As part of its national Guantanamo Cell Tour, Amnesty International is bringing the Guantanamo Cell Tour to Denver and Minneapolis-St Paul for the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, respectively. And we’ve got billboards in each city too!

Amnesty International is non-partisan and independent of any political ideology. We neither support nor oppose any political party or candidate for public office, and we don’t seek to influence elections. Rather, we call for every government-and every armed group and private company for that matter-to abide by international human rights law and standards.

For anyone reading this who thinks that the fight against terror justifies human rights violations, or that the U.S. government needs to break the law to support U.S. troops, I’ve got news for you: a lot of U.S. military and intelligence folks disagree with you. Here’s a sample, off the top of my head:

• “Amici curiae are retired military officers. Each has extensive experience with U.S. military regulations and the Laws of War. Each believes that the mission of the Nation’s Armed Forces must be consistent with the rule of law.“
• “As retired military leaders of the U.S. Armed Forces…We believe it is vital to the safety of our men and women in uniform that the United States not sanction the use of interrogation methods it would find unacceptable if inflicted by the enemy against captured Americans.”
• “Anybody with real combat experience understands that torture is counterproductive.”

Now back to the Cell Tour:

We’ll be in Denver August 24 -26, at the City of Cuernavaca Park, 20th street and Little Raven (across from the skate park). We’ll be open on Sunday, August 24th, 3pm - 8pm; Monday, August 25th, 11am - 8pm; Tuesday, August 26th, 11am - 8pm. And on Wednesday, August 27th, the cell will move to the Denver Coliseum Parking Lot for the Rage Against the Machine show. The cell will be open that day from 10:30am - 5pm.

We’ll be in Minneapolis-St Paul (specifically, St Paul) September 1- 3, at 7th Street West and Walnut Street. We’ll have an opening event with Larry Cox, Executive Director of Amnesty International USA on Sunday August 31st at 5 pm, and the cell will be open Monday - Wednesday from 10:30am - 7:30pm.

Please stop by! And if you’re attending either of the conventions, please wear orange!

ZJ

Tags: conventions, denver, minneapolis, orange, quotes, st paul, torture
caitlin.hamilton | 12 Comments »

The New York Times today released a story explaining the results of a Senate Arms Services Committee hearing on interrogation tactics used at Guantanamo Bay. The hearing revealed the sad irony that interrogation tactics used by the CIA against detainees at Guantanamo Bay were ripped straight out of a playbook used by Communist captors against American soldiers in the Korean War. Back then, the United States denounced these tactics as torture.

How is it that the tools used by a state notorious for its human rights violations, and denounced by the United States are now being employed by the United States itself?

What’s worse, an American sociologist during the Korean War helped to create a training regimen to expose American soldiers to Communist techniques, to inoculate American soldiers against these techniques. Why? To counter military fears after reports revealed many American captives had been brainwashed and forced to falsely confess to crimes.

It is bad enough our government is using its old enemies’ tools against its new enemies. It is even worse that they justify using these techniques by saying it yields valuable information they need to protect our country, when they know full well that the information extracted from such methods is most likely false.

This confirms what Amnesty International USA has been saying all along: torture and harsh interrogations do not yield reliable information, violate human rights, and only damage our reputation throughout the world.

The United States was founded on the principle of justice for all. It is time to live up to that principle. Give the detainees fair trials – if they are found innocent, set them free, and if they are found guilty, punish them according to the law.

Why should we expect others to live up to standards we can’t meet ourselves?

–Ilana

Tags: amnesty, cell tour, guantanamo, torture
sarah.mertz | Comment »

Christopher Hitchens, writing for Vanity Fair, voluntarily underwent waterboarding to determine for himself, from an outsiders point of view, if it is indeed a reasonable addition to the interrogation process. After entering the debate, calling the practice “extreme interrogation”, Hitchens decided to settle the matter the best possible way; trying it himself. Would firsthand experience induce a change of heart?

Well, from the title of Hitchens’s article, “Believe Me, It’s Torture”, we have our answer. The current administration is rationalizing to deem it acceptable interrogation. Borne of the rampant fear-mongering that lingers to this day from after the September 11th attacks, America is heading down a path of becoming as immoral as the values it is fighting against. Though my opinion is not an uncommon one (luckily), I’ll state it anyways: America, lead by example. I know its clichéd advice, but clichés become clichés for good reason; they are the plain and simple truth.

There are those who need to be detained and interrogated, and I am not implying that interrogation need be of optimum comfort. Still, human rights cannot be thrown aside because we are at war. The real moral litmus test of a country is not at a time of peace, I can tell you that much.

We must demand that our government live up the standard it demands of others; take and treat non-combatants and prisoners of war according to the guidelines set out in the Geneva Conventions and do not use torture in interrogation techniques. Hint: if soldiers are being trained to resist a certain torture technique, that means it classifies as torture, even when it is called interrogation to the public here.

