January 8, 2013 

Day 338 – Guantánamo hunger strike

29 prisoners on strike, 19 force-fed, 0 in hospital (track hunger strike)

Pelican Bay 5 Core Demands urged by California Prisoners’ Hunger Strike (July 8-Sept 5, 2013)

Valley residents hold protest against Guantanamo Bay prisons

Posted: Sat, January 11 2014 at 6:46 PM, Updated: Sun, January 12 2014 at 6:49 AM

Protesters across the nation gathered Saturday to raise awareness about Guantanamo Bay, the prison in Cuba where since the 1950′s prisoners of war have been tortured.

One rally was held in downtown Medford at Vogel Plaza.

http://www.kobi5.com/news/local-news/item/valley-residents-hold-protest-against-guantanamo-bay.html#.UtzHMBAo7IV

http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Site=MM&Date=20140111&Category=MEDIA01&ArtNo=111009997&Ref=PH&Presentation=desktop

December 10, 2013

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

December 9, 2013

Contact: Noor Mir, CODEPINK Organizer, 845-625-3725, [email protected]

  Alli McCracken, CODEPINK Organizer, 860-575-5692, [email protected]

Emergency Protest at Algerian Embassy in DC for Cleared Gitmo Prisoner Forced Back to Algeria, Now Detained

What: Emergency Protest at Algerian Embassy for Release of Guantánamo prisoner Djamel Ameziane, hosted by CODEPINK, Witness Against Torture, Center for Constitutional Rights

When: 2-3 pm, Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Where: Algerian Embassy, 2118 Kalorama Rd NW, Washington, DC

Washington, DC –– Human rights organizations CODEPINK, Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and Witness Against Torture (WAT) will hold an emergency protest outside the Algerian Embassy to demand the immediate release of CCR client Djamel Ameziane. On the day celebrated as International Human Rights Day, the coalition of groups is calling upon the US and Algerian governments to respect the human rights of Ameziane, who was callously transferred against his will to the one place he dreaded more than Guantánamo. This move is in violation of international law, including the Convention Against Torture.

Ameziane had been imprisoned at Guantánamo without charge since 2002 and cleared for release since 2008. While at Guantánamo, Ameziane suffered immensely from abuse and solitary confinement. On December 5th of this year, he was forcibly transferred from Guantánamo to Algeria, where he is currently being held in secret detention. Despite viable resettlement opportunities in offers of asylum from Luxembourg and other countries, the U.S. government chose to send him into a dangerous situation without any explanation where he fears persecution.

Ameziane’s decade-long imprisonment at Guantánamo for over a decade and unexplained and forceful involuntary transfer into secret detention will be challenged by peace groups that are determined that to have this innocent man sees justice. “We demand that the Algerian Government immediately release Djamel Ameziane from secret detention, treat him humanely, and respect his human rights,” said Ameziane’s CCR attorney J. Wells Dixon. “We further call on the international community to demand transparency and accountability from the Algerian government and to ensure that Mr. Ameziane does not suffer persecution now or in the future.”

“We have to act before it’s too late. Mr. Ameziane has already suffered enough at the hands of the U.S.government at Guantánamo Bay prison. He’s been through more than ten years of injustice, and we can’t let it happen again,” commented Noor Mir, an organizer with the peace group CODEPINK.

- See more at: http://codepink.org/article.php?id=6547#sthash.rdrvmzro.dpuf

A copy of the letter: http://ccrjustice.org/files/2013.12.10_Letter%20of%20Concern%20to%20the%20Algerian%20Embassy%20in%20DC%20Re%20Ameziane.pdf

November 18, 2013

Urge Your Senators to Support Closing Guantanamo

Any day now, Senators will have a chance to vote on legislation that gives President Obama greater flexibility to transfer people out of Guantanamo. The bill’s improved provisions, introduced earlier this year by Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee Carl Levin (D-MI), would help ensure that Guantanamo closes as soon as possible-and that each detainee is either safely and fairly tried in US federal court, or transferred to other countries.

