Rad Christians Arrive in Guantánamo as 4 Christian Peacemakers Face Execution in Iraq!

by men with jackhammers Fri Dec 16, 2005 00:18

in 2003?

by update Fri Dec 16, 2005 00:04

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/12/15/155223>

by GitMo Thu Dec 15, 2005 20:13

Thursday, noon - Witness Against Torture today broke its fast and ended its vigil with a celebration of liturgy outside of the US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay. The group encountered exceptional support from within Cuba, the US and the rest of the world. As marcher Matt Daloisio said "We are only 25 people, but we represent millions of concerned brothers and sisters throughout the world." There have already been inquiries from other concerned individuals looking to join the effort and contributions have been generous. After five days of walking and three days of fasting, the group will now head home convinced of the need to continue this witness in the future. Stay posted. Thank you for your kind support!

by update Thu Dec 15, 2005 00:06

http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/13376953.htm

by Update Wed Dec 14, 2005 01:15

HAVANA (AP) -- American activists camping out at a Cuban military checkpoint outside the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay started their first day of a water-only fast Monday to protest the treatment of suspected terrorists detained at the base. Members of the largely Christian group Witness Against Torture are demanding access to the prisoner camp to meet with inmates. The activists arrived late Sunday at the checkpoint, which is about five miles from the U.S. base, after a five-day march from the eastern Cuban city of Santiago. "We can see the windmills of the U.S. base, we can see some lights off in the distance," Frida Berrigan, 31, said on her cell phone.
"We're not right next door, but we are closer to these prisoners than their family members have been since they were arrested." Berrigan is the daughter of the late Phil Berrigan, a former Roman Catholic priest whose protests against the Vietnam War and nuclear weapons helped ignite a generation of anti-war dissent.

Stacey Byington, a civilian spokeswoman for U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, said those inside the facility could not see the protesters and only knew of their presence through media reports. "Day-to-day activities of the base and its residents are not affected," Byington said in an e-mail message to The Associated Press, adding that access to the base is limited to those with official or authorized business.

The Guantanamo detention center has become a symbol of the controversy over detainee abuse by the U.S. military. Thirty-two prisoners are on hunger strike to protest what they say is cruel and inhumane treatment. Twenty-five of those prisoners are being fed through tubes. U.S. officials insist the hundreds of prisoners held at Guantanamo are treated humanely at the remote base on Cuba's eastern tip. The government says they are enemy combatants, not prisoners of war, and are not entitled to the same rights afforded under the Geneva Conventions. The prisoners' hunger strike is part of what inspired the 25 American activists to travel to the island, where most of them arrived Monday from the Dominican Republic.

They ate their last meal Sunday night before bunkering down in tents outside the checkpoint, which is on the edge of a miles-wide Cuban military zone peppered with mines surrounding the U.S. installations. They say they will stay there up to a week awaiting a response. Last week, the U.S. State Department issued a statement scolding the group for not focusing on rights abuses in Cuba."These protesters, as they march through Cuba, are ignoring one of the most oppressive regimes in the world, and its systematic and institutionalized violations of human rights," the statement said. "They have not acknowledged the nearly 300 peaceful dissidents who today are languishing in Cuban jails under horrific conditions." During their 66-mile march from Santiago, the activists slept in Cubans' backyards and at farms. Response from local citizens has been positive so far, Berrigan said.

"I think we've seen a lot of gratitude on the part of people we've encountered (for the fact) that Americans are taking responsibility for an American problem, for the torture and the impunity and the lawlessness of what purports to be the world's largest democracy," she said. Activist Grace Ritter said the group was urging Americans to call the base and President Bush to demand that Witness Against Torture representatives have access to the prisoners.
"If there isn't any torture going on as President Bush has said, then they should feel comfortable allowing us in and showing us around," said Ritter, 24, of Ithaca, N.Y.

by update Tue Dec 13, 2005 12:20

David Hicks has just been granted British citizenship by the hight court this morning. Hicks, an Australian held at Guatanamo, has always been prioritised by the U.S. for military tribunal and execution.

It's a sad reflection on the sycophancy of the Australian government that Hicks now has a better chance of survival now that he has been granted British citizenship.

It was only a chance conversation about Australia losing the (cricket) "ashes" with his lawyer at Guatanamo did Hicks eligibility for British citizenship arise. 9 Britons have been returned from Guantanamo.

by Update Tue Dec 13, 2005 11:17

A Mission of Peace and Peril
With four colleagues kidnapped, a Minnesota pacifist is poised to return to Iraq. She goes to bear witness to those struggling with violence......

