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/

LGC Newsletter – January 2013

NEWS:

British Residents:

To mark the eleventh anniversary of the opening of Guantánamo Bay on 11 January, Amnesty International UK launched a new petition calling on President Obama to release Shaker Aamer. The petition which currently has around 20,000 signatures will be delivered to the US authorities on 14 February, the date marking the eleventh anniversary of Shaker Aamer’s imprisonment at Guantánamo Bay without charge or trial. The petition can be signed here. The e-petition to the British Prime Minister currently has around 23,000 signatures: 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.

The human rights NGO Reprieve, representing Shaker Aamer, marked the 11^th anniversary with a press release calling for his release:
http://www.reprieve.org.uk/press/2013_01_11_after_11yrs_gtmo_brit_still_imprisoned/

Guantánamo Bay:

Canadian former prisoner Omar Khadr, convicted at a Guantánamo military tribunal and who is currently serving the rest of his sentence at the Milhaven Institution in Canada as a maximum security prisoner, has recently reappointed his former lawyer Dennis Edney: http://www.timescolonist.com/news/omar-khadr-turns-again-to-former-high-profile-lawyer-current-ones-step-down-1.53722 Mr Edney previously represented Omar Khadr when he was held at Guantánamo Bay. He will take over from his previous lawyers in a case in which he is suing the government for breach of his human rights. Mr Edney is also likely to appeal Omar Khadr’s conviction at Guantánamo obtained through a secret plea bargain, following the recent quashing of other convictions in Guantánamo military tribunals by the US federal appeals courts. Although Omar Khadr is eligible for day parole from March this year, as he is currently being held as a maximum security prisoner, he is unlikely to be considered for parole for another two years.
A new petition has been put together calling on the Canadian government to release Omar Khadr and seeking his reintegration into Canadian society: sign here: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/omar-khadr-takeastandforjustice/

It has been a busy month in the US courts for appeals against convictions at Guantánamo Bay and the resumption of the trial at Guantánamo Bay of five men accused of involvement in the 9/11 attacks in New York in September 2001.  

On 25 January, the federal appeals court overturned the conviction of Ali Hamza al-Bahlul, a Yemeni prisoner convicted by a Guantánamo military tribunal in 2008 and sentenced to life imprisonment. In this case, in a brief judgment with no reasons given, convictions for material support for terrorism, conspiracy and solicitation to commit war crimes were overturned. The only person to have ever been given a life sentence out of the seven prisoners convicted at Guantánamo Bay, he has been held alone and away from other prisoners following his conviction. He will remain locked up in solitary confinement throughout the three-month period the US government has to appeal.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/01/25/3200788/appeals-court-throws-out-terrorism.html
This reversal of a Guantánamo military tribunal conviction follows that of Salim Hamdan, which was overturned in October 2012, as the offence of “providing material support for terrorism” did not exist at the time of the actual offence. The US government had until 18 January to appeal this decision, but did not. The question of whether the judgment in the Hamdan case could apply to other cases was one of the issues considered in the Al-Bahlul case.
At the end of January, the cases of five men accused of involvement in the 9/11 attacks in New York in 2001 resumed at Guantánamo Bay. Although still at pre-trial stage, the key Hamdan ruling has also had an impact on this case. Anticipating the possible overturning of the conviction for conspiracy, which is not considered a war crime, the chief prosecutor in this case Brigadier General Mark Martins asked for the conspiracy charges against the five defendants in the case to be dismissed and for them not to be tried on this count. Although dismissing these charges could undermine the rest of the case, following the judgment in the Hamdan case, a conviction for conspiracy could be appealed and later result in the case, and a conviction made, being thrown out. The five defendants potentially face the death penalty. This request was turned down by the Pentagon. Undeterred, however, Mark Martins has applied again, following the reversal of the Al-Bahlul conviction, which saw a conviction for conspiracy overturned. This has led to a public dispute between the prosecutor it appointed and the Pentagon over whether the US can charge terrorism suspects with offences that are not considered as such under international law. An excellent comment on this in the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/27/sunday-review/military-tribunals-and-international-war-crimes.html?_r=1&
The pre-trial hearings resumed on 28 January. The defendants attended the first day, during which controversy arose after audio to observers at the hearing was cut for three minutes after one of the defence lawyers representing the five prisoners asked if the court needed to meet in secret closed session to discuss some matters, raising questions about whether there is external censorship of the proceedings unknown to those in court: http://rt.com/usa/news/sound-cut-september-11-992/ Pre-trials motions will be discussed all of this week, including a motion by the defence to have the black site secret prisons the five men were held at in various locations around the world, including within the European Union, preserved as evidence.

As well as marking the eleventh anniversary of the opening of the current prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, this month also marked the inauguration of Barack Obama to his second term as president of the United States. The London Guantánamo Campaign issued the following press release:

http://londonguantanamocampaign.blogspot.co.uk/#!/2013/01/media-release-london-guantanamo.html, calling on the president to “use this opportunity to put right his failings in his first term as president and demonstrate his commitment to the rule of law and the principles of freedom and justice he verbally espouses”.
In the US, the re-inauguration was marred by controversy when at a party to celebrate the inauguration, famous US rap star Lupe Fiasco openly criticised President Obama on his poor first-term record on foreign relations, particularly with respect to war and the Palestinians: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4ewU8xoDVY
In the UK, veteran peace campaigner Lindis Percy from the Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases (CAAB) was arrested outside the US military base at Menwith Hill for holding up an upside down US flag with the words ‘NOW THEN….SECOND AND ONLY CHANCE OBAMA’
http://www.caab.org.uk/about/caab-reports Ms Percy has been bailed but not charged.
Barely weeks into his second term, President Obama has continued to show his resolve not to close Guantánamo by closing the office of the special envoy for the closure of Guantánamo Bay. Daniel Fried, who has held the post since it was created in 2009 early on in President Obama’s first term, has been re-assigned to another office and the office he was responsible for has closed. Its duties, which including working out diplomatic agreements for the transfer of prisoners, have been reassigned to the office of the State Department’s legal adviser. The removal of a senior official responsible for this task almost immediately into President Obama’s second term shows that the issue is no longer of priority to his administration, in spite of his verbal statements that he would still like to see Guantánamo Bay close: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/29/us/politics/state-dept-closes-office-working-on-closing-guantanamo-prison.html  

