July 9 VFP

For Immediate Release Contact: Gerry Condon

July 9, 2013 206-499-1220

VETERANS HUNGER STRIKING TO CLOSE GUANTANAMO

Invite Elliott Adams and Tarak Kauff to speak in your community

Elliott Adams, past president of Veterans For Peace, is on Day 55 of his indefinite fast in solidarity with hunger striking prisoners at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. VFP Board member Tarak Kauff is in Day 33. According to CloseGitmo.net, the Guantanamo prisoners are now on Day 154.

One hundred and six prisoners are participating in the Guantanamo hunger strike. Forty-five are being force fed. Two are in the hospital. They are fasting for their lives, for their dignity, for their freedom. They are refusing to eat so that people will know of their desperation at being indefinitely detained, without charge, without trial, many of them for 11 years. Eighty-six of them have actually been cleared for release by all relevant U.S. agencies. Yet they continue the torture of indefinitely being separated from their families and loved ones.

Elliott Adams and Tarak Kauff are taking in up to 300 calories a day, and taking in supplements and vitamins to keep their electrolytes balanced, their kidneys functioning, etc. They are not being tortured with feeding tubes being forced down their noses into their stomachs. They are not being systematically sleep deprived by guards banging steel doors shut hundreds of times a night, as a Guantanamo guard recently reported. But they are making a big sacrifice, and yes, they are putting their own health at risk, both short term and long term.

Is this solidarity hunger strike rather extreme? Yes, it is. But Elliott and Tarak, like Diane Willson and Brian Wilson who also fasted to shut down Guantanamo, were sickened when they learned of the desperate plight and severe mistreatment of the men who are being held by the U.S. military at Guantanamo.

“I just can’t sit and enjoy my life when my country is doing such terrible things to these people,” said Elliott Adams. “I am fasting in order to motivate others to take action. I am fasting to help build a movement that will actually succeed in shutting down Guantanamo and releasing innocent prisoners.”

Shaker Aamer, a Guantanamo prisoner and a British citizen, recently said ”The administration is getting ever more angry and doing everything they can to break our hunger strike. Honestly, I wish I was dead.”

“Of course under these unbearable circumstances they would rather be dead,” said Tarak Kauff. “So would I, so would you. These men are human beings with families, who once had lives, hopes and dreams. Many of them were simply turned over to U.S. forces for a bounty. Now they are suffering unimaginable tortures while the corporate media and the public remain for the most part either unforgivably ignorant or coldly indifferent. Please, do not remain silent.”

Elliott Adams and Tarak Kauff would like to talk directly to your community or media via the magic of Skype video, or even through a speaker phone.

Contact them directly:

Elliott Adams, 518-441-2697 or by email at [email protected].

Tarak Kauff, 845-679-3299, [email protected].

Or make arrangements through Gerry Condon, 206-499-1220, [email protected].

U.S. Hunger Strikers

Hunger Striker's Blog

U.S. Faster in Solidarity w/Gitmo & Pelican Bay Prisoners

Foreground: EMT prepares the tool for the nasal intubation. Background: U.S. Embassy, Buenos Aires, Argentina Middleground:...agony awaits.

The feeding demo is extremely painful, yet it is done with consent. The long-term solidarity fast continues with nasogastric nourishment in front of U.S. governmental symbols of power. The twice-daily force-feeding of Gitmo hunger strikers is nonconsensual and therefore real torture by the standards sponsored by U.S. taxpayers and authorized by members of Congress who just raised the debt ceiling to nearly $17 trillion. President Obama's actions continue to belie his empty words "Close Guantánamo." As Commander-in-Chief, he could easily order an end to what the Pentagon refuses to call "forced-feeding." The force-feeding is premeditated relentless forced penetration of plastic into their innermost sacred cavities !

Andrés Thomas Conteris - fasted on water and coconut water with vitamin and electrolyte supplements. Solidarity fast began July 8, 2013 with 30,000 hunger striking California prisoners urging fulfillment of 5 Core Demands of the Pelican Bay supermax prisoners. Force-feeding protests began Sept. 6 & Sept. 25 in front of the White House & later in front of the Oakland Office of CA Dept of Corrections and Rehab (CDCR) to depict how prisoners in Guantánamo are tortured with force-feeding twice-daily and how CA prisoners as future hunger strikers have been threatened with a court order authorizing force-feeding. On Oct 4 and Oct 8 he was tube-fed in front of the U.S. Embassies in Montevideo, Uruguay and Buenos Aires, Argentina. On Oct 15 a similar protest took place in Santiago, Chile. On Friday, Oct 18 the feeding protest returns to Washington, DC outside a Federal Court hearing on the lawsuit challenging force-feeding in Guantánamo. He is now on a maintenance fast losing about 1 pound per week, unlike the 5 pounds/week the first 11 weeks. In January 2014 with the anniversary of Guantánamo on Jan. 11, the force feeding protests will recommence. Please spread the word.

Join a Rolling Fast

U.S. Hunger Strikers who have suspended their fast

Diane Wilson - Water only 58 days (lost 48 lbs). Diane, co-founder of CodePink and member of Veterans for Peace, suspended her hunger strike on June 27, 2013 after detention following her arrest for scaling the White House fence the day before. She faced a jury trial in DC District Court on Sept. 5th, 2013.

S. Brian Willson - Suspended Hunger Strike on June 10, 2013 after 31 days on 300cal/day, when a car accidentally hit him. Supporters continue a vigil with a rolling fast, in Portland, OR.

Elliott Adams - Went 80 days on 300 cal/day from May 18, to August 4, 2013 losing 45 lbs. He is past President of Veterans for Peace.

Tarak Kauff - Ended fast on August 4, 2013 after 58 days on 300 cal/day since June 7. He lost 29 lbs. On Board of Directors for Veterans for Peace.

Cynthia Papermaster - After 84 days on 300 cal/day, Cynthia suspended her hunger strike on Sep. 6 which began June 15, 2013. Code Pink member, lost 35 lbs. The transfer of two Algerian prisoners on Aug. 29, 2013, inspired her to suspend her fast.

Collaborative of CloseGitmo.net Organizations

- Arlington West Santa Monica

- Campaign for Alternatives to

Isolated Confinement - NY

- Close Guantánamo.org

- Code Pink

- Global Exchange

- Fast for the Earth

- The Jericho Movement

- The Justice Campaign

- The London Guantánamo

Campaign

- Meta Peace Team: "Pursuing peace

through active nonviolence"

- Metta Center for Nonviolence

- NRCAT

- No more Guantánamos

- Nonviolence International

- Nuremberg Actions

- Office of the Americas

- Peaceworkers USA

- Save Shaker

- Stop Mass Incarceration

- Witness Against Torture

- The World Can't Wait

- Veterans for Peace

Pelican Bay Hunger Strike

Daily Updates

www.CAhungerstrike.net

<a class='rsswidget' href='http://witnesstorture.tumblr.com/rss' title='Syndicate this content'><img style='border:0' width='14' height='14' src='http://www.closegitmo.net/wp-includes/images/rss.png' alt='RSS' /></a> <a class='rsswidget' href='http://witnesstorture.tumblr.com/' title='Calling for an end to torture everywhere, on any person for any reason. www.witnesstorture.org'>Witness Against Torture</a>

A reflection from WAT's Chantal on the 12th anniversary of Guantanamo January 18, 2014
Reflection from Rolling Faster on day 337 January 10, 2014
Make Guantanamo History: Activists Fast & Rally in Washington, D.C. to Close the Torture Prison January 10, 2014

July 9 VFP

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