ACLU urges Obama to quickly close Guantánamo camps, court

[struggle4progress]

Source: Miami Herald

Posted on Sunday, 11.09.08
BY CAROL ROSENBERG
[e-mail]

Civil liberties lawyers launch a feet-to-the-fire campaign in Monday's editions of The New York Times, a powerful ad urging President-elect Barack Obama to order the closure of the Guantánamo prison camps and war court on inauguration day.

''On day one, with the stroke of a pen, you can restore America's moral leadership in the World,'' says the full-page, six-figure ad purchased by the American Civil Liberties Union. The Miami Herald got an exclusive sneak peek on Sunday.

Half of the ad is a photo of Obama and recounts the president-elect's campaign pledge to close the prison camps and abandon the military commissions established in response to the Sept. 11 attacks. The other half is an indictment of Bush administration detention policies ...

ACLU Executive Anthony Romero called it ''a shot across the bow,'' and said Sunday that his organization would invest up to $500,000 in the campaign ...

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation/story/764261.html

[IndianaGreen]

1. And close the torture and assassin school known as School of the Americas

Let's not forget the human rights abusers at Fort Benning.

[struggle4progress]

2. Yes. Now called "Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation"

Nov. 21-23, 2008: Thousands will converge on Fort Benning, Georgia for the November Vigil to Close the School of the Americas (SOA/WHINSEC)
http://www.soaw.org/

[Peace Patriot]

3. Hear, hear! What a great thing that would be!

Such an irony, that, on one end of the island, we have a decent if not democratic government that provides free health care and free education through university to all its citizens, and has one of the best health care systems on earth, and they get called "enemies" and "terrorists," and, on the other end of the island, the people who demonize Cuba are running the most hideous torture dungeon of the modern era, save Hitler's death camps.

[BearSquirrel2]

4. This is like the proposal to close Abu Ghraib ...

It is the treatment of the inmates and the extra-legal interpretation of jurisdiction that is the problem. I have no problem with keeping the prison open. They just need to give everyone there due process and stop treating them like dirt.