All Roads Lead to Guantánamo...Follow the Action Here!

As well as updating the day's actions on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/AllRoadsLeadToGuantanamo), Twitter @allroadsleadg11 and Tumblr http://thelondonguantanamocampaign.tumblr.com/, we will be updating the information on this blog every half hour here.

Update on Wednesday 16 January:
The day of action received extensive press coverage and more images and reports can be viewed and read online on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/AllRoadsLeadToGuantanamo and Twitter: http://twitter.com/allroadsleadg11
Background to the day of action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gzhe9BnrGIk (video)
http://onesmallwindow.wordpress.com/2012/12/15/guantanamo-bay-epic-fail-for-obama/ (article)
Val Brown and Aisha Maniar from the LGC spoke to Russia Today: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiW9GIaCNDs (video)
Coverage of the tours:
Photographs of Shaker Aamer tour: http://www.demotix.com/news/1719753/walks-shame-follow-rendition-routes-guantanamo#media-1719592
http://www.demotix.com/news/1719753/walks-shame-follow-rendition-routes-guantanamo#media-1719592
Val Brown leading the Omar Khadr tour shot footage of readings from outside each of the embassies the tour visited:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Z6D1ElFqOA (Afghan Embassy)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIGEZREpkqg (Spanish Embassy)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUUUfn-JAXE (Portuguese Embassy)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dwq5kqmQFcM (Canadian Embassy)
http://freeomarakhadr.wordpress.com/2013/01/16/remember-canada-is-complicit-in-the-ongoing-torture-of-omar-khadr/
Around 70 people braved the cold weather and joined the vigil in the evening outside the US Embassy:
Video report: http://www.therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=9498   
News reports: http://www.wespeaknews.com/politics/candelight-vigil-to-mark-11-years-of-guantanamo-134196.html
http://aljazeera.net/humanrights/pages/639643f0-446c-4c0f-ad79-5c4c5352b4c8 (Arabic)
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/01/11/london-protest-marks-11-years-since-establishment-guantanamo-bay-prison/
Photo reportage: http://www.demotix.com/news/1724834/vigil-outside-us-embassy-london-11th-anniversary-guant-namo#media-1724456
http://www.demotix.com/news/1719778/vigil-marks-11-years-detention-guant-namo#media-1719777
http://www.demotix.com/news/1719240/vigil-guantanamo-bay-detainees-outside-londons-us-embassy#media-1719283
http://www.demotix.com/news/1719692/vigil-guantanamo-bay-prison-outside-us-embassy-london#media-1719522
Pictures from protests around the world: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/01/11/3177614/photo-gallery-01-11-095943.html
Messages of support read outside the US Embassy:
Green Party MP Caroline Lucas (Brighton Pavillion and Hove): “There is no excuse for the continued existence of Guantanamo Bay or the ongoing detention of British residents such as Shaker Aamer. The Green Party calls on President Obama to keep his promise and end what is a stain on America’s reputation globally.”
Green London MEP Jean Lambert: "11 years too long! Guantanamo Bay must close, and all remaining detainees charged with crimes or allowed to return home."
Lib Dem London MEP Sarah Ludford: "“Barack Obama must finally in his second term fulfil his promise of closing the disgraceful legal black hole of Guantanamo and rebuild the US’ human rights reputation. In any case, my constituent Shaker Aamer must return home to his family in London after 11 years of totally illegal incarceration.”


Update at 4:45pm GMT:

Adnan Latif/Ahmed Belbacha tour at Turkish Embassy, more questions from the cops, then on to Portuguese Embassy where they finished at 16:45. Now on to US Embassy for 6pm vigil - Adnan Latif's body left Guantánamo decomposed weeks ago in a ...bodybag to his family in Yemen. His soul left on 8 September 2012. He was 36. His lawyers say Guantánamo and extended arbitrary detention killed him. In 2010, Obama placed a moratorium on returns to Yemen as it was too dangerous.
Ahmed Belbacha, cleared for release almost 6 years, remains at Guantánamo for want of a safe third country to return to. Sentenced in absentia in Algeria in 2009 to 20 years for membership of a "terrorist organisation" abroad, a claim now taken back by the Pentagon, and unwanted by the UK where he lived for 18 months, he remains there for want of a safe place to go.

The Shaker Aamer tour has also come to an end and is heading to the US Embassy too.

The Omar Khadr tour is at the Spanish Embassy and the Abd El Nashiri tour has left the Polish Embassy.

