ACTION!

The Case for Maher Arar

Please sign a petition for Maher Arar, asking our government to provide an apology and full compensation to the man sent by US authorities to be tortured in Syria. http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/ActionItem.aspx?c=6oJCLQPAJiJUG&b=6645049&aid=15496

Support the Center for Victims of Torture

Visit their website at http://www.cvt.org/

Witness Against Torture

Recently, fifteen people from the group Witness Against Torture stood in the gallery of Congress to read the following statement:

Today the House of Representative is in the process of contemplating not the passage of a bill but the commission of a crime. Provisions in the proposed Defense Appropriations Bill grant the United States powers over the lives of detained men fitting of a totalitarian state that uses the law itself as an instrument of tyranny. The law would make the prison at Guantanamo permanent by denying funds for the transfer of men to the United States, even for prosecution in civilian courts.

Abandoning the civilian courts, the bill would be the ultimate concession that the rule of law and cherished American values cannot survive the fear and hatred that have consumed this country. The proposed bill makes restrictions on the transfer of detainees even to foreign countries so severe that no one — whether cleared for release by our own government or acquitted in trials — could be expected to leave Guantanamo. It therefore mandates the indefinite detention even of innocent human beings, which is the very essence of tyranny. Congress has an obligation to uphold the US Constitution. All Americans have the obligation to defend human rights. The proposed bill makes America a callous and reckless jailer, unworthy of the name of democracy. It must be defeated.

Oppose New Legislation on Guantanamo

The House and Senate are working on legislation for Obama's signature (the National Defense Authorization Act) that would worsen the plight of Guantanamo detainees and expand the president's power to lock people up indefinitely on mere suspicion of links to organizations linked to Al Qaeda or the Taliban.

Right now the Senate is considering its version of the bill.  Please send email messages to Senator Patty Murray and Senator Maria Cantwell to OPPOSE this legislation.  You can adapt the following message as you see fit, or compose your own message:

I urge you to VOTE AGAINST the new Senate legislation, included in a draft of the National Defense Authorization Act, that pertains to terrorist suspects and Guantanamo detainees.  Please insist that these provisions be removed. If they are not removed, please vote against the National Defense Authorization Act. The Senate bill requires military detention for certain terrorist suspects, stating that they must either be placed in indefinite detention without trial or tried before military commissions.  Because of the lack of due process guarantees, military commission trials are more like show trials than real trials. For example, they have allowed prosecutors to use statements elicited by torture. The Senate bill would prohibit Guantanamo detainees cleared of wrongdoing from being released to their home country if previous detainees sent to the same country have engaged in terrorist acts.  It's not right to lock up somebody for crimes committed by another person.

This bill is a violation of human rights, due process, and basic decency. Please do the right thing.  Please vote against this bill.

Here are the links for sending messages.

Patty Murray
Maria Cantwell

Please do it now, before you forget.

Release Adnan Latif

WSRCAT has joined forces with the University Temple United Methodist Church and University Lutheran Church, both of Seattle, Washington, to campaign for the immediate release of Adnan Latif, an innocent man unjustly imprisoned in Guantanamo.

In 1994, at age 18, Latif suffered a severe brain injury from a car accident in his native Yemen. The government sent him to Jordan for an operation, which was only partly successful. An Islamic charity promised him free medical care in Afghanistan. Arrested near the Pakistani-Afghan border after the US invasion, Latif was shipped to Guantanamo Bay in January 2002.

In 2004, the Pentagon stated it had no information linking Latif to terrorist training, and recommended his release. The Bush administration cleared him for release in 2007, as did President Obama's Guantanamo Review Task Force. In 2010, his release was ordered by Judge Henry Kennedy Jr. of the District of Columbia Circuit.

Latif nonetheless remains in Guantanamo Bay. He suffers from mental illness and has made several suicide attempts. Labeled as “non-cooperative,” he has been subjected to prolonged solitary confinement and periodic beatings.

We call on President Obama to order Latif's immediate release and transfer to his native Yemen. Please email and telephone your elected representatives in Washington, DC, and ask them to appeal for his immediate release. The Washington, D.C., switchboard is (202) 224-3121.

For more information on Adnan Latif, please visit:

http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/09/12/court-case-illustrates-gitmos-failure

http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AMR51/037/2010/en/d6f78272-e79a-40b2-a5cb-0d18362e53c3/amr510372010en.html

http://www.witnesstorture.org/Adnan-Farhan-Abdul-Latif

http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2011/02/10/a-cry-for-help-from-guantanamo-adnan-latif-asks-who-is-going-to-rescue-me-from-the-injustice-and-the-torture-i-am-enduring/

http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2011/02/10/a-cry-for-help-from-guantanamo-adnan-latif-asks-who-is-going-to-rescue-me-from-the-injustice-and-the-torture-i-am-enduring/