The vote is expected to be tight – but we can get the provisions passed with your support! Make sure your elected officials vote the right way on Guantanamo. Urge your two Senators to support Senator Levin’s transfer provisions.

Sign the petition: http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/ActionItem.aspx?c=6oJCLQPAJiJUG&b=6645049&aid=520420&msource=W1311EASHR1

White House pushes to loosen Gitmo transfer rules

BY NEDRA PICKLER

ASSOCIATED PRESS

November 17, 2013

A debrief with the 60 Minutes team who went to Gitmo

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504803_162-57612708-10391709/a-debrief-with-the-60-minutes-team-who-went-to-gitmo/

Esperanza Spalding song, video call for Gitmo closure

Esperanza Spalding – We Are America from ESP Media on Vimeo.

November 15, 2013

IN THE CAMPS

Guantánamo’s forever captives to make pitch for freedom in secret

November 11, 2013  –  A doctor writes about the constitution, bill of rights and Int’l law as relates to torture and physicians complicity

Ending the Guantanamo Nightmare  (from Counterpunch)

Does the US Care About International Law?

November 9, 2013

Amid Lingering Hunger Strike, Guantanamo Abuses Press On

Saturday, 09 November 2013 00:55By Adam Hudson, Truthout | News

A guard tower overlooks the prison at Camp Delta in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. (Photo: Richard Perry / The New York Times)

During the summer, the Guantanamo hunger strike and use of force-feeding put the US naval base in Cuba back into headlines. The strike even prompted President Barack Obama to reiterate his promise to close the prison. However, an official “end” to the hunger strike last month, coupled with the government shutdown and fiscal fights in Congress, made Guantanamo virtually invisible from public attention as it was before. Despite lax attention, the system that made Guantanamo so odious continues.

Read more: http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/19846-amid-lingering-hunger-strike-guantanamo-abuses-press-on

November 7, 2013

‘Australian Taliban’ contests Guantánamo guilty plea

So-called Australian Taliban David Hicks arrived at Guantanamo on Jan. 11, 2002 and pleaded guilty to war crimes five years later. On Tuesday Nov. 5, 2013, his American lawyers asked to get that conviction vacated on grounds it wasn’t voluntary and it wasn’t legal. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE / SHANE MCCOY
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/11/05/3732999/australian-taliban-contests-guantanamo.html#storylink=cpy

BY CAROL ROSENBERG

[email protected]

November 4, 2013

Obama Meets With Envoys on Closing Guantanamo Bay

The White House says President Barack Obama has met with two special envoys for closing the Guantanamo Bay prison and recommitted to closing it.

Obama met Monday with State Department envoy Clifford Sloan and Pentagon envoy Paul Lewis. It’s the first meeting between Obama and the envoys.

Obama vowed to close the prison but has been thwarted by Congress. He announced in May he would appoint envoys and ordered the Pentagon to designate a site in the U.S. where detainee trials could be held.

The White House says the administration will keep transferring detainees who are cleared to go to other countries. Obama wants Congress to remove restrictions on transfers.

There are 164 prisoners at Guantanamo. A formal review process for dozens held without charges is under way.

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/obama-meets-envoys-closing-guantanamo-bay-20782958

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November 2, 2013

According to Shaker Aamer’s lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, the voice Leslie Stahl heard coming from a cell was Shaker. Apparently, Stahl is also a journalist who has been living underneath a rock. States she assumed all the men in the prison are guilty.

November 1, 2013

A group of young artists and lawyers for The Blue Lantern Group mic checked The Metropolitan Museum, and dropped a banner inside.There are currently 164 men, 84 that are cleared for release and 14 men entering the 9th month of a hunger strike, all of whom are being force-fed.

