Anti-Torture Activists Go On Trial Today For Speaking Out Against Indefinite Detention

[Better Believe It]

WITNESS AGAINST TORTURE


OR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 3, 2012
CONTACT: Witness Against Torture

Anti-Torture Activists to Go on Trial for Speaking Out Against Guantanamo, Indefinite Detention, and the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)

WASHINGTON - January 3 - A jury trial for five anti-torture activists begins on Tuesday, January 3, 2012 in D.C. Superior Court before Judge Fisher. They are charged with unlawful conduct in the citizen’s gallery at the House of Representatives on June 23, 2011, and face jail time if convicted.

“Our strategy is to put Guantanamo on trial,” says Josie Setzler, a human rights advocate and grandmother from Ohio, “and demand that Congress and the President close Guantanamo and restore the U.S. Constitution.” The press conference will discuss the court case and the larger issues of torture, Guantanamo, and the NDAA.

The defendants — Brian Hynes of the Bronx, NY, Judith Kelly of Washington, DC, Mike Levinson of New Rochelle, NY, Carmen Trotta of New York City, NY, and Josie Setzler of Freemont, Ohio—were among fourteen originally arrested and charged. All are members of Witness Against Torture, which will maintain a solemn presence of “detainees” in orange jumpsuits and blacks hoods outside the courthouse for the duration of the trial.

PRESS CONFERENCE

WHEN: 8:30AM, Wednesday, January 3, 2012

WHERE: Grassy area directly across from the main entrance to Superior Court, 500 Indiana Ave, NW (where Indiana intersects 5th Street, NW).

WHAT: Brief statements by the defendants, legal experts and anti-torture activists

WHO: Josie Setzler, defendant in the case

Jeremy Varon, history professor at New School University, NYC

Frida Berrigan, activist with Witness Against Torture from New London, CT

According to court documents, the case is known as “Shakir Ami (aka Bryan Hynes) et al Co-Defendants” — a garbled reference to Shaker Aamer, a British resident of Pakistani descent who is one of the longest-held men at Guantanamo. Witness Against Torture activists sometimes take the names of detainees when arrested, so as to symbolically give them the day in court denied by the Bush and Obama administrations.

The courthouse is located at 500 Indiana Avenue NW, near the Navy Archives Metro stop. Activists will fill the courtroom each day of the trial and hold vigil outside in the mornings, lunch time and evenings.

The trial kicks off a ten-day “Hungering for Justice” campaign which will include a daily presence at the Moultrie Courthouse, as well as activities throughout the city to call attention to the terrible injustice that is Guantanamo and Bagram and secret prisons throughout the world. It will culminate in a “Ten Years Too Many” mass mobilization on Wednesday, January 11 at Lafayette Park across from the White House organized by a coalition of groups, including Amnesty International and National Religious Campaign Against Torture.

http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2012/01/03-0


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INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC ACCURACY

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 3, 2012
CONTACT: Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA)

Indefinite Detentions, Trial Today

WASHINGTON - January 3 - Today, a jury trial of 14 anti-torture activists is scheduled to begin in Washington, D.C. as anti-torture and indefinite detention protests escalate.

AllGov.com reports today: “He waited until New Year’s Eve to do it … but he did it. While expressing ‘serious reservations’ about the bill, President Barack Obama on New Year’s Eve signed legislation that cements into law two highly controversial tenets of the war on terror: indefinite detention of terrorism suspects without charge, and the jailing of American citizens without trial. It also takes terrorism-related cases out of the hands of the FBI and the civilian court system and hands them over to the military.”

FRIDA BERRIGAN, frida.berrigan at gmail.com,

MALACHY KILBRIDE, malachykilbride at yahoo.com

HELEN SCHIETINGER, h.schietinger at verizon.net

JEREMY VARON, jvaron at aol.com

Berrigan, Kilbride, Schietinger and Varon are with the group Witness Against Torture, which has just begun ten days of protests, fasting and lobbying in Washington, D.C.

Varon, who is also a professor of history at the New School, said today: “Despite his campaign pledge to shut down Guantanamo, President Obama has continued the Bush administration’s practice of indefinite military detention there and at Bagram [U.S. base in Afghanistan].” Varon adds that Obama signing the National Defense Authorization Act “extends this abusive regime by allowing the president to order U.S. citizens, as well, to be held indefinitely without due process on American soil. Not one more year — not one more day — of such policies is acceptable. Witness Against Torture is here in Washington to add our message to the ‘Occupy’ movement’s call for a return to a just political and economic system by demanding an end to the national disgrace that is Guantanamo.”

Some of the group’s actions this month — exactly ten years after the first detainees arrived at the U.S.-controlled detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba — in D.C. include:

“Jan. 3: The jury trial of 14 anti-torture activists is scheduled to begin in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, Moultrie Courthouse, 500 Indiana Ave., N.W. In June 2011, the 14 stood one by one in the Gallery of the House of Representatives to petition lawmakers to uphold the Constitution by not making funding for Guantanamo permanent. WAT will stand with the 14 in the courtroom, outside the courthouse, and around the city as their trial proceeds.

“Jan. 11: A dramatic human chain from the White House to the Capitol Building marks the tenth anniversary of detention at Guantanamo. WAT joins a broad coalition of human rights groups in sponsoring this vigil, which will begin after a noontime rally in Lafayette Park. During the rally and vigil, activists will be wearing orange jumpsuits and holding signs and other visuals demanding that the detention center be closed.”
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A nationwide consortium, the Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA) represents an unprecedented effort to bring other voices to the mass-media table often dominated by a few major think tanks. IPA works to broaden public discourse in mainstream media, while building communication with alternative media outlets and grassroots activists.

http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2012/01/03-2

[elleng]

1. 'unlawful conduct in citizen's gallery of the House of Representatives'

[Hell Hath No Fury]

2. If that's the criteria for charges --

easily half the House should be under arrest.

[Better Believe It]

3. Oooooouuuuu! In prison with them and throw away the key!

How dare they speak out as citizen's!

Damn comminist protesters!

[leftyohiolib]

4. tthat's fancy lawyer speak for you should a done as you were told

sit down shut up and obey

[gratuitous]

5. Buncha damn hippies

Don't they trust the president? Didn't they hear what Britney Spears said back in Feb. 2002 about that? What's the matter with these malcontents? If you haven't done anything wrong, you probably don't have anything to worry about. And the people who are being indefinitely detained really, really deserve to be held without charge or counsel for as long as the United States thinks it's necessary. Some of them harbor really harsh feelings toward the U.S., you know. Or, if they didn't when they were imprisoned, they probably do now, so that's another strike against them.

On a slightly more serious note, good luck to the defendants, but the court isn't going to be listening to anything they have to say about the reason why they were protesting. The judge is going to confine himself or herself to the incidents leading up to their arrest, not the reason why they were acting as they did.

[pmorlan1]

6. Looking Forward, Not Backward

Anti-torture group goes on trial but torturers go on TV to sell books. There is some seriously wrong with looking forward not backward.