January, 11 2010, 03:52pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Matthew Allee,(202) 580-6922 or,mallee@constitutionproject.org
Constitution Project Marks Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility Anniversary
As President Obama moves to close the facility, adherence to constitutional principles is vital
WASHINGTON
Today marks the eight-year anniversary of the establishment of the
detention facility at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. During his
presidential campaign, President Obama often pledged to close the
facility and end the military commissions taking place. On his second
full day in office, the president signed an executive order promising
to close the detention facility within one year. It is now acknowledged
within the administration that this deadline will not be met, but the
president and his advisors continue to pledge their commitment to
closing the facility.
The following can be attributed to Virginia Sloan, president of the Constitution Project:
"The
Obama administration is committed to closing Guantanamo, and the
Constitution Project has long advocated that the detainees be
prosecuted in the federal courts, not in military commissions, and that
the administration should reject indefinite detention without charge.
Our federal courts have a proven track record of successfully handling
the most sensitive terrorism cases, as have our federal prisons in
holding suspects pre-trial and post-conviction. Military commissions
and indefinite detention without charge are inconsistent with the
constitutional values the president and his advisors swore to uphold.
"There
is significant bipartisan support for the return to our nation's
constitutional principles in determining what to do with those still
detained at Guantanamo, some for nearly eight years now. The Obama
administration should reject the failed policies that have gotten us no
closer to closing Guantanamo, led us away from our nation's values, and
damaged our security and international reputation. The president should
rely on the respected leaders with relevant experience in these matters
who strongly recommend adhering to the rule of law."
In November, over 120 prominent Americans released Beyond Guantanamo: A Bipartisan Declaration,
calling on the Obama administration and Congress to support a policy
for closing Guantanamo that is consistent with our constitutional
principles and ensures our country's security. An effort coordinated by
the Constitution Project and Human Rights First and joined by former
members of Congress, diplomats, federal judges and prosecutors,
high-level military and government officials, as well as national
security and foreign policy experts, bar leaders, and family members of
9/11 victims, the Declaration supports federal court
prosecution of terrorism suspects and opposes indefinite detention
without charge. There are now nearly 140 signatories to the Declaration.
In recent days, signatories to the Declaration
have rejected criticism of the Obama administration's decision to
prosecute Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, charged with the failed Christmas
day airline bombing, in a federal court in Michigan. Former Republican
members of Congress Bob Barr and Mickey Edwards have posted blog pieces
rejecting these critics' scare tactics, while former Michigan U.S.
Attorneys James Brady and Richard Rossman voiced their support for
Abdulmutallab's prosecution in federal court in a recent opinion piece
in the Detroit Free Press.
To view Mr. Edward's blog post on The Atlantic, go to:
https://correspondents.theatlantic.com/mickey_edwards/
To view Mr. Barr's two postings on the Atlanta Journal Constitution, go to:
https://blogs.ajc.com/bob-barr-blog/
To view Mr. Brady and Mr. Rossman's opinion piece in the Detroit Free Press, go to:
https://www.freep.com/article/20100111/OPINION05/100111063/1336/OPINION/American-values-v.-Abdulmutallab
Lastly, to view Beyond Guantanamo: A Bipartisan Declaration and a list of its signatories, go to:
https://www.constitutionproject.org/detail.asp?id=75
The Constitution Project is a politically independent think tank established in 1997 to promote and defend constitutional safeguards. More information about the Constitution Project is available at https://constitutionproject.org/.
LATEST NEWS
UN Warns Israeli Ground Invasion Rafah Will Lead to 'Slaughter of Civilians'
"The simplest truth is that a ground operation in Rafah will be nothing short of a tragedy beyond words," said a top U.N. aid official. "No humanitarian plan can counter that."
May 03, 2024
The United Nations' humanitarian aid agency warned Friday that an Israeli ground invasion of Rafah would put hundreds of thousands of Palestinians "at imminent risk of death."
"Any ground operation would mean more suffering and death" for the approximately 1.5 million Palestinians—including around 1.2 million people forcibly displaced from other areas of the embattled enclave—sheltering in Gaza's southernmost city, U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) spokesperson Jens Laerke told reporters in Geneva on Friday.
"The hundreds of thousands of people who are there would be at imminent risk of death if there is an assault," he added, warning of not only "a slaughter of civilians, but also at the same time an incredible blow to the humanitarian operation in the entire strip, because it is run primarily out of Rafah."
Gaza: “This contingency plan is Band-Aids. It will absolutely not prevent the expected substantial additional mortality and morbidity caused by a military operation.” - Dr Richard Peeperkorn of @WHOoPt
“Any ground operation would mean more suffering and death” - @UNOCHA
. pic.twitter.com/tJHt8dh3D7
— United Nations Geneva (@UNGeneva) May 3, 2024
According toPolitico, Israel has shared with the U.S. government its plan to move the civilian population out of Rafah ahead of a looming ground assault the Wall Street Journalreported earlier on Friday could begin next week.
