One might think this would be over by now. Four years ago, President Obama signed an executive order to close the military prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, yet it remains open. More than half of the men imprisoned have been cleared for release by the Obama administration’s Guantánamo Review Task Force but continue to languish for years after the fact. In the past two and a half years, 13 prisoners have been released and two have died in custody — including the recent and tragic case of Adnan Latif.
Yesterday, over 100 human rights activists — myself included — tied 166 orange ribbons to the White House fence, one for each of the prisoners who remain. The activists also hung a banner that read “Inaugurate Justice: Close Guantánamo.” The unpermitted action followed a coalition-organized protest in which over 300 people marched from the Supreme Court to the White House to mark the 11th anniversary of the prison’s opening. More than 100 Witness Against Torture activists undertook a seven-day, liquids-only fast for the fifth year in a row while orchestrating daily vigils, penning letters to prisoners, leafleting and hosting film screenings and discussions.
As President Obama is poised to begin his second term next week, the prison serves as a visceral reminder of the failure of Congress, the courts and the president to end the detention regime that started under the Bush administration. National security and legal experts have little hope that the prison will close anytime soon, pointing to provisions in the latest National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). President Obama signed the 2013 NDAA into law on January 3, making it nearly impossible to close the prison due to restrictions on necessary funding.
A small but committed coalition continues to push for an end to torture, indefinite detention and illegal prisons. The campaign to close Guantánamo includes lawyers, human rights advocates, military and defense experts, journalists, former prisoners and families of victims of the 9/11 attacks.
British journalist Andy Worthington, who has spent the past six years telling the stories of the imprisoned men, spoke passionately about the moral failings of Guantánamo remaining open at yesterday’s rally.
“Frankly,” he said, “the prison remains open because it was politically inconvenient for Obama to fulfill his promise as president. The facts at Guantánamo: Over half those remaining have been cleared for release.”
Col. Todd Pierce, defense counsel for Guantánamo detainees, associates indefinite detention with torture. In a conversation with Witness Against Torture, Pierce said, “We should not delude ourselves. With indefinite detention, we’ve created a more sophisticated form of torture.”
The grim prospects of the prison ever closing seem to be shaking the resolve of even the most committed activists. Many who participated in the actions told me that they wondered what good it does to continue showing up year after year if Guantánamo will remain open no matter what. But still they came.
One man from New Jersey, Frank McCann, said that he experiences a profound sense of frustration, but that he has been changed for the better. Others echoed McCann’s feelings.
“We are doing the best we can with the tools we have,” said Mike May from Staten Island, “all the while maintaining our principles — something our government cannot do.”
In bustling downtown Washington, D.C., thousands of people passed activists standing in the costume that has come to be associated with Guantánamo and the war on terror: an orange-jumpsuited prisoner with a black hood. People noticed, both on the streets and in the news. International coverage of the protests, in particular, serves an important function by helping to send a message of unity with people aversely affected by U.S. policies abroad, particularly in the Muslim world.
Luke Nephew, a poet and activist with Witness Against Torture, hopes his actions can be seen as a sign around the world that not all Americans support the war on terror.
“Many Muslims I’ve met have been surprised — profoundly grateful — for the Americans who resist Guantánamo and similar prisons and policies around the world,” the Bronx native said. In 2012, Nephew spent two months coordinating “Poetry for Peaceful Co-Existence” workshops in Sudan where, he said, the Muslim youth he worked with were moved most by his anti-torture poem entitled “There’s a Man Under that Hood!”
“There is a spirit of solidarity and connection that comes from these protests,” said Nephew.
Omar Deghayes, a former Guantánamo prisoner who was left blind in one eye due to abuse he suffered during his imprisonment, now works with the U.K.-based organization CagePrisoners. In a letter to American anti-torture activists, Deghayes wrote about his own resolve for justice at Guantánamo: “I was lucky and grateful to be reunited with my family and back to the warmth of my home, to be touched, at last, by the soft cool wind of freedom, but my joy is incomplete and will remain so, until the rest of the unlawfully held detainees share my experience of freedom at last.”
Aside from protests in Washington, D.C., activists in cities across the country also held actions on January 11 to raise awareness of the legal and moral problems of torture and indefinite detention.
In Chicago, for instance, more than 50 activists with the Christian Peacemaker Teams and Occupy Chicago organized a flash mob as they taped photos of detainees on the Federal Building before reading the names of prisoners. They then moved on to a Zero Dark Thirty opening in downtown Chicago, where activists in orange jumpsuits and black hoods handed out fliers. Ironically, as Frida Berrigan noted in her column yesterday, the Guantánamo anniversary was also the same day that the film, which portrays torture as an effective part of the pursuit for Osama bin Laden, opened in theaters nationwide. According to the anti-war organization World Can’t Wait, anti-torture protests were also planned in London, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Dallas, Seattle and dozens of other cities around the world.
