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OVER 80 ARRESTED AT U.S. SUPREME COURT
DIRECT ACTION TODAY DEMANDED SHUT-DOWN OF GUANTANAMO AND AN END TO TORTURE AND INDEFINITE DETENTION
WASHINGTON,
DC – Early this afternoon, at least 80 activists organized by Witness
Against Torture delivered a message to the U.S. Supreme Court demanding
the shut-down of the U.S. prison at Guantánamo and justice for those
detained. About 40 activists were arrested inside the Court building
and another 35 on the steps. The arrests, for demonstrating without a
permit, followed a solemn march from the National Mall of 400 persons
that included a procession of activists dressed like the Guantánamo
prisoners in orange jumpsuits and black hoods. They were part of an
International Day of Action that was endorsed by a broad and
unprecedented coalition of over 100 groups and that included 83 events
around the world.
The International Day of Action launches a concerted campaign to Shut Down Guantánamo. For more information, please visit www.witnesstorture.org.
Inside,
a member of Witness Against Torture delivered a letter to the nine
Supreme Court justices regarding Al Odah v. United States and
Boumediene v. Bush, the two cases brought by Guantánamo detainees that
the Court is now considering. They also delivered a writ of habeas
corpus for each of the 275 current detainees. Other activists attempted
to unfurl a banner inside the Court building but were prevented from
doing so by police, who began arresting them and shut the front doors
to the building. Another group then started reading the names of the
Guantánamo prisoners, but were prevented. They then sat down and
started chanting, “Shut it down!” prior to being arrested.
At
approximately the same time, about 25 activists dressed in orange
jumpsuits and black hoods representing the men imprisoned at Guantánamo
knelt on the steps of the Court building with hands before them and
bowed heads, the position detainees in Guantánamo are often required to
assume; others unfurled a banner on the steps. They were arrested as
well. Each arrestee had entered the building without ID, and was taken
into custody under the name of one of the Guantánamo prisoners.
“This
group brought the names of the victims of Guantánamo right to the
Supreme Court,” said Elizabeth McAlister, a member of the Jonah House
community in Baltimore and the mother of one of the persons arrested
inside the Court. “The Court has listened and listened to the views of
the imprisoned, but has not heard them.”
Outside the Court,
advocates read testimonies and names of prisoners, performed street
theater, and handed out information. One performance was a simulation
of waterboarding, one of the most controversial torture tactics used at
Guantánamo and other U.S. detention centers.
January 11, 2008
marks six years of detention without hope of release for nearly 300 men
at Guantánamo. “Lawyers are working hard to bring the cases of the
prisoners into the courts,” said Susan Crane of Witness Against
Torture, who was arrested in today’s action. “But lawyers can only do
so much. These prisoners, who have been illegally detained, tortured,
abused, and kept from their families for years, are not even able to
communicate openly with their lawyers. That’s why we were here today to
appeal to the Supreme Court justices to stand up now and end this
abuse.”
Witness Against Torture is calling on the U.S. government to:
* Repeal the Military Commissions Act and restore Habeas Corpus;
* Charge and try or release all detainees;
*
Clearly and unequivocally forbid torture and all other forms of cruel,
inhuman, and degrading treatment, by the military, the CIA, prison
guards, civilian contractors, or anyone else;
* Pay reparations to current and former detainees and their families for violations of their human rights; and
* Shut down Guantánamo, Abu Ghraib, Bagram, and all secret CIA detention facilities.
About Witness Against Torture
Tomorrow's
action is the latest by Witness Against Torture, which came into being
in December 2005 when a group of 24 friends walked to Guantánamo to
visit the prisoners – an action following the nonviolent tradition of
Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker. Upon returning to the U.S., they
continued the work with public education and community outreach,
networking and resource sharing, and acts of nonviolent civil
resistance to draw attention to the plight of prisoners in Guantánamo
and victims of the war on terrorism everywhere.
