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The Progressive

NewsWire

A project of Common Dreams

For Immediate Release
Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR)
Contact:

press@ccrjustice.org

On the Tenth Anniversary of Guantanamo, the Center for Constitutional Rights Demands that President Obama Close Guantanamo

Today, on the tenth anniversary of the arrival of the first detained men at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) issued the following statement:

WASHINGTON

Today, on the tenth anniversary of the arrival of the first detained men at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) issued the following statement:

Today marks the tenth anniversary of indefinite detention without charge or fair trials at the prison at Guantanamo, and it is an anniversary that should not have come. The men indefinitely detained at Guantanamo have been abandoned by all three branches of government, but the primary responsibility for the prison remaining open lies with President Obama. On his second day in office, President Obama signed an Executive Order mandating the closure of Guantanamo within a year. Since then, his administration has in fact perpetuated and sanctioned the system at Guantanamo by continuing indefinite detentions without charge or trial, resuming illegitimate military commissions, and most recently, signing into law the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which substantially hinders the closure of Guantanamo by restricting the transfer of the remaining 171 detained men, over half of whom have been approved for transfer by every branch of government with a stake in the matter. Despite its promise of a new era of accountability and respect for the rule of law, the Obama administration has also repeatedly acted to block virtually any accountability for those who have planned, authorized, and committed torture at Guantanamo and beyond. On this day marking ten years of injustice at Guantanamo, we call on people of conscience everywhere to demand that the prison finally be closed and to intensify opposition to all unjust U.S. detentions and prosecutions conducted in the name of national security. We must also build opposition to the government's covert and overt wars in a re-branded "War on Terror" which is being used to justify both military detentions and military strikes to the detriment of the safety and dignity of peoples in the United States and abroad.
In the morning, CCR hosted a briefing at the National Press Club entitled "Obama's Prison: Guantanamo Turns 10." The briefing featured CCR's Executive Director Vincent Warren; CCR's Legal Director Baher Azmy; Stephen Oleskey, co-counsel in the landmark Boumediene v. Bush Supreme Court case, who argued that the men's right to challenge the legality of their detentions has since been effectively eviscerated; Rear Admiral John Hutson, a former military officer who supported President Obama's 2009 Executive Order promising to close Guantanamo within one year and stood behing him as he signed it; and Colonel Morris Davis, a former chief prosecutor for the Guantanamo military commissions who ultimately resigned because of the injustices he witnessed. (Short statements by participants in the press briefing can be seen on CCR's website here.)
 
The press briefing was followed by a large rally in front of the White House demanding the closure of Guantanamo led by a broad coalition of human rights organizations and activists including the Center for Constitutional Rights, Witness Against Torture, Amnesty International-USA, the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, and September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows. At this rally, Martha Rayner, an attorney who represents men detained at Guantanamo, read a statement signed by over a hundred habeas counsel denouncing the unjust detention of their clients and President Obama's failure to close the prison. Ramzi Kassem, an attorney who represents men detained at Guantanamo and Bagram and a professor who directs the Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility (CLEAR) project at CUNY School of law, spoke of the injustices within terrorism detentions and prosecutions that occur domestically in the U.S. and abroad. 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, also called for the closure of Guantanamo.
 
According to habeas counsel who had spoken with their clients, the men at Guantanamo were heartened by the planned protests marking the anniversary in cities across the U.S. and planned their own peaceful protests to coincide with the rally in DC and to demand the end to their continued indefinite detention without charge or a fair trial. They planned to protest by staging sit-ins and participating in a three-day hunger strike.
 
Following the rally, the demonstrators marched down Pennsylvania Avenue, led by 171 people dressed in orange jumpsuits and black hoods representing the number of men still detained at Guantanamo. They continued all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, holding brief rallies at four locations to demonstrate the chain of responsibility that connects the White House, the Department of Justice, the U.S. Capitol, and the Supreme Court. Speakers at these locations included Naeem Baig of the Islamic Circle of North America, Rabbi Rachel Kahn-Troster of Rabbis for Human Rights, Bishop Michael Seneco of North America Old Catholic Church, Shahid Buttar of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, Andy Worthington, a journalist and filmmaker covering Guantanamo, Terry Rockefeller of September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, and Tamer Mehanna, whose brother Tarek Mehanna was held under prolonged pre-trial solitary confinement in the U.S. and was convicted last month under charges that included broad material support allegations based on protected First Amendment activity. Stephen Oleskey, co-counsel in the landmark Supreme Court case Boumediene v. Bush), Daniel Lakemacher, a marine who became a conscientious objector after serving at Guantanamo, along with Vincent Warren and Leili Kashani from CCR, spoke on the steps of the Supreme Court.

The Center for Constitutional Rights is dedicated to advancing and protecting the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. CCR is committed to the creative use of law as a positive force for social change.

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