To the crowd gathered at the Supreme Court, a lawyer from the Center for Constitutional Rights, which coordinates legal counsel for the men in Guantánamo, shared a message of thanks from one of her imprisoned clients. For the moment, at least, it felt like that simple gesture of recognition between activists and prisoners could be enough for us to continue holding out hope a little while longer that the winds may yet change and blow toward justice.
“We’re in it for the long haul,” said D.C.-based activist Helen Schietinger, to a small circle of fellow protesters just before they parted ways. “And if Guantánamo doesn’t go away, neither will we.”
Isn’t it true that of the 600 detainess most have been released? Also, that of the 160 or so that half have been cleared but that their home countries refuse to allow re-entry and also that in certain countries the moment they set foot on their home soil they will be danger from many forces?
Sadly, these detainess set to go free have no place to go. No other nation will accept them. They’re sort of like the European Jews who were refused entry into the US and other ports and were returned to Nazi germany to be exterminated.
At least these folks are under the protection of the US and they are still alive, even if the efficacy of their dentention is now questionalbe.
However, if the remainder of the Gitmo detainees are considered a threat to average US citizens then let justice take its course. Better to go slowly and get it right than quickly and get it wrong. Indefinate detention has happened throughout history and if the worst you can say is that the U.S. got it wrong with 80 subjects upon fighting a global war on terror, I’d say that’ pretty good – well, maybe not for the 80 cleared – but statistically very good.
Most Americans and those in the West believe if the rest of the detainees are commited to Jihad then they can stay at Gitmo for all eternity. Depending on how you define treating people “humanly” I’d say keeping people who intend to kill innocents off the streets is equally a humane act.
Besides, if you truly believe in an infallable god all of this is part of god’s will, who is perfect and knows all and never makes mistakes, and has his unrevealed plan that humans cannot understand., right?
Keep the faith! It seems to be working..
I really don’t know where to go with this comment for it was all over a map that must have been charted into deep space.
First, I start at the end which is: don’t lay any of this on anyone’s belief in an infallible God who never makes mistakes. A good deal of this was because of some very fallible intelligence service agents offering up bounties no questions asked and a population that really does not care what its government does to citizens of other countries.
Second: I take great objection to your cavalier attitude about justice (that because essentially they have no country to report to, they are essentially screwed) and with a global war on terror, 80 is not a bad number…where does a person go with that attitude?
Finally, I am having a very difficult time figuring out what you, the writer has figured out. You give the number of detainees who have been cleared (By the way, folks that are cleared and not released are hostages; they are not “under the protection” of the US government then go on about what most Americans (and those in the West, as if most Americans were not enough to give validity to a false conclusion) think about the people in Guantanamo.
Finally, per your unnecessary and sarcastic comment to keep the faith, it seems to be working. We will keep our faith in our selves and our intentions. We are, however, looking for a little more reason to have faith in our fellow citizens if your comment was illustrative of a knowledge/belief/speculation/reason base.
Does it pay?
Butt sitting never pays anything.
Confronting pays for itself.
Struggle pays for itself.
Non-Violence pays for itself.
I’ve only spent a year informing people about what brought me to this and other related sites. Has it paid? I have no idea. To tell people their representation in the House was deliberately ended in 1929 seems not to matter to a single person in the last 400 days. Not a single person is bothered or concerned. But, I continue nonetheless.
So, what has this to do with a few hundred foreigners in Cuba? Everything from my perspective, for without proper representation in our federal government, We the People have no real control, in the designed sense, OF that government. Instead of 435 members in the House, there should be over 6,000 ( SIX THOUSAND ). However, no one, no person, no citizen I’ve brought this up with has expressed a single remark whatsoever. Why the lack of concern has been so fantastic as to be unbelievable, yet it’s true.
If there were 6,000 members in the House, do you think We would have more or less torture? Would We be in these endless wars? Would We have economic peril? Would the World be facing climate disruptions?
Think, think really hard and long – with Our greater voice in Our supposed federal government, would events have occurred as they have?
So, does it pay for me to continue on this seemingly senseless quest of mine? Yes it does, despite the overwhelming insensibility of my fellow Citizens. To do nothing is hateful.
In our so-called democracy—-what is going on at guantanomo is atrocious!!!! Each prisoner shouldbe innocent until proven guilty and deserves afair trial within the next three months. Keep marching and peacefully protesting until this atrocity and inhumane treatment is ended!!my prayers are with all of you activists for perseverence and strength to continue on!!!
My comment is simple: What would the world be like if Jesus had given up?