The best thing Washington can now do about this national shame
is to shut it down. It is a propaganda gift to America’s enemies; an
embarrassment to our allies; a damaging repudiation of the American
justice system; and a highly effective recruiting tool for Islamic
radicals, including future terrorists.
Dear Friend,
It’s time to shut down the prison camp at Guant?namo Bay once and for
all. Guant?namo has become a symbol world-wide of the Bush
Administration’s arrogant disregard for the most basic of human rights.
In a hard-hitting editorial on Sunday, June 5, The New York Times
wrote: “The best thing Washington can now do about this national shame
is to shut it down. It is a propaganda gift to America’s enemies; an
embarrassment to our allies; a damaging repudiation of the American
justice system; and a highly effective recruiting tool for Islamic
radicals, including future terrorists.”*
write your representatives in Congress and the members of the Senate
Judiciary and Foreign Relations committees and tell them to shut down
Guant?namo and either try the remaining 540 detainees in a court of law
or release them.
The Center for Constitutional Rights has led the fight
against the detentions at Guant?namo Bay. From the day the
government made clear they planned to ship prisoners there to keep them
beyond the reach of law, indefinitely, and without any chance to
challenge their detention or know the charges against them, CCR has
fought for the detainees to have their day in court. CCR won the
fight in the Supreme Court one year ago and is leading a team of more
than 350 attorneys from around the country representing the detainees
in the courts, but the Bush Administration has defied the ruling of the
highest court in the land and stonewalled detainees’ access to the
courts and to counsel. We urgently need your help. Please
contact your representatives in Congress and tell them the time has
come to shut down the Guant?namo prison camp once and for all. And please help if you can with a donation to help us keep at this critical fight: CCR does cutting edge work, and we can’t do it without you.
In response to increasing documentation of abuse and the now admitted
intentional desecration of the Koran, Senator Arlen Spector
(R-Pennsylvania) will be holding hearings in June on the treatment of
the detainees, and Senator Joseph Biden, (D-Delaware), who has just called for Guant?namo to be shut down, has proposed an
independent commission to investigate the situation. CCR has long
called for an independent special prosecutor with the power to
prosecute the human rights abuses being committed in our name as
Americans. And now we’re calling for the immediate closing of the
Guant?namo prison camp.
Yours,
Ron Daniels and Michael Ratner
Executive Director and President, The Center for Constitutional Rights
To find out more about Guant?namo and CCR’s other cases go to www.ccr-ny.org
To be removed from CCR’s action alert list reply with “remove me” in the subject line
*read the full text of the
Times editorial here: