Guantánamo Hunger Strike Twitter Storm Package: 4pm BST today!

ATTENTION!!!!!

********* DO NOT BEGIN TWEETING UNTIL 11:00 EST/ 12:00 CST/ 16:00 BST/ 17:00 CET *********

#GitmoFreedomStrike Twitterstorm Package!
Objective:
Raise awareness through social media that Guantanamo Bay is still open and at least 130 of the remaining 166 prisoners have been on hunger strike since 6 February
Date & Time: Saturday, 6 April:  11:00 EST/ 12:00 CST/ 16:00 BST/ 17:00 CET
Length: 1 hour
Instructions:
Copy + Paste these tweets. Do not retweet, the hashtag will not trend.
If you are writing your own tweets, make sure to include the #GitmoFreedomStrike hashtag!
 Suggested Tweets:
#GitmoFreedomStrike is the only way out of Guantanamo in a coffin? http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2013/03/06/a-growing-feeling-here-that-death-is-the-road-out-of-guantanamo/
#GitmoFreedomStrike @BarackObama close Guantanamo or give back your Nobel peace prize 
#GitmoFreedomStrike @barackobama @whitehouse How many years must Guantanamo exist before the prisoners can be set free?

Whose hunger strike gets more attention?

#GitmoFreedomStrike @barackobama @DeptofDefense 130 prisoners at Guantanamo close to death: how long can you ignore them? And why? 
#GitmoFreedomStrike @barackobama show us a change we can believe in - shut down Guantanamo, make good on your promise
#GitmoFreedomStrike @guardian @BBCNews @CNN thanks for keeping us in the dark/ ignorance is strength pic.twitter.com/ykO5XrOqrY 
#GitmoFreedomStrike @DeptofDefense @icrc_dc this is a hunger strike, not Weightwatchers; arbitrary detention, not a prison sentence
#GitmoFreedomStrike hungry for freedom, starving for their rights: 130 Guantanamo prisoners on hunger strike since 6 February 
#GitmoHungerStrike @foreignoffice @Number10gov Shaker Aamer lost 30lb, on hunger strike for 3 months, what are you doing about it?
#GitmoFreedomStrike 11 years without charge or trial, with injustice and torture, 3 months on hunger strike - close Guantanamo now 
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Why this Twitter storm?
Saturday 6^th April marks the third month of the current hunger strike at Guantánamo Bay, in response to worsening treatment of prisoners and desperation after over 11 years of detention without charge or trial for most of the prisoners. While the US military has retracted its original position denying any hunger strike, it now admits that around 40 men have been refusing food, with 11 being force fed to keep them alive. Lawyers for the prisons have consistently put that number at around 130, out of the 166 prisoners still held there; only the weak and elderly are not taking part. 

Lawyers having visited their clients recently have reported that the situation is “increasingly desperate”: the temperature has been turned down, water is being rationed to the hunger strikers and non-hunger strikers have been isolated to put pressure on those protesting. Blankets and additional clothing they may have has also been confiscated from them.

Most of the world is oblivious to what is going on due to poor reporting in the media. To raise awareness and show solidarity with the hunger strikers, the London Guantánamo Campaign will be leading an international Twitter storm at 11:00 EST/ 16:00 BST/ 17:00 CET for one hour. Further details, including the relevant hashtag and suggested tweets, will be provided here closer to the time. Please check here on Saturday for further information and details. You can follow the London Guantánamo Campaign on Twitter @shutguantanamo 

London to mark third month of Guantánamo hunger strike (6th April)

A silent cry of desperation: imprisoned for years without trial or charge, fearing that death is the only way out, the vast majority of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay are involved in a hunger strike that has been little acknowledged…

On 6^th April, the hunger strike enters its THIRD MONTH. We have a few little reminders for London planned. But we need your help…

On Saturday 6^th April: “mission possible” and hunger strike twitter storm at 4pm BST

The mission: to be part of a coordinated visual presence for a couple of hours around London on 6^th April to mark the third month of prisoner hunger strikes at Guantánamo Bay.

Your tools: a camera or smartphone, a friend/accomplice, an orange jumpsuit, a hood, and a newspaper with a custom-made headline.

Your job: to sit/stand in the some of the busiest sites around London: the underground, Covent Garden, South Bank, Camden Town, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, Big Ben, Oxford Street. You pick.

It doesn’t take much to capture people’s attention, tourist hot-spots are perfect and curious people love taking pictures and uploading them for the world to see.

