The Progressive

NewsWire

A project of Common Dreams

For Immediate Release
Contact:

Matthew Allee, (202) 675-2312; media@dcaclu.org

ACLU to Participate in Rally Marking the Anniversary of the Opening of the Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility

Advocates Calling for its Closure and an End to the Use of Torture

WASHINGTON

The American Civil Liberties Union will
participate in a rally marking the seventh anniversary of the opening
of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. The event, part of Witness
Against Torture's 100 Days Campaign to Close Guantanamo and End
Torture, will see more than 200 advocates and other human rights
organizations gathering to call for President-elect Barack Obama to
keep his promise to shut Guantanamo and end torture during his first
days in office.

The ACLU will also observe the sad
anniversary by putting on display a sizable banner, hanging outside its
Washington Legislative Office in D.C., calling for the closure of
Guantanamo and an end to the sham military commissions proceedings.
Between 1:45 p.m. and 2:15 p.m., a procession of advocates will stop in
front of the ACLU headquarters for photo opportunities with the ACLU
banner and activists.

WHAT:
Rally marking the seventh
anniversary of the establishment of the Guantanamo Bay detention
facility and calling on President-elect Obama to close Guantanamo and
end torture.

WHO:
The American Civil Liberties
Union and other human rights organizations including Amnesty
International, The Center for Constitutional Rights, and September
Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, as well as more than 200
human rights advocates.

WHEN:
Sunday, January 11, 2009 at 1:00 p.m. EST.

WHERE:
DuPont Circle, Washington, D.C.

The American Civil Liberties Union was founded in 1920 and is our nation's guardian of liberty. The ACLU works in the courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to all people in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.

(212) 549-2666