October 21, 2013: Where are Obama’s Policy Changes? (from KFGO news)

“GTMO has become a symbol around the world for an America that flouts the rule of law,” the president said in May. Transferring the remaining 84 detainees already cleared by government officials is a step Obama can take quickly to demonstrate he’s committed to restoring America’s reputation as a nation committed to the rule of law. Even with the transfer restrictions set by Congress, the president has sufficient authority to ensure that at least this group of prisoners leaves Guantanamo soon.    more

Pack the Court!  Washington, DC - 

Friday 9 a.m., October 18, 2013

 11am “Forced-Feeding” by US Activist on long-term fast in Solidarity with Gitmo Hunger Strike  

Watch the live stream archives here: www.closegitmo.net/livestream

For press coverage of the even please go here: Witness Against Torture Tumblr

  Forced-Feeding Protests: White House - Sept. 6; CDCR, Oakland, CA - Sept. 25  – US Embassies: Uruguay - Oct 4; Argentina - Oct8; Chile - Oct 15          Federal Court Hearing on Gitmo Force-Feeding, Washington, DC  - Oct 18

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October 25, 2013

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Judges weigh challenge to Guantanamo force-feeding

AP|2:20 p.m. EDT October 18, 2013

(Photo: Brennan Linsley, AP)

WASHINGTON (AP) — An appeals court panel Friday wrestled with a challenge to force-feeding hunger strikers at Guantanamo Bay, with a lawyer for the detainees acknowledging he was seeking a ruling “that may lead to death.”

But the attorney, Jon Eisenberg, told the three judges hearing the case that the authorities at the Naval base in Cuba are force-feeding detainees before their lives are at risk.

Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/10/18/force-feeding-gitmo-detainees/3009163/

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October 17, 2013

The Aamer Appeal to stop force-feeding in Guantanamo

OEN  OpEdNews.com By Palina Prasasouk (about the author)

Shaker Aamer, subjected to ongoing torture, has never been charged or faced trial. Photograph: Reprieve

Oct. 17, 2013 — Lawyers for   Shaker Aamer ,  the last British resident in Guantanamo Bay have filed an appeal in the case of   Shaker Aamer vs. Barack Obama,  a case that was first filed in June 2013 to halt the force-feedings of hunger strikers Aamer, Ahmed Belbacha, and Nabil Hadjarab. This is one of four consolidated appeals, one for each of four detainees, with Aamer’s being the lead case, which, if won, could end all force-feeding in the prison, a rare victory in the twelve years that Shaker Aamer has already lost.   Shaker Aamer is one of 164 detainees currently in Guantanamo Bay, and one of 84 detainees cleared for release. He has been cleared since 2007 by a military review board and again by President Obama’s inter-agency Guantanamo Review Task Force in 2010.

Original Case

In the Kessler case involving detainee Dhiab, US District Judge Gladys Kessler rejected the attempt by detainees to end force-feeding, but stated in an order that the practice is ”painful, humiliating, and degrading.” She declared that President Obama is “the one individual who does have the authority to address the issue.” It has been more than four months

Nabil Hadjarab

since President Obama’s national security speech, in which he recommitted the United States in closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay.  Nabil Hadjarab has been released to Algeria since the original case filing in July, therefore removing his name from the case.

“Although District Judge Kessler took the position that the only person who can stop the force-feeding is President Obama, we believe that the federal courts also have the power to do so, which is why we have taken the case to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals,” states Jon B. Eisenberg, a lead attorney in the case. The hearing, which has been named the “Aamer Appeal,” will hear oral argument on October 18, 2013 at the D.C. Circuit courthouse.

Legal Team for Shaker Aamer Will Argue

The lawsuit alleges two human rights violations at Guantanamo Bay: (1) force-feeding of hunger-striking detainees in order to prolong their indefinite detention and (2) deprivation of religious free exercise by denying hunger-strikers the right to pray in congregation.

Force-feeding is in violation of international law and medical ethics. The World Medical Association,  American Medical Association , The British Medical Association, and Pre-hospital and Disaster Medicine  are among some of the medical associations who identify force-feeding as inhumane, degrading, and torture. Numerous doctors all urge the licenses of health professionals who participate in force-feeding be revoked.