Conditions in Rafah are already dire. The city—which was home to fewer than 300,000 people before the war—is now one of the most densely populated places on the planet. Hundreds of thousands of refugees are crowded together in tents and other makeshift shelters. Water and other necessities are in desperately short supply. According to James Elder, the global spokesperson for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), there is approximately one toilet for every 850 people in Rafah and one shower for every 3,500 people.
"Try to imagine, as a teenage girl, or elderly man, or pregnant woman, queueing for an entire day just to have a shower," Elder wrote for The Guardian this week.
There are nearly 600,000 children in Rafah, nearly all of whom are "injured, sick, malnourished, traumatized, or living with disabilities," UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell said Wednesday.
The war in Gaza is taking an unimaginable toll on children.
In Rafah, a city of children, the impact of a further escalation would be devastating.
The lives of children must be protected.
All the hostages must be released.
The nightmare for so many families must end. pic.twitter.com/5kOye5VySZ
— Catherine Russell (@unicefchief) May 1, 2024
Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, who represents the U.N. World Health Organization in the illegally occupied Palestinian territories, on Friday called contingency response plans for a Rafah invasion a "Band-Aid" solution.
"It will absolutely not prevent the expected substantial additional mortality and morbidity caused by a military operation," he stressed.
Israel's 210-day assault on Gaza in retaliation for the October 7 attacks has already killed at least 34,622 Palestinians—a large majority of them civilian men, women, and children—while wounding more than 77,800 others, according to Palestinian and international officials. At least 11,000 other Gazans are missing and presumed dead and buried beneath the rubble of the more than 370,000 homes and other buildings destroyed or damaged during the war.
That means around 5% of Gazans have been killed or wounded during Israel's onslaught, the U.N. Development Program and the U.N. Economic Commission for Western Asia said in a report published Wednesday. The agencies called this an "unprecedented" level of casualties in modern warfare and said it would take until at least 2040 to restore all the homes destroyed or damaged during the war.
As many as 90% of Gaza's 2.3 million people have also been forcibly displaced by Israeli forces, who despite a January International Court of Justice (ICJ) order to prevent genocidal acts continue to block adequate humanitarian aid from reaching the starving people of Gaza.
Despite pleas and protestations from world leaders including U.S. President Joe Biden, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to invade Rafah to "eliminate Hamas' battalions there."
Earlier this week, far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called for the "total annihilation" of Gaza, specifically mentioning Rafah. The South Africa-led case against Israel at the ICJ has centered similar statements of intent to destroy Palestinians—which are key to proving the crime of genocide—made by Israeli officials since October.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces have ramped up aerial attacks on Rafah in what is likely preparation for a ground invasion. Palestinian and international media reported Friday that an overnight Israeli airstrike on a home killed at least eight people, mostly children.
"After almost seven months of brutal hostilities that have killed tens of thousands of people and maimed tens of thousands more, Gaza is bracing for even more suffering and misery," U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths said earlier this week.
"The world has been appealing to the Israeli authorities for weeks to spare Rafah, but a ground operation there is on the immediate horizon," he continued. "For the hundreds of thousands of people who have fled to Gaza's southernmost point to escape disease, famine, mass graves, and direct fighting, a ground invasion would spell even more trauma and death."
"The simplest truth is that a ground operation in Rafah will be nothing short of a tragedy beyond words," Griffiths added. "No humanitarian plan can counter that. The rest is detail."
U.S. officials have also privately sounded the alarm over the likely consequences of an Israeli invasion of Rafah.
In March, according to a leaked cable obtained by The Intercept, members of the Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance at the U.S. Agency for International Development warned the State Department that a Rafah invasion "could result in catastrophic humanitarian consequences, including mass civilian casualties, extensive population displacement, and the collapse of the existing humanitarian response."
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Jewish Americans to Lead Shabbat Protests Against US Complicity in Gaza
The protests will condemn "the hypocrisy of American politicians cracking down on 'unlawful' behavior at home while repeatedly voting to send Israel more bombs to kill Palestinians in Gaza."
May 03, 2024
Jewish organizers announced plans to hold bicoastal "solidarity Shabbat" protests Friday evening to demand a cease-fire in Gaza and an end to the violent repression of campus anti-war protests across the country.
The Jewish-led organization IfNotNow announced plans to hold the protests in Los Angeles and New York, with "hundreds of American Jews" gathering "together with a multi-faith coalition to take a moral stand against U.S. complicity in the genocide in Gaza."