Extraordinary rendition:

Lawyers for two men held at secret torture facilities in Poland in 2003 and 2004, where they were tortured and subject, among other abuses, to waterboarding and mock executions have accused the Polish government of stalling the investigation into Poland’s role in the CIA’s extraordinary rendition programme to protect the collusion of senior politicians and officials. The investigation into the allegations made by two current Guantánamo prisoners Abd El-Nashiri and Abu Zubaydah, who both “disappeared” for years and currently have cases against Poland and Romania pending at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg for involvement in their torture, started in 2008. However, last year, the case was transferred from prosecutors in the capital to regional authorities. The European Parliament has also accused Poland of not doing enough to investigate, even though credible evidence has emerged, including documents, of the existence of a secret torture facility and receipts and agreements relating to its operation on behalf of the CIA: http://rt.com/news/poland-investigation-cia-prisons-839/

On 29 January, lawyers for almost 1000 prisoners held by the British forces in Iraq between 2003 and 2008 brought a judicial review before the High Court in London to call for an inquiry into allegations of abuse by British soldiers. These allegations include claims of sexual and physical abuse by soldiers. The claimants want the inquiry to demonstrate that Britain broke the international laws of war through the systematic use of torture. The Ministry of Defence has tried to block such an inquiry for the past few years and insists, as it did in the Baha Moussa case, that any abuse was the action of a few bad apples in the army and not the result of an endemic and systemic culture of torture and abuse, in spite of almost 1000 victim testimonies to the contrary. As the tenth anniversary of the Iraq War approaches, permission for this inquiry could be both timely and vital: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/29/iraqi-detainees-demand-uk-inquiry and http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/jan/19/britain-guilty-systemic-torture-iraq

LGC Activities:

There was no monthly “Shut Guantánamo!” demonstration in January. The next demonstration will on Thursday 7 February 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/150885085064099/ This action marks the sixth anniversary (first one in February 2007) of our regular demonstrations outside the US Embassy. We said we’d continue our presence until Guantánamo closes. From the above news, it is clear that President Barack Obama has no intention of fulfilling his promise to close Guantánamo any time soon. Please join us: inspired by an action held by the US NGO Witness Against Torture (www.witnesstorture.org), the LGC will hold a “I am still waiting for…” action outside the US Embassy: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.579084985450615.167204.298743860151397&type=1 We invite you to join us with your own banner, or we’ll provide paper and markers, stating what you are still waiting for vis-à-vis the closure of Guantánamo. If you cannot join the action, we invite you to make your own banner, pose with it, and send the picture to us: london.gtmo@gmail.com

The London Guantánamo Campaign marked the 11^th anniversary of the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay with a day of action on Friday 11 January. The actions consisted of four walking tours between embassies recounting the journeys of four prisoners to Guantánamo Bay and a vigil outside the US Embassy on a fairly cold evening attended by over 70 people. Many thanks to everyone who took part, helped in the preparations and on the day.

The actions were covered live through social media and received extensive press coverage too.
To coincide with the anniversary, Aisha Maniar and Val Brown from the LGC gave interviews to Russia Today:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiW9GIaCNDs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOwCgubl414
Media coverage of the tours and vigil:

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.”

MEDIA RELEASE: London Guantánamo Campaign calls on President Obama to close Guantánamo Bay prison in his second term as president

20 January 2013 - For immediate release

On 20 January 2013, Barack Obama will be inaugurated to his second term as president of the United States of America. The London Guantánamo Campaign [1] calls on President Obama to seize the opportunity presented by his second term as president to make good on broken promises to close Guantánamo Bay and put an end to the practice of extraordinary rendition.

In January 2009, one of Barack Obama’s first actions as president was to sign a decree [2] pledging to close Guantánamo Bay by January 2010 and place a moratorium on military commissions. One hundred and sixty six prisoners currently remain at Guantánamo Bay with only 72 released [3] in his first term and several military commissions are underway.

Aisha Maniar from the London Guantánamo Campaign said:

“Unlike the prisoners at Guantánamo Bay who have never been offered a chance, Barack Obama is being given a second chance, by the American people. He must use this opportunity to put right his failings in his first term as president and demonstrate his commitment to the rule of law and the principles of freedom and justice he verbally espouses.

“Barack Obama “inherited” arbitrary detention and prisoner abuse at Guantánamo Bay as part of the bitter legacy of the Bush era. Yet, rather than remedy the damage done by his predecessor, he has embraced it and the past four years have been entirely of his making. Should Barack Obama fail in his second term “to let freedom ring” [4] for the prisoners of the arbitrary regime he has perpetuated, he will go down in history as the president who deliberately blew the opportunity to close Guantánamo and re-establish legality and justice time and again.”

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. http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/closure-guantanamo-detention-facilities

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

4. Barack Obama’s public inauguration will fall on 21 January 2013, which is Martin Luther King Day, a public holiday in the United States.

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