*** PROFESSIONAL, HIGH RESOLUTION PHOTOS AVAILABLE AT RESISTANCEMEDIA.ORG, OR BY CALLING (202) 270-6665 ***
###
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| Posted by Ted Stein at | | | |
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3/17/07 --- For the first time since 1967, tens of thousands
of Americans marched on the Pentagon demanding an end to an imperialist disastrous
war. Today’s march marked the fourth anniversary of the Iraq war. Sponsored by Act Now to Stop War and End
Racism (ANSWER), today's march was smaller than the march in January, perhaps due to the freezing weather. The 1967 march on the
Pentagon was also on a cold day, but unlike today, many of the peace activists
spent the night in the cold of the Pentagon’s parking lot after refusing to
leave when their permit expired. There were hundreds of arrests in 1967, but
only a small handful at today’s march (there was a confrontation with police by
the bridge to the Pentagon where the demonstrators were ultimately pushed back
with few arrests). However, many hundreds, if not thousands, of religious
pacifists associated with the Declaration of Peace engaged in civil
disobedience in front of the White House yesterday and there were approximately
two hundred arrests. Resistance Media was not able to attend yesterday’s action
and does not have photographs.
There were a few hundred counter-protestors, mostly
associated with the right wing website the Free Republic,
who seemed to enjoy yelling profanities and giving the middle finger to the
peace activists (which included a lot of children and elderly). Despite the belligerence
and relatively small numbers of people demonstrating in favor of more war,
Resistance Media expects a lot of media coverage portraying the pro-war
demonstration in a more positive light than the peace demonstration.
The Memorial bridge to Virginia
Some of the more colorful signs approach the Pentagon
Two generations of veterans marched together to end the war
The war supporters were also in attendence:
Counter-protesters express their reasons for supporting the war
Counter-protesters engaged in dialouge with the peace activists
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| Posted by Ted Stein at | | | |
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1/30/07 -- Today the Senate held a hearing to question Admiral William Fallon, who has been nominated to replace Army Gen. John Abizaid as head of Central Command, which includes all military operations in Iraq and Afganistan. The Pentagon has divided up the entire world into commands and Central Command includes the Middle East, East Africa and Central Asia. Admiral Fallon is President Bush's choice for the command.
When Senator Lieberman (Independent, CT) began asking questions, a half dozen people affiliated with Code Pink, Women for Peace, rose in silence, some with their hands raised in peace signs while others held shoes representing Iraqi victims of the Iraq war. They remained standing throughoutt Sen. Lieberman's questioning, did not speak, and the police, who quickly gathered in the back of the room, did not ask them to leave.
After the hearing, the women (and men) asked Fallon to think more than his predecessor about the lives that are being destroyed in the war.
For his part, during the questioning by the senators, Fallon echoed what peace activists have been saying (and vilified for saying) for years: "What we have been doing has not been working," he said. "We have got to be doing, it seems to me, something different." Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, Adm. Fallon did not say what the something different would be.
Activists rose as Sen. Lieberman began speaking
Shoes represnting a five year old Iraqi girl killed in the war on Iraq
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| Posted by Ted Stein at | | | |
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1/30/07 -- Over 40 women involved with the grassroots organization Code Pink, Women for Peace, delivered a message to Sen. Hillary Clinton's office: despite having spent their whole lives waiting and hoping to vote for a woman for president, many women will refuse to vote for a candidate that still supports the war on Iraq. Today was not the first time Code Pink has delivered a message to Sen. Clinton. On March 6, 2003 Ms. Clinton met with Code Pink and was presented a choice: receive a pink medal of courage as some of Ms. Clinton's colleauges have, or receive a pink slip. After Ms. Clinton explained her vote for the Iraq war -- on since discredited evidence -- Ms. Clinton was presented with a pink slip. Video of 2003 interaction here (thanks to reader oak 5).
After the women were forced out of Hillary’s office by Capitol Hill Police, many began weaving a ‘web of war’ out of pink fabric and string while chanting ‘End this war, Hillary!’ The police ordered the women to leave the building and six refused, including one of Ms. Clinton’s constituents, Sonia Silbert of New York. The six were arrested by police. The chaos of the arrests was amplified by the 'web of war' and several flags were knocked over.