All hunger strikers were forced into solitary confinement in April 2013. In order for a detainee to be taken off the hunger strikers’ list he would need to consume nine consecutive meals. Once taken off the hunger strike they were permitted into communal living. The detainees were deprived of performing nightly communal Ramadan prayers unless they stopped hunger striking, a direct violation of the  Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA).

The Government Contends

Attorneys for the The United States contends in a brief filed under  USCA Case #13-5223  “As non-resident aliens, they do not fall within the category of “persons” protected by RFRA.” Spanning over sixty-one pages, the United States continues to argue that “habeas may not be used,” “claim is moot,” and “the courts lack jurisdiction,” –all  phrases pointing towards a legal black hole.

Meanwhile, corporations are recognized as persons in the judicial system. Under corporate personhood, for-profit corporations are given the same rights as human beings.  This allows corporations to sue and be sued in a court in the same way as natural persons are.  As Mitt Romney infamously said during the 2012 presidential election, “Corporations are people, my friend.”  The court also expresses fear of lawsuit in the case of a death during the hunger strike, if the force-feedings are to be put on halt — a contradiction  as the Government has suggested laws do not apply to detainees.

Another dispute the Government is upholding in the dissension is that the forced-feedings are humane. ” If enteral feeding is necessary, it is administered in a humane manner through a nasogastric tube.”…”Nothing about the process described above constitutes “torture” or “cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment or punishment.” The  Government ‘s assertions are in conflict with one detainee’s confession ”During one force-feeding the nurse pushed the tube about 18 inches into my stomach, hurting me more than usual, because she was doing things so hastily,”  said Samir Moqbel in a New York Times Op-Ed.

Andres Thomas Conteris, a solidarity hunger striker for CloseGitmo.net has voluntarily undergone the nasogastric procedure. He has gone more than 100 days on liquids-only. Under a physician’s care, it was recommended Conteris receive some sort of nutrition. He plans to continue his act of solidarity as long as the men in Guantanamo are protesting. He began a solidarity hunger strike on Ramadan, the same day the prisoners at Pelican Bay began theirs to meet 5 core demands. He describes the tube-feeding as “endless agony,” with each one being more excruciating than the last. He has undergone the procedure four times. The men in Guantanamo endure this torture twice a day.

We Wait

Shaker Aamer has lost 60 lbs after 252 days of the hunger strike and counting. Fifteen detainees are currently being force-fed. Aamer’s British wife and their four British-born children, reside in London, England –t he youngest, of which he has never met. Umm Johina Aamer gave birth to their son on February 14, 2002, the same day Aamer was airlifted to Guantanamo Bay from Bagram. Aamer’s oldest daughter, Johina, age fifteen, writes on July 28, 2013, “I’ve been told so many times that my Dad is returning. I can’t get my hopes up anymore, all I can do is wait.”

read more: http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Aamer-Appeal-to-stop-f-by-Palina-Prasasouk-Guantanamo-Naval-Base_Guantanamo-Prison_Laws_Ramadan-131017-405.html

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October 16, 2013

 

http://www.democracynow.org/2013/10/16/headlines/guantnamo_prisoner_vows_to_continue_to_hunger_strike

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October 15, 2013

Guantanamo inmate says hunger strike will continue

Harold Mandel   Syracuse Politics Examiner

Oct. 15, 2013, Day 250 of Hunger Strike – Moath al-Alwi. Al-Alwi describes how he has been beaten by the riot squad and that no form of pressure is too cruel or petty for his captors.

The restraint chair used to force-feed detainees on hunger strike is seen at the detainee hospital in Camp Delta which is part of the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Although President Barack Obama has been promising to close past President George W Bush’s concentration camp at Guantanamo for years, this dark chapter in American history in dealing with Guantanamo continues. Al Jazeera has published a profile of Moath al-Alwi, who has been a prisoner at Guantanamo since 2002. He is quoted as saying, “I was never charged with any crime and I have not a received fair trial in U.S. courts. To protest this injustice, I began a hunger strike.” Al Jazeera reported on Oct. 15, 2013, “Guantanamo inmate: ‘We will remain on hunger strike.’”

