History in the Making: 14 years of Guantánamo Bay

As we have done every year since 2008, the London Guantánamo Campaign organised the main UK event to mark the anniversary of the opening of the US military-run Guantánamo Bay prison camp. As in recent years, it was one of the largest events worldwide, with possibly only a larger protest coordinated by a coalition of US organisations outside the White House in Washington DC. More than 100 people joined the London Guantánamo Campaign (LGC) on a very cold evening for a candlelight vigil, demonstrating the commitment to human rights of the British people and the desire to see Guantánamo closed even after all the British nationals and residents have returned.

Shaker Aamer lights candles at the candlelight vigil

Former prisoner Moazzam Begg

This year’s event, on the evening of Monday 11^th January, entitled “History in the Making”, had a sense of urgency to it: as Guantánamo Bay enters the fifteenth year of its regime of torture and indefinite detention without trial, Barack Obama enters the final year of his second term as president of the United States. It is now six years since he promised to close Guantánamo by January 2010, in an executive decree he signed in one of his first acts as president. With less than one year left to go of his presidency, questions have been raised as to whether he can and will deliver on his many promises to close Guantánamo Bay.

Although there was good news on the day with the repatriation of Saudi Mohammad Abdul Rahman al Shumrani, one of 17 prisoners due to be released this month, the LGC is particularly concerned about the fate of those prisoners who, after 14 years, have not been cleared for release and have not been charged, as expressed in our media release. Obama’s plan appears to be not to close Guantánamo and end indefinite detention but to close the facility and transfer the remaining prisoners elsewhere. The LGC’s rejection of this proposal was made clear on our main banner for the protest: “Shut Guantanamo – Don’t Move It”.

The LGC is pleased to have been joined by a number of former British nationals and residents who were previously held at Guantánamo Bay. With the exception of Shaker Aamer, released in October 2015, all have joined LGC events in the past, but we have not pointed them out in the past, and did not point them out on this occasion, out of respect for their privacy. Former prisoners Moazzam Begg, who was released in 2005, and Shaker Aamer, in his first unmediated address to the public (video below), spoke at the vigil. It was an honour for the LGC to have these two former prisoners share their feelings and views on the 14^th anniversary of Guantánamo with us, and to join us in standing in solidarity with the remaining prisoners.

Jean Lambert MEP

As an open mic event, there were no scheduled speakers. Contributions were also made by Jean Lambert, Green MEP for London, Sheikh Suliman Gani from Tooting Mosque, Lindsey German from the Stop The War Coalition, American peace activist Paul Polansky, John Clossick and Ray Silk from the Save Shaker Aamer Campaign, and campaigners Hamja Ahsan, Peter Tatchell and Dr David Nichol. The event was compered by David Harrold from the LGC and Val Brown from the LGC also spoke about the case of Omar Khadr. 

The LGC was also joined by other prisoner support campaigns, including for Chelsea Manning, and a contribution was also made at the mic by the daughter of Munir Farooqi, a British man currently serving 4 life sentences for terrorism after being set up by undercover police officers. 

Other prisoners whose cases the LGC supports were mentioned, including Dr Aafia Siddiqui and Shawki Ahmed Omar. CND director Kate Hudson gave her apologies for not being able to join activists. Statements were also read out on behalf of Guantánamo lawyers Barry Wingard, whose client Fayiz Al-Kandari returned to Kuwait on 9 January, and Nancy Hollander, who provided a statement about her client, Guantánamo Diary author Mohamedou Ould Slahi (please see below).

As well as an open mic, Sheikh Suliman Gani led activists in reading out the names of the remaining 103 prisoners (there are currently 93) and calls for each of them to be set free. 

The London Guantánamo Campaign will be back outside the US Embassy on 4 February at 12pm for our first monthly Shut Guantánamo! demonstration of 2016, and the 9^th anniversary of our regular protests demanding that Guantánamo closes, outside the Embassy.