The group of women (and men) gathered outside Sen. Clinton's office and read a pledge that they asked her to sign
When the women entered the office, staffers in Clinton's office yelled for the women to be removed and attempted to forbid photography
The women's message was clear
Medea Benjamin, a founder of Code Pink, caught in the 'web of war.'
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The web significantly complicated the arrests
Rae Abileah, of California 
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| Posted by Ted Stein at | | | |
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1/27/07 – Citizens from all over the country descended upon Washington DC today to demand that Congress listen to the voices of the voters and bring an end to the Iraq war. Today’s rally began a three day mass mobilization, which will continue with training tomorrow, followed by lobbying on Monday.
The mobilization, called for by United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ), began with two hours of speeches (list of speakers) in front of the capital, followed by a short march which deviated from the route that Capitol Police approved and ended up encircling the Capitol. The original march route would have had the peace activists sharing one road, each marching in different directions. Resistance Media has never seen such a march route before, as it would have had the activists marching towards – and chanting towards – each other.
Rep. Maxine Waters (Dem., CA), who was near the front of the march, spoke with the Capitol Hill Police officers and demanded that the police move the buses they were using to blockade Independence Avenue. Perhaps in deference to the new Democratic administration, perhaps in deference to a member of Congress, or perhaps in deference to over a hundred thousand US citizens, the police moved the buses and let the march continue down Independence.
The crowd was made up of people from all over the country and representing hundreds of different organizations. While UFPJ, an umbrella organization with many member-groups all over the country, wrote the call to action for the Jan. 27th mobilization, many other non-UFPJ affiliated organizations showed up to voice their support for ending the war. Despite the large number of organizations represented, and with a few notable exceptions, the mobilization was almost wholly white and middle class despite most of the victims of war being working class people of color.
Estimates of the size of the mobilization vary, from the corporate media’s ‘tens of thousands’ to UFPJ’s estimate of 500,000. While Resistance Media doesn’t claim to have a sophisticated, universally agreed upon, methodology for determining crowd size (much like the Washington Post and New York Times do not), it seems unlikely that the crowd was less than 100,000.
The rally and march had almost no acts of civil disobedience, with the
exception of a single group of around 250 black clad anarchists, who rushed
the largely unguarded steps to the Capitol. The police presence was
light Saturday, and the police exercised restraint and worked to
de-escalate the situation. After the police cleared the protestors, all
that was left was an anarchist symbol spray painted on the Capitol and
a broken foot from a police motorcycle. No arrests were made.
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| Posted by Ted Stein at | | | |
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As the number of Iraqis who have lost their lives as a result of the war climbs well into the hundreds of thousands, it becomes difficult to understand the tragedy on a human level. Code Pink has been using shoes to remind people of the individuals who have lost their lives. Building up to the ralley tomorrow, Code Pink placed thousands of pairs of shoes, each labeled with the name of an Iraqi, on the lawn in front of the capitol and organized a press conference in front of the shoes.
The founders of Code Pink, a representative from the recent Johns Hopkins University Iraq study, the exectuive director of Veterans for Peace, and a representative of Iraqi Voices for Peace spoke at the press conference.
(Some of these photos also appear on Code Pink's website)
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| Posted by Ted Stein at | | | |
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Activists marked the fifth anniversary of the opening of Guantánamo Bay by forcing the names of the prisoners into the Federal court system. Eighty-nine Witness Against Torture (WAT) activists entered the Federal Court and filed Habeas Corpus petitions on behalf of the men held at Guantánamo Bay. Most dressed in tee-shirts saying "Shut Down Guantánamo"and "Stop Torture" and assumed the identity of a man still held in Guantánamo. The action occurred five years to the day after the first prisoners were transferred to Guantánamo. "In five long years these men have never been given the right to a day in court, the only way to get their names and stories into the court was to bring them there ourselves" says WAT activist Frida Berrigan, one of today's arrestees. Many of those arrested will continue their resistance by being processed in the name of Guantánamo prisoners.