The message is clear: we won’t let the men unjustly imprisoned in Guantánamo Bay be ignored.

You will be provided with clothing, be part of a team, and be briefed on all your legal rights. If you don’t feel like wearing a jumpsuit, we welcome anyone willing to buddy-up with someone who is and help hand out leaflets.

If you’re interested contact the London Guantánamo Campaign at london.gtmo@gmail.com

But be quick. There are only 5 days left before the Hunger Games begin.

Are you in?

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This will be followed by a global hunger strike twitter storm at 4pm BST (5pm CET/11am EST). We will soon have further details on this action on our website. Please check it for further details/instructions. Only a Twitter account is necessary. If you’d like to be involved in planning this, please get in touch with us.

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On Thursday 4^th April, our monthly “Shut Down Guantánamo!” demonstration will be held in solidarity with the hunger strikers. Please join us if you can: 12-1pm outside the US Embassy and 1.15-2.15pm at Marble Arch. Large protests have been held in the past couple of days in Kuwait and Yemen; let’s add London to the chorus of protest at injustice:

https://www.facebook.com/events/225963950882304/

LGC Newsletter – March 2013

NEWS:

British Residents:

Names can still be added to the petition calling for Shaker Aamer’s release to Prime Minister David Cameron: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/33133 This petition can be signed until 20 April 2013; 100,000 signatures on the petition will lead to a debate on this issue in Parliament.

Guantánamo Bay:

The main news that has come out of Guantánamo Bay this month, but which continues to be ignored by the mainstream media, is a hunger strike involving almost all the prisoners. On 6 February, prisoners in Camp 6 with the exception of the weak and elderly, which houses the vast majority of prisoners, went on hunger strike in protest at arbitrary cell searches and confiscation of personal items and mishandling of the Qur’an by interpreters, which they said constituted desecration. This is coupled, according to their lawyers, with increasing despair and desperation for most of the men who are cleared for release but remain there perpetually without charge or trial in their twelfth year. The fear is that death is the only reasonable way out. The hunger strike was brought to the public attention in early March when lawyers for some of the prisoners who had visited Guantánamo Bay wrote to the commander there seeking the demands of the hunger strikers be acquiesced: http://ccrjustice.org/files/2013_03_04_Ltr_JTF_Smith_Welsh.pdf  The official response has been denial. All the lawyers representing prisoners then wrote to the Defense Secretary on 14 March. Neither letter has been responded to. Instead of admitting to the hunger strike, the US Defense Department admitted that it had fired rubber bullets, a potentially lethal riot control method, at prisoners, hitting one, on 2 January: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2290036/Navy-confirms-rubber-bullets-fired-Guantanamo-Bay-amid-allegations-widespread-inmate-protests-liken-conditions-darkest-days-Bush.html?ito=feeds-newsxml The lawyers corroborate the increasingly worse conditions reported by their clients.

Initially putting the number of hunger strikers at 6, who have been force fed for over a year, the US military has since retracted and the official number has now gone up to 31 with over 8 being force fed to keep them alive and at least four having collapsed due to exhaustion and dehydration. Lawyers put the number of hunger strikers at closer to 130.

At a hearing of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) on 14 March, a senior lawyer for the US government denied that there was even any “indefinite detention” of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay: http://www.iede.co.uk/news/2013_1275/us-claims-no-indefinite-detention-guant%C3%A1namo

A senior US military official General John Kelly has put the hunger strike down to “frustration” by the prisoners and has instead asked the Pentagon for $195 million to upgrade facilities at the prison, to improve facilities for soldiers serving there and the camp that houses high-value prisoners, such as Khalid Sheikh Mohamed: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2297620/Four-years-Obama-promised-close-Guantanamo-Bay-military-prison-195-million-dollars-renovations-new-construction.html

There has been NO discussion throughout on how to close the camp and release the prisoners, or attempts to address their demands. Plans have also been announced to restrict the access lawyers have to their clients and civilian flights to Guantánamo Bay, meaning that lawyers, journalists and others monitoring trials, etc. will only be able to travel there with the military.

Into its fiftieth day, it is only now that this hunger strike is starting to reach the mainstream media, which has consistently failed to report it, including those that consider themselves more liberal. The Red Cross, the only independent organisation which has access to the prisoners, has also failed to monitor the situation. Having last visited the prison in mid-February, it has now brought forward a visit to the prison scheduled for next month due to the severity of the hunger strike: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-21958255 The Red Cross is supposed to provide independent monitoring of the health and weight of prisoners involved in such cases and to track possible abuses.

