JOHN GRISHAM: "ABOUT two months ago I learned that some of my books had been banned at Guantánamo"
I was surprised to see the letter to the ed. by author John Grisham.
As someone how has protested Guantanamo for 10 years I thank you John Grisham and hope you can get others who are celebraties to speak out.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/11/opinion/sunday/after-guantanamo-another-injustice.html?smid=fb-share
"ABOUT two months ago I learned that some of my books had been banned at Guantánamo Bay. Apparently detainees were requesting them, and their lawyers were delivering them to the prison, but they were not being allowed in because of “impermissible content.”
I became curious and tracked down a detainee who enjoys my books. His name is Nabil Hadjarab, and he is a 34-year-old Algerian who grew up in France. He learned to speak French before he learned to speak Arabic. He has close family and friends in France, but not in Algeria. As a kid growing up near Lyon, he was a gifted soccer player and dreamed of playing for Paris St.-Germain, or another top French club.
Tragically for Nabil, he has spent the past 11 years as a prisoner at Guantánamo, much of the time in solitary confinement. Starting in February, he participated in a hunger strike, which led to his being force-fed."
snip
"DEPRESSED and driven to the point of desperation, Nabil joined a hunger strike in February. This was not Gitmo’s first hunger strike, but it has attracted the most attention. As it gained momentum, and as Nabil and his fellow prisoners got sicker, the Obama administration was backed into a corner. The president has taken justified heat as his bold and eloquent campaign promises to close Gitmo have been forgotten. Suddenly, he was faced with the gruesome prospect of prisoners dropping like flies as they starved themselves to death while the world watched. Instead of releasing Nabil and the other prisoners who have been classified as no threat to the United States, the administration decided to prevent suicides by force-feeding the strikers.
Nabil has not been the only “mistake” in our war on terror. Hundreds of other Arabs have been sent to Gitmo, chewed up by the system there, never charged and eventually transferred back to their home countries. (These transfers are carried out as secretly and as quietly as possible.) There have been no apologies, no official statements of regret, no compensation, nothing of the sort. The United States was dead wrong, but no one can admit it."
the article is 2 pages and as a lot of informative info.. most many of us already know but many of us know all the personal stories.
= new reply since forum marked as read
this site CagePrisoners.. used to be much more simple.. you clicked on countries or cities and then it listed the prisoners and would have some info about them and maybe a picture or words from the family.. as years gone by it has more sophisticated and harder for me to navigate.
I used it in 2004 and used 8x11 sheets of orange colored paper that was laminated to make signs people in orange jump suits wore the name and age of the detainee or something that happened to them. LIke "I was beaten so bad i can no longer see out my left eye" or "they told me they had raped my wife". etc. I made over 500 of the signs. There were 70 of who walked through the skyways of downtown minneapolis with the black hoods and orange jumpsuits wearing these placards. We wore the blackhoods out of thin and cheap black material that we sewed into hoods...you could see through them if there was lights but people could look at you and not see your face so they would read the signs on us. I had to keep making more signs because people kept them. We word them in a march when the RNC was in St Paul in 2008.. and many of the signs made their way via protesters to DC for marches there. We wore them when Condi Rice came to the twin cities on several occasions and the participants had to walk past the signs and our banners. Over all I think as a group we have worn them over 30 times in the last 10 years. and there are several members who wore them 1-2x ever week for a year after Obama got in office. They protest in front of the Fed Courthouse and also at St Thomas Law School where one of the "memo" writers teaches law. Robert Delahunty.
Anyhow I haven't made them in the last year so hadn't looked very hard to the Cageprisoners site.. again it is more complex.
but I put in "Nabil Hadjarab"'s name. And here he is. When you see their faces and hear their story, or read what their family had to say it makes it harder and harder to like the Democratic Party (I already think the GOP is going to burn in hell). It i heart breaking.
http://www.cageprisoners.com/learn-more/articles/item/6646-guantánamo-hunger-strike-nabil-hadjarab-tells-court-“i-will-consider-eating-when-i-see-people-leaving-this-place
Guantánamo hunger strike: Nabil Hadjarab tells court, “I will consider eating when I see people leaving this place"
from July 2013
The four men are Shaker Aamer, the last British resident in the prison, Nabil Hadjarab and Ahmed Belbacha, both Algerians, and Abu Wa’el Dhiab, a Syrian, and they are amongst the 86 men (out of 166 prisoners in total) who were cleared for release by President Obama’s inter-agency Guantánamo Review Task Force in January 2010, but are still held — in part because of Congressional opposition, but also because of indifference on the part of President Obama.
Despite promising to resume releasing prisoners in a major speech on national security issues on May 23, which he can do through a waiver that exists in the legislation passed by Congress that otherwise makes it all but impossible to release prisoners, the President has not released a single one of these 86 cleared prisoners since that promise was made.
