Dear friends,
Joy, gratitude, and greetings to you! We’ve had a full day of reflections, meetings, rehearsals, and street theater that we hope you will enjoy reading about.
Morale is good here, and we continue to expand as new people arrive in DC to witness with us. Many of us were invigorated today by getting out into the streets and engaging with the public. It’s exciting to feel the energy building.
Continue reading Fast for Justice 2014: Day 3
Dear Friends,
We have been fasting in solidarity with the Guantanamo detainees for 36 hours now. The group has gotten a handle on what victuals it wants to have on-hand. This morning, the sustenance team gathered feedback and requests and procured a round of juice, vegetable and nut drinks, as well as honey, salt, cayenne and a few other items.
Continue reading Fast for Justice 2014: Day 2
January 11, 2014 marks the twelfth anniversary of the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, the eighth anniversary of Witness Against Torture’s January 11 presence in D.C., and our sixth liquids fast.
Continue reading Fast for Justice 2014: Day 1
The military says it will no longer report the number of prisoners on hunger strike, according to a report in the Miami Herald. A spokesman for the facility said the military “will not further their protests by reporting the numbers to the public.”
Eighty-six of the remaining prisoners — more than half — were designated three years ago for transfer to another country, provided that security concerns could be satisfied. Yet the transfer plan was left adrift in the face of political combat. Even if the new defense bill spurs progress in reducing the detainee population, the delivery of credible justice for those at the Guantánamo prison camp is far from complete.
(from NYTimes Editorial – Dec. 28, 2013)
Our community will gather in Washington DC from January 6-13 to engage in an 8 day, liquid only fast. We invite folks to join us for a day, for the duration, in DC, or at home.
Let us know if you can come, or if you plan to join us in fasting. For those participating from afar, we will have resources available, daily updates, and two conference calls with the fasting community in DC. For those in DC, we will provide housing from Jan. 5-14.
In addition to the fast, we will be engaging in daily activities to highlight the ongoing crimes of Guantanamo, Bagram, indefinite detention, drones, and lack of accountability for torture.
*e-mail witnesstorture@gmail.com to sign up to come to DC in January
*there will be a conference call the week of Dec. 30th for those coming to DC
JOIN THE MARCH IN WASHINGTON DC
Rally and procession to mark the 12th anniversary of Guantánamo, and to demand its closure.
WHERE: White House (1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW., Washington, D.C.)
Housing: Free housing available at a D.C. church on January 10. Email witnesstorture@gmail.com for more info.
Twitter: #CloseGitmo
Sponsoring Organizations: Center for Constitutional Rights, Witness Against Torture, Amnesty International, CODEPINK: Women For Peace, National Religious Campaign Against Torture, the World Can’t Wait. Blue Lantern Project, & CloseGitmo.net.
This January 11, 2014 marks the unacceptable 12th anniversary of indefinite detention without charge or trial at Guantánamo. Join us in Washington, D.C. to witness this anniversary together, and to call on President Obama to finally fulfill his broken promise to shut it down. Obama has the power to close Guantánamo, and the new National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA 2014) just approved by Congress makes it even easier for him to do so. 158 men remain detained at Guantánamo; most should never have been detained in the first place and are entering their 13th year of being deprived of their liberty without any charge or trial. They must be tried in a fair court or released; Guantánamo must be shut down.
In response to the Hunger Strike at Guantanamo, WAT has organized a rolling fast which will continue until January. We are so grateful to the over 200 people who have been so committed to the rolling fast these last few months, and welcome anyone who would like to join the fast in December and beyond! Please take a look at the December rolling fast calendar and consider participating. After choosing when you would like to fast, please email the date/s to witnesstorture@gmail.com
Please ‘like’ us on Facebook & Follow Us on Twitter.
Post any pictures of your local activities to http://www.flickr.com/groups/witnesstorture/, and we will help spread the word on http://witnesstorture.tumblr.com/
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Witness Against Torture is completely volunteer driven and run. We have no paid staff, but do have expenses associated with our organizing work. If you are able, please donate here.
• Close Guantánamo: all detained people must either
be charged & fairly tried, or be released
• End indefinite detention & remove detention provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act
• End unlawful killings with drones and other weapons
• Ensure accountability for torture, unlawful killings
& other abuses
Guantánamo, The Aamer Appeal, and the Passion of Andrés Thomas Conteris
by Jeremy Varon
They are artists of torture,
They are artists of pain and fatigue,
They are artists of insults and humiliation.
Where is the world to save us from torture?
Where is the world to save us from the fire and sadness?
Where is the world to save the hunger strikers?
-Adnan Latif (found dead in his cell, Sept. 8, 2012)
Our community will gather in Washington DC from January 6-13 to engage in an 8 day, liquid only fast. We invite folks to join us for a day, for the duration, in DC, or at home.
Let us know if you can come, or if you plan to join us in fasting. For those participating from afar, we will have resources available, daily updates, and two conference calls with the fasting community in DC. For those in DC, we will provide housing from Jan. 5-14.
In addition to the fast, we will be engaging in daily activities to highlight the ongoing crimes of Guantanamo, Bagram, indefinite detention, drones, and lack of accountability for torture.
JOIN THE MARCH IN WASHINGTON DC
Saturday, January 11, 2013 – time TBA
Five friends will go on trial Monday, Dec 9th in Superior Court in Washington DC. Please join us to support them as they attempt to put Guantanamo on trial.
In response to the Hunger Strike at Guantanamo, WAT has organized a rolling fast which will continue until January. We are so grateful to the over 200 people who have been so committed to the rolling fast these last few months, and welcome anyone who would like to join the fast in December and beyond! Please take a look at the December rolling fast calendar and consider participating. After choosing when you would like to fast, please email the date/s to witnesstorture@gmail.com
Please ‘like’ us on Facebook and Follow Us on Twitter
Post any pictures of your local activities to Flickr, and we will help spread the word on Tumblr.
Witness Against Torture is completely volunteer driven and run. We have no paid staff, but do have expenses associated with our organizing work. If you are able, please donate here.
Check out the demonstration live below! If the embedded stream doesn’t work for you, try visiting our UStream page!
WHERE: The White House, 1600 Penn. Ave.
WHEN: Friday, September 6, noon-1pm
WHAT: Force-feeding of US activist at rally to close Guantanamo & end solitary confinement
WHO: CloseGitmo.net, Witness Against Torture, Code Pink, Veterans For Peace, and others
WASHINGTON, D.C. CloseGitmo.net organizer Andrés Thomas Conteris on day 61 of his fast in solidarity with hunger striking prisoners in Guantánamo and Pelican Bay— will undergo a nasogastric feeding in front of the White House on Friday, September 6 at noon. Conteris will underscore the brutality of force-feeding, to which dozens of men at Guantanamo have been subjected since a new hunger strike began last February, and which California officials have threatened for hunger striking prisoners in Pelican Bay protesting the use of extended solitary confinement in US prisons. The American Medical Association, the United Nations, and Senators John McCain and Diane Feinstein have all condemned force-feeding.
Continue reading Forced Feeding Demonstration at White House This Friday
Dear Friends:
Over 90 days have passed since President Obama’s second promise to close Guantanamo. Thirty-six men remain on Hunger Strike in Guantanamo, with thirty-two being force fed twice a day. Sadly, this is who we are.
But it is within our collective power to stop it.
Our Rolling Fast continues in solidarity with these men – calling for Guantanamo to be closed. WE NEED FOLKS TO SIGN UP FOR SEPTEMBER. See below for information on how to participate.
Also, from September 4-6, Witness Against Torture & CloseGitmo.net invite you to three events in Washington, DC. Please join us on Sept. 6in front of the White House, as our friend and colleague Andrés Thomas Conteris – on Day 61 of his own water-only fast, undergoes a simulated force feeding. More information below on all of the Sept 4-6 events.
Continue reading Hunger Strike – Day 203
Hearing Before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights
July 22, 2013
To the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Human Rights, and Civil Rights:
We are Witness Against Torture, a grassroots organization that has worked since 2005 to close the prison at Guantánamo, end US torture, advocate accountability for the torturers, and justice for the victims. We are not lawyers, or political figures, or professional advocates. Rather, we are women and men, of diverse backgrounds, ages, occupations and faiths, devastated by the US’s embrace of torture and indefinite detention and determined to have our government abide by the Constitution, its founding ideals, and the principles of human rights and justice it professes. For many of us, this work has been, along with our dedication to our families and communities, the most important commitment in our lives.
Continue reading Closing Guantánamo : The National Security, Fiscal, and Human Rights Implications
Dear Friends:
One hundred fifty-two days into the hunger strike — and now weeks past President Obama’s renewed promise to close the prison — Guantanamo remains in a state of moral, political, and medical emergency. More than 40 men are being force-fed, in a practice condemned by human rights organizations, medical professionals, and even the head of the US Senate Intelligence CommitteeDianne Feinstein (D-CA).
Continue reading Hunger Strike – Day 152