All 89 were arrested by US Marshals around 1:30pm today. Activists had entered the building throughout the morning to submit their petitions and stayed to read the names of all Guantanamo prisoners and accounts of their torture and illegal imprisonment. Also while inside, they managed to drop banners reading "Shut Down Guantánamo" from balconies in the court atrium.
Meanwhile over 500 people processed from the Supreme Court to the Federal Court, 200 of them in orange jumpsuits and hoods. At the Federal Court, forty 'Guantanamo prisoners' in hoods and jumpsuits attempted to enter the building for their day in court but were denied entry by the police. The prisoners then sat down in front of the Federal Court as hundreds more chanted "let them in!".
The protest was organized by Witness Against Torture, a group of Christians that marched to Guantanamo and held a vigil in December 2005. There were over 100 protests held throughout the world to mark today, the 5th anniversary of the first arrival of prisoners to Guantanamo. Thousands participated in the coordinated actions around the world today as part of the International Day to Shut Down Guantánamo.
(Some of these photos also appear on the Witness Against Torture website, the Washington Report on Middle Eastern Affairs, the Nuclear Resister, the Radical Catholic, WIN Magzine, and the Progressive)
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| Posted by Ted Stein at | | | |
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Gold Star Families for Peace and Code Pink planned on simply lobbying their members of congress, but plans changed when Capitol Hill Police refused to allow anyone to bring in literature to hand to their representatives (it could be covered in anthrax, they said).
During the hour long debate about the literature, Cindy Sheehan decided that since the police were stopping her from legally lobbying, she was willing to risk arrest to get her message out and quietly asked if anyone would join her in disrupting a press conference that the democratic leadership was about to hold on ethics. Resistance Media found it ironic that the illegal disruption of a press conference was being planned while the police were arguing about people bringing in literature. And the police eventually let the literature in after a number of phone calls with lawyers and representatives.
The group of roughly 50 divided in two, with some going to lobby and some going to the press conference.
Dozens of democratic representatives were in a closed door meeting, while the press set up for the press conference, to occur just outside the room. Rahm Emanuel came out of the room and stepped up to the podium. Instead of speaking about the ethical duty of ending the death and destruction in Iraq, he began speaking about issues that were sure not to offend anyone. About a minute in, dozens of voices began chanting: Investigate, De-Escalate, Troops Home Now!
For some reason nobody was arrested or even asked to leave. Anti-war police?
Rahm Emanuel's face went white and he simply turned around and walked back into the room his colleagues were waiting in. Leaving an empty podium. As if it were the most natural thing in the world, Cindy Sheehan walked up to the now vacant podium and began taking questions. One wonders what the house leadership was discussing while hiding behind closed doors as the peace activists addressed the nation from what was supposed to be their press conference.
After the press conference, the routine lobbying continued. After the lobbying, people went to the White House And read the names of 3004 dead soldiers. (Some of these photos may appear in this month's issue of the Washington Report on Middle Eastern Affairs.)
It all began with Cindy Sheehan's voice.
Others joined in.
Cindy took the podium and demanded an end to the funding of the war.
Despite representing the majority of Americans, the peace community is usually ignored by the press, but not today.
Rarely seen in the so called People's House: People outside of the political elite. (Notice the faces of the corporate media.)
Non-press Conference related photos from today:
Before lobbying.
Ever wondered what 3,004 names looks like? It's a pretty thick book.
Cindy lights a candle for her son.
The faces of once living family members of Gold Star Families for Peace.
So many names, so many faces.
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| Posted by Ted Stein at | | | |
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Joseph Stalin once said that "the death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic," but peace activists have always disagreed. Just as they did when the death toll for US soldiers in Iraq reached one thousand, just as they did when the death toll for for US soldiers in Iraq reached two thousand, activists gathered on Memorial Bridge for a candlelight vigil to mourn the senseless death of three thousand US troops. Iraqi civilian deaths are estimated in the hundreds of thousands.
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| Posted by Ted Stein at | | | |
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