Update at 4:15pm GMT:
The Adnan Latif/Ahmed Belbacha tour took the bus to the Turkish Embassy. A large number of prisoner were flown through Incirlik and to other European countries before being taken to Guantánamo Bay: http://www.todayszaman.com/newsDetail_getNewsById.action?load=detay&link=126951 These were mostly stop-overs and for refueling.

The Omar Khad team is currently en route from the Afghan Embassy, where he was picked up and detained at Bagram for several month in 2002 before being flown to Spain before Guantánamo.

The Abd El Nashiri tour went from the UAE Embassy to the Thai Embassy as he was held at a secret prison there and tortured for several months before being taken to Poland, along with other "high value" prisoners, such as Abu Zubaydah, where they are heading to.

Diplomatic police are still on the look out for our tours.

Update at 3:45pm GMT:
Jean Lambert MEP (Green) for London has joined the Shaker Aamer tour. This tour crossed paths with the Adnan Latif/Ahmed Belbacha tour on Knightsbridge travelling to their respective embassies. Many prisoners travelled the same routes on different dates, hence we combined the Latif and Belbacha tours as they were taken to Guantánamo through the same countries. Moazzam Begg and Russian prisoner Ravil Mingazov, the latter still held at Guantánamo, travelled the same journey as Shaker Aamer on different dates.

The Adnan Latif/Ahmed Belbacha tour has now arrived at the Afghan Embassy and the Abd El Nashiri tour is heading there. El Nashiri was held at the notorious Salt Pit torture prison near Kabul. Afghanistan is also home to the still functioning Bagram prison where the remaining 50-odd foreign prisoners enjoy less rights than those at Guantánamo and which was described by Moazzam Begg as "worse than Guantánamo". Almost all the prisoner at Guantánamo were "processed" through Bagram, regardless of where they were kidnapped.

Diplomatic police have spoken to our tours as the embassies are calling each other and the police to "warn" of Guantánamo activists in the area. "No smoke without fire" is a claim often thrown at the Guantánamo prisoners, the vast majority of whom have never even been tried. Well, that also applies to the governments of states who colluded in the "rendition" and torture of prisoners in spite of their continuing denial and whose silence on the matter has been bought through their complicity.

Update at 3:15pm GMT:
The Adnan Abdul Latif and Ahmed Belbacha tour's first stop was the Pakistani Embassy where Noel Hamel from Kingston Peace Council spoke about the start of their ordeal, Geraldine Cowan from the LGC read out a poem by Adnan Abdul Latif and Dan Viesnik from the LGC spoke to express solidarity with victims of drone strikes in Pakistan. More people have joined the tour and embassy staff came out to take some leaflets. The group is leafleting and talking to the public along Knightsbridge before heading off to the Afghan Embassy.
Both men tried to flee Afghanistan and the violence following 9/11 and the start of the US war in Afghanistan. They were picked up in Pakistan and sold by local tribes and militias to the US military for a bounty. Contrary to popular belief, most prisoners were not combatants but foreign nationals sold by local groups for a bounty of up to $20,000, a small fortune for them.

Update at 2.45pm GMT:
The Abd El Nashiri tour has kicked off at the UAE Embassy at 2pm, the state in which he was kidnapped in 2002 with the help of state agents and handed over to the CIA, before being "rendered" and tortured through 3 continents and taken to Guantánamo not once but twice where he currently faces the death penalty for evidence adduced through torture, including waterboarding.
Pictures here: sdrv.ms/TOTie4
He currently has two cases against Poland and Romania at the European Court of Human Rights for his torture there: read the FACTS of his horrific ordeal in this European Court document: http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/sites/eng/pages/search.aspx?i=001-112302

 

 

Update at 1pm GMT:

The tours will all commence between 2 and 3pm and will start at the embassy of the country the prisoner was kidnapped in, or captured on the battlefield in the case of Omar Khadr.