The countries the prisoners come from, including the UK with respect to Shaker Aamer, have not responded to the hunger strike either.

Solidarity actions have been held in the UK and US.

Russia Today has been following developments closely and has produced the following up-to-date timeline of actions and events: http://rt.com/news/guantanamo-bay-hunger-strike-399/ The LGC spoke to Russia Today on 17 March, the same day as a protest organised by the LGC took place in London.

Other media on this news:

http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2013/03/04/guantanamo-prisoners-on-hunger-strike-against-new-guard-force-confiscating-personal-items/#

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/14972-guantanamo-hunger-strike-potentially-life-threatening-attorneys-allege-in-letter-to-prison-officials

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/21/us/hunger-strike-cases-surge-at-guantanamo.html?ref=charliesavage&_r=0

http://ceasefiremagazine.co.uk/hunger-strike-guantanamo-enters-critical-stage/

Release from Guantánamo Bay, however, can result in further imprisonment and abuse elsewhere, often in the home country.

Omar Khadr: who returned to Canada in September last year is now being represented once more by intrepid lawyer Dennis Edney. Having only resumed representation of Omar Khadr a few weeks ago, Mr Edney has already been on television and has spoken to the print media in Canada to oppose the official and closed narrative concerning Omar Khadr being a “convicted terrorist”. Mr Edney will soon appeal Omar Khadr’s conviction at Guantánamo. Funds are needed to ensure that Dennis Edney can do this work – take on court cases and visit Omar Khadr at the Milhaven Institution. The international Free Omar Khadr campaign has set up a facility for individuals to donate to these costs via Paypal: http://freeomarakhadr.wordpress.com/2013/03/02/omar-khadrs-lawyer-dennis-edney-tireless-advocate-who-has-made-many-personal-sacrifices-to-defend-him-please-donate-dennis-edney-is-a-tireless-advocate-who-has-made-many-personal-sacrifices-to-defe/

Rasul Kudaev: a 35-year old Russian national who was returned to Russia from Guantánamo Bay in 2004. Arrested while travelling through Afghanistan en route to Pakistan by the Taleban who accused him of being a Russian spy, he was held at Guantánamo Bay for two years after the US accused him of fighting for the Taleban and when returned to Russia, he was arrested following militant attacks on military installations in his regional capital and accused of involvement in an armed group and spying for the US and UK. After almost 8 years of pre-trial detention, and having suffered much physical abuse there, as well as health complications from poor medical care and injuries from his time in Afghanistan and at Guantánamo Bay, Rasul Kudaev’s case finally came to trial this week. He should have been given an opportunity to provide his own defence on Monday 25 or Tuesday 26 March but he has instead been banned from the court and denied all rights to a fair trial in Russia’s longest-running court case, involving a staggering 59 defendants. To read more about Rasul Kudaev’s harrowing story and this case in which judgment is finally expected later this year, please read:

http://onesmallwindow.wordpress.com/2013/03/26/rasul-kudaev-hostage-to-21st-century-justice/

Extraordinary rendition:

Following the controversial handover of Bagram prison in Afghanistan to the Afghan authorities last year which was blighted by questions over detention without trial and the fate of over 50 foreign prisoners who have been held without charge or trial for over a decade and are largely victims of extraordinary rendition, the US and Afghanistan signed a new memorandum of understanding which took force to officially hand over Bagram to Afghan control on 25 March. The Afghan authorities had already released a large number of Afghans held there without charge last year. Of the over 3000 prisoners held there when the prison was transferred last year, more than half have been released. Afghanistan has also negotiated the handover of Afghan Taleban prisoners; however, the US will maintain control over the 50 non-Afghan nationals who were held at Bagram. With the exclusion of these prisoners, prisoners under British control remain the only prisoners in Afghanistan held by a foreign country. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21922047

Abu Zubaydah, who was held at a secret prison in Poland from December 2002 to September 2003, before being rendered elsewhere and then taken to Guantánamo Bay has filed a case against Poland at the European Court of Human Rights for its delay in investigating his claims of torture and extraordinary rendition. The claim has been brought due to Poland’s slow progress in its own investigation, which has taken over two years so far and has stalled considerably in recent months. http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/03/27/3309535/waterboarded-zubaydah-sues-poland.html

LGC Activities:

The March LGC “Shut Down Guantánamo!” demonstration was attended by 3 people. The next demonstration will be on Thursday 4 April at 12-1pm outside the US Embassy, Grosvenor Square, W1A and then 1.15-2.15pm outside Speaker’s Corner, Marble Arch (Hyde Park): http://www.facebook.com/events/225963950882304/ This demonstration will be in solidarity with the Guantánamo hunger strikers.

