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June is Torture Awareness Month
- and First-Wednesday Vigils are taking off!

We're holding the forever prisoners in Guantanamo in our hearts by holding vigils in our local communities on the first Wednesday of every month, but especially in June -- Torture Awareness Month.  We join Andy Worthington and the U.K. Guantanamo Network, which began standing before Parliament in London last September.  Now WAT and the Close Guantanamo Coalition are in Mexico City, New York City, Los  Angeles, Raleigh NC, Washington DC and a growing number of other cities and towns.  

So on June 7, haul out your signs -- and your jump suit if you have one -- and head down to your town square.  Print out flyers about Guantanamo and the Guantanamo Survivors Fund.  Call the local media and invite them to come out.  Send pictures and the story of your vigil to to WAT and to Andy.  Celebrate with us whether you're one or many!
 

More June Torture Awareness Month Events

  • Jun 26-27, 9 to 5, in Washington DC:  Advocacy Days on Capitol Hill by Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition Intl
  • Jun 26 online: Conversation with Survivors (details coming soon, Guantanamo Survivors Fund)
  • Jun 26, 4 to 6, in Raleigh NC: Vigil at Aero Contractors 
  • Watch your email and social media for more events as the weeks unfold
 
 

Un-easy Reading

We leave you with a few articles, but there are more to come in the June WAT newsletter.  

Red Cross raises alarm over "accelerated aging" at Guantanamo Prison

This is yet another layer of suffering laid upon the men still held at Guantanamo. The Red Cross (ICRC) reports, for the second time, that the men are exhibiting mental and physical “accelerated aging’’ as a result of the extraordinary stress conditions of their prolonged and indefinite detention. These longterm effects reinforce the urgency of ending the restrictions (i.e. in the NDAA) on transfers to the US for medical care.  We must maintain pressure on the White House, State Department, and Senate Armed Services Committee to bring this never-ending injustice to an end.


Spencer Ackerman warns: Emptying Gitmo is not the same as closing it
He warns that "Even if transfers could vacate the detention camp, emptying Guantánamo is not the same as closing Guantánamo. And unless the camp is permanently shuttered, it’s only a matter of time before one of Biden’s successors takes up Donald Trump’s unrealized call to fill it back up with “some bad dudes.” It could well be Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who’s about to be the first presidential candidate with Guantánamo service on his résumé."

Life after Guantanamo: The discarded men....
Most of the 780 men detained in Guantanamo Bay were never charged, but still lost years of their lives. For many who are now out, freedom is hard to attain. This article, written 1 1/2 years ago, is as relevant today as it was then.  But unfortunately so is this one from 2016, which is why the Guantanamo Survivors Fund is such an important stopgap measure, to raise funds and give small grants to applicants needing financial assistance ranging from prostheses and medical care to essentials like food and rent.

And equally urgent, we must pressure the administration to proactively assure the wellbeing of all of the men it has transferred out of Guantanamo. Mansoor Adayfi writes about Saeed Bakhouche, cleared for release and sent back to Algeria from Guantanamo a month ago, where he is now prison.   
 
 
 

Donate to support our work

Please consider a donation to help fund WAT's expenses.  We are completely volunteer-driven and run. We have no paid staff; all of the money you donate goes to funding the work we do together.  
Click here to donate to WAT. 
WAT centers the men transferred out of Guantanamo through the Guantanamo Survivors Fund (GSF), also volunteer-run.
Click here to donate to Guantanamo Survivors Fund.

Who we are

Witness Against Torture was formed in 2005 when 25 Americans went to Guantánamo Bay and attempted to visit the detention facility. They began to organize more broadly to shut down Guantánamo, end indefinite detention and torture and call out Islamophobia. During our demonstrations, we lift up the words of the detainees themselves, bringing them to public spaces they are not permitted to access. Witness Against Torture will carry on in its activities until torture is decisively ended, its victims are fully acknowledged, Guantánamo and similar facilities are closed, and those who ordered and committed torture are held to account.
www.witnessagainsttorture.com
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