Our Prisoner of Guantanamo

From the Syracuse New Times, September 10, 2008

You better watch what you wear at the New York State Fair. Those obscene T-shirts and skimpy shorts may be fine, but don’t you dare show up in a hood and a jumpsuit reminiscent of the prison garb from Guantanamo Bay. Syracuse activist Ed Kinane spent a week as a prisoner in the Justice Center in downtown Syracuse. He was accused of criminal trespass after silently demonstrating at the New York State Fair by walking around dressed in an orange jumpsuit designed to mimic those worn by detainees at Guantanamo Bay, the prison he has for years campaigned to close.

Standing Up for the Soul of the Nation

Published on Common Dreams, 5/30/08
On Tuesday, May 27th, trial began for thirty-five people arrested at the U.S. Supreme Court on January 11, 2008 — the date that marked six years of torture and abuse at the U.S. detention center at Guantánamo Bay.

"Guantanamo's Day in Court" James Carroll's Boston Globe Column

TOMORROW a number of the detainees held at Guantanamo Bay will finally get their day in court - although, alas, not literally. Thirty-five Americans who were arrested at the US Supreme Court last January during a demonstration protesting the illegal detention center will go on trial in Washington. They are charged with "causing a harangue." Instead of entering their own names, each defendant will enter the name of a prisoner held at Guantanamo. Father Bill Pickard, a Catholic priest from Pennsylvania, will identify himself as Faruq Ali Ahmed. "He cannot do it himself," Pickard says, "so I am called by my faith, my respect for the rule of law, and my conscience to do it for him."

Press Coverage of Guantanamo Protest Trial

June 6, 2008
"Guantanamo Protesters Sentenced,"
Muslim Link Newspaper, By Rashad Mulla
http://www.muslimlinkpaper.com/mybo2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1530&Itemid=1

DemocracyNow Interviews Matt Daloisio

Torture protests at UC law school ceremonies

Carolyn Jones, Chronicle Staff Writer

Sunday, May 18, 2008

(05-17) 10:53 PDT BERKELEY -- Some 50 protesters, clad in orange jumpsuits and black hoods to emulate the infamous photos of prisoners in Iraq, picketed UC Berkeley's law school graduation ceremony Saturday, demanding that the university fire Professor John Yoo for his authorship of the Bush administration's policies on torture.

Lessons from Protesting Guantánamo

by Bryan Farrell

It was nearly three in the morning, on a recent Saturday, when the door of a Washington DC jail cell slammed closed with me inside. After an already grueling day in police custody that began at 1:30pm and included being handcuffed for eight hours straight at one point, the ability to move freely (albeit in a 5x7 cell) was a welcomed relief.