GUANTANAMO BAY – PROTEST AT DÁIL EIREANN, 1.00pm this THURSDAY 23 MAY
• Shame on Barack Obama – Close Guantanamo Torture Centre now
• Over 100 detainees on hunger strike and some being force-fed
• Irish Government should speak out against this torture – silence is complicity!
Read this short article for info on the hunger strikes:
GUANTANAMO BAY – PROTEST AT DÁIL EIREANN, 1.00pm this THURSDAY 23 MAY
• Shame on Barack Obama – Close Guantanamo Torture Centre now
• Over 100 detainees on hunger strike and some being force-fed
• Irish Government should speak out against this torture – silence is complicity!
Read this short article for info on the hunger strikes:
“More than 100 of the 166 detainees at Guantanamo are starving themselves to death. Twenty-three of them are being force-fed. “They strap you to a chair, tie up your wrists, your legs, your forehead and tightly around the waist,” Fayiz Al-Kandari told his lawyer, Lt. Col. Barry Wingard. Al-Kandari, a Kuwaiti held at Guantanamo for 11 years, has never been charged with a crime.
“The tube makes his eyes water excessively and blood begins to trickle from the nose. Once the tube passes his throat the gag reflex kicks in. Warm liquid is poured into the body for 45 minutes to two hours. He feels like his body is going to convulse and often vomits,” Wingard added.
The United Nations Human Rights Council concluded that force-feeding amounts to torture. The American Medical Association says that force-feeding violates medical ethics. “Every competent patient has the right to refuse medical intervention, including life-sustaining interventions,” AMA President Jeremy Lazarus wrote to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. Yet President Barack Obama continues the tortuous Bush policy of force-feeding hunger strikers.
“I don’t want these individuals to die,” Obama told reporters. In fact, Obama has the power to save the hunger strikers’ lives without torturing them. Eighty-six – more than half – of the detainees remaining at Guantanamo have been cleared for release for the past three years. Section 1028(d) of the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act empowers the Secretary of Defense to approve transfers of detainees when it is in the national security interest of the United States. Fifty-six of the 86 cleared detainees are from Yemen. Yet Obama imposed a ban on releasing any of them following the foiled 2009 Christmas bomb plot by a Nigerian man who was recruited in Yemen. Obama must begin signing these certifications and waivers at once.
Indeed, Obama said in his press conference, “I think – well, you know, I think it is critical for us to understand that Guantanamo is not necessary to keep America safe . . . It hurts us in terms of our international standing . . . It is a recruitment tool for extremists. It needs to be closed.”
By Marjorie Cohn, Counterpunch, 10 May 2013
So why does Obama not release the prisoners and close Guantanamo? And why is the Irish Government so silent on the issue? Carlos Werner, an Attorney from Ohio, said on RTE recently that Obama has the absolute power to release the men and close Guantanamo but that he just does not have the courage to do so.
It is truly shocking that these men are still incarcerated in what is effectively a torture centre. The Irish Government has contributed to this scandal by its silence and by allowing Shannon Airport to continually be used by the US military and by rendition flights. It is quite possible that some prisoners at Guantanamo passed through Shannon Airport. There is certainly clear evidence that some of the planes involved in the illegal rendition programme did so – thus implicating the Irish people in this torture regime.
Come along to the IAWM Protest at 1pm this Thursday 23 May at Dáil Eireann and make your voice heard. Bring black hoods, face masks, orange jump suits etc.
Send a clear message to the Irish Government that we want these men released and that the Guantanamo Bay detention centre should be closed for good.
For info contact – 087 647 2737 and 086 822 8795
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