PRESS RELEASE: Broad Coalition Opposes NDAA, Calls on Obama to Shutter Guantanamo as Promised

Friends,

 

Consider joining today’s human chain.  I will leave Baltimore soon to be on the chain.

 

Kagiso,

 

Max

For Immediate Release

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

 

Broad Coalition Opposes NDAA and Calls on President Obama to Keep His

Promise and Shutter Guantanamo Bay Now

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Groups will mark 10th anniversary of first detainees imprisoned at

Guantanamo Bay with rally, human chain starting at White House;

military, legal, religious and 9/11 families among speakers’ list

 

Contacts:

 

AIUSA:  Sharon Singh, (202) 509-8194, or ssingh@aiusa.org

NRCAT: Samantha Friedman, office: (202) 265-3000, cell: (202) 215-9260

or Samantha@rabinowitz-dorf.com

CCR: Jen Nessel, (212) 614-6449 or JNessel@ccrjustice.org

WAT: Jeremy Varon, (732) 979-3119 or jvaron@aol.com

 

(Washington, D.C.) – A broad coalition of human rights groups and

other like-minded organizations will mark the 10th anniversary of the

first detainees being jailed at the U.S.-controlled detention facility

in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on Wednesday, January 11, 2012, by holding a

rally at Lafayette Park in Washington, D.C., beginning at 12 p.m.

Participants oppose the detention provisions in the 2012 National

Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that violate human rights and are

urging President Barack Obama to keep his promise and shut down the

detention facility.

 

Speakers at the rally include Colonel Morris Davis, executive director

of the Crimes of War Education Project, who previously served as the

chief prosecutor for the office of military commissions at Guantánamo

Bay; Talat Hamdani, mother of Salman Hamdani, an emergency medical

technician who died in the September 11, 2001 attacks while helping

people at the Twin Towers in New York City and Ramzi Kassem, an

attorney who represents Guantanamo and Bagram detainees and supervises

the Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility (CLEAR)

project at CUNY School of Law.

 

After the rally, the demonstrators will march down Pennsylvania

Avenue, led by 171 people in orange jumpsuits and black hoods,

representing the men still detained at Guantanamo. The marchers will

continue all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, holding brief rallies

at four locations to dramatically demonstrate the chain of

responsibility that connects the White House, the Department of

Justice, the U.S. Capitol and the Supreme Court.

 

Prior to the rally and demonstration, there will be a press briefing

from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. at the National Press Club (First

Amendment room), with Rear Admiral John Hutson, an early critic of the

military commission system and the treatment of detainees as one of

the featured speakers.

 

Media is encouraged to attend and cover the rally and vigil. Details below:

 

What:              10th anniversary of the opening of the Guantanamo

Bay prison –

10 years and counting – with a rally and human chain

 

Date:               Wednesday, January 11, 2012

 

Time:              Rally:                           12:00 p.m.

                        Human chain vigil:        1:00 p.m.

 

Location:        Lafayette Park, Pennsylvania Ave. and Jackson Place,

NW, Washington, D.C. 20006

 

For a list of comments from the January 11 coalition members, please

go to www.nrcat.org/gitmo2012_quotes.

 

Participating groups include Amnesty International USA, Center for

Constitutional Rights, National Religious Campaign Against Torture,

Witness Against Torture, 8th Day Center for Justice, Appeal for

Justice, Arab American Association of New York, Backbone Campaign,

Baltimore-Washington Area Peace Council, Bellevue/NYU Program for

Survivors of Torture, Bill of Rights Defense Committee, Bradley

Manning Support Network, Casa Esperanza, Catholic Worker, Chicago

Committee to Free the Cuban 5, Code Pink, Comision Mexicana de Defensa

Y Promocion de los Derechos Humanos (CMDPDH), Comite de Accion

Juridica (CAJ, Argentina), Council on American-Islamic Relations,

Courage to Resist, Creating Law Enforcement Accountability &

Responsibility, Fellowship of Reconciliation, Desis Rising Up and

Moving (DRUM), High Road for Human Rights, Human Rights USA,

International Justice Network, Islamic Circle of North America-Council

for Social Justice, International Federation for Human Rights, Just

Foreign Policy, Latin America Solidarity Coalition, Liberty Coalition,

Limeddh, Midwest Anti War Mobilization, Muslim Justice Initiative

(MJI), Muslim Peace Coalition, National Campaign for Nonviolent

Resistance, National Coalition to Protect Civil Freedoms,Natural

Solutions Foundation, No More Guantánamos, North Carolina Stop Torture

Now Coalition, NYU Center for Health and Human Rights, Occupy DC,

Pakistan Solidarity Network, Pax Christi USA, Peace & Justice

Center,Physicians for Human Rights, Project Salaam, Quaker Initiative

to End Torture, Rabbis for Human Rights-North America, Refuge Media

Project, School of the Americas Watch, September 11th Families for

Peaceful Tomorrows, South Asian Americans Leading Together, Texans for

Peace, The Rutherford Institute, Torture Abolition and Survivors

Support Coalition, United National Antiwar Coalition, United Nations

Association-USA East Bay Chapter, U.S. Peace Council, Veterans for

Peace, Veterans for Peace, NY Chapter 34, Voices for Creative

Nonviolence, War Criminals Watch, War Resisters League,

WarIsACrime.org and World Can’t Wait.

 

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For more information, go to http://2012.witnesstorture.org;

www.amnestyusa.org/gitmorally; www.nrcat.org/gitmo2012; or

www.ccrjustice.org.

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