Almost 17 years on, 40 prisoners
remain at Guantánamo Bay, largely without charge. The few trials and
convictions that proceed rely on evidence obtained through the use of torture.
Although interest fell after Barack Obama failed to deliver
on his promise to close Guantánamo in 2010, the London Guantánamo Campaign has
continued to hold regular demonstrations outside the US Embassy in London – in
Mayfair and now in Nine Elms – in solidarity with the remaining prisoners for
the past 12 years.
The new US Embassy in Nine Elms is
designed to provide a hostile environment for protest. Its architecture
deliberately renders protesters invisible, remote and irrelevant.
In November, the US will vote in the
midterm elections, the first opportunity the US public will have to challenge Donald
Trump’s policies at the ballot box. Ahead of this election, we are asking YOU
to make an effort to join us, for a part or all of our demonstration, to send a
strong message that Guantánamo is not a forgotten issue and closing Guantánamo
must be put back on the political agenda.
Although
Trump has not delivered on his executive order to send new prisoners to Guantánamo,
recent appointments of officials linked to the torture and enduring ordeal of
Guantánamo prisoners, such as CIA chief Gina
Haspel and current Supreme Court nominee Brett
Kavanaugh show a worrying trend towards entrenching the policies of his
predecessors.
Please help us to make these protests larger and louder than usual.
Our demonstrations take place on the
first Thursday of every month at 12-2pm outside the US Embassy. For the next
few months, the dates (and details) are as follow:
Thursday
4 October https://www.facebook.com/events/2148850955370083/
(a few days before the 6 November election).
