January 11, Protests to Close Guantanamo NOW!

Debra Sweet | December 26, 2022 
jan112022

The Bush regime set up a detention camp on Guantanamo in January 2002, designed deliberately to be out of reach of U.S. and international laws, as part of its “war on terror." 779 Muslim men were detained, almost all held for years with no charges.  Nine died there; 735 have been released without apology or reparations.  21 of the remaining have been “cleared” for release, many of those when Obama was president.  Three of the remaining are called “forever” prisoners whom the government will never charge nor release because to do so would reveal the torture methods the government developed on them.  Very few were ever found guilty of a crime and none received legal due process.

The open violations of human and legal rights of those detained — secret “renditions,” torture by third country allies, “enhanced interrogation," via the CIA — shocked the world. And yet, the U.S. has upgraded Guantanamo.  

Download: Poster and GITMO-Clock

We gather on the 21st anniversary of this torture camp to say:

 

  • Close Guantanamo NOW

  • End indefinite detention without trial, allow prisoners to defend themselves

  • Immediate release and repatriation to join their families for 21 men who have been “cleared” for years

  • Health care and financial support for those men who have been “freed” but unjustly denied years of their lives through detention outside the law

 

New York City
Wednesday, January 11, 2023 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM ET
New York Public Library (On the Steps)
5th Avenue at 42nd Street, New York, NY 10018 US

This event will benefit the Guantanamo Survivors Fund which provides money for medical care, rent, language classes, tuition and job training for those prisoners "freed" but left without resources after being unjustly detained by the U.S. Bring cash/checks or make donations on line at the rally. Join us to hear from experts on the prisoners’ situation, to participate in street theater and song.

RSVP and Facebook 

Sponsored by: World Can’t Wait, Witness Against Torture, NYC War Resisters League; Peace Action NY State, Veterans for Peace NYC Chapter 34, Brooklyn For Peace, Pax Christi NYS, NYC Democratic Socialists of America (The Anti-War Working Group Organizing Committee), Veterans For Peace Chapter 113-Hawaii, World Beyond War, Raging Grannies, Granny Peace Brigade NYC, Veterans For Peace Chapter 90, Broome County Peace Action, September Eleventh Families For Peaceful Tomorrows, Uptown Progressive Action, Code Pink

 
Augusta, Maine
Saturday, January 14 (Janrary 15 Blizzard make-up day)
Sponsored by Pax Christi Maine, Peace Actio and Others
 
Cleveland:
Wednesday, January 11, 4:00 pm ET
Celebrezze Federal Building
 
Honolulu, HI
Wednesday, January 11, 4:00 pm HAST
Thomas Square @ King/Ward intersection
Organized by Veterans for Peace Hawai`i, World Can't Wait Hawai`i 
 
Los Angeles LA.
Wednesday, January 11, 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm PST
Downtown LA Federal Building 300 N. Los Angeles St., CA.
Organized by Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace 
 
Raleigh, NC 
Rally
Wednesday, January 11, 12:00 - 1:30 pm ET
Federal Building at New Bern Avenue and Person Street in Raleigh
Organized by NC Stop Torture Now
 
Washington DC:
Wednesday, January 11, 1:00 pm ET 
White House Vigil (Pennsylvania Ave)
Sponsored by WAT and NRCAT 
 
North Hampton, MA
Vigil and March
Wednesday, January 11, 12:00 pm ET
Begin at the Hampshire County Courthouse (Main Street between Gothic & King Streets) Contact:  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Organized by No More Guantanamos

 International Events:

Mexico City, México
¡NO MÁS GUANTÁNAMO! (NO MORE GUANTÁNAMO!) 
Protest
Wednesday, January 11, 12:00 pm CDMX
US Embassy Mexico City
 
Forums and Conferences:

Why Is Guantanamo Still Open?

Friday, January 6, 7:30 am PST

 

Featuring Interfaith Communities United for Justice & Peace member and "Close Guantanamo" event organizer Jon Krampner and the Rev. Ron Stief of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, Mohammad Tajsar of the ACLU of Southern California, and Michael Rapkin, a member of the Guantanamo Bar.

WebsiteFacebookTwitter, Instagram 

Press Conference: "Close Guantanamo, Prosecute Yoo for Torture"
 
Wednesday, January 11, 1:00 pm PST
 
UC Berkeley Law School, Bancroft Way & College Ave., Berkely, CA.
 
Meet at 12:45 at Cafe Roma on the corner of College & Bancroft and proceed together at 1:00 pm to the Law School across the street. We have Yoo posters, some orange jumpsuits and hoods, letters to Yoo, Dean Chermerinsky and the Law School students. Picket, speakers, songs for Yoo (come sing!), join letter delivery asking Yoo to contribute to the Guantanamo Survivors Fund | No More Guantanamos.

Host: CodePink. Endorsers (list in formation), Berkeley No More Guantanamos, Progressive Democrats of America Oakland, Triple Justice, Extinction Rebellion Peace

This action is on the 21st anniversary of the opening of the prison at Guantánamo Bay and will highlight Professor John Yoo's complicity in U.S. torture. Yoo provided erroneous legal cover for the U.S. military and CIA to torture captured men, most of whom have never been charged with crimes yet spent years at Guantanamo where they were treated inhumanely and tortured. There are less than 40 remaining prisoners. Professor Yoo should be prosecuted, not teaching law at our public university. We've invited Berkeley Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky to speak. In 2014 Chemerinsky, then Dean of UC Irvine Law School, said in Nation magazine and in a KPFK interview that Yoo should be prosecuted:  "I think he [John Yoo] should be,” Chemerinsky said. “All who planned, all who implemented, all who carried out the torture should be criminally prosecuted. How else do we as a society express our outrage? How else do we deter it in the future, except by criminal prosecutions?”

 
21st Anniversary Virtual Rally: Building our Power to Close Guantanamo
 
Wednesday, January 11, 4:00 - 5:30 pm EST
 
 
Main Calls to Action January 11, Protests to Close Guantanamo NOW!

About

World Can't Wait mobilizes people living in the United States to stand up and stop war on the world, repression and torture carried out by the US government. We take action, regardless of which political party holds power, to expose the crimes of our government, from war crimes to systematic mass incarceration, and to put humanity and the planet first.