By Thomas Wilner, Friday, March 29, 12:18 AM

Thomas Wilner was counsel of record to Guantanamo detainees in Rasul v. Bush and Boumediene v. Bush, the two Supreme Court cases that established detainees’ right to habeas corpus.

A hunger strike is spreading at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, prison camp. The main reason, as the military has acknowledged, is the growing sense of frustration and despair among the detainees. As Gen. John Kelly, the head of U.S. Southern Command, explained to the House Armed Services Committee last week, detainees “had great optimism that Guantanamo would be closed. They were devastated . . . when the president backed off. . . . He said nothing about it in his inauguration speech. . . . He said nothing about it in his State of the Union speech. . . . He’s not restaffing the office that . . . looks at closing the facility.”



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 http://tinyurl.com/ctm9lpy

A statement by Shaker Aamer on the hunger strike he conducted in 2011.


July 15, 2011


From GTMO detainee to his lawyer.


I the signatory below, in Camp 5E announce the start of a peaceful
protest/hunger strike for the reasons enumerated below:


1. The opening and continuing operation of this unjust detention
facility for the ninth year of my continuing and indefinite detention
in the absence of any real accusation or crimes committed. Therefore I
am hostage.


2. The inhumane treatment and deprivation of some of the items we are
truly in need of, most important of which are the family calls since
they are most critical to our families, especially to those
experiencing special circumstances. Therefore, I want these calls to
take place on a continuing basis and recur once every 15 days. These
family calls ought to last no less than 2 hours with further
consideration given to those experiencing special circumstances. I
also speak for the regular mail to be made more efficient and provide
us with e-mail.


3. The inhumane treatment is taking place at the hospital among other
areas especially affecting the sick and those who are on strike and
our deprivation of real treatment, health diet and appropriate
clothing which are not provided to us nor are we allowed to provide
them for ourselves.


4. Not upholding the promise that both your president and government
gave on 01/21/2009 concerning the closing of Guantánamo detention
facility. Very few people have left ever since although many here have
been deemed to not represent any danger for the United States.
Therefore, I ask you to establish justice and remove the injustice
that has befallen us and our brothers in all detention centers.


By submitting these demands, I affirm our right to life. We want our
freedom and the right to return to our homes since I am innocent of
the charges (if there were any) you have levied against us. I ask that
you establish justice that you claim to be a foundation of your
country.


After these years of hardship we have spent here — and which I managed
to do only through the grace of God, otherwise I would have lost my
sanity — I want you to consider my case as soon as possible and give
me the right to a just and public trial or set me free without
conditions.


Shaker Aamer (00239)


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