Shut Down Guantánamo on its 10th Anniversary!

 

 

 

"After seven years of the Bush administration's open disdain for human rights and the rule of law and three years of Obama's broken promises, more men have died in Guantanamo than have been tried in court."  - Vince Warren, CCR Legal Director

 

"... the breakdown of a body politic that occurs when a country attacks its own constitution in the name of defending it."  - Michael Ratner, CCR President

 

"Now, five years after my release, I am trying to put my terrible memories behind me. I have remarried and have a beautiful baby daughter. Still, it is hard not to think about my time at Guantánamo and to wonder how it is possible that a democratic government can detain people in intolerable conditions and without a fair trial."  - Murat Kurnaz, CCR Client, Former Detainee

 

 

 "... the breakdown of a body politic that occurs when a country attacks its own constitution in the name of defending it."  - David Cole, CCR Board Member, Georgetown University Law Professor

 

 

 "As I sit and watch the sunset over the Caribbean, I cannot reconcile the beauty of my surroundings with the feeling that morality and justice slip further away with each passing day."  - J. Wells Dixon, CCR Attorney

 

"Not one of the more than 700 who enjoyed the hospitality of Gitmo has been able to collect compensation for being held, often in solitary confinement and some for as long as ten years, before being released without ever being charged."  - Peter Weiss, CCR Vice President

 

"From its inception, Guantánamo was intended to be a legal black hole, designed to deny its prisoners the most basic human rights and due process."   - Vince Warren, CCR Legal Director

 

 

  

Despite the fact that the U.S. government has itself cleared more than half of these men for release, and despite President Obama’s promise on his second day in office to close Guantánamo within a year, it has been almost twelve months since anyone has been released. This is the longest period of time that has elapsed since the prison’s opening without a single person being set free.

The Obama administration has also extended some of the worst aspects of the Guantánamo system by continuing indefinite detentions without charge or trial, employing illegitimate military commissions to try some suspects, and blocking accountability for torture.

Please join us at the events in Washington D.C., New York, and San Francisco to demand that Guantánamo be closed and to build our opposition to both this prison and all unjust U.S. detentions. If you cannot join us, create an event in your own community to mark the injustice of Guantánamo or participate in our calendar of activities that can be done from wherever you are.