Bernard Sullivan, who joined the anniversary vigil for the first time this year, spoke at the vigil and later shared his thoughts about it:

“"Jottings on a Guantanamo Vigil"

I met Shaker Aamer today, and between his media interviews and speeches to the gathering outside the US embassy marking the 14th anniversary of the opening of Guantanamo, had the opportunity to speak with him. I found an exceptional character, open, friendly, charismatic, and a motivational orator, who expressed a strong belief in one human race, without distinction of colour, religion or race. A living example of how the human spirit can not only survive the terrible ordeal that he was put through, but can grow enormously from it. He was overwhelmed by the fact that while incarcerated for years with nothing to do but sit in his 6 x 8 cell, many outside with jobs, families, children and many other responsibilities, had given up years of their time to campaign for him and his fellow detainees.

As an active supporter for the closure of Guantanamo of a mere three months standing, I found myself in awe of those around me, but determined to stand with them until the human rights hypocrisy that is Guantanamo is closed for good, and the many innocents held within, are truly free.

Only then, can the USA and its supporting allies begin to emerge from this darkest shadow of their own making, and try to restore the catastrophic loss of trust of countless people around the globe.”

The LGC thanks everyone who joined us and stood with us in solidarity with the prisoners still held at Guantánamo Bay.

Statement by Barry Wingard about his client Fayiz Al-Kandari who was released to Kuwait on Saturday 9 January:

“It has been a long fourteen year road to show that the United States Government had no actual evidence against Fayiz.

It should really come as no surprise, of the 779 men held in Cuba's most notorious prison, fewer than 15 will be given a kangaroo proceeding in the military commissions.  Almost all the guys getting trial "like" proceedings were brought to GTMO from CIA torture sites in 2006 to "scare up the place."

I look forward to seeing Fayiz and his family back in Kuwait where he should have been for the last fourteen years of his life.  I know Fayiz is too smart to hold a grudge as he would say "being angry at others gives them power over you, be strong and ignore those who seek to do you harm.  In that way you show you are stronger than them."

 

Well Fayiz, time to get on with the rest of our lives as we have both been freed from GTMO.  Time to find your wife and start your family my friend.  Let me be the first to welcome you back.”

Statement by Nancy Hollander about her client Mohamedou Ould Slahi, best-selling author, the last Mauritanian in Guantánamo and extraordinary rendition victim, who has yet to be cleared for release:

“I speak to you on behalf of Mohamedou Ould Slahi. I know he would want to thank everyone for your commitment to demand that Guantanamo be closed, that everyone who is not being prosecuted be sent home or to a third country and that that those facing prosecution be tried in a regular United States court with all the constitutional protections that apply to every person---citizen and alien---who is charged with crimes against the United States. Closing Guantanamo means closing it forever, not moving it to another location. Mohamedou Ould Slahi has been incarcerated by the United States for fourteen years. He is an innocent man who has never been charged with any crime. Although he was tortured, he remains unbroken. His dignity, humor and humanity are available for all to see in his memoir, Guantanamo Diary, now available in 21 countries and 19 languages. We will not cease our efforts until he is free. ”

Sheikh Suliman Gani with Shaker Aamer

Further media of this event:

https://activist1.wordpress.com/2016/01/11/former-guantanamo-hostages-and-supporters-hold-candlelit-vigil-calling-for-closure-on-14th-anniversary-of-gitmo-opening/

http://www.demotix.com/news/9439480/vigil-mark-14-years-injustice-brutal-guant-namo-bay-prison#media-9439466

http://www.demotix.com/news/9437168/shaker-aamer-attends-candle-lit-vigil-us-embassy-london

http://mylondondiary.co.uk/2016/01/jan.htm#guantanamo

Media release: London Guantánamo Campaign welcomes release of last British resident in Guantánamo Bay

For immediate release: Friday 30 October 2015

The London Guantánamo Campaign [1] welcomes the release of the last British resident held at Guantánamo Bay, 48-year old Saudi national Shaker Aamer [2]. Mr Aamer, who has indefinite leave to remain in the UK and a British family, has been held in Guantánamo Bay since February 2002 where he has never faced charges or trial, and was first cleared for release in 2007.   

