PRESS ADVISORY: Eight Years After Guantanamo,Lawyers and Activists Demonstrate, Demand Real Change

WITNESS AGAINST TORTURE

Press Advisory: For Immediate Release

January 8, 2010

 

Contact:          Frida Berrigan, 347-683-4928           Jeremy Varon, 732-979-3119

                        frida.berrigan@gmail.com                     jvaron@aol.com

 

HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS, GUANTANAMO LAWYERS RALLY AT WHITE HOUSE

 

ON EIGHTH “ANNIVERSARY” OF GUANTANAMO, CALL ON OBAMA TO CLOSE IT, END INDEFINITE DETENTION AND RESTORE THE RULE OF LAW

 

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Eight years ago next Monday, the Guantanamo prison opened for “war on terror” detainees. On January 11, activists and Guantanamo lawyers will mark the anniversary by demanding that President Obama make good on his pledge to close the prison as first step towards restoring the rule of law. Further, the group opposes any plan for holding prisoners without charge or trial in the U.S. and denounces the White House’s expansion of Bush-style detention in Afghanistan.

 

Schedule, Monday, January 11, 2010

When	What	Where
11:45am	Demonstration with street theater, signs, and speakers, announcement of 12 day fast.	White House Plaza, between Lafayette Park and “picture postcard” zone
12:30pm	Begin prisoner procession, a silent walk of more than 40 jumpsuited “detainees”
1:00pm	Press Briefing with the Center for Constitutional Rights	National Press Club, 529 14th Street Murrow Room

 

Members of Witness Against Torture will rally in front of the White House at 11:45 a.m. to protest the lack of progress toward justice for detainees since Obama took office and demand from the administration true change.  Speakers will announce a 12-Day Fast for Justice in Washington DC, ending on January 22-- the Obama administration’s self-declared, and now-voided, deadline for closing Guantanamo.

 

“As fear of terrorism again grips the nation, we need to stand more firmly on the principles of justice and the rule of law, and not go further down the disastrous path of the last eight years,” says Matt Daloisio of Witness Against Torture. “Obama promised to break with the Bush administration. But in so many areas-- from the continued use of rendition, to the ongoing detention of innocent men at Guantanamo, to the refusal to prosecute alleged torturers-- he has sustained the policies of his predecessor and he is in the process of expanding these policies at the Bagram prison in Afghanistan.”

 

After the demonstration, activists will stage a dramatic Guantanamo prisoner procession to the National Press Club. There, they will join the Center for Constitutional Rights for a press briefing featuring detainee lawyers and human rights activists. The briefing, led by CCR Executive Director Vince Warren, will include the reading of letters from men released from Guantanamo and exonerated of wrong doing. The letters directly appeal to President Obama and call for the prison’s closure and justice for all men held there.

 

Witness Against Torture is a grassroots movement that came into being in December 2005 when 24 activists walked to Guantanamo to visit the prisoners and condemn torture policies. Since then, it has engaged in public education, community outreach, and non-violent direct action. For the first 100 days of the Obama administration, the group held a daily vigil at the White House, encouraging the new President to uphold his commitments to shut down Guantanamo.

To learn more visit www.witnesstorture.org

 

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