture colony established by the U.S. in 2002 a forever prison? Three U.S. presidents said: "Yes, these are the worst of the worst;" "No - that's not who we are;" and "Hell yes...let's build more Guantanamos." Until some decisive action is taken to close it, the prison at Guantanamo Bay is there as a monument to what the U.S. actually stands for.
What Biden will do is not clear, but here's what some people working for justice are saying:
Seven men formerly imprisoned at Guantanamo wrote an open letter to Biden published in The New York Review of Books on January 29. They call for the idea of "forever prisoners" to be rescinded, an end to the Military Commissions set up by Bush, expedited repatriation and changes in how prisoners are released:
An Open Letter to President Biden About Guantánamo
President Bush opened it. President Obama promised to close it, but failed to do so. President Trump promised to keep it open. Now, it is your turn to decide.We write to you as former prisoners of the United States held without charge or trial at the military detention facility at Guantánamo Bay who have written books about our experiences.
First, we welcome your presidential orders to reverse many unjust and problematic decisions made by your predecessor. We appreciate your repeal of the “Muslim ban,” which will now allow nationals from the Muslim-majority countries previously targeted into the United States, therefore bringing relief to families torn apart by this order.
Despite some positive developments, including the repeal of the Muslim ban, there is another deeply flawed and unjust process that has continued through five US presidential administrations spanning two decades: Guantánamo Bay prison. Guantánamo Bay has existed for over nineteen years and was built to house an exclusively Muslim male population.
We understand that your faith is important to you and helps to guide your vision of social justice. During our incarceration, we often reflected on the story of the Prophet Joseph (Yusuf) in the Quran and his years of wrongful imprisonment. It’s the same story in the Bible and one that reminds us that justice is not only divine, but timeless. That is why we are writing to you.
Psychologists Should Now Lead the Call to Close Guantánamo
Both the history and the ethics of our profession point the way forward.
Last week, Mansoor Adayfi, Moazzam Begg, Lakhdar Boumediane, Sami Al-Hajj, Ahmed Errachidi, Mohammed Ould Slahi, and Moussa Zemmouri published an open letter in the New York Review of Books. Noting that many Guantánamo detainees had been abducted from their homes, sold to the United States for bounties, and subjected to physical and psychological torture, these seven former prisoners—all held without charge or trial before their eventual release—called upon President Biden to close the detention facility. Their letter, which merits reading in its entirety, includes this plea:
Considering the violence that has happened at Guantánamo, we are sure that after more than nineteen years, you agree that imprisoning people indefinitely without trial while subjecting them to torture, cruelty, and degrading treatment, with no meaningful access to families or proper legal systems, is the height of injustice. That is why imprisonment at Guantánamo must end.
America's Torture Colony: 19 Years of Guantanamo... It Must Be Closed Now!
Sunday, January 17, 2021• 4:00 PM • Eastern Standard Time (US & Canada) (GMT-05:00)
Watch live on YouTube and FaceBook
Andy Worthington, British journalist and co-founder of Close Guantanamo, will be giving a virtual talk from London on the history and continuing horror of the Guantanamo detention camp. He will be joined by Shelby Sullivan-Bennis, lawyer for several Guantanamo prisoners and victims of U.S. drone strikes outside of war zones.
WE’RE ON THE “GIVE PEACE A CHANCE” RADIO SHOW!
Listen in as We Are Not Your Soldiers spends an hour with a Peace Studies class at Nassau Community College in NY. Professor Susan Cushman introduces her class, followed by Stephanie Rugoff who coordinates We Are Not Your Soldiers. Miles Megaciph, a U.S. Marines veteran and hip hop artist, then starts off with his song “Promise” and continues for the rest of the program in dialogue with the class about his time in the military. This was originally aired on the “Give Peace a Chance” show on WBAI, 99.5 FM in NYC.
"Give Peace A Chance"
Debra Sweet | December 24, 2020
Tune in to WBAI this Saturday Dec. 26 at 6:00 EST (on the radio at 99.5 in NYC or tune in on the WBAI website from wherever you're located) to "Give Peace A Chance" to hear the special program on We Are Not Your Soldiers including audio from a visit last week to a community college Peace Studies class in NY.
Listen Now: Give Peace A Chance
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