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-pacifist12dec12,0,3205909,full.story?coll=la-home-nation

by GitMo Mon Dec 12, 2005 20:58

http://www.witnesstorture.org/files/Carmen_interview.mp3

by Jessica Stewart - Catholic Worker Mon Dec 12, 2005 19:44

Twenty-five U.S. citizens, calling themselves
Witness Against Torture, are demonstrating, fasting and praying at the gates of the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay. They marched across Cuba to get to the prison. One of them is my husband, Danny Burns.

Danny and I have two children. Finian is three
years old and Francis is seven months. Danny is at Guantanamo in part because of our family. What our government is doing at Guantanamo creates an unsafe world for our children. Our government is promoting a global escalation of violence which makes increasing terrorism inevitable.

I know Danny is risking retaliation by the U.S.
government for demonstrating against the illegal
actions of our government at Guantanamo. Danny andthree others in our community, Clare Grady, Teresa Grady and Peter Demott, are awaiting sentencing in federal court in January for an action taken on St. Patrick's Day in 2002 aimed at preventing the war on Iraq. Despite that, Danny and Clare and Teresa, have chosen to stand at the gates of Guantanamo.

The federal government wants to send a message that dissent will be punished. We send a message back to the government. We will stand for justice again and again until our country respects international law, the law of justice and universal human rights.

Danny and I think our government's actions at
Guantanamo have been marked by a disregard for
international law. Our government has disregarded the UN Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Geneva Conventions, the Nuremburg Principles and the Convention against Torture. This disregard is
not just at Guantanamo but also in the "war on
terror," the war against Iraq and in many parts of our global and domestic policy. When the world's most powerful government chooses to violate international law, rather than follow international law and serve the common good and further justice, the law of force governs the world.

Danny and I know that we cannot sit back and just
complain. International law tells us that we have
responsibilities for what our country is doing.

Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal Judge Roling wrote: "The most important principle of Nuremburg was that individuals have duties which transcend national obligations of obedience imposed by the nation-state... This means that in some cases individuals are required to substitute their own interpretation [of international obligations] for the interpretation given by the state." The Judge went on to say, "The world has to rely on individuals to oppose the criminal commands of the government." That is what we are trying to do.

In our religious tradition, we are called to visit
those in prison. Men and boys have been held at Camp Delta in Guantánamo since October 2001. They are being held with no charges. They have been denied legal counsel. Reports of torture and abuse are widespread. The prisoners do not know if or when they will ever be tried or released. By visiting the prison camp, Danny and the others can let the prisoners know they are not forgotten.

I find myself thinking of the mothers of those
detained. What if my sons were among boys being held at the camp? If young people in Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan see that American people choose to ignore the suffering of their people under occupation and illegal detention they will be more likely to feel desperate and see suicide bombings and other acts of violence as their only recourse.

Danny and I long for a world of peace built on
justice for our children. Abundance, compassion and love should be the rule, not the exception. We want our world to improve, not deteriorate, as our children are growing.

A hundred years from now we want our grandchildren to be able to look back at our actions and know that we tried to act with integrity and for the good of humanity. That is why my husband Danny Burns is at the gates of Guantanamo and that is why I support him.

by update Mon Dec 12, 2005 19:23 Cuba

PRESS CONFERENCE AT GUANTÁNAMO

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13,
3PM (2PM EST)
At La Glorieta, the first Cuban Military Checkpoint en route to base

Guantánamo, Cuba – A group of 25 U.S. Christians today ended their 50-mile march from Santiago, Cuba to the gates of the controversial American detention center at Guantánamo Bay.

The Witness Against Torture marchers
are the first American Christians ever to approach the notorious prison, where hundreds of inmates have been subjected to torture and humiliation,
while being held outside of international law.

In June of this year, President Bush said to those concerned with the conditions in Guantánamo, “You're welcome to go down yourself... and
take a look at the conditions.” Now these US Christians are calling his bluff.

They are asking people to call on President Bush to grant permission for them to visit the prisoners.

In the tradition of the Catholic Worker movement and its founder Dorothy Day, the marchers are camping outside the Guantánamo Bay gates and calling on the U.S. Government to allow them access to the prison so that they may perform the Christian work of mercy of visiting the incarcerated, as called for in the Gospel of Matthew 25:36.

Members of the group have set up tents outside the Cuban side of the gates, where they will fast and hold prayer vigils while waiting for U.S. permission to visit the prison.

