FIRE JOHN YOO!

"Migrants who are here illegally are criminals, as far as this administration is concerned. I understand the previous administration didn't see it that way, so it's a significant 'culture shift' to recognize law-breakers as criminals, but that's what they are." - White House press secretary Katherine Leavitt

"The concept of indefinite detention is a direct affront to the principles of justice," writes Mansoor Adayfi, artist, activist, and former Guantánamo prisoner. "Holding individuals without charge or trial defies the very foundation of legal systems worldwide. It denies detainees the opportunity to defend themselves and subjects them to years -- sometimes decades -- of suffering with no resolution in sight."

People in orange jumpsuits protest against Guantanamo military prison outside of the US Capitol in Washington, DC on April 5, 2023 [File: Reuters/Elizabeth Frantz]

"His immediate release and relocation to a third safe country are long overdue," a group of 12 UN special rapporteurs on arbitrary detention, forced disappearances and other human issues, wrote in their letter to the outgoing president. Biden has one week to effect his promised closure of Guantánamo

Zubaydah is one of the 15 inmates left imprisoned. "There are no outstanding charges or allegations against him that might give rise to legitimate concerns, but there is a moral and legal imperative to act urgently to get him out of Guantánamo," says Helen Duffy, head of Human Rights in Practice. Three others have already been cleared for release. One of them - Muieen Abd Al-Sattar, a Rohingya Burmese man with Pakistani citizenship - was cleared for transfer 15 years ago.

Saturday Jan 11, 3pm
50 United Nations Plaza (at the Simon Bolivar statue)
San Francisco

Contact: Gavrilah Wells

Just after Andy Worthington posted this article, news broke that eleven of the 14 men approved for release from Guantánamo have been resettled in Oman. My article celebrating this news will be published tomorrow, but the photo campaign and the vigils will, of course, be proceeding as planned, because 15 men are still held -- three who have also long been approved for release, three "forever prisoners", never charged, but never approved for release either, and nine others in the military commissions trial system.

With the plight of 14 men who have long been approved for release from Guantánamo but are still held dominating the thoughts of those of us who have spent years -- or decades -- calling for the prison's closure, this coming week -- which includes the 23rd anniversary of the prison's opening, on Saturday January 11 -- is a crucial time for highlighting the need for urgent action from the Biden administration, in the last few weeks before Donald Trump once more occupies the White House, bringing with him, no doubt, a profound antipathy towards any of the men still held, and a hunger for sealing the prison shut as he did during his first term in office.

The U.S. Department of Defense has announced the transfer of 11 Yemeni prisoners from Guantanamo Bay to Oman, marking a significant step toward reducing the detainee population at the facility. These detainees, who had been held for over two decades without charges, were transferred after a lengthy and complex diplomatic process. This move follows recent efforts by the Biden administration to shrink the detainee population. However, despite these efforts, concerns remain regarding security risks and the ongoing challenges in finding alternative countries for those still imprisoned. There is still much work to be done to advocate for the release of the remaining prisoners and ensure accountability for past and ongoing injustices.

John Yoo's "Torture Memos" gave CIA officials a "golden shield" against future criminal prosecution for torture.

..for the first time, a former prisoner's version of what happened to him is now in the record of a trial at the post-9/11 war crimes court,

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/18/us/politics/guantanamo-prisoner-drawings-torture.html?unlocked_article_code=1.iU4.4Z9w.OXkTZXH5g_2A&smid=url-share

A self-portrait drawn by Mohammed Farik Bin Amin,

How art is a lifeline for the incarcerated,
https://hyperallergic.com/971777/guantanamo-bay-and-the-art-of-resistance/

Mansoor Adayfi holding work by Sabri al-Qurashi (photo by and courtesy of Erin L. Thompson) over photo of dusk at Guantánamo Bay (photo via Wikimedia Commons; edit Isabella Segalovich/Hyperallergic):

and any international laws governing the conduct of war, and instead "unleash them" to become a "ruthless", "uncompromising" and "overwhelmingly lethal" force geared to "winning our wars according to our own rules."

From the fall 2003 to spring 2004, CACI employees assumed de facto authority over U.S. military police at the hard site. "They created and set in place the extreme and abusive conditions [as approved by John Yoo in his 'Torture Memos'] in which detainees... were detained," Center for Constitutional Rights alleged.

Campaigners with Amnesty International and the World Can't Wait in the Castro district of San Francisco on November 6, 2024. Gavrilah Wells wrote, "It was an impossibly hard day here. We set up in the Castro again and were joined by some friends from AIUSA Group 30. I was so incredibly grateful to spend time with community members as we grieved and braced ourselves for what's to come while also getting the word out to folks urging Biden to close Gitmo before he leaves office and to free the 16 men cleared for release. We got some postcards signed and made a few new friends as we often do."

As Vice President, Biden proposed to close the US prison camp. He has yet to deliver on campaign promises to do just that.

"The prison at Guantánamo Bay is one of those mistakes, willfully perpetuated by the Biden administration each day it remains open," argued the Center for Constitutional Rights. "The fact that they continue to languish after two decades is a cruelty that could end tomorrow."

"So why hasn't Biden shuttered the camp?" asks Connor Echols.

Please join Amnesty International, World Can't Wait, and human rights defenders around the world for Global Monthly Vigils as we urgently tell President Biden: Close Guantánamo NOW and release the 16 Muslim men who have been cleared for release--some for well over a decade,

Wednesday November 6, 3:00pm
Castro Farmers Market
270 Noe Street
San Francisco

Even though two decades have passed since the harm faced by plaintiffs, "it's not like these things go away," says Stanford law professor Shirin Sinnar. "Getting that kind of acknowledgment in a court decision can help with people's healing."

"Nine members of Force 100, a unit inside the Israeli Defence Forces, are the subject of criminal investigation over allegations that they sexually assaulted a prisoner at the Sde Teiman detention camp in the Negev desert, which human rights groups have dubbed "the Israeli Guantanamo."

"The investigation - a rare occurrence on the part of the US with regard to Israel - could result in the unit being penalised under a landmark peace of legislation known as the Leahy law, which prohibits the state and defence departments from rendering assistance to foreign security force units facing credible accusations of human rights abuses."

"Back in the day of George W Bush's misbegotten 'war on terror', John Yoo, at the time a lawyer in the office of legal counsel, wrote a notorious memo opining that the federal law criminalizing torture would be unconstitutional if applied to the president in times of war. This ominous claim led the senator Patrick Leahy to ask the then attorney general Alberto Gonzales, during a congressional hearing, whether the president could legally order genocide."