Close Guantánamo: Andy Worthington in front of the White House
On January 11, 2013, outside the White House in Washington D.C., in President's Park South (aka the Ellipse), I was delighted to have the opportunity, on the 11th anniversary of the opening of Guantánamo, to call on President Obama to fulfil the promise to close the prison that he made when he took office in 2009. As I explained in my speech, President Obama's legacy is already being written, as he begins his second term in office, and the history books will be unkind towards him if he fails to fulfil the promise to close Guantánamo that he made when he first took office four years ago. Photo taken by Jeremy Varon of Witness Against Torture.
86 of the 166 men still held were cleared for release by President Obama's own interagency Guantánamo Review Task Force, and many of these men were previously cleared for release by military review boards under President Bush, some as long ago as 2004. If the President fails to release them, because it is politically inconvenient to do so, he will demonstrate that the US is crueller than dictatorships who consign prisoners to indefinite detention without pretending that there are review recesses in place which will lead to their release.
For my speech outside the White House, see: www.andyworthington.co.uk/2013/01/14/video-andy-worthingt...
Also see this video of a panel discussion at the New America Foundation just before this protest, in which I was joined by the attorney Tom Wilner, my colleague in the "Close Guantánamo" campaign, and Col. Morris Davis, the former chief prosecutor of the military commissions at Guantánamo, who resigned in protest at the use of torture: www.andyworthington.co.uk/2013/01/16/video-close-guantana...
Also see: www.closeguantanamo.org/
And see my other set of photos of the day of protest here: www.flickr.com/photos/andyworthington/sets/72157632514230...
For more on Andy Worthington, see: www.andyworthington.co.uk/
Close Guantánamo: Andy Worthington in front of the White House
On January 11, 2013, outside the White House in Washington D.C., in President's Park South (aka the Ellipse), I was delighted to have the opportunity, on the 11th anniversary of the opening of Guantánamo, to call on President Obama to fulfil the promise to close the prison that he made when he took office in 2009. As I explained in my speech, President Obama's legacy is already being written, as he begins his second term in office, and the history books will be unkind towards him if he fails to fulfil the promise to close Guantánamo that he made when he first took office four years ago. Photo taken by Jeremy Varon of Witness Against Torture.
86 of the 166 men still held were cleared for release by President Obama's own interagency Guantánamo Review Task Force, and many of these men were previously cleared for release by military review boards under President Bush, some as long ago as 2004. If the President fails to release them, because it is politically inconvenient to do so, he will demonstrate that the US is crueller than dictatorships who consign prisoners to indefinite detention without pretending that there are review recesses in place which will lead to their release.
For my speech outside the White House, see: www.andyworthington.co.uk/2013/01/14/video-andy-worthingt...
Also see this video of a panel discussion at the New America Foundation just before this protest, in which I was joined by the attorney Tom Wilner, my colleague in the "Close Guantánamo" campaign, and Col. Morris Davis, the former chief prosecutor of the military commissions at Guantánamo, who resigned in protest at the use of torture: www.andyworthington.co.uk/2013/01/16/video-close-guantana...
Also see: www.closeguantanamo.org/
And see my other set of photos of the day of protest here: www.flickr.com/photos/andyworthington/sets/72157632514230...
For more on Andy Worthington, see: www.andyworthington.co.uk/