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Amnesty International USA, Human Rights Groups Call for Closure of Guantanamo Prison on 18th Anniversary
Hundreds of activists will protest in front of the White House on January 11 to demand an end to years of torture and human rights violations.
WASHINGTON
This Saturday, January 11th, from 1 PM - 3 PM ET, on the 18th anniversary of the opening of the United States detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Amnesty International USA and a dozen other human rights organizations will call on the United States government to close the prison and put an end to years of human rights violations.
"Three United States Presidents have overseen Guantanamo during its shameful 18-year existence, yet it continues to remain open as people who have never been granted a trial are still detained and as they age and face the prospect of spending the rest of their lives in the prison, dying far away from the families and loved ones they have not seen in years" said Daphne Eviatar, the director of the Security With Human Rights program at Amnesty International USA. "It is well past time that Guantanamo close once and for all and all the men who have long ago been cleared for release are transferred to countries that have agreed to accept them."
During the D.C. action, activists will wear orange jumpsuits and black hoods to symbolize the hundreds of detainees who have been imprisoned in Guantanamo. A funeral procession beginning at the White House will end at the Trump hotel, with organizers carrying nine coffins representing the nine individuals who have died at the prison.
Guantanamo currently holds 40 individuals: all Muslim men, many of whom were tortured in the camp. Several detainees are experiencing health problems as a result of years of detention and instances of torture and other ill-treatment. Some remain detained despite having been cleared for transfer for years. This includes Toffiq al-Bihani, who has been imprisoned for eight years without trial. Amnesty International USA has long advocated for his release and postcards about his case will be distributed for bystanders to send to the Defense Department. The prison remains indefinitely open based on an executive order signed by President Trump.
WHO: Amnesty International USA, Witness Against Torture, Defending Rights & Dissent, Center for Constitutional Rights, CAIR, September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, the World Can't Wait, CODEPINK: Women for Peace, National Religious Campaign Against Torture, Close Guantanamo, Tsuru for Solidarity, and Justice for Muslims Collective.
WHAT: Justice Now | Close Guantanamo & End Torture Rally
WHEN: Saturday, January 11th; 1- 3 PM ET
WHERE: Lafayette Park, The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D.C. 20500
For further information, or to schedule an interview with Daphne Eviatar, the director of the Security With Human Rights program at Amnesty International USA who will be speaking at the event, contact Mariya Parodi at media@aiusa.org.
Amnesty International is a global movement of millions of people demanding human rights for all people - no matter who they are or where they are. We are the world's largest grassroots human rights organization.
(212) 807-8400LATEST NEWS
Trump Issues Openly Genocidal Threat to Wipe Out 'Whole Civilization' of Iran
"If any Iranians are killed pursuant to this threat," said one expert, "President Trump will be guilty of genocide, as will those assisting him."
Apr 07, 2026
Just hours ahead of his self-imposed deadline for a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, US President Donald Trump threatened on Tuesday to permanently wipe out the "whole civilization" of Iran—remarks seen as a straightforward expression of genocidal intent.
"A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. "I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will. However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS? We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World."
Brian Finucane, senior adviser to the US Program at the International Crisis Group, responded to Trump's threat by pointing to 18 US Code § 1091, which prohibits American nationals from committing genocide within the United States and abroad.
Dylan Williams, vice president for government affairs at the US-based Center for International Policy, wrote that "this meets the threshold for intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national group as set forth in 18 US Code § 1091 prohibiting the crime of genocide."
"If any Iranians are killed pursuant to this threat," Williams added, "President Trump will be guilty of genocide, as will those assisting him."
One expert, former Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth, noted that Trump's genocidal threat is itself unlawful.
"Trump is openly threatening collective punishment, targeting not the Iranian military but the Iranian people," Roth told NBC News, pointing to the Fourth Geneva Convention. "Attacking civilians is a war crime. So is making threats with the aim of terrorizing the civilian population."
"Soldiers must refuse unlawful orders. Members of Congress must call for impeachment and removal."
Trump published his comments as the US unleashed a wave of attacks on Kharg Island, Iran's key oil export hub. The US and Israel also reportedly targeted bridges across Iran overnight as part of a broader assault that has killed thousands of people since late February.
The US president set a deadline of 8 pm ET for Iran to reach a deal that fully reopens the Strait of Hormuz. Trump has threatened to order the obliteration of Iranian bridges and energy infrastructure if there's no agreement by his arbitrary deadline.
Adil Haque, a professor of law at Rutgers University, wrote Tuesday that the international community must intervene immediately to prevent Trump from launching a catastrophic and criminal assault on a country of more than 90 million people.
"Soldiers must refuse unlawful orders," Haque added. "Members of Congress must call for impeachment and removal. Every American who loves their country must speak out. Enough is enough."
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White House Budget Details FBI Office Dedicated to Spying on Those Who Oppose Trump's 'Extremist Agenda'
"If your political views are practically anything other than MAGA, you’re on notice, courtesy of the FBI," said journalist Ken Klippenstein.
Apr 07, 2026
Along with cutting environmental, housing, and health programs and proposing an increase of nearly $500 billion in military spending, President Donald Trump's new budget proposal shows how the White House "wants to use taxpayer dollars to spy on those who oppose its extremist agenda," one Democratic congresswoman said Monday evening.
Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Penn.) was referring to the budget's description of a new FBI center that is already working to root out what the White House broadly defined as "domestic terrorism" in a federal memo last year.