News so far about Guantánamo:
Press release from Reprieve about the eleventh anniversary and British resident Shaker Aamer:
http://reprieve.org.uk/press/2013_01_11_after_11yrs_gtmo_brit_still_imprisoned/
Amnesty International UK launches a new petition on the eleventh anniversary for Shaker Aamer: http://action.amnesty.org.uk/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1194&ea.campaign.id=18208
There is also an ongoing petition to the Prime Minister for Shaker Aamer’s return:
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/33133

Video in the New York Times about the death of Yemeni Adnan Abdul Latif:

http://www.nytimes.com/video/2013/01/10/opinion/100000001998311/death-of-a-prisoner.html?smid=tw-share

News about the anniversary and today’s actions in the UK:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/detainee-let-down-by-ministers-say-former-guantanamo-inmates-8446862.html

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/01/11/282938/londoners-to-hold-antigitmo-vigil/

http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/news/content/view/full/128133

All Roads Lead to Guantánamo

All Roads Lead to Guantánamo
Friday 11 January 2013 marks the 11^th anniversary of the opening of the illegal prison camp at Guantánamo Bay. Out of the 779 prisoners known to have been held at Guantánamo since January 2002, 166 remain. After eleven years, there is little awareness about the issue and the plight of the prisoners held in legal limbo on an island far away… The bottom line remains that everyone has the right to justice and fair and due process and to know the reasons for their detention. There are exceptions where torture is permitted.

As campaigners in Europe, the London Guantánamo Campaign is marking this sombre anniversary with a series of walking tours around London, covering the stories of five prisoners, and taking in the embassies of states involved in their journey to Guantánamo, to highlight international collusion in the torture and arbitrary detention there. Many prisoners were never in Afghanistan or Pakistan fighting the Americans in the first place but were kidnapped elsewhere and no one was taken directly to Guantánamo. Join us this afternoon to find out more…

The tours will take in the journeys of British residents Shaker Aamer (http://www.reprieve.org.uk/cases/shakeraamer/) and Ahmed Belbacha (http://www.reprieve.org.uk/cases/ahmedbelbacha/), both cleared for release almost 6 years ago, Omar Khadr, a child prisoner (www.freeomarakhadr.wordpress.com),  Abd El-Nashiri, a victim of “extraordinary rendition” tortured and imprisoned in three continents before being taken to Guantánamo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abd_al-Rahim_al-Nashiri) and Adnan Abdul Latif, a Yemeni prisoner who died in dubious circumstances at Guantánamo in September 2012 (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/16/opinion/sunday/death-at-guantanamo-bay.html).

Now see the post above: http://londonguantanamocampaign.blogspot.co.uk/#!/2013/01/all-roads-lead-to-guantanamofollow.html

MEDIA RELEASE: Campaigners mark Guantánamo 11th anniversary with day of action on Friday 11 January, London

All Roads Lead to Guantánamo – series of afternoon “rendition tours”, leading to vigil outside US Embassy, Grosvenor Square, at 6-8pm

10 January 2012 - For immediate release

Photo opportunity: During the vigil at the US Embassy, there will be a visual display with activists dressed in orange jumpsuits and black hoods.

Just one week before the inauguration of Barack Obama to his second term, the illegal US military prison camp at Guantánamo Bay will mark its eleventh anniversary; the closure of the prison was once a key election pledge, and the subject of a presidential decree in his first term.

Campaigners in London, led by the London Guantánamo Campaign [1], will mark the anniversary with a symbolic action designed to draw attention to the ongoing plight of individuals caught up in Guantánamo's nefarious web as well as states that have colluded in its continuing existence. It will begin with a series of afternoon walking tours, recounting the journeys of five prisoners to Guantánamo Bay [2]. Each tour will take in the embassies of the states that facilitated their rendition there [3].

All the “roads” travelled will converge for a candlelight vigil outside the US Embassy at 6pm, where the names of the prisoners will be read out in the style of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo [4], as well as messages to President Obama about Guantánamo Bay.

Aisha Maniar, an organiser from the London Guantánamo Campaign, said:

“We’re calling on President Obama to take the opportunity presented by his re-election to make good on his first term presidential decree and election pledge. Eleven years of political inertia, excuses and downright lies have resulted in eleven years of arbitrary detention, torture and legal limbo for 166 prisoners. Four prisoners have died during President Obama’s first term and only 72 have been released [5], even though many more are cleared for release.

 

“The failure of the United States to recognise international law and due process rights is also the failure of the international community, through its collusion in the torture and “rendition” of these men to Guantánamo Bay, and its failure to assist in closing it down. However, campaigners around the world will not be silenced. We will continue to remind the US government and all other complicit states of their obligations under international law and of the human rights norms they claim to support.”