Members of the group will also pray for the release of four Christian Peacemakers who are currently being held hostage in Iraq, where they face
the threat of execution. Sister Anne Montgomery, a 79-year old full time member of the Christian Peacemaker Team who has been to Iraq, just
completed the 50-mile trek to Guantánamo, “Tom Fox's last communication before he was kidnapped said that love is the only thing that can
overcome dehumanization,” Sister Montgomery observed. “We feel that what is happening in Guantánamo represents the dehumanization of the prisoners, the guards and those that make war. We pray at the gates of Guantánamo that love will overcome this dehumanization.” Another CPT member, Danny Burns of Ithaca, NY, is also in at Guantánamo with the Witness Against Torture.

Witness Against Torture will hold a press conference Tuesday, December 13 at 3PM. They will speak about torture, the status of the detainees, and the Christian Peacekeepers being held hostage in Iraq.

by Patrick - Raleigh Catholic Worker Mon Dec 12, 2005 12:20 North Carolina, USA

By PATRICK O'NEILL
The drop off was about 200 yards from the fence line. Just down the road a US flag hung above the sign for "Aero Contractors, Ltd.," the Johnston County-based company that maintains and provides pilots for two corporate jets the Central Intelligence Agency has used for "extraordinary rendition," a term that essentially means "torture by proxy."

According to numerous media accounts, Aero's jets have been spotted all over the globe in airports throughout Europe and the Middle East. After leaving Johnston County, the jets make a stop over at Washington's Dulles Airport to pick up a CIA goon squad. From there, the flights head out in search of suspected terrorists, who are sometimes snatched off the streets in places like Afghanistan and Iraq, and brought to places like Egypt, Morocco, Libya and Uzbekistan, where they have reportedly been tortured in an attempt to glean information about terrorist cells.
In the United States, "We do not torture," claims an unconvincing Pres. George W. Bush, whose words were spoken as his own vice president was lobbying lawmakers to exempt the CIA from newly introduced anti-torture legislation.

Aero's complicity in torture, a criminal enterprise, was first reported in the world press last spring. On Nov. 18, a group of activists, including Voices in the Wilderness founder, Kathy Kelly of Chicago, went to Aero to hand-deliver a citizens' indictment for crimes against International law and national law and for violating the Geneva Convention and the "U.N. Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment."

I had invited my 17-year-old daughter, Bernadette Rider O'Neill, to take a day off from her senior classes at Cardinal Gibbons High School and join me and a dozen others in an act of civil disobedience at Aero's operation that sits just a half mile down the road from 70 Business, just east of Clayton. The event was organized by the St. Louis-based "Center for Theology and Social Analysis."

As Catholic parents of eight children, my wife, Mary Rider and I, believe there is a Gospel mandate to raise our children to follow a call to radical discipleship, a call that includes welcoming martyrdom, the ultimate "seed of the Church." To do so, we have decided to raise our children counter-culturally. That's probably why Bernadette was the lone teenager in handcuffs last Friday morning.

Our plan started well. We walked around Aero's electronically controlled gate, past the no trespassing signs, to deliver the indictment to Aero. We had hoped to lower Aero's US flag to half staff as a symbol of mourning for the victims of rendition, but a lock box on the flag pole stopped the plan. We did cover Aero's sign with one of our own. "AERO CONTRACTORS: CIA TORTURE TAXIS."

While we did see a single Johnston County Sheriff's car on the road, the coast to Aero looked clear. Boy, where we wrong. Within seconds of our arrival, sheriff's deputies swooped in from several places, including two cars that whisked toward us from near the airport runway.

We opened with a litany of mourning. Bernadette started by reading a piece she selected from "Words of Peace," a selection from the writings of Jesuit priest Daniel Berrigan.
"Public disturbance is clearly unacceptable," Bernadette read as the deputies informed us we were trespassing and ordered us to leave Aero's property. "That would take us back many episodes in the life of Christ in which the same weird consequences followed upon acts that might have been thought, in any sensible human arrangement, to be of benefit, of good, of public weal, bringing hope. No, instead the law comes down."

As deputies started asking folks to place their hands behind their backs to be flexi-cuffed, Bill Ramsey of St. Louis, started to read the indictment aloud as Andrew Wimmer, also of St. Louis, held his cellphone aloft recording the events live for Democracy Now radio. At the same time, Raleigh's Josh McIntyre took a copy of the indictment to Aero's door hoping to present it to a company official. After a couple of knocks, McIntyre turned the handle, opened the door and found himself face-to-face with a Taser gun. He asked the man pointing the gun to take the indictment. The man, who McIntyre said looked jittery, said, "No," and ordered McIntyre to step back from the door. McIntyre left a copy of the nine-page indictment at the foot of the door.