Aisha Maniar, spokesperson for the London Guantánamo Campaign, says, “The London Guantánamo Campaign welcomes the release of the last British resident Shaker Aamer, for whom we have campaigned since 2006.

“We are pleased for the family of Shaker Aamer and hope they will be given the space and privacy to reunite and reconnect as a family. Release from indefinite detention and torture after almost 14 years creates new challenges and difficulties and we urge that Shaker Aamer is given adequate opportunity to receive rehabilitation and all the care he requires as a survivor of torture.

“Shaker’s case has nonetheless demonstrated the frailty of the ‘special relationship’ between the US and UK. Unanswered questions remain, particularly why it has taken so long, when he was first cleared for release and his return was sought in 2007. Both the Conservative and Labour parties must respond.

“There are still 112 prisoners held at Guantánamo Bay and we will continue to campaign for their release and the closure of the prison camp. The London Guantánamo Campaign also thanks the many individuals and grassroots organisations who have worked tirelessly for many years for his release, long before his case came to the public attention.”

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS

1. The London Guantánamo Campaign was set up in 2006 and campaigns for justice for all prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, for the closure of this and other secret prisons, and an end to the practice of extraordinary rendition. http://londonguantanamocampaign.blogspot.com     

2. For more details on Shaker Aamer’s case, see http://www.reprieve.org.uk/case-study/shaker-aamer/

26 June: Torture Victims Have a Right to Rehabilitation

Solidarity Vigil

As we have done every year since 2010, the London Guantánamo Campaign held a vigil in solidarity with victims and survivors of torture everywhere on Friday 26 June to mark UN International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. The silent vigil, held in Trafalgar Square on a busy Friday evening was attended by around 40 people and supported by the Save Shaker Aamer Campaign.

Noel Hamel (centre) with the banner he made for this event)

One of dozens of events held worldwide to mark this important date, the theme this year is the right to rehabilitation. This involves a number of factors to help restore survivors to the situation they were in – physically, mentally, psychologically, materially – prior to being tortured as best as is possible. It covers a variety of means such as compensation, physical rehabilitation, therapy, justice and guarantees it will not happen again. Although a human right, many victims do not receive any such treatment or facilities.

The right to rehabilitation was highlighted at the vigil with placards, leaflets handed out with information on the issue and banners mentioning the relevant UN articles on rehabilitation for torture victims. Although usually very well received and supported by the general public, increasing misinformation and propaganda in the mainstream media over various issues has left quite a few people confused about what torture is and who torture victims are.

Right to Rehabilitation and Guantánamo Prisoners*

The right to rehabilitation is a major issue for both former and the remaining 112 Guantánamo prisoners. All are survivors of torture both at the prison camp and in other US military and CIA-run facilities. The release at the end of 2014 of a redacted version of the US Senate report into CIA torture under the so-called War on Terror has shed further light on the abuses and inhumane practices prisoners – the vast majority of whom have never been charged or tried – have been subjected to.

Earlier this month, gruesome details were published of the torture faced by Majid Khan who after being kidnapped in Pakistan in 2003 was held at secret CIA torture prisons between 2003 and 2006 until being taken to Guantánamo Bay. Earlier this year, lawyers for one of the defendants facing trial for alleged involvement in the September 11 2001 attacks revealed details of the torture their client suffered through CIA torture and from which he still suffers due to inadequate medical care, including the inability to sit down comfortably due to rape.

 

Few prisoners have ever received adequate medical care at Guantánamo Bay. It was only in 2014 that Omar Khadr, held at Guantánamo Bay for over a decade, and released to his native Canada in 2012 finally received treatment for a shoulder injury he sustained in 2002. A former Russian prisoner, released in 2004, still has a bullet lodged in his thigh from an injury in an Afghan prison in 2001 due to inadequate care at Guantánamo and in Russia. 