On 17 March, Aisha Maniar from the LGC spoke to Russia Today about the hunger strike, stating that “awareness about the hunger strike, […] has more or less – at least in Britain – been ignored by the mainstream media.”

On the same day, the LGC held a demonstration outside the US Embassy in London in solidarity with the hunger strikers. On a cold and wet day, around 30 people joined to show their solidarity. Speakers from the Save Shaker Aamer Campaign, the Stop The War Coalition, Muna Othman, a Yemeni journalist, and spoken word artist Ibrahim Sincere spoke at the event.

Videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhcFo5vPJ2A Muna Othman

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQtp_IrFvRo David Harrold (LGC)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4L-fKypdPq4 (STWC)

Activists from the LGC also helped out and spoke at a conference organised by Birkbeck College and SOAS Stop The War Societies on 20 March. During the day, activists helped to collect signatures on the e-petition for Shaker Aamer and raised awareness about the plight of the prisoners with video showings and speeches. In the evening, the LGC contributed to a panel discussion on “Guantanamo and the Secret War on Terror”: http://www.santinopani.com/guantanamo-and-the-secret-war-on-terror/#jp-carousel-8411 (pictures) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6rsavWoiu4&list=PLyKfbki85FBdjG-TpJ78LlRCpgp5Q2Zg3 (videos)

Please watch out for details of more hunger strike solidarity actions and get in touch with us to get involved!

 Pictures of LGC actions copyrighted. May be reused and reproduced free of charge WITH permission.

MEDIA RELEASE: London Guantánamo Campaign to hold emergency protest in support of Guantánamo Bay hunger strikers, Sunday 17 March, 2-4pm, US Embassy

MEDIA RELEASE: London Guantánamo Campaign to hold emergency protest in support of Guantánamo Bay hunger strikers, Sunday 17 March, 2-4pm, US Embassy

15 March 2013 - For immediate release

Since early February, the vast majority of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay have been on hunger strike, in response to the arbitrary confiscation of personal items from their cells and the desecration of copies of the Koran by prison interpreters [1]. Their lawyers have received reports of “men coughing up blood, being hospitalized, losing consciousness, becoming weak and fatigued, and being moved to Camp V for observation. Detainees have also expressed feeling increased stress, fear, and despair.” [2] Despite all the evidence to the contrary, the US military continues to deny the existence of the hunger strike [3].

The London Guantánamo Campaign [4] will hold a demonstration in support of the Guantánamo Bay hunger strikers on Sunday 17 March at 2-4pm outside the US Embassy in London. British resident Shaker Aamer [5] is also on hunger strike. The hunger strike has been largely overlooked by the mainstream media and human rights community.

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

“Prisoners at Guantánamo Bay have gone on hunger strike a number of times in the past to protest the conditions of their detention. It is perhaps one of the very few means available to them. While it has resulted in force feeding, a further violation of their rights, it has also often resulted in better prison conditions. However, improvements have failed to address the underlying desperation and frustration the prisoners feel after eleven years of imprisonment without charge, trial or the prospect of release. This is akin to a hostage crisis.

“Having failed to keep his first-term promises on Guantánamo Bay, Barack Obama’s administration is instead letting what he had once called a “misguided experiment” spiral out of control. As well as respecting the prisoners’ lawful demands to have their human rights recognised, the US administration must take positive steps to prevent any such further escalations by releasing the prisoners and closing the prison.”

Contact:

E-mail: london.gtmo@gmail.com      

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITOR

1. On 4 March, lawyers for the prisoners wrote to the prison commander Rear Admiral John Smith raising these matters and the resulting hunger strike, calling on the US military to “take immediate measures to bring an end this potentially life - threatening situation in the camps by addressing the reasons that give rise to it.

“Camp authorities must cease the arbitrary and regressive practices being reported by our clients, including all intrusive searches of the Qur’an.”

http://ccrjustice.org/files/2013_03_04_Ltr_JTF_Smith_Welsh.pdf

166 prisoners remain at Guantánamo Bay, of whom more than half have been cleared for release and less than a dozen face charges. With few exceptions, all have been held for up to and over 11 years without charge or trial.