Moath al-Alwi, a Yemeni national who has been in U.S. custody for over a decade, was one of the very first prisoners moved to Guantánamo Bay detention camp. The U.S. military has assigned him Internment Serial Number ISN 028. His attorney, Ramzi Kassem, translated this article from Arabic. In a letter al-Alwi shares his feelings after his return from a morning’s force-feeding session at Guantanamo Bay. He suffers bouts of violent vomiting and sharp pains in his stomach and intestines caused by the forced feeding.

Al-Alwi is among the fewer than two dozen hunger strikers left out of 164 prisoners at Guantanamo, of which 100 were on hunger strike in August. He has been on hunger strike for almost nine months, ever since February. He has shared that he is dragged out of his cell at around 8:20 a.m. and taken shackled to the restraint chairs, which he and his brothers call torture chairs, for forced feeding.

Al-Alwi says some of his brothers are tainting the walls of their cells and blocking the air-conditioning vents with their own feces in protest. Al-Alwi also says he has been beaten by the riot squad and that no form of pressure is too cruel or petty for his captors. And so the nightmare at Guantanamo continues at this moment.

Read more: http://www.examiner.com/article/guantanamo-inmate-says-hunger-strike-will-continue

OMAR KHADR: WAR CRIMINAL, CHILD SOLDIER… OR NEITHER?

By Heather Marsh

Omar Khadr’s interrogation. via Flickr

Omar Khadr made his first appearance in a Canadian court on Monday. After an 11-year journey from Afghanistan to Guantánamo Bay to Canada’s Millhaven Institution, the Toronto-born man is now in Edmonton’s federal prison. He was 15 when he was captured and tortured at Bagram. He turned 27 last Thursday. Read more: http://www.vice.com/read/omar-khadr-war-criminal-child-soldier-or-neither

 Rules for (hunger-striking) radicals By Nadine Bloch

Andres Conteris publicly fed by nasogastric tube on the 61st day of his solidarity fast in front of the White House on September 6. (WNV/Nadine Bloch)

Over the past few months, an amazing number of people have been fasting or on hunger strike for peace and justice all over the world, earning relatively sparse media coverage, and winning few demands. But this current wave of hunger strikes has expanded the traditional approach to these tactics and offers a look at some new techniques — as well as challenges for those who are currently fasting or thinking about using their hunger as a path to justice. Read more: http://wagingnonviolence.org/feature/rules-hunger-striking-radicals/

Freed former Guantanamo inmate to arrive today

By Houda Mzioudet

Abdulhamid Abdussalam El Ghazzawi

Tripoli, 25 September 2013: A former Libyan Guantanamo Bay inmate has been released from prison in the US and is due to arrive at Tripoli International Airport this evening. Abdulhamid Abdussalam El Ghazzawi, aged 50 and said to be disabled, was kept at the controversial prison between 2002, when he was captured in Afghanistan, and 2010, when he was transferred to Georgia.  He was accused by the Americans of being a member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group and being linked to Al Qaeda, a claim which he has denied. Read more:  http://www.libyaherald.com/2013/09/25/freed-former-guantanamo-inmate-to-arrive-today/#ixzz2fyrHn1Pz

Guantanamo: System failure

You know something is wrong when defense lawyers have to hike to Starbucks to find Internet access they feel they can—relatively, anyway—trust. But that’s exactly what lawyers for the five men accused of plotting the September 11, 2001 attacks felt they had to do after widespread failures of the government computer network they’d been using resulted in thousands of private defense emails being handed over to the prosecution and entire files disappearing from defense team drives. That series of undeniable security breaches, they argued, made even a public Internet connection a better option than the government network. Read more: http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/09/25/guantanamo-system-failure/

Guantánamo detainee files complaint about UK security services

• Owen Bowcott, legal affairs correspondent
• theguardian.com,  Wednesday 25 September 2013 07.29 EDT

