Witness Against Torture - campaign to shut down Guantánamo

Pittsburgh Against Torture Vigil

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 16:51:55 -0400

Members of Pittsburgh Against Torture march silently through Downtown Pittsburgh as part of the United Nation's International Day of support of torture victims.

Watch a short movie online at
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Supreme Court: A Victory for Justice, A Call to Further Action

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 13:48:11 -0400

SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS THE RIGHTS OF GUANTANAMO DETAINEES

A VICTORY FOR JUSTICE – A CALL TO FURTHER ACTION

Press Release: June 13, 2008

With yesterday’s Supreme Court’s decision, there is now an unequivocal mandate from the highest judicial body in the United Sates to close the detention center at the US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and bring cases of the detainees into the Federal Justice system.

Ellen Davidson: Jumpsuit Justice Has To Go

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 09:18:19 -0400

From the June 6, 2008 issue of the IndyPendent
http://www.indypendent.org/2008/06/06/jumpsuit-justice/

On May 29, Washington, D.C., Superior Court Judge Wendell Gardner found me and 33 codefendants guilty of “parading, standing, or moving in a procession or assemblage in the Supreme Court Building” and displaying a “device designed or adapted to bring into public notice a party, organization, or movement.” For most of us, the “crime” consisted of either kneeling on the Supreme Court steps in orange jumpsuits and black hoods or kneeling inside in orange t-shirts that said “Shut Down Guantánamo.”

Standing Up for the Soul of the Nation

Fri, 30 May 2008 18:48:47 -0400

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.

Lawyer For Prisoners At Guantanamo Barred From Testifying At Trial For Anti-Torture Activists

Thu, 29 May 2008 23:59:23 -0400

Washington, DC, May 29, 2008 - Today, Judge Wendell Gardner refused to hear testimony from Guantanamo attorney, Thomas Wilner, in the trial of 34 Americans arrested while acting on behalf of Guantanamo detainees at the U.S. Supreme Court on January 11, 2008. Judge Gardner ruled that Wilner’s testimony was unnecessary” and “not relevant” to make a determination.

Anti-Torture Activists Convicted

Thu, 29 May 2008 23:56:17 -0400

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 29, 2008 - Thirty-four Americans arrested at the Supreme Court on January 11, 2008 were found guilty after a three-day trial which began on Tuesday, May 27th in D.C. Superior Court. The defendants represented themselves, mounting a spirited defense of their First Amendment rights to protest the gross injustice of abuse and indefinite detention of men at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay.

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

Mon, 26 May 2008 07:47:29 -0400

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

Sat, 24 May 2008 11:13:35 -0400

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

Tue, 20 May 2008 19:05:03 -0400

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.

Guantanamo Detainees Get Their "Day In Court"

Tue, 20 May 2008 17:01:45 -0400

Thirty-four Americans arrested at the Supreme Court on January 11, 2008 were found guilty after a three-day trial which began on Tuesday, May 27th in D.C. Superior Court. The 34 defendants represented themselves, mounting a spirited defense of their First Amendment rights to protest the gross injustice of abuse and indefinite detention of men at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay. Twelve were given jail sentences ranging from one to fifteen days, as well as a one year stay-away from the Supreme Court, and $50 in court fees.

All told, 80 people were arrested on January 11th in D.C. as part of an International Day of Action to Shut Down Guantanamo.

Releases: 5/29: Anti-Torture Activists Convicted | 5/29: Lawyer For Prisoners At Guantanamo Barred From Testifying At Trial For Anti-Torture Activists | 5/20: Guantánamo Detainees To Get Their Day In Court
Clippings: Washington Post: 5/30: 34 Convicted in Display At U.S. Supreme Court | 5/27: Guantanamo Critics Reiterate Protests as Their Trial Opens (includes video!) | IPS: These Names Have Never Been Spoken in a U.S. Court | AFP: Trial opens for 35 anti-Guantanamo demonstrators | Al Jazeera: Guantanamo protesters in court | DemocracyNow: Anti-Torture Activists Convicted, Jailed for Protesting Gitmo Outside Supreme Court
List of Trial Press Coverage

5/27 Video by Anthony Giacchino | Photos

Trial details: Statements and Synopsis, Day One | Statements and Synopsis, Day Two | Statements and Synopsis, Day Three | Sentencing Statements, Day Four | Sentences

Full Press Kit

Read more about January 11, 2008 Day of Action

Guantanamo: The Bigger Picture

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 11:37:36 -0500

Frida Berrigan, March 17, 2008
http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5072

The U.S. base at Guantanamo has been called many things. The “gulag of our time” (Amnesty International General Secretary Irene Khan, May 2005). “The key strategic intelligence platform in the war on terror” (Charles Stimson, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Affairs, January 2007). The “legal equivalent of outer space” (unnamed Administration official). The right place for “the worst of a very bad lot” (Vice President Dick Cheney, January 2002) and for the “most dangerous, best trained, vicious killers on the face of the earth” (Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, January 2002).

On Behalf of Juma Din

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 15:06:02 -0500

By Jean Athey

Juma Din was the name of my prisoner. An Afghan who is one year older than my daughter, he has been in Guantanamo a long time. That is all I know about him. I wrote his name on both my wrists with a ballpoint pen to be sure I would not forget it. How terrible if I had forgotten his name!

Representing Maasoum Abdah Mouhammad

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 16:00:48 -0500

Representing Maasoum Abdah Mouhammad

Protesting the Guantanamo Concentration Camp At the Supreme Court

By Ed Kinane

This reflection was first published in "The Madison Institute for Peace and Progessivism Newsletter" and can also be accessed by visiting

Lessons from Protesting Guantánamo

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 16:56:03 -0500

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.

Tom Ridge: Waterboarding Is Torture

Sat, 19 Jan 2008 12:33:44 -0500

By EILEEN SULLIVAN – January 18, 2007

WASHINGTON (AP) — The first secretary of the Homeland Security Department says waterboarding is torture.

"There's just no doubt in my mind — under any set of rules — waterboarding is torture," Tom Ridge said Friday in an interview with the Associated Press. Ridge had offered the same opinion earlier in the day to members of the American Bar Association at a homeland security conference.