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

[Better Believe It]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 5, 2012

CONTACT: Rights Groups
AIUSA: Sharon Singh, [phone], or [e-mail]
NRCAT: Samantha Friedman, office: [phone], cell: [phone] or [e-mail]
CCR: Jen Nessel, [phone] or [e-mail]
WAT: Jeremy Varon, [phone] or [e-mail]



Broad Coalition Opposes NDAA and Calls on President Obama to Keep His Promise and Shutter Guantanamo Bay Now

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


WASHINGTON - January 5 - 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, Bill of Rights Defense Committee, Bradley Manning Support Network, Casa Esperanza, Catholic Worker, Chicago Committee to Free the Cuban 5, Code Pink, Council on American-Islamic Relations, Courage to Resist, Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility, Fellowship of Reconciliation, 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, Midwest Anti War Mobilization, 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, Occupy Washington 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.
.
###

http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2012/01/05-0

[think]

1. K & R for peace and justice

[treestar]

2. For the zillionth time, he can't shut Gitmo alone

This is spreading misinformation.

[Better Believe It]

3. As Commander in Chief of the military he can close down any military installation he wishes.

[treestar]

4. It has been explained over and over again on this board

It is not that simple.

[Whisp]

6. the list is getting shorter

I expect Rev. Wright to pop up here any day now too

[Bobbie Jo]

8. LOL

[Better Believe It]

7. He's the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces and can shut down the entire military base.

Not just the prison.



10 Years Too Many: National Day of Action Against Guantanamo

Join us in Washington, DC on January 11, 2012 to close Guantanamo!

To mark the 10th anniversary of unlawful counterterrorism detentions at Guantanamo and to call for an end to indefinite detention and unfair trials, we will be creating a human chain between the White House and the Capitol. We need 2,700 people – the number of detainees still unlawfully held by the US government at Guantanamo and Bagram. Meet us January 11, 2012 at Lafayette Square (across from the White House) at Noon. Sign up below to pledge to join us!



http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/site/c.6oJCLQPAJiJUG/b.7796415/k.5840/10_Years_Too_Many_National_Day_of_Action_Against_Guantanamo/apps/ka/ct/contactus.asp?c=6oJCLQPAJiJUG&b=7796415&en=9sKHJUOzF8JQJ4OCL7INI1MNJrK1LdNOIdJQLcPUIwG

[treestar]

11. Do you believe that to be an all powerful post?

CIC can do whatever he wants?

[Better Believe It]

14. I didn't indicate that Obama can do whatever he wants.

So what is your point?

That Obama as Commander in Chief is powerless and is not the real commander of U.S. military forces?

[T S Justly]

5. K&R (nt)

[sabrina 1]

9. This used to be one of the biggest issues for Progressives during the Bush administration.

Still is for me. That gulag is a stain on this country and will remain so until it is gone. In other parts of the world, images from Gitmo are used to bolster claims that the US is a threat to the world.

Pressure should be applied to Congress also imo. No Democracy should harbor should such a hellhole of human rights violations. Hopefully one day those who created it will be brought to justice.

[unkachuck]

10. K&R....n/t

[DCKit]

12. Damn Filthy Hippies!

[boxman15]

13. I'm for getting that awful provision out of future NDAAs and closing Gitmo as well.

However, I'd apply that pressure to Congress, at least a lot more of it. The NDAA is written every single year and funds the military. If that provision isn't in the 2013 or 2014 or 2015, etc. NDAA, then it won't happen. Get Congress to never put something that atrocious in an NDAA again, and Obama won't sign it. (He signed the 2012 one for many reasons, most of them political since a veto would be merely symbolic and do nothing. At least he won't use that provision.)

Meanwhile, Obama has tried to close Gitmo, but in a mirror of their decision to fund/let the courts decide if it's legal to the indefinite detention of Americans, Congress decided to not fund the closure of it. And like the NDAA, it had the support of a vast majority of Democrats, back when the Democrats held Congress. (I believe only 12 or 13 Senators voted to fund its closure.) So it remains open.

A hearty K&R, though, for admirable goals. The 2012 NDAA and Guantanamo Bay will both be remembered in the same light as the indefinite detention of Japanese Americans during WWII by future historians, and for good reason.

[Solly Mack]

15. K&R