As independent journalist Ken Klippenstein wrote this week, buried in Trump's budget request—which includes $12.5 billion for the FBI to invest in counterterrorism efforts and other spending—is the White House's latest assertion that "domestic terrorists... pose an elevated threat to the Homeland."
"In recent years, heinous assassinations and other acts of political violence in the United States have dramatically increased," reads the budget's section on domestic terrorism. "Commonly, this violent conduct relates to views associated with anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity; support for the overthrow of the US government; extremism on migration, race, and gender; and hostility to those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and mortality."
The views described echo National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 (NSPM-7), the memo signed last September that directed federal agencies to develop a national strategy to "investigate and disrupt networks, entities, and organizations that foment political violence" in order to stop violent attacks before they happen.
But despite the administration's singular focus on groups and individuals who hold left-wing, anti-capitalism views and subscribe to belief systems other than Christianity, the National Institute of Justice found that since 1990, 227 attacks motivated by right-wing views killed 520 people, while far-left groups carried out 42 attacks that killed 78 people. The NIJ study was removed from the US Department of Justice website shortly after the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk—an event that Trump explicitly blamed on left-wing groups without evidence, and which came weeks before the signing of NSPM-7.
The budget proposal explains that as a result of NSPM-7, the FBI recently created the NSPM-7 Joint Mission Center (JMC), which is run by personnel from 10 federal agencies.
"The JMC is working to counter domestic terrorism and organized political violence by integrating intelligence operational support, and financial analysis to proactively identify networks and prosecute domestic terrorist and related criminal actors," reads the proposal.
Scanlon is one of a small number of elected Democrats who have spoken out about NSPM-7 in congressional hearings and media interviews.
"If anyone can be labeled a domestic terrorist for speech opposing this administration, our First Amendment rights are under grave threat," said Scanlon recently.
Klippenstein noted that the budget document describes social media platforms and encrypted communications apps as being used by "domestic terrorists" to "recruit new adherents, plan and rally support for in-person actions, and disseminate materials encouraging radicalization and mobilization to violence.”
FBI Director Kash Patel told Congress that anyone who used the Discord channels used by Tyler Robinson, who was accused of killing Kirk, would be investigated by the agency.
Klippenstein noted that the FBI's domestic terrorism watchlist, which as of last September listed about 5,000 US citizens, reportedly "is growing."
"If your political views are practically anything other than MAGA, you’re on notice, courtesy of the FBI," Klippenstein wrote.
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Iranian American Lawmaker Announces Effort to Impeach Hegseth for 'Repeated War Crimes'
Democratic Rep. Yassamin Ansari called the Pentagon secretary "a chief enabler of this illegal war" and accused him of repeatedly violating his oath of office.
Apr 07, 2026
US Rep. Yassamin Ansari, the lone Iranian American Democrat in Congress, said on Monday that she will soon introduce articles of impeachment against Pentagon Secretary Pete Hegseth, the most prominent cheerleader of President Donald Trump's illegal war on Iran.
In a statement, Ansari (Ariz.) said that Hegseth has "repeatedly" violated his oath of office and his duty to the Constitution. The Democratic lawmaker, who said she would formally introduce the impeachment articles next week, pointed to Hegseth's "reckless endangerment of US servicemembers and repeated war crimes, including bombing a girls’ school in Minab, Iran."
Ansari, who was born in Seattle to parents who fled Iran following the 1979 revolution, warned that Trump's "deranged statements" and "apocalyptic" threats to obliterate Iranian bridges and power plants as soon as Tuesday night "are further entrenching our country and our world in another devastating, never-ending war."
"He’s threatening war crimes that violate US law and the Geneva Convention, on top of illegal actions and atrocities already committed at his direction–including violence that has destroyed schools, hospitals, and critical civilian infrastructure," said Ansari. "Republicans must join us in calling on the president to end this suicidal war before it is too late. So much is at stake, and those who continue to follow him blindly will have blood on their hands as well."
"As the daughter of Iranian immigrants who fled this regime, and as an American congresswoman who swore an oath to the United States Constitution, I know that this cannot go on," Ansari continued. "The 25th Amendment exists for a reason; his Cabinet should use it. The fate of US troops, the Iranian people, and the very foundation of our global system are at stake."
In a video posted to social media, Ansari said that "as a chief enabler of this illegal war, Pete Hegseth is responsible for directing this insane military action against Iran."
I’m introducing Articles of Impeachment against Pete Hegseth. Here’s why. pic.twitter.com/mMblG7tA7s
— Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari (@RepYassAnsari) April 7, 2026
Hegseth has been the foremost public advocate of Trump's war, praising the "lethality" of the American military and the "death and destruction" it is raining down on Iran, where US-Israeli attacks have killed around 2,000 people—including hundreds of children—and destroyed tens of thousands of civilian structures, from residential buildings to universities to medical facilities.
The Pentagon secretary has also derided what he's called "stupid rules of engagement" that constrain US servicemembers, gutted offices tasked with working to limit civilian casualties in war, and fired uniformed lawyers he's dismissed as "roadblocks" in the way of "maximum lethality."
Experts say those moves have made atrocities such as the one the US military committed on the first day of the war—the bombing of an elementary school in southern Iran—more likely. Human rights organizations and international legal scholars have said the attack should be investigated as a war crime.
Hegseth also said last month that "no quarter" would be given to "our enemies" in Iran, a statement indicating that surrendering combatants would be executed rather than taken prisoner. The declaration itself was seen as a clear violation of international law.
"Hegseth is making people less safe—and it’s time for him to go," the advocacy group Win Without War said last month in its own call for the Pentagon secretary's impeachment and removal.
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