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For Immediate Release
July, 24 2013, 03:20pm EDT
Contact:
Reprieve's London office can be contacted on: communications [at] reprieve.org.uk / +44 (0) 207 553 8140.,Reprieve US,, based in New York City, can be contacted on Katherine [dot] oshea [at] reprieve.org
Guantanamo Detainee Family Members Tell Senate of 'Suffering' and 'Anguish'
WASHINGTON
Family members of men detained in Guantanamo Bay have submitted letters to a US Senate Hearing on closing the prison, describing the nightmare of living without their loved ones.
Today the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights - Chaired by Senator Dick Durbin - is holding a hearing on closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay. This is the first hearing of its kind since 2009. Relatives of seven Reprieve clients cleared for release - Younous Chekkouri, Ahmed Belbacha, Shaker Aamer, Abu Wa'el Dhiab, Nabil Hadjarab, Adel al Hakimi and Hisham Sliti - and former detainee Sami Al Hajj, have written letters to be submitted at the hearing.
Younous Chekkouri's German Uncle wrote: "I know this limbo is causing him a lot of pain, and I am suffering too because I know he has been very depressed lately. I worry about his health, and I spend sleepless nights thinking that he may do something to put an end to his anguish."
Cleared Tunisian Adel Al-Hakimi's brother, Emad, wrote: "Adel has a daughter whom he has never met...the first time they ever spoke together was over an ICRC Skype call...after eleven years, how do you even begin to have a relationship with your child from Guantanamo?"
The son of journalist Sami Al Hajj, who was released in 2008, wrote of growing up without his father: "It is not something I would wish on anyone, ever...I wanted to understand why he was there. There were never any real answers..."
Ahmed Belbacha - an Algerian national who spent two years living in England and has been cleared for release - has an elder brother, Mohammed, who wrote: "my image of him is as an athletic youngster whose passion for soccer seemed a strange match with his love for math and serious study...His indefinite detention and deteriorating health put the family under a lot of stress."
The Senate Hearing comes amid an escalating crisis at the prison for President Obama - who re-iterated his 2009 promise to close the prison in a major defence policy speech earlier this year. The military says that 46 detainees are being force fed out of 70 on hunger strike, though lawyers for the men estimate the figure to be higher.
Cori Crider, Strategic Director for the human rights charity Reprieve, said: "The words of these families speak powerfully of the damage to America's reputation that Guantanamo still causes, to say nothing of the pain. They're also a stark reminder that the government's response to the current hunger strike won't just determine President Obama's legacy; it will shape America's image in the Muslim world for years to come. It is time to send a cleared man home to his family, be it Shaker Aamer to Britain or Nabil Hadjarab to France. This will end the strike without strife, or further anguish to these families."
ENDS
Notes to editors
1. For further information, please contact Clemency Wells or Donald Campbell in Reprieve's press office: +44 (0) 207 553 8161 /66 / +44(0) 7739 188 097 clemency.wells@reprieve.org.uk / donald.campbell@reprieve.org.uk
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Reprieve is a UK-based human rights organization that uses the law to enforce the human rights of prisoners, from death row to Guantanamo Bay.
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The Verge's Jess Weatherbed reported Tuesday that Grok's spicy mode—one of four presets on an updated Grok 4, including fun, normal, and custom—"didn't hesitate to spit out fully uncensored topless videos of Taylor Swift the very first time I used it, without me even specifically asking the bot to take her clothes off."
Weatherbed noted:
You would think a company that already has a complicated history with Taylor Swift deepfakes, in a regulatory landscape with rules like the Take It Down Act, would be a little more careful. The xAI acceptable use policy does ban "depicting likenesses of persons in a pornographic manner," but Grok Imagine simply seems to do nothing to stop people creating likenesses of celebrities like Swift, while offering a service designed specifically to make suggestive videos including partial nudity. The age check only appeared once and was laughably easy to bypass, requesting no proof that I was the age I claimed to be.
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Grok is now creating AI video deepfakes of celebrities such as Taylor Swift that include nonconsensual nude depictions. Worse, the user doesn't even have to specifically ask for it, they can just click the "spicy" option and Grok will simply produce videos with nudity.Video from @theverge.com.
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— Alejandra Caraballo (@esqueer.net) August 5, 2025 at 9:57 AM
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Breaking news! A federal judge in Missoula ruled USFWS broke the law when it denied protections for gray wolves in the western U.S. The agency must now reconsider using the best available science. A major step forward for wolf recovery.Read more: 🔗 wildearthguardians.org/press-releas...
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— Wolf Conservation Center 🐺 (@nywolforg.bsky.social) August 5, 2025 at 3:30 PM
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We object."Handing even more control of the public airwaves to a handful of capitulating broadcast conglomerates undermines press freedom." - S. Derek TurnerOur statement: https://www.freepress.net/news/free-press-slams-trump-fccs-broadcast-ownership-proceeding-wildly-dangerous-democracy
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— Free Press (@freepress.bsky.social) August 5, 2025 at 12:58 PM
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