Shaker Aamer, who has never been charged or faced trial, alleges that he has been subjected to torture. Photograph: Reprieve

The last British resident detained in Guantánamo Bay has filed a complaint about the intelligence services with the UK’s most secret court. Lawyers for Shaker Aamer have lodged a detailed submission at the investigatory powers tribunal (IPT) in London, alleging that he is being prevented from being released due to “defamatory statements”. Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/25/guantanamo-detainee-complaint-uk-security-services?CMP=twt_gu

September 24, 2013 Pentagon Denies Money for Guantánamo Overhaul By  CHARLIE SAVAGE

The Obama administration has been trying to close the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, but Congress has prevented it from doing so.

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has rejected a military request that it spend $195.7 million to renovate the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, an official with the United States Southern Command said on Tuesday. The Obama administration has been trying to close the prison, but Congress has prevented it from doing so.

Pentagon: ‘No one believes Guantanamo hunger strike is over’

Former Guantanamo Bay detainees wear black hoods during a protest to demand the release of Yemeni detainees from Guantanamo Bay, outside the U.S. embassy in Sanaa April 16, 2013. (Reuters)

Eman El-Shenawi – Al Arabiya

September 23, 2013

Miami Herald, Posted on Wednesday, 09.18.13 — By CAROL ROSENBERG  [email protected]

US Army military judge Col. James L. Pohl, July 7, 2005 file photo, Fort Hood, TX. Currently, Chief of the Guantanamo military commissions judiciary. LM OTERO /ASSOCIATED PRESS

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba — Chronic problems of Pentagon computer network insecurity have gotten worse in the five months since the military commissions chief defense counsel declared the system too compromised for Sept. 11 trial preparations, the counsel testified Wednesday. Emails don’t arrive, legal motions have been stripped off electronic notices and case work that vanished has yet to be found, Col. Karen Mayberry testified in a defense bid to freeze the death-penalty proceedings until the Pentagon builds a separate, secure system for the war crimes court’s defense lawyers. In an act of exceptional defiance in April, Mayberry, a career Air Force lawyer, directed her defense teams to keep their confidential work off the war court network. Wednesday, she testified that, after fresh failures in an email migration, it’s currently better for defense teams in the complex death-penalty case to use their home computers, private emails and coffee shop WiFi to conduct their business. “We’ve got more issues now than we did then and we’ve resolved very little of the ones that existed at the time,” Mayberry said.

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba – An Islamic opposition group in Syria has posted a video of the funeral of a former Guantánamo prisoner, the first known report that one of the 500 or so captives released during the Bush administration joined the Syrian insurgency to topple Bashar Assad.

Helicopter flies over the Pentagon in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001 as smoke billows over the building. HEESOON YIM / ASSOCIATED PRESS

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba — The judge in the Sept. 11 case shouted down two alleged conspirators protesting their lack of rights, ejected one from the war court and then hastily recessed Monday morning to get a sick defense lawyer to the Navy base hospital. “I have a right to talk,” Yemeni defendant Ramzi bin al Shibh shouted at the judge, Army Col. James Pohl. “No you don’t,” the judge shouted back, trying to silence him before ordering U.S. Army guards to remove him from the Top Secret court.

Truth-Out, Thursday, 12 September 2013 — Palina Prasasouk, CloseGitmo.net | Op-Ed

On Friday, September 6, 2013 dozens witnessed in front of the White House, a live force-feed of 52-year-old Andres  C onteris on his 61st day of a water-only hunger strike. Thousands more would watch from home via livestream,   RT and Huffington Post. Conteris began a hunger strike on July 8, 2013 in solidarity with Guantánamo B ay  and the California prison, Pelican Bay. Among the dozens of witnesses was a crowd of international press covering the event. American press was absent with the exception of Ryan J. Reilly, a justice reporter for The Huffington Post who earlier this spring, traveled to Guantánamo.

Read more: http://truth-out.org/speakout/item/18788-keeping-guantanamo-on-american-minds