January, 05 2010, 12:54pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Frida
Berrigan, 347-683-4928
frida.berrigan@gmail.com
Jeremy Varon, 732-979-3119
jvaron@aol.com
Activists and Lawyers Rally, March and Offer Press Briefing, Mark 8 Years of Guantanamo
Eight years ago next Monday, the Guantanamo prison opened for "war on terror"
detainees. Activists and detainee lawyers will mark the anniversary, Monday,
January 11, by demanding that President Obama make good on his pledge to
close the prison and declaring their opposition to any plan for holding
prisoners without charge or trial in the U.S.
Schedule, January 11, 2010
WASHINGTON
Eight years ago next Monday, the Guantanamo prison opened for "war on terror"
detainees. Activists and detainee lawyers will mark the anniversary, Monday,
January 11, by demanding that President Obama make good on his pledge to
close the prison and declaring their opposition to any plan for holding
prisoners without charge or trial in the U.S.
Schedule, January 11, 2010
When | What | Where |
11:45am | Demonstration with street theater, signs, and speakers, announcement | White House Plaza, between Lafayette Park and "picture postcard" zone |
12:30pm | Begin prisoner procession, a silent walk of more than 40 jumpsuited | |
1:00pm | Press Briefing with the Center for Constitutional Rights | National Press Club, 529 14th Street Murrow Room |
Members of Witness
Against Torture will rally in front of the White House at 11:45 a.m. to
protest the lack of progress toward justice for detainees since Obama took
office and demand from the administration true change.Speakers will announce a 12-Day Fast for
Justice in Washington DC, ending on January 22-- the Obama administration's
self-declared, and now-voided, deadline for closing Guantanamo.
"Obama promised to
break with the Bush administration," says Matt Daloisio of Witness Against
Torture. "But in so many areas-- from the continued use of rendition, to
the ongoing detention of innocent men at Guantanamo, to the refusal to
prosecute alleged torturers-- he has sustained the policies of his predecessor.
As fear of terrorism again grips the nation, we need to stand more firmly on
the principles of justice and the rule of law, and not go further down the
disastrous path of the last eight years."
After the
demonstration, activists will stage a Guantanamo prisoner procession to the
National Press Club. There, they will join the Center for Constitutional Rights
for a press briefing featuring detainee lawyers and human rights activists. The briefing, led by CCR
Executive Director Vince Warren, will include the reading of letters from
released and exonerated Guantanamo detainees calling for the prison's closure
and justice for all detainees.
Witness Against Torture is a grassroots movement that came into being in December 2005 when 24 activists walked to Guantanamo to visit the prisoners and condemn torture policies. Since then, it has engaged in public education, community outreach, and non-violent direct action. For the first 100 days of the Obama administration, the group held a daily vigil at the White House, encouraging the new President to uphold his commitments to shut down Guantanamo.
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Sanders Says 'Political Movement,' Not Murder, Is the Path to Medicare for All
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Addressing the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and conversations it has sparked about the country's for-profit system, longtime Medicare for All advocate Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday condemned the murder and stressed that getting to universal coverage will require a movement challenging corporate money in politics.
"Look, when we talk about the healthcare crisis, in my view, and I think the view of a majority of Americans, the current system is broken, it is dysfunctional, it is cruel, and it is wildly inefficient—far too expensive," said Sanders (I-Vt.), whose position is backed up by various polls.
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"Killing people is not the way we're going to reform our healthcare system," Sanders added. "The way we're going to reform our healthcare system is having people come together and understanding that it is the right of every American to be able to walk into a doctor's office when they need to and not have to take out their wallet."
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Sanders—one of the few members of Congress who regularly talks about Medicare for All—isn't alone in suggesting that unsympathetic responses to Thompson's murder can be explained by a privatized healthcare system that fails so many people.
In addition to highlighting Sanders' interview on social media, Congressman Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) pointed out to Business Insider on Wednesday that "you've got thousands of people that are sharing their stories of frustration" in the wake of Thompson's death.
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Two other Medicare for All advocates, Reps. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), also made clear to Business Insider that they oppose Thompson's murder but understand some of the responses to it.
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)—a co-sponsor of Sanders' Medicare for All Act—similarly toldHuffPost in a Tuesday interview, "The visceral response from people across this country who feel cheated, ripped off, and threatened by the vile practices of their insurance companies should be a warning to everyone in the healthcare system."
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