World Guantánamo Newswire Archive

On Tuesday 11 January 2011, the illegal detention and torture camp at Guantánamo Bay will have been open for NINE years. Barack Obama has broken his promise to close it by January this year and the situation for prisoners has recently worsened with Congress voting to prevent any more civilian trials for prisoners facing charges and attempting to block the release of any more prisoners. Join us to protest this unfortunate anniversary...

The Save Shaker Aamer Campaign (SSAC), along with numerous other human rights organisations, including the London Guantánamo Campaign, trade unions, political parties and social movements organised a day of action, involving a rally, march, public meeting and film showing to put pressure on the British government to press for the release and return of Shaker Aamer, the last British resident held at Guantánamo Bay, to this country.

As the illegal detention camp at Guantanamo Bay rapidly approaches its 9th birthday and President Obama approaches the first anniversary of his broken promise to close it, the war crimes conviction of child soldier Omar Khadr, the British government’s cover up of its collusion in torture through an out-of-court settlement and other recent events show that justice is not only elusive but non-existent at Guantánamo Bay.

In a blow to the Obama administration’s effort to manipulate the civilian justice system to achieve guilty verdicts for alleged terrorists, a New York City jury on Wednesday unexpectedly acquitted a Guantánamo detainee, Ahmed Khaifan Ghailani, on 284 of 285 charges. The case was related to the 1998 terrorist attacks on US Embassy in Dar es Salam, Tanzania, which killed at least 11 people and injured another 85.

SAVE SHAKER AAMER, SHUT GUANTANAMO AND BAGRAM

British Resident Shaker Aamer has been held without charge or trial for over eight years in Guantanamo in the harshest of conditions. All the other UK Guantanamo detainees have now returned home. They have all suffered years of cruel and inhuman treatment as victims of the US policy of abduction, rendition to torture and indefinite detention in the so-called “war on terror.” Despite President Obama’s executive order to close Guantanamo by January 2010, many detainees, including Shaker, are still being held there without hope of an end to their ordeal. Meanwhile, the CIA prison at Bagram , Afghanistan , is the new Guantanamo . Hundreds of detainees are locked away, tortured and abused in absolute denial of all their human rights. They have been silenced but it is up to us to demand an end to their detention and torture.

On Saturday 11 December 2010 there will be a day of action for Shaker Aamer, and calling for the closure of Guantanamo, Bagram and other secret US prisons and an end to the US practices of "extraordinary rendition" and indefinite detention without charge or trial in the name of the so-called "war on terror". A demo, public meeting and film showing are already planned in Battersea, south London, home to Shaker's British wife and children, the youngest of whom he has never met.

The first trial of a minor for war crimes in over 60 years starts today setting a dangerous international precedent. Accused of war crimes in Afghanistan aged 15, a young Canadian victim of the Afghanistan war and the war on terror today stands trial in a kangaroo court + demonstration in support + petition + Amnesty Canada trial blog

Next week, on Tuesday 10 August, 23-year old Canadian Omar Khadr, who has spent over a quarter of his life illegally detained at Guantánamo Bay, will become the first person to be tried at Guantánamo under the Obama administration and the first person to be tried for offences allegedly committed as a child (when aged 15) anywhere in the world in over 60 years. International law considers child soldiers like Omar Khadr to be victims and not criminals and in practice is against any form of trial for them.

Highly classified documents have been disclosed that detail the involvement of Tony Blair's government in the torture of its own citizens. The documents not only support claims by six former Guantánamo detainees that British Intelligence were complicit in their mistreatment but also implicates the previous government in a number of illegal operations and thwarting attempts by Foreign Office officials to try the suspects in the UK.

On a hot Saturday afternoon at the end of June, as the British media and government sought to use British troops as a weapon on the home front to defend their senseless warmongering in faraway lands on Armed Forces Day, the London Guantánamo Campaign took a stand against the indefensible and marked a far more poignant anniversary with a demonstration in solidarity with victims of extraordinary rendition outside the US Embassy in Mayfair on UN International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.

Shaker Aamer has been imprisoned without charge or trial in Guantánamo Bay for over eight years. He is a legal permanent resident of the UK, married to a British national, with four British children (the youngest of whom he has never met) living in Battersea, south London.

Next Tuesday (25 May), on the day of the state opening of Parliament, a demonstration and rally in Parliament Square has been organised by the Save Shaker Aamer Campaign:  http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=82639210948

Some photos from the 9th April 2010 protest held outside the US Embassy in London demanding the closure of Guantanamo, Bagram and the other secret CIA prison camps.

Former Guantamamo Bay inmate Omar Deghayes is to speak at an event at University of Canterbury 5pm Thurs 18 March.

Three senior UK judges on Wednesday ordered the British government to publicly disclose previously classified information that reveals how Binyam Mohamed, a British resident, was tortured by the CIA while in Pakistani custody in April and May 2002.

Eight years on...no let up in the regime of torture, arbitrary detention and indefensible justifications...

The London Guantánamo Campaign held a demonstration on eighth anniversary of Guantánamo Bay, Monday 11 January 2010, outside the US Embassy in London. A vigil by protesters in orange jumpsuits and black hoods was followed by an hour of speeches calling for the closing down of the camp without further delay and justice for all those still detained there. Pictures (C) Copyright Peter Marshall, 2010, all rights reserved.

A round up of news and events happening today in the UK to mark the eighth anniversary of Guantánamo Bay...why is it still open?!

Demonstration to mark the 8th anniversary of Guantánamo Bay and call for liberty and justice for prisoners held there

10 December is Human Rights Day and also marks 25 years of the adoption of the Convention Against Torture (it became law in 1987). Yet torture is still practiced all over the world and supported and/or ignored by other regimes. Join us as we discuss this tragedy of our times

President Obama has conceded that Guantánamo Bay will NOT close by 22 January 2010, breaking yet another promise and leaving over 200 prisoners in perpetual limbo. Prison conditions have not improved and in the past eight years, there has been only one conviction on a lesser charge. Join as we call for the closure of Guantánamo Bay now...no to arbitrary detention, no to torture, freedom and justice for all...take a long lunch break and come and join us.

On 10 December 1984, 25 years ago, the General Assembly of the UN adopted the text of the Convention Against Torture, banning the use of torture (in writing, it was already illegal) and practices related to it, such as assisting in torture and returning people to countries where they face torture. It became law in 1987, however the use of torture and the involvement of most countries and governments in it, including ours, continues to grow...