As well as being cleared prisoners and hunger strikers, both Ahmed Belbacha and Nabil Hadjarab are currently being force-fed, along with 42 others out of the remaining 166 prisoners.
This is a sad account, as Nabil, who was barely out of his teens when sent to Guantánamo, has not been a hunger striker before, and has never previously been force-fed. His despair is indicative of that of many of his fellow prisoners, after eleven and half years without justice, and the ongoing failure of President Obama to, at the very least, release the men that his own task force said should no longer be held three and a half years ago — some of whom, like Nabil, were also cleared for release under President Bush.
I told Nabil’s story last year, in an article entitled, “Nabil Habjarab, the “Sweet Kid” in Guantánamo, Was Cleared in 2007 But Is Still Held,” and I refer you to that for the explanation of his broken family background, and how he ended up in Afghanistan, and then Guantánamo. Though Algerian by birth, he is an orphan, and the closest members of his extended family are in France, where he spent much of his youth.
Petition for Nabil's release
http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/11-years-in-guantanamo-for-no-reason-bring-nabil-hadjarab-back-to-france
please sign and share the petition. Like I said. CagePrisoners is always adding new stuff to their site. Above is a petition I didn't even know about.
Those waiver provisions clearly give the Administration both the legal authority and the practical ability to transfer detainees from Guantánamo to their home countries. The question is no longer whether the Administration has the authority to transfer detainees home but whether it has the political courage to do so. -
It is too late to sign the petition on this link
http://www.closeguantanamo.org/Articles/36-What-you-missed-the-NDAA-allows-the-President-to-release-prisoners-from-Guantanamo
What you missed: the NDAA allows the President to release prisoners from Guantánamo
In the last six weeks, since the Senate passed the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 (PDF) and President Obama signed it into law, there has been considerable discussion and outrage about the provision requiring the mandatory military custody, potentially indefinitely, without charge or trial of anyone having an alleged association with al-Qaeda.
While it is important that criticism should continue to be directed at lawmakers for these unacceptable provisions, few critics of the NDAA have noted that another provision of the law provides hope for finally transferring prisoners out of Guantánamo. Over half of the prisoners there - 89 of the 171 remaining prisoners - have been cleared for release for more than two years, but prevented from being transferred out of Guantánamo by prior congressional restrictions.
This important provision is discussed below by Tom Wilner, Counsel of Record for the Guantánamo prisoners in their cases before the Supreme Court in 2004 and 2008, and a member of the steering committee of "Close Guantánamo."
Legal Analysis - Section 1028 National Defense Authorization Act of 2012
By Tom Wilner
The recently enacted National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 (the "NDAA"
does a number things that seriously threaten civil liberties. In one area, however, the NDAA significantly eases current restrictions. It gives the Obama Administration both the legal authority and the practical ability to transfer detainees from Guantánamo back to their home countries.
Prior law put significant hurdles in the way of transferring detainees from Guantánamo. It effectively blocked the transfer of any detainee who was not ordered released by a court or released pursuant to a prior plea agreement in a military commission case. Other than in those circumstances, the law prevented a detainee from being transferred (i) to any country if any detainee had previously been transferred to that country and had subsequently engaged in any terrorist activity (a "recidivist country"
or (ii) to any other country unless the Secretary of Defense issued a certification personally "ensur[ing] that the individual [transferred] cannot engage or reengage in any terrorist activity." The general counsel of the Department of Defense had ruled that it was simply not possible for anyone to provide such a personal blanket assurance. As a result of these restrictions, no detainee has been transferred from Guantánamo since these laws were enacted except pursuant to a court order or a plea agreement.
Section 1028 of the NDAA changed the law and eased the transfer requirements. Although that section of the new law retains essentially the same certification requirements mentioned above, it now explicitly allows the Secretary of Defense in consultation with the Secretary of State to waive those requirements by finding:
[if] it is not possible to certify that the risks ... have been completely eliminated, [that] the actions to be taken ... will substantially mitigate such risks with regard to the individual to be transferred; [and, in the case of the recidivism provision,] the Secretary has considered any confirmed case in which an individual who was transferred to the country subsequently engaged in terrorist activity, and the actions to be taken ... will substantially mitigate the risk of recidivism with regard to the individual to be transferred and [that] ... the transfer is in the national security interests of the United States.
Those waiver provisions clearly give the Administration both the legal authority and the practical ability to transfer detainees from Guantánamo to their home countries. The question is no longer whether the Administration has the authority to transfer detainees home but whether it has the political courage to do so.
Note: If you have not already done so, please sign the petition on the White House's "We the People" website calling for President Obama to fulfill his promise to close Guantánamo. (it is too late to sign as it didn't make the number needed according to the whitehouse website)
