[PAA-Discuss] BREAKING NEWS: US House of Representatives Disrupted With Calls to "Close Guanta

[Juli3 at aol.com]

For Immediate Release
Thursday, June 23,  2011 



US HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES DISRUPTED BY ANTI-TORTURE  ACTIVISTS 
Witness Against Torture Interrupts a Vote on the 
House Floor  with the call "Close Guantanamo!" 
Contacts: Matt Daloisio – 201-264-4424, _daloisio at earthlink.net_ 
(mailto:daloisio at earthlink.net) 
Frida  Berrigan - 347-683-4928 _frida.berrigan at gmail.com_ 
(mailto:frida.berrigan at gmail.com)    
WASHINGTON, DC – While the US  House of Representatives chamber filled for 
a vote today at 4:40pm,  Representatives' eyes and ears turned toward the 
Chamber's gallery as a group  of activists interrupted proceedings to call for 
the closure of Guantanamo Bay  prison and denounce provisions in the 
Defense Appropriations Bill concerning  detention policy.
Fifteen people from the group Witness Against Torture  stood in the gallery 
to read the following statement: 
Today the House of  Representative is in the process of contemplating not 
the passage of a bill  but 
the commission of a crime. Provisions in the proposed Defense  
Appropriations Bill grant the United 
States powers over the lives of  detained men fitting of a totalitarian 
state that uses the law itself as  
an instrument of tyranny. The law would make the prison at Guantanamo  
permanent by denying 
funds for the transfer of men to the United States,  even for prosecution 
in civilian courts. 

Abandoning the civilian  courts, the bill would be the ultimate concession 
that the rule of law and  
cherished American values cannot survive the fear and hatred that have  
consumed this country. 
The proposed bill makes restrictions on the  transfer of detainees even to 
foreign countries so severe 
that no one —  whether cleared for release by our own government or 
acquitted in trials —  could be 
expected to leave Guantanamo. It therefore mandates the  indefinite 
detention even of innocent 
human beings, which is the very  essence of tyranny. Congress has an 
obligation to uphold the  US
Constitution. All Americans have the obligation to defend human rights.  
The proposed bill makes 
America a callous and reckless jailer, unworthy of  the name of democracy. 
It must be defeated. 
Guantanamo must close. Those  unjustly bound must be freed. Justice must 
rule.  
The activists were removed from the gallery by the police  and placed under 
arrest.  They will likely appear for  arraignment in District of Columbia 
Superior Court on  Friday.
Earlier today, before entering the House chamber,  members of Witness 
Against Torture, the Torture Abolition and  Survivor Support Coalition (TASSC), 
Amnesty International and other groups  embarked on a March of Shame, walking 
between the institutions in Washington  DC that continue to be responsible 
for unjust, illegal, and immoral American  policies and conduct.  
Beginning at the White House at 11am, the  anti-torture activists, dressed 
in the orange jumpsuits and black hoods that  are now emblematic of the 
policies of torture and abuse that the Obama  administration inherited from 
President George W. Bush and has further  entrenched. Then the group solemnly 
processed to the Department of Justice,  the Supreme Court, and the Capitol. 
The demonstrators called on all branches of  government to close 
Guantanamo, end indefinite detention, repudiate the  Military Commissions, and resist 
any effort to reauthorize torture in the form  of “enhanced interrogations.”
  The procession took place as  the House of Representatives is dealing 
with a version of the 2012  defense appropriations bill that undermines US 
Federal Courts, keeps  Guantanamo open, and attempts to expand indefinite 
detention. 
Witness Against Torture will vigil at the Department  of Justice on Friday 
(6/24) from noon to 2pm.  These  demonstrations are part of a week of 
activities organized by the Torture  Abolition and Survivor Support Coalition 
International, culminating in a vigil  in front of the White House on Saturday, 
June 25th from 7am to 7pm.   
Witness Against Torture demands:  
    *   Close the prison at Guantánamo Bay;  
    *   Free all prisoners who have been cleared for  release, ensuring 
their safe resettlement and providing asylum in the U.S.  for those unable to 
go elsewhere;  
    *   Produce charges against all other prisoners and  prosecute them in 
U.S. courts;  
    *   Open all detention centers to outside scrutiny.  That includes 
accepting the oversight of the International Committee of the  Red Cross of all 
facilities; and  
    *   Conduct a comprehensive criminal inquiry against  all those who 
designed and carried out torture policies under the Bush  administration. 
Witness Against Torture 
_http://www.witnesstorture.org/_ (http://www.witnesstorture.org/)   
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