2. Ibid.

3. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/10685865

4. 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  

5. Shaker Aamer was cleared for release by the US military in 2007. He claims to have been tortured repeatedly during his time in US custody, on one occasion in the presence of a British intelligence agent. He has a British wife and four children living in Battersea, south London. Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown sought his release in August 2007, along with four other residents held at Guantánamo Bay, the last of whom was released in February 2009. http://www.reprieve.org.uk/cases/shakeraamer/

EMERGENCY DEMONSTRATION: Protest the Guantánamo Hunger Strike, Sunday 17 March, 2-4pm, US Embassy

Hunger strikes: “the weapon of those who have nothing but their bodies with which to protest”* 

The London Guantánamo Campaign invites you to join us at an

EMERGENCY PROTEST AT THE CURRENT HUNGER STRIKE AT GUANTANAMO BAY

SUNDAY 17 MARCH, 2-4PM

US EMBASSY, GROSVENOR SQUARE, LONDON, W1A 1AE (nearest tube: Bond St/Marble Arch)

We will have speakers and an open mic

Almost all of the 166 prisoners at Guantánamo Bay have been on hunger strike since early February. This protest which has led to force feeding against the human rights of prisoners and some prisoners losing over 15kg in weight was prompted by the confiscation of personal items from cells and the desecration of copies of the Koran. In a letter sent by lawyers for the prisoners to the prison commander on 4 March, they state that the “situation is potentially life-threatening.” The US military denies the situation, which is clearly getting out of hand.

Over half of the prisoners have been cleared for release and less than a dozen face any charges after more than a decade of arbitrary detention. The desperation shown in the latest episode of this hostage crisis has been ignored by the mainstream media. We invite you to join us as we protest this injustice.

For more details, please call Aisha on 07809 757 176 or e-mail london.gtmo@gmail.com

More on this news: http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2013/03/04/guantanamo-prisoners-on-hunger-strike-against-new-guard-force-confiscating-personal-items/#

On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/events/542576675786639/

* From Borderline Justice by Frances Webber, 2012, originally as "...who had nothing..."

LGC Newsletter – February 2013

NEWS:

British Residents:

February 14 marked the eleventh anniversary of Shaker Aamer’s imprisonment at Guantánamo Bay. The anniversary was marked on 13 February by the Save Shaker Aamer Campaign (SSAC) with a vigil in Parliament Square in the afternoon. Several dozen people attended. They were joined by MPs Sadiq Khan, Jane Ellison, John McDonnell and Caroline Lucas. Activists wore orange jumpsuits and held placards calling for Shaker Aamer’s release and return to the UK. A letter was delivered by the SSAC to the Prime Minister David Cameron to coincide with the anniversary.

http://www.demotix.com/news/1794251/guant-namo-protest-free-shaker-aamer#media-1794197

On 14 February, Amnesty International marked the anniversary by delivering a petition with 20,000+ signatures to the US Embassy in London demanding US President Barack Obama release Shaker Aamer: http://www2.amnesty.org.uk/blogs/urgent-action-network-blog/20674-reasons-bring-shaker-aamer-home All the signatures were collected within a month with an additional 30,000 collected by Amnesty USA.

Names can still be added to the petition for Shaker Aamer’s release to David Cameron: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/33133 This petition can be signed until 20 April 2013; 100,000 signatures on the petition will lead to a debate on this issue in Parliament.

Guantánamo Bay:

In spite of the military commission system at Guantánamo Bay comprehensively having fallen apart over the past few months with the rulings in the Hamdan and Al-Bahlul cases to overturn convictions - due to the retroactivity of the charges (offences did not exist in law at the time they were committed) and as some charges are not recognised war crimes - the Pentagon has pressed ahead with pre-trial hearings this month.

Abd Al-Nashiri, a victim of extraordinary rendition kidnapped in the UAE in 2002, whose story was covered in the LGC’s “All Roads Lead to Guantánamo” action in January and who currently has cases pending against Poland and Romania for its involvement in his torture, was the first to have his pre-trial hearings resume in the first week of February. He is accused of having masterminded attacks on American military vessels in the Gulf in the early 2000s and faces the death penalty. During the pre-trial hearings, motions were dropped for the case to be halted as the defence claims that the CIA had listened in to private conversations between Al-Nashiri and his lawyers. The judge, however, allowed a doctor with expertise in dealing with torture victims to give video evidence on how Al-Nashiri should be examined in a pre-trial medical examination that will determine whether he is fit to stand trial. A CIA report has admitted that he was waterboarded and threatened with a drill to make him confess. At a pre-trial hearing last year, he was even physically unable to sit at his trial due to the pain of the injuries he suffered during the four years that he “disappeared” into CIA secret jails. His defence lawyers claim he is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. The pre-trial hearing is likely to resume in mid-April.

