CALL TO ACTION:
Join Witness Against Torture January 11-22, 2010 in a Fast and Vigil to Shut Down Guantanamo, End Torture and Build Justice
"I believe strongly that torture is not moral, legal or effective." Guantanamo is "a damaging symbol to the world... a rallying cry for terrorist recruitment and harmful to our national security, so closing it is important for our national security."
-Admiral Dennis Blair, January 2009.
On January 22, 2009, after signing the Executive Order to close Guantanamo, President Obama said "This is me following through ... on an understanding that dates back to our founding fathers, that we are willing to observe core standards of conduct not just when it's easy but also when it's hard."
Obama committed his administration to closing the prison-long a symbol of U.S. terror and lawlessness-within a year. Since that time, the process of releasing or relocating or prosecuting the 200 plus men still detained at Guantanamo has become mired in bureaucratic machinations, Congressional grandstanding and fear-mongering, and legal foot-dragging. In the meantime, the president seems to have lost interest in the issue altogether.
And what of the imprisoned men themselves - those still detained, still separated from their families after six, seven, eight years? More than 60 of them have been cleared for released, innocent men caught in an indiscriminate sweep that landed them at Guantanamo, isolated and tortured. The government has acknowledged it has no evidence on most if not all of them, yet still they languish. Only a few men have been released since the Executive Order was signed in January.
Barack Obama's historic election, the end of the Bush administration, the new tone and tenor of politics in Washington, an executive order, rhetoric about core standards of conduct, human rights and democracy - all of this is hollow and meaningless if not accompanied by actions that lead to justice, freedom and accountability. Closing Guantanamo, breaking with Bush-era policies, ending torture, rendition and indefinite detention is hard, but it must be done. It is taking too long.
