Author: Mike

Today there was a vigil at the Pentagon (which I missed) as well as the standard White House vigil with the mostly-Christian group singing to their Muslim brothers.

Today was free from public protest, though there was a “public presence” at one of the museums. The day ended solemnly with stories from torture survivors. It began with surprising joy as we chatted with Afghani youth and sang Civil Rights hymns to them. Pretty weird and pretty great.

Posted today at Harper’s, evidence from a soldier that three Guantanamo detainees said to have committed suicide may actually have been tortured to death:

. . . new evidence now emerging may entangle Obama’s young administration with crimes that occurred during the Bush presidency, evidence that suggests the current administration failed to investigate seriously—and may even have continued—a cover-up of the possible homicides of three prisoners at Guantánamo in 2006.

In which Witness Against Torture visits a John Yoo talk, and random passersby insult him.

(If my summaries are a little sparse for you, Kate Cowley has been writing excellent, detailed summaries of each day at the Witness Against Torture website.)

I spent the day messing with cameras and computers in a cafe, and reading about the earthquake in Haiti. My companions meanwhile walked the halls of the Senate offices in black hoods and orange jumpsuits. Remarkably, there were no arrests or evictions.

Thanks for all the kind messages of support. Did some good traditional and non-traditional lobbying today. And Carmen Trotta and I returned to the White House for our sadly long-running series of Guantanamo vigil videos.

“It’s not just fasting from food—we’re not supposed to be some sort of athlethes of fasting. It’s also fasting from our own egos.” –Bill Streit, from our morning reflection. We’ll see how the ego fasting goes…

Reminded today that this time last year in DC we were told dozens of times a day, “Go home! It’s closed! He closed it!” We’re pretty far from that now.

Had an evening discussion at Georgetown Law School with lawyers, activists, and curious passersby about “Where do we go from here?” My favorite comments were about “the importance of telling stories,” of not just piling on the facts and logic but engaging the imagination.

Valerie: Bye bye boys!

Miracle Max: Have fun storming the castle!

Valerie: Think it will work?

Miracle Max: It would take a miracle.

(from “The Princess Bride”)

I’m in Washington DC today with about 2 dozen others to begin 12 days of work, prayer, and fasting for the closure of the Guantanamo prison and an end to America’s policies of torture.
Continue reading “2010 Guantanamo fast: Day 0: Have fun storming the castle”

On January 11, 2002, the US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was first used as an illegal prison in the War on Terror.

On January 22, 2009, President Obama signed an executive order closing the base within a year.

Almost a year later, there are 198 men in the prison, scores of whom have been cleared for release by the U.S. government. And it doesn’t look like the prison is closing any time soon.

So Witness Against Torture and other groups have organized a special effort this January 11-22 to close the Guantanamo prison. They are calling for immediate release for those cleared and swift trials for those still suspected of crimes.

I will be joining a few dozen people in Washington, DC for 11 days of prayer, liquid-only fasting, and action. (I was part of a similar 100-day effort last year.) It’s good to be in DC working on national issues; we’ll be able to talk with people face-to-face, rather than just writing letters and making phone calls. I can’t say for certain that something like this is more effective than angry blog posts and letters-to-the-editor, but it sure feels it.