In addition, the response to prisoners protesting their indefinite detention through hunger strikes has been met with more torture through force-feeding. The long-term effects of such action on the body are not dealt with and can lead to further health complications later on. The US must provide the prisoners it is currently holding with adequate medical care and also expedite periodic reviews of prisoners held without charge or trial, deemed “forever prisoners”, as a means of rehabilitation.

For prisoners who are released, rehabilitation can remain a challenge. With the current drive to empty Guantánamo by the Obama administration, over the past year, many of those released have been sent to third countries due to insecurity and war in their own countries of origin. As the US washes its hands of prisoners as soon as they are released, some can find themselves facing almost-complete isolation and poverty in their new surroundings. In May 2015, a former prisoner released to Kazakhstan at the end of 2014 died of kidney failure due to inadequate medical care at Guantánamo and after his release. 

 

While the US is applauded for prisoner releases, not much emphasis is put on the often precarious situations former prisoners find themselves in post-release. The US must ensure that all prisoners are released to countries where they are safe and their physical and moral integrity is not compromised. They must be guaranteed the right to rehabilitation, including legal, medical and financial assistance.

 

The London Guantánamo Campaign remains committed to ensuring justice for all Guantánamo prisoners. While we emphasised how this issue affects Guantánamo prisoners, it relates closely as well to all prisoners who have been and are the subject of extraordinary rendition, an ongoing programme by the CIA.

Media of the event:

http://www.demotix.com/news/7951250/london-vigil-un-international-day-support-victims-torture#media-7951240

* These issues were raised at a meeting held in the UK parliament on Tuesday 23 June 2015 on the case of British resident and Guantánamo prisoner Shaker Aamer by Aisha Maniar, organiser of the London Guantánamo Campaign

LGC Newsletter – May 2015

BRITISH RESIDENTS:

On 19-20 May, a delegation of four British MPs – Jeremy Corbyn (Labour), Andy Slaughter (Labour), Andrew Mitchell (Conservative) and David Davies (Conservative) – from the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Shaker Aamer travelled to the US to raise awareness of the plight of the last British resident in Guantánamo Bay, Shaker Aamer, who has been held there without charge or trial for over 13 years. During the intense two-day visit, meetings were held in Washington between the MPs and the British Ambassador, the Special Envoy for the Closure of Guantanamo, Ambassador Paul Lewis from the Pentagon, acting Special Envoy Charles Trumbull from the State Department. They held discussions with influential Senators and attorneys including John McCain (Rep. Arizona), Chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Joe Manchin (Dem, West Virginia), member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and Bill Monahan, senior  counsel to the Senate Armed Services Committee, Patrick Leahy, (Dem. Vermont), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Dianne Feinstein (Dem, California), Chair and ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Dick Durbin, (Dem. Illinois), Chair and Ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law. US officials were informed of concerns and interest in the UK in the case and popular support for Shaker Aamer to return to his family here, as well as MPs raising the fact that the continued detention of Aamer, in spite of repeat requests from the UK for his return, is undermining the special relationship between the two states.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3093676/Special-relationship-UK-risk-case-Guantanamo-Briton-Shaker-Aamer.html

Funding for the delegation was made possible through efforts by the Save Shaker Aamer Campaign, including a day-long ‘cage’ action in Trafalgar Square on 16 May, which raised both funds and awareness.

Following similar media reports in April, on 27 May, Shaker Aamer’s lawyer Clive Stafford-Smith from Reprieve reported on BBC radio that he had been informed by various US officials that Shaker Aamer could be released within weeks and could be reunited with his family as early as June. However, similar reports by officials have been made in the past and did not materialise.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-32899003

NEWS:

Guantánamo Bay:

On 1^st May, in an unusual step, the US government won a military commission appeal which means that the conviction of former Sudanese prisoner, Ibrahim Al-Qosi, who was convicted in 2010 and returned to Sudan in 2012 after serving his sentence, remains intact. In a short judgment, judges dismissed the appeal as his lawyer lacked jurisdiction as she did not have his permission to represent him in the appeal. The military commission court had however denied her application for funding to travel to Sudan to get his permission to do so. One of his convictions – for material support for terrorism – has since been successfully appealed by others. This is only the second of seven sentences handed down by the military commission court that remains intact.