The Shabbat actions come more than two weeks into a wave of mass protests that have spread on college campuses nationwide, with students setting up encampments and occupying school buildings to demand that universities divest from companies that work with the Israeli government, such as tech firms and weapons manufacturers.
IfNotNow directed participants to wear white and not bring signs to the events, where demonstrators will "uplift the demands of the students of NYC and around the world: Divestment now. Palestinian freedom now. Power to the Students. Eyes on Gaza."
More than 300 protesters were arrested last week at a Passover Seder rally that had been organized by Jewish advocates near Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's (D-N.Y.) home in Brooklyn.
Arrests of protesters on college campuses in the last two weeks have surpassed 2,100, with more than 200 detained both at the University of California, Los Angeles and at Columbia University—both of which have celebrated their histories of student activism in the civil rights era and during the U.S. war in Vietnam.
On Thursday, President Joe Biden denounced the protests, saying "dissent must never lead to disorder."
IfNotNow called on political leaders to condemn "Israel's war crimes in Gaza, not student protesters taking action for peace."
"The media and politicians would rather scrutinize college campuses than confront the human misery and destruction happening in our name in Gaza which is, of course, the source of these protests," said the group.
"The Shabbat protests will serve to condemn state violence aimed at peaceful student protesters, as well as the hypocrisy of American politicians cracking down on 'unlawful' behavior at home while repeatedly voting to send Israel more bombs to kill Palestinians in Gaza," added IfNotNow.
On April 24, a week into the campus protests, Biden signed a foreign aid bill that included $17 billion in additional funding for the Israel Defense Forces.
At campus protests, some Jewish organizers have held other Shabbat services.
Protesters at New York University were planning a Shabbat dinner for Friday evening in solidarity with Gaza, and last week, students at the University of Pennsylvania took part in a Shabbat service.
"We pray together, we protest together, and we will get free together," said Jewish Voice for Peace Philadelphia.
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Israel's Destruction of Gaza 'Unprecedented in Scope and Scale': UN
"These new figures warn that the suffering in Gaza will not end when the war does."
May 03, 2024
A study released Thursday by a pair of United Nations agencies finds Israel's monthslong U.S.-backed war on the Gaza Strip has inflicted unparalleled damage on the occupied territory's population, housing stock, and overall economy—destruction that will reverberate for generations.
As of April 12, Israeli forces have killed or injured 5% of Gaza's population and left thousands more missing, including many who are believed to be buried under the rubble of the enclave's decimated infrastructure, according to the new study by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA).
The report says the level of damage Israel's military has caused to Gaza's housing infrastructure has not been seen since World War II and will likely take decades—and tens of billions of dollars—to recover from.
Achim Steiner, the UNDP's administrator, said in a statement that "every additional day that this war continues is exacting huge and compounding costs to Gazans and all Palestinians, now and in the medium- and long-term."
"These new figures warn that the suffering in Gaza will not end when the war does," said Steiner. "Unprecedented levels of human losses, capital destruction, and the steep rise in poverty in such a short period of time will precipitate a serious development crisis that jeopardizes the future of generations to come."
"Unlike previous wars, the destruction in Gaza today is unprecedented in scope and scale."
Abdallah Al Dardari, the UNDP's regional director for Arab states, said during a press conference unveiling the report on Thursday that there were 2.4 million tons of debris in Gaza after Israel's 2014 assault on the enclave.
Israel's current assault, which historians have described as one of the worst bombing campaigns in modern history, has left 37 million tons of debris in the occupied territory.
The U.N. report was published as Israel's assault on Gaza nears its seventh month and as the Netanyahu government appears poised to launch a ground invasion of Rafah, the southern Gaza city that's currently home to 1.4 million displaced Palestinians.
Citing unnamed Egyptian officials, The Wall Street Journalreported Friday that Israel intends to invade Rafah in a week if Hamas does not agree to a hostage-release deal.
The World Health Organization (WHO) warned Friday that an invasion of Rafah, which Israel has been bombing for months, "could lead to a bloodbath."
The new U.N. report states that if Israel's assault on Gaza continues for another two months, it will leave 1.86 million people in poverty and set back the territory's progress in life expectancy, education, and gross national income growth by more than 20 years.
After months of Israeli attacks on agriculture and other key sectors, the "productive basis" of Gaza's economy "has been destroyed," the report notes.
"Unlike previous wars, the destruction in Gaza today is unprecedented in scope and scale and coupled with the loss of homes, livelihoods, natural resources, infrastructure as well as institutional capacities, may have deep and systemic impacts for decades to come," said Rola Dashti, ESCWA's executive secretary.
"This assessment projects that Gaza will be rendered fully dependent on external assistance on a scale not seen since 1948, as it will be left without a functional economy, or any means of production, self-sustainment, employment, or capacity for trade," Dashti added.
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