26 June: VIGIL IN SOLIDARITY WITH VICTIMS OF CIA TORTURE

UN International Day in Support of Victims of Torture

the London Guantánamo Campaign invites you to a

VIGIL IN SOLIDARITY WITH VICTIMS OF CIA TORTURE

With speakers and open mic

Tuesday 26 June 2018, at 6.30-8pm

Outside the US Embassy, 33 Nine Elms Lane, London SW11 7US (nearest underground: Vauxhall)

On 18 May, Donald Trump’s pick for new CIA chief Gina Haspel was confirmed in the position in spite of her role in running a secret CIA torture prison as part of the extraordinary rendition (kidnap and torture) programme. No officials have ever been prosecuted for their role in post-9/11 torture; instead, they are being promoted. Haspel faces being prosecuted for war crimes if she travels to Europe.

Under the guise of the “war on terror”, the CIA has been involved in torture in many countries across the world, running secret torture facilities in Europe, Asia and Africa, and not-so-secret facilities at Bagram in Afghanistan and Abu Ghraib in Iraq. This was only possible with the complicity of many states worldwide, including the UK.

The CIA’s history of the use of torture, human experimentation and other forms of violence is as old as the spy agency itself, with a history of running and participating in a global torture programme against leftists, nationalists and other Cold War "enemies" throughout Latin America and other parts of the world. 

Torture does not work and is illegal. It is a tool to break individuals and intimidate communities. While survivors have to live with the consequences of their ordeal and the scars others cannot see for the rest of the lives, the CIA is remorseless and indifferent to the suffering it has caused.

Take a stand: the LGC has marked this important occasion each year since 2010 and invites you to join us to stand in solidarity with victims worldwide on this day.

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

11 January 2018: Candlelight Vigil to Mark 16 Years of Guantánamo

https://www.facebook.com/events/133351624119249/
Please bring candles and banners with your messages to President Trump to our vigil to mark the 16th anniversary of Guantánamo, and possibly our last large demonstration outside the iconic Grosvenor Square building - solidarity and protest!

MEDIA RELEASE: London Guantánamo Campaign to Mark Guantánamo 16th Anniversary with US Embassy Candlelight Vigil, Thursday 11 January 2018, 6-8pm

For immediate release: Thursday 11 January 2018

The London Guantánamo Campaign [1] and human rights activists will mark the sixteenth anniversary of the opening of the Guantánamo Bay detention camp with a candlelight vigil [2] outside the US Embassy, Grosvenor Square, at 6-8pm on Thursday 11 January 2018.

As part of this solidarity action, activists will hold up images of the 41 men who remain at Guantánamo Bay, largely without charge, trial or the prospect of release [3]. 

Aisha Maniar, organiser from the London Guantánamo Campaign, says, "While it is a positive development that Donald Trump has not gone through with his pre-election threat to load up Guantánamo with “bad dudes” [4], far less attention has been paid to the fact that many of Trump’s more noxious policies have been facilitated by the actions of previous presidents. This includes sixteen years of the continued operation of the Guantánamo Bay prison camp and the "war on terror" more broadly.

“In addition, the rights violating practices surrounding Guantanamo are now a model for the detention and incarceration polices of the US and other states. Plans to expand immigration detention for undocumented migrants and the deplorable conditions in such facilities [5] are connected to Guantánamo’s origins and existence, as Trump’s initial travel ban included only Iran in addition to the states in which the resettlement of Guantánamo prisoners [6] was already prohibited.

“Elsewhere, the fact that none of the remaining prisoners were captured on the battlefield by the US military and that eighty-six percent were sold into US custody by Afghan militias and the Pakistani military for cash bounties [7] finds its contemporary resonance in the current brutal slave trade in migrants in Libya. It is the failure of the international community, and not just of the US, to act to close Guantánamo that has helped to legitimise this status quo.

“With the US Embassy due to move imminently to new premises in south London, after over a decade of sustained and continuous protest against Guantánamo at this famous site, it is likely to be our last large protest there. It is a shame that the US has been able to build and transfer its British embassy faster than it is able to close Guantánamo.”

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.co.uk/

2. For more details of the event, see our website http://londonguantanamocampaign.blogspot.co.uk/2017/12/11-january-2018-candlelight-vigil-to.html    

This event will be preceded by another anniversary vigil in Trafalgar Square at 12-3pm organised by the Guantanamo Justice Campaign

3. https://ccrjustice.org/home/get-involved/tools-resources/fact-sheets-and-faqs/guant-namo-numbers  

4. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/us-election/12171246/We-will-load-up-Guantanamo-with-some-bad-dudes-Donald-Trump.html  

5. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-prison-immigrants-expansion-undocumented-private-plans-ice-a8007876.html  

6. Originally Yemen, Iraq, Sudan, Libya, Iran and Somalia; Iraq and Sudan were later removed from the list.

7. https://law.shu.edu/publications/guantanamoReports/guantanamo_report_final_2_08_06.pdf

26 June: VIGIL: IS THE WORLDWIDE FIGHT AGAINST TORTURE BEING LOST?

The London Guantánamo Campaign invites you to

IS THE WORLDWIDE FIGHT AGAINST TORTURE BEING LOST?

A VIGIL TO MARK UN INTERNATIONAL DAY IN SUPPORT OF VICTIMS OF TORTURE

With speakers and open mic

On Monday 26 June 2017, at 6.30-8pm

Outside the National Gallery, Trafalgar Square

In the 30 years since the UN Convention Against Torture became international law, on 26 June 1987, the use of torture has proliferated worldwide and has even been outsourced and offshored. A tool of colonial power, torture continues to be used by repressive governments across the globe. 

US President Trump has said many times that he will bring torture back; the UK is considering the reintroduction of internment and the relaxation of human rights laws in the name of fighting terrorism; torture rehabilitation centres worldwide are closing due to a lack of funding in a climate of austerity; torture victims are held in inhumane conditions in immigration detention centres and the torture of prisoners continues relentlessly and with impunity across the world, in all continents, in spite of the absolute prohibition on the use of torture. 

The LGC invites you to join us to stand in solidarity with victims worldwide on this day.

For more details, e-mail london.gtmo@gmail.com or call 07751 267 859

http://londonguantanamocampaign.blogspot.co.uk/