It is not just the prisoners at Guantánamo Bay that US military staff bully and abuse. Although no one has been charged or convicted for the abuse of prisoners, in mid-May, Staff Sgt. Dustin A. Barker from Scott, Kentucky was found guilty of ‘hazing’ -humiliating and intentionally physically abusing - Marines at Guantánamo in 2013. In one incident he ordered one marine to punch another so hard that he urinated blood. He was found guilty of the charges and demoted in rank.

http://usmclife.com/2015/05/marine-convicted-of-hazing-incidents-has-rank-reduced/

A retired Supreme Court judge has called for some prisoners to be compensated for having knowingly been held illegally by the US. He said that prisoners who continue to be detained after being cleared for release should be given reparations as the US knows that they do not pose a threat to it.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2015/05/05/john-paul-stevens-says-some-guantanamo-bay-detainees-should-be-given-reparations/

Having won the right to be bailed by a Canadian court in late April, Omar Khadr’s hearing at which his bail term would be heard was delayed from Tuesday 5 May to Thursday 7 May, as there was an election being held in the state of Alberta. On Thursday, the judge agreed to generous bail terms while Khadr appeals his military commission conviction in the US and dismissed an appeal against bail by the Canadian government. Leaving the court, it was the first time Khadr has walked through a door pushed by him and freely in almost 13 years. He is currently living with the family of his lawyer Dennis Edney QC in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He spoke to the press on the evening of his release and was the subject of a documentary – the first time he has been able to speak to the press – that was aired on Canadian television on 28 May and will be repeated on Al Jazeera in early June.

On 14 May, in a further victory, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that – while detained – Omar Khadr should be treated as a juvenile and not an adult offender. Now bailed, the ruling in moot but was brought by his lawyers to have removed to a provincial correctional facility rather than a federal penitentiary.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/14/canada-guantanamo-omar-khadr-child-offender

On 19 May, four former prisoners accepted as refugees in Uruguay who had held a protest outside the US Embassy in the capital Montevideo demanding extra support and that the US gives them reparations for holding them illegally for 13 years struck a deal with Uruguayan government negotiators. The deal, which is not much of a real improvement on the original deal offered to the men, will see them receive rent for their own homes, assistance in finding jobs and learning Spanish and a small monthly stipend to cover their basic needs. Since arriving in the country at the end of last year, the six men who are all torture survivors and in need of rehabilitation, have all struggled. They were given a flat to share but wanted privacy. They were offered menial jobs, such as working as fruit pickers, even though the jobs were sometimes difficult to get to and difficult to carry out given their physical health. In addition, the men were seeking to bring their families to the country – four of the men are from Syria and their families are still in the war-torn country – but the small wages they will receive in addition to the stipend will not be sufficient to do this. As proof that the men are eager to adapt to their new surroundings and to get on with their lives, local Uruguayan media has reported that two of them will be getting married to Uruguayan women at the beginning of June.

Asim Thabit Abdullah al-Khalaqi, 47, a Yemeni prisoner held without charge or trial at Guantánamo for over 12 years and released to Kazakhstan at the end of 2014, died on 7 May. He is reported to have been in poor health and died of kidney failure. It is reported that poor medical care at Guantánamo may have contributed to his death.

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/may/22/guantanamo-detainee-asim-thabit-abdullah-al-khalaqi-dies-kazakhstan

 

Extraordinary Rendition:

Prosecutors in Scotland investigating the use of airports in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Prestwick and Aberdeen for CIA torture flights have submitted a request to the US authorities to receive a complete and unredacted version of the Senate torture to help its inquiries.

http://rt.com/uk/259973-reprieve-cia-scottish-airport/

LGC Activities:

The LGC May Shut Guantánamo demonstration was attended by 9 people. We were joined by the family of American prisoner in Iraq Shawki Ahmed Omar. The June demo will be on Thursday 4 June: https://www.facebook.com/events/1612696089007212/