I Support Closing Guantanamo

Amnesty International – Campaign to Write President Obama

 

Tell President Obama and Congress that you support closing the Guantanamo detention facility. On April 30th, 2013, as over 100 detainees are on hunger strike, President Obama rightly reaffirmed his commitment to close Guantanamo. He must now take action to get the job done and Congress must support the effort. Each detainee must either be charged and fairly tried in federal court, or be released to countries that will respect their human rights. Under current law, cleared detainees can be transferred out.

 

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington DC, 20500

 

Guantanamo, Bagram and Illegal U.S. Detentions

The United States’ detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have become emblematic of the gross human rights abuses perpetrated by the U.S. Government in the name of fighting terrorism.

At Guantanamo, the U.S. government sought to hold detainees in a place neither U.S. nor international law applied.

But no one can be held outside of the law.

Guantanamo must be closed the right way: detainees must either be promptly charged and given fair trials in U.S. federal courts, or be released. Illegal detention at other U.S. facilities, including those in Afghanistan, must end.

In Rasul v. Bush (2004) the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that federal courts had jurisdiction over detainees in Guantánamo, allowing detainees to file petitions seeking habeas corpus – the centuries old right to challenge the legality of one’s detention. In Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (2006) the Court found that Article 3 common to the four Geneva Conventions applied to Guantánamo detainees. In 2006, Congress passed the Military Commissions Act (MCA), which stripped federal courts of the right to hear habeas corpus cases by or on behalf of any Guantánamo detainees. But on June 12, 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Boumediene v. Bush that detainees held at Guantánamo are entitled, under the U.S. Constitution, to habeas corpus.

More than six years after the first detainees were transferred to Guantánamo, only six people have had their cases adjudicated – the majority taking plea deals rather than fighting their case in a courtroom heavily stacked against them. Only a handful of others have even been charged.

Approximately 240 inmates still remain in Guantanamo, some of whom are now in their ninth year of detention. These men have been subjected to a wide range of interrogation tactics that constitute ill-treatment, including stress positions, sensory deprivation, prolonged isolation, the use of 20-hour interrogations, hooding during transportation and interrogation, stripping, forcible shaving, and “using detainees individual phobias (such as fear of dogs) to induce stress.”

Incredibly, of those still being held approximately 60 individuals have actually been cleared for release but the United States has either failed to find a safe haven for them or, in the case of 27 Yemenis, refused to return them to their country of origin. The indefinite and arbitrary nature of the circumstances of their detention has led to a steep decline in the mental health of many incarcerated at Guantánamo. There have been numerous suicide attempts and hunger strikes. In June 2006, after the apparent suicides of three inmates, many detainees were moved to isolated cells in “supermax” facilities known as Camp 5 and Camp 6. There, they lost the ability to eat or exercise communally. They have very limited contact with anyone but their jailers and almost no access to sunlight or fresh air. A fourth detainee died of an apparent suicide in March 2007 and a fifth in June 2009.

The detention facilities at Guantánamo Bay have also diminished the United States’ reputation, providing a magnet for criticism from allies and enemies alike. In the years since Amnesty International has called for closure of the detention facilities, a growing number of high-ranking U.S. officials from both political parties, allied governments, and the United Nations have issued calls for the prison’s closure.

The detention facility at Guantánamo Bay isn’t the only prison where the United States is holding detainees from the “war on terror” – detention facilities in Afghanistan are also used to detain those captured by the U.S. military. Most detainees are held unlawfully, without warrant or charge, and with no legal representation to challenge their detention. Even when Guantánamo is closed, the push for detainee human rights must continue.

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U.S. Hunger Strikers

Hunger Striker's Blog



 U.S. Faster in Solidarity w/Gitmo & Pelican Bay Prisoners


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Foreground: EMT prepares the tool for the nasal intubation.       Background: U.S. Embassy, Buenos Aires, Argentina Middleground:...agony awaits. 


The feeding demo is extremely painful, yet it is done with consent. The long-term solidarity fast continues with nasogastric nourishment in front of U.S. governmental symbols of power. The twice-daily force-feeding of Gitmo hunger strikers is nonconsensual and therefore real torture by the standards sponsored by U.S. taxpayers and authorized by members of Congress who just raised the debt ceiling to nearly $17 trillion. President Obama's actions continue to belie his empty words "Close Guantánamo."  As Commander-in-Chief, he could easily order an end to what the Pentagon refuses to call "forced-feeding."   The force-feeding is premeditated  relentless forced penetration of plastic into their innermost sacred cavities !


Andrés Thomas Conteris - fasted on water and coconut water with vitamin and electrolyte supplements. Solidarity fast began July 8, 2013 with 30,000 hunger striking California prisoners urging fulfillment of 5 Core Demands of the Pelican Bay supermax prisoners.  Force-feeding protests began Sept. 6 & Sept. 25 in front of the White House & later in front of the Oakland Office of CA Dept of Corrections and Rehab (CDCR) to depict how prisoners in Guantánamo are tortured with force-feeding twice-daily and how CA prisoners as future hunger strikers have been threatened with a court order authorizing force-feeding.  On Oct 4 and Oct 8 he was tube-fed in front of the U.S. Embassies in Montevideo, Uruguay and Buenos Aires, Argentina. On Oct 15 a similar protest took place in Santiago, Chile.  On Friday, Oct 18 the feeding protest returns to Washington, DC outside a Federal Court hearing on the lawsuit challenging force-feeding in Guantánamo.  He is now on a maintenance fast losing about 1 pound per week, unlike the 5 pounds/week the first 11 weeks.  In January 2014 with the anniversary of Guantánamo on Jan. 11, the force feeding protests will recommence.  Please spread the word. 


Join a Rolling Fast


U.S. Hunger Strikers who have suspended their fast


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Diane Wilson - Water only 58 days (lost 48 lbs). Diane, co-founder of CodePink and member of Veterans for Peace, suspended her hunger strike on June 27, 2013 after detention following her arrest for scaling the White House fence the day before. She faced a jury trial in DC District Court on Sept. 5th, 2013.


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S. Brian Willson - Suspended Hunger Strike on June 10, 2013 after 31 days on 300cal/day, when a car accidentally hit him. Supporters continue a vigil with a rolling fast, in Portland, OR.

 

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Elliott Adams - Went 80 days on 300 cal/day from May 18, to August 4, 2013 losing 45 lbs.   He is past President of Veterans for Peace.

 


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Tarak Kauff - Ended fast on August 4, 2013 after 58 days on 300 cal/day since June 7.  He lost 29 lbs. On Board of Directors for Veterans for Peace.


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Cynthia Papermaster - After 84 days on 300 cal/day, Cynthia suspended her  hunger strike on Sep. 6 which began June 15, 2013. Code Pink member,  lost 35 lbs. The transfer of two Algerian prisoners on Aug. 29, 2013, inspired her to suspend her fast. 



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No more Guantánamos

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