–Faigy Abdelhak

Tags: amnesty, cell tour, guantanamo, torture
sarah.mertz | Comment »

The cell is currently sitting on a part of the National Mall that is directly across the street from the Washington Monument. The monument was built in honor of George Washington, one of our country’s leaders in our fight for independence and democracy - and our first President. Being here makes me wonder what George Washington would have thought of Guantanamo.

Today is the International Day In Support of Victims of Torture - a day to reflect on the injustices and abuses symbolized by Guantanamo and, in my opinion, DO SOMETHING about it. Almost no one I spoke with today knew that June 26th marks the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. But we’re working to change that - over 360 individuals visited the cell, taking a moment to think about the issues surrounding Guantanamo and take action.

No one deserves to be tortured, denied access to a fair trial, and held without charge. I think George Washington would be with us on this one…

–Jen

Tags: amnesty, cell tour, guantanamo, torture
sarah.mertz | 15 Comments »

I love dogs. They’re fuzzy. They’re fun to play with. They smile a lot. It’s rare that a dog will subject you to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, or to indefinite detention without charge or fair trial at Guantanamo or other US controlled facilities. (But if you’re a squirrel, watch out.)

(Caption: Millie the beagle, a good example of a lovable dog.)

Those of you who’ve read my previous posts (collectively known as “mom”) may have picked up on the fact that I frequently battle melancholy in the course of fulfilling my well-paid duties as a human rights campaigner with Amnesty International. Are we making a difference? Are we part of the problem? Are we just a medicinal leech from Lithuania feeding on the bloated, greed-wracked, hate-filled, war-ravaged corpse of humanity, sucking out a tiny bit of poison from its blood just to get the bastard one day closer to the death of the sun?

And you know I usually find inspiration in the little human rights victories–and the big hearts of Amnesty volunteers–but today, our last day in Portland, it was–like so many times before–a dog that saved me. Millie is a beagle. From what I can tell, she enjoys barking at other dogs, eating her own drool and drinking from toilets. I’m guessing she also likes long walks on the beach and rolling in dead seals. But Millie is so much more than a germ carrier–she’s perpetual positivity in motion, with a GTMO orange collar to boot: in other words, pure joy just a head scratch away.

Millie’s human, Pete (remember to write that blog post!), volunteered at the cell each day–and put in tons of time before the Portland stop to make sure Portland people showed up. So did Liz and Leo (you two give me hope I’ll find true love), Eileen (great sense of humor–please remember to send that receipt), Stephen (great photos), David (future Amnesty researcher) and many others. It was a pleasure spending time in the trenches with everyone–thank you very much. Stay orange.

Thanks also to Portland–over 1,000 of your citizens visited the cell and hundreds and hundreds signed the tearitdown.org petition and the postcard to Bush (I’d say 1,000 but I know that guy who threatened to stab me didn’t sign)–all while providing tasty fish and chips and my daily gyro (dude, no lamb) from the Spartan food stand near the cell on Monument Square. “Mediterranean” food court food is becoming my cell tour staple. It’d be fun to be the world’s foremost expert on tzatziki. PS I’m sorry but lobster rolls are gross.

I’m on the A train now going home via the NYC subway system–it’s nuts: kids are screaming, the A/C’s off and it’s a zillion degrees–but I’m happy to sleep in tomorrow, to not wear orange for a few days, to not have some fool bark at me about how I love terrorists, about how I’m an idiot and a coward, about how he’s been incarcerated in cells smaller than this, about how he’s not drunk and about how a terrorist would cut my head off so of course we better torture and murder them first to defend our freedoms and way of life ’cause those people are animals…

But in Portland I also saw the future, and it was good. A 10-year-old kid visited the cell with his mom, turned to her and asked–with an utterly perplexed look born, at least as I remember it from my own lost youth, of the growing realization that the world of adults is maddeningly, brazenly, shamelessly dumb–a magnificently simple, earnest question, one that seems to have escaped the Yale educated (hyphen there? I went to Berkeley) supercomputer housed between the beagle ears of America’s Commander in Chief: “if someone doesn’t get a fair trial, how do we know they’re guilty?”

Mission accomplished.

- ZJ

Tags: dogs, guantanamo, human rights, humanity, lobster rolls, maine, Millie the beagle, Monument Square, portland, torture, tzatziki
caitlin.hamilton | 6 Comments »

Tags: amnesty international, cell, Guantanamo Bay, maine, portland, president bush, torture, video
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Tags: amnesty international, cell, Guantanamo Bay, maine, portland, president bush, torture, video
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Tags: amnesty international, cell, Guantanamo Bay, maine, portland, president bush, torture, video
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Tags: amnesty international, cell, Guantanamo Bay, president bush, torture, video
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Tags: cell tour, president bush, torture, video
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