Contact: e-mail: london.gtmo@gmail.com

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITOR

1. The London Guantánamo Campaign 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. The daytime tours will cover the journeys to Guantánamo Bay of the five following prisoners:

1 - Shaker Aamer (Saudi national, British resident: http://www.reprieve.org.uk/cases/shakeraamer/)

2 - Ahmed Belbacha (Algerian national, British resident: http://www.reprieve.org.uk/cases/ahmedbelbacha/)

3 - Omar Khadr (Canadian child prisoner released September 2012, convicted in military tribunal: www.freeomarakhadr.wordpress.com)

4 - Abd El-Rahim Al-Nashiri (Saudi victim of extraordinary rendition, facing trial and death penalty http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abd_al-Rahim_al-Nashiri)

5 - Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif (Yemeni prisoner died at Guantánamo Bay, September 2012 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/16/opinion/sunday/death-at-guantanamo-bay.html)

3. The tours will take place in the afternoon after 2pm (starting at different times). They may be joined by sending an e-mail to the London Guantánamo Campaign london.gtmo@gmail.com or can be followed online via social media: Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/AllRoadsLeadToGuantanamo), Twitter @allroadsleadg11 and Tumblr http://thelondonguantanamocampaign.tumblr.com/

4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mothers_of_the_Plaza_de_Mayo

5. http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/pdf/USLS-Fact-Sheet-Gitmo-Numbers.pdf

Where is the world....?

They are artists of torture,
They are artists of pain and fatigue,
They are artists of insults and humiliation.
Where is the world to save us from torture?
Where is the world to save us from the fire and sadness?
Where is the world to save the hunger strikers?

-Adnan Latif* (found dead in his cell, 8 September 2012)

On Friday 11^th January, the London Guantánamo Campaign invites you to join us in this part of the world to mark the 11^th anniversary of the opening of the Guantánamo Bay prison camp. Falling just days before Barack Obama is inaugurated for his second presidential term, he has made it harder to close Guantánamo Bay by signing into law the National Defense Authorization Act 2013, imposing restrictions on the transfer of prisoners for another year. This year: take action and make a difference. With less than a week to go, there is still much you can do:

1 – Join one of our educational “All Roads Lead to Guantánamo” daytime tours of embassies, recounting the journeys of five prisoners to Guantánamo Bay. Joining one of our tours is easier than joining a gym and you’re guaranteed to get exercise (and learn something useful!). For more details and TO JOIN, please e-mail us at london.gtmo@gmail.com and visit: http://londonguantanamocampaign.blogspot.co.uk/#!/2012/11/your-invitation-to-join-us-to-mark-11.html

Your help with this part of the action will be greatly appreciated.
*Adnan Latif is one of the prisoners whose journey we will recount

2 – Join our vigil outside the US Embassy at 6-8pm. All are welcome: http://www.facebook.com/events/137186296431211/ Any help with the vigil will also be greatly appreciated.

3 – As part of the vigil, we will be reading out YOUR messages to President Obama about Guantánamo Bay. Please send us your short messages: 50 words maximum (Tweet/SMS length) by e-mail: london.gtmo@gmail.com / on our Facebook Page (below) or Twitter (@allroadsleadg11) 

4 – On Monday 7^th January, Aisha Maniar from the LGC will speak at the Brent Stop The War meeting about what is currently happening at Guantánamo Bay, actions to mark the 11th anniversary and what President Obama should do about the prison. 7:30pm, Rumi’s Cave, 26 Willesden Lane, NW6 7ST (Tube: Kilburn, buses: 98, 316, 332, 16, 189, 328)

http://stopwarbrent.wordpress.com/2012/12/31/brent-stop-the-war-meeting-monday-7th-january-2013/

5 – Need more information?

Watch our promo video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gzhe9BnrGIk
Read an article about why this action matters and you should be a part of it: http://onesmallwindow.wordpress.com/2012/12/15/guantanamo-bay-epic-fail-for-obama/

6 – Spread the word – let your friends and family know about the day of action:

Like our page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AllRoadsLeadToGuantanamo from where you can follow the action on the day as well as at:

Twitter: @allroadsleadg11 https://twitter.com/allroadsleadg11  

Tumblr: http://thelondonguantanamocampaign.tumblr.com/  

LGC blog: www.londonguantanamocampaign.blogspot.com  

The action on the day will be educational and interactive; follow our updates on the various tours, news on prisoners, facts about Guantánamo Bay and what you can do, and give us your feedback online.

Be a part of history. We hope to see you there – in person or virtually – and send a strong message to President Obama, weeks before he assumes his second term in office, that GUANTANAMO MUST CLOSE.

For any queries, or further information, please contact the London Guantánamo Campaign

On Friday 11th January 2013… All Roads Lead to Guantánamo Bay: How Can You Get Involved?