After Ramsey was arrested, I took over reading the indictment. Soon all 14 of us were gently and loosely cuffed and ushered to a waiting van that the deputies already had parked behind Aero's building. As we were led to the paddy-van, I got off one final quote from Catholic Worker co-founder Dorothy Day: "Our problems stem from our acceptance of this filthy, rotten system."
Meanwhile, on the other side of the fence, our supporters were singing "We shall overcome," as we were being arrested.

"The police on the outside of the fence relaxed as soon as they were told that it was a completely nonviolent action, that the protesters were in there praying and would not harm anything," Raleigh activist Jane Hunt wrote in her account of events.
Longtime Fuquay-Varina peace activist, Debbie Biesack, a mother of three girls was also arrested. She agreed to stick close to Bernadette during the arrest and jailhouse ordeal, because I knew we would be separated from the women once we got to the Johnston County Detention Center.

Bernadette and Debbie had also risked arrest together two years ago in a sit-in outside of Central Prison to protest the death penalty.
At the jail, Bernadette, and the five women who were arrested with her, spent most of the day in an adjacent cell. Guards treated us all very well, and gave us all the access we needed to the telephone. Magistrate Tami D. Johnson set bond at $500 for in-state defendants, and $1,000 for the out-of-staters, absurdly high bonds for second-degree trespass, a very minor charge.
When I pointed out to Johnson that bond is supposed to be set only to assure a defendant's return to trial, which we are all obviously committed to do, Johnson would still not consider unsecured bonds.

When I said I had received an unsecured bond for the same charge in Wake County, Johnson replied, "This is not Wake County, Mr. O'Neill."
While we were being processed, other activists moved throughout the county hand-delivering copies of the indictment to various county and airport officials.

Hunt said the group asked to see Johnston County Airport manager Ray Blackmon, who did accept a copy of the indictment. At the Smithfield courthouse, Hunt gives this amazing account of the group's encounter with Johnston County Sheriff Steve Bizzell.

"We were ushered in by the sheriff himself who told us he knew we wanted to see the county manager and the head of the county commissioners, and he had them there in an office to meet with us. We walked by many more police officers, all silent and polite, into the office and delivered more indictments to the manager and Cookie Pope, (chairwomen) of the County Commissioners.

"Jerry (King) from St. Louis again explained our concerns and asked them if they had anything to say. The response was a slightly weak agreement to look into what was going on at the airport, and a thank you for us and indication that they had to 'get back to work.' Lots of shaking of hands, and we left, again passing by the ranks of the police. Someone suggested that all that was missing was the crossed swords."

With pro bono help from local ACLU defense attorney Michael J. Reece, bonds were cut in half by a judge and everybody was out on bail by 5 p.m. I received a nice handshake and a good luck wish from jail administrator, Major Mardy Benson. His staff treated us well. Our court date is Jan. 5, and we are looking forward to a great political trial in Ava Gardner's hometown.

by observer2 Mon Dec 12, 2005 00:42

A radical christian is a person who is following the definitive teachings of Christ as outlined in the gospels and acts. Believing in "god" aside, the practice of these people is one of pacifism, voluntary poverty and service. These appear good ideals, if nothing else. However that is not the issue, the thing is that these twenty five radical christians, some of whom I know, are actually outside the gates of Guantanamo concentration camp. When they are not there they are at the school of the americas or some or other military death centre. In the times in between they are to be found working with the homeless and marginalised, not as part of the social care industry but as part of their daily living.


Therefore these people are living the teachings of Christ in their original form, which were as subversive of the powers then as they are now,so the term radical christian is apt rather than oxymoronic.

Perhaps with a better understanding of the english language and a more open mind you might even get to read the text they are following, that is unless you are afraid it will brainwash you.

by Bobby Sun Dec 11, 2005 07:18

ok dear, we'll take this really slow. "Radical" not a scarey word, not a '60's word......a Latin word meaning "returning to the roots".

Stay in your comfort zone of first world cynicsm and leave the action to others, that's all the powers-that-be require from you at this point in history.

"you got something better
you got a heart of stone"
B. Dylan "Shot of Love"

by Old Tar Sun Dec 11, 2005 02:56

"Radical Christians" - what a joke. The idea is an oxymoron. Get real. If god existed we would need to detroy her.