Pre-trial hearings also resumed in the case of five men accused of involvement in the 9/11 attacks in New York in September 2001. This case, which is also heavily affected by the Hamdan ruling last year, continued its controversial path when it was discovered that the CIA listened in to confidential meetings between the defendants and their lawyers (in the guise of smoke detectors in meeting rooms - spying on such meetings is illegal). Lawyers also complained that the defendants had confidential legal documents removed from their cells during cell inspections, as well as books and other personal items. All of this had led defence lawyers to question whether they are being prevented from fulfilling their duties. The system applied at the military commissions is a new system that is untested and is being made up as the trials progress. In view of the use of torture evidence and the clear lack of fairness in the proceedings, the trials cannot be considered more than show trials. Pre-trial hearings in this case are also due to resume in April.

Extraordinary rendition:

On 5 February, Open Society Foundations published an important new report on extraordinary rendition and international collusion in it. The report “is the most comprehensive account yet assembled of the human rights abuses associated with CIA secret detention and extraordinary rendition operations. It details for the first time what was done to the 136 known victims, and lists the 54 foreign governments that participated in these operations. It shows that responsibility for the abuses lies not only with the United States but with dozens of foreign governments that were complicit.”

The United Kingdom is included among that list of countries: “The U.K. government assisted in the extraordinary rendition of individuals, gave the CIA intelligence that led to the extraordinary rendition of individuals, interrogated individuals who were later secretly detained and extraordinarily rendered, submitted questions for interrogation of individuals who were secretly detained and extraordinarily rendered, and permitted use of its airspace and airports for flights associated with extraordinary rendition operations”

The report can be read at http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/sites/default/files/globalizing-torture-20120205.pdf

After months of stalling and moving the investigation away from the centralised prosecution service, Poland has decided to drop charges against Zbigniew Siemiatkowski, the former intelligence chief in a further blow to its investigation into its role in running a torture facility for the CIA. He was charged last year after it emerged that he had extensive knowledge about the facility and relations with the CIA. In a disappointing move to an investigation that started off with promise in 2008, lawyers and activists in Poland have accused the authorities of stalling the investigation to prevent embarrassment for senior officials. Following on from the ruling against the CIA at the end of last year finding it guilty for the torture and extraordinary rendition of German Khaled El-Masri by the European Court of Human Rights, further evidence has been filed against Poland in a case brought against it by Abd El-Nashiri for collusion in his torture at secret CIA-run torture facilities there. Lawyers for another victim, Abu Zubaydah, have filed a complaint at the European Court of Human Rights to hear his case as the investigation in Poland, now in its fifth year, is progressing so slowly.

http://rt.com/news/poland-drops-charges-investigation-136/

Following a ruling last September to uphold the convictions of CIA agents and Italian intelligence officers involved in the 2003 extraordinary rendition of an Egyptian national, Hassan Mustafa Nassar, who was kidnapped near his home in Milan, a Milan court has sentenced former intelligence chief Nicolò Pollari to 10 years in prison and his former deputy Marco Mancini to 9 years for their role in the kidnapping and rendition. Pollari’s lawyer has claimed that he has been unable to represent his client properly as large parts of the case fall under Italian national security secrecy laws. The two men are likely to appeal the sentences and will not be jailed until the appeal process is exhausted.

LGC Activities:

The LGC marked the sixth anniversary of its regular “Shut Guantánamo!” demonstration in February with a special “I am still waiting for…” action at which activists held up placards with their messages to President Obama. The action then continued until 5pm, taking a slight detour to the other side of Marble Arch to Speaker’s Corner, for an impromptu action outside the Odeon cinema where torture film Zero Dark Thirty was playing. Around a dozen activists joined the afternoon action (see  picture) and the public response was very positive and supportive. The next demonstration will on Thursday 7 March at 12-1pm outside the US Embassy, Grosvenor Square, W1A and then 1.15-2.15pm outside Speaker’s Corner, Marble Arch (Hyde Park): http://www.facebook.com/events/495292530508706/