It is now less than one month until the 11^th anniversary of Guantánamo Bay on 11 January 2013 and the London Guantánamo Campaign’s “All Roads Lead to Guantánamo” day of action. 166 prisoners remain there, almost entirely without charge or trial after a decade. In his first term in office, President Obama has failed to live up to the principles of freedom, justice and human rights he claims to espouse. The responsibility thus falls on the shoulders of civil society – us – to take action.

There are lots of ways in which you can get involved in this day of action from ALL OVER THE WORLD. For the past 11 years, the US and other governments have had plenty of excuses for inaction, what’s YOURS?

1 – Join our educational tours retracing the journeys of five prisoners to Guantánamo Bay: some who remain, some who have died, and some who were never near Afghanistan in the first place. The purpose of the tours is to raise awareness. We would especially appreciate the involvement of people who can help to provide live streaming of the tours, and provide updates on the tours as they progress through videos, pictures, audio, text comments, etc. relayed via e-mail/SMS/Twitter/Facebook and Tumblr.  For more information on the tours and to join, please e-mail us: london.gtmo@gmail.com For more details: http://londonguantanamocampaign.blogspot.co.uk/#!/2012/11/your-invitation-to-join-us-to-mark-11.html

2 – As part of our vigil outside the US Embassy at 6-8pm in the evening: http://www.facebook.com/events/137186296431211/ we will be reading out YOUR messages to President Obama about Guantánamo Bay. Please send us your short messages: 50 words maximum (Tweet/SMS length) by e-mail: london.gtmo@gmail.com/ on our Facebook Page (below) or Twitter (@allroadsleadg11) 

3 – Please help raise awareness of this event and anniversary: invite your friends and family to join.

Watch and share our promo video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gzhe9BnrGIk&feature=plcp

You can follow the news and action from now and on the day (live) on:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AllRoadsLeadToGuantanamo
Twitter: @allroadsleadg11 https://twitter.com/allroadsleadg11
Tumblr: http://thelondonguantanamocampaign.tumblr.com/
LGC blog: www.londonguantanamocampaign.blogspot.com

We anticipate the action on the day to be educational and interactive, so we look forward to you staying tuned to our updates on the various tours, news on prisoners, facts about Guantánamo Bay and what you can do, as well as your feedback. Feel free to share any relevant information – from around the globe - with us too!

 4 – If you can only attend the vigil we are organising outside the US Embassy in the evening, we would appreciate help with:

-          Holding up banners

-          Stewarding

-          Reading out messages and the names of current prisoners

-          General organisation

5 – The London Guantánamo Campaign is an entirely volunteer organisation. We too will be taking time off our day jobs. We largely fund our own activities, however if you are able to make a small contribution to the cost of the banners we will use on the day – outside the embassy and as part of the tours – it would be greatly appreciated. Please e-mail us for more details on how to do this.

6 –If you are a filmmaker, photographer or media worker, and you’d be interested in covering this action (tours/vigil), please get in touch with the co-ordinator, Aisha Maniar, at the e-mail address below. More details on media involvement: http://www.spectacle.co.uk/spectacleblog/guantanamo/london-guantanamo-campaign-11-january-2013/

Be a part of history. We hope to see you there – in person or virtually – and send a strong message to President Obama, weeks before he assumes his second term in office, that GUANTANAMO MUST CLOSE.

For any queries, or further information, please contact the London Guantánamo Campaign

All Roads Lead to Guantánamo Bay...on 11th January 2013

11 YEARS OF TORTURE, INJUSTICE, RENDITION AND ARBITRARY DETENTION

11 YEARS OF GUANTÁNAMO BAY

 

on Friday 11th January 2013

all roads lead to Guantánamo Bay

The world has too long turned a blind eye and connived in the illegal practices associated with it. Around 160 prisoners remain there.

The London Guantánamo Campaigns invite you to join us as we mark this 11th anniversary with a mystery tour across the capital, recounting the journey of 11 PRISONERS, visiting the embassies of the countries involved in torture flights and extraordinary rendition and leading up to a candlelight vigil outside the US Embassy at 6pm

 

JOIN US….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gzhe9BnrGIk

Please feel welcome to visit our Facebook page:

All Roads Lead To Guantanamo

or follow us on Twitter @allroadsleadG11                                                                                                                                                                        For more details and to sign up for the tour, please e-mail: london.gtmo@gmail.com or call: 07809 757 176

www.londonguantanamocampaign.blogspot.com