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The US government is getting ready to free 5 men, reportedly Taliban leaders, held in Guantánamo Bay prison in Cuba in exchange for bringing the Taliban into peace talks over the on-going Afghanistan war. Guantánamo, or Gitmo, as it’s often called, symbolized the worst excesses of the Bush Administration’s foreign policy. Ten years ago this Wednesday, eleven men were brought to the prison – the first contingent of detainees that enabled the government to deny basic legal and human rights to prisoners of war on the basis that they were not on American soil. A total of 775 men have passed through the prison – some of them children – and been subjected to harsh interrogation techniques: a euphemism for torture techniques like water boarding. Over the years, many went on hunger strike to protest their conditions and their on-going imprisonment. Hundreds attempted suicide, and at least 4 succeeded. One of President Obama’s first acts after taking office in 2009, was to announce that the Guantánamo prison would be shut down. However, he has yet to fulfill that promise. Today, 171 men remain at Guantánamo. Many of them remain because no nation will now accept them.

The organization Witness Against Torture is using the tenth anniversary of Guantánamo to draw attention to President Obama’s culpability in keeping Guantánamo open, by going on a ten day fast. On Saturday, the group’s members “carried a reproduction of a Guantánamo cell over barricades surrounding Lafayette Park and deployed it in front of the White House,” kicking off a 92 hour vigil. Witness Against Torture has dubbed January 11th, a National Day of Shame. Meanwhile, the Center for Constitutional Rights yesterday filed a lawsuit against the federal government requesting video tapes of interrogation techniques used in Guantánamo public. In the lead up to the anniversary, the media have been covering stories of former Guantánamo prisoners, or publishing Op-eds by them. For example, AFP profiled an Afghan man named Haji Shahzada, who was quoted as saying, “If I have a chance to come to power, I will take my revenge and punish the Americans. They are not good people.” AFP also quoted Afghan writer and analyst Waheed Mujhda saying “Guantánamo has been a big contributing factor to growing violence and militancy in Afghanistan and Pakistan against the US.” Lakhdar Boumediene, an Algierian man who was imprisoned in Gitmo for seven years, wrote in the New York Times about the remaining 171 prisoners, saying “they sit as captives, with no end in sight — not because they are dangerous, not because they attacked America, but because the stigma of Guantánamo means they have no place to go, and America will not give a home to even one of them.”

GUEST: Frida Berrigan, with Witness Against Torture

Visit www.witnesstorture.org for more information.

On Wednesday, January 11, 2012, ICUJP is organizing two actions to protest Guantánamo:

9 AM Vigil and Tableau, 10 AM Press Conference; Downtown LA Federal Building (Temple and Los Angeles streets);

4 – 5:30 PM Rally and Vigil; Westwood Federal Building (Wilshire and Veteran)