Guantanamo 2 Ferguson

Reflect. Speak. Act. Repeat.

[cartoonpolitics]

(story here)

[arterialtrees]

Solmaz Sharif from Reaching Guantanamo 

[witnesstorture]

Guantánamo Detainees: Send Them Home! by Justin Norman

[woventruths]

 Let them go home!

[witnesstorture]

[lifemattersjournal-deactivated2]

Terrible. This is our government. And they have yet to take responsibility for their actions. End torture and end the cover-up of torture. 

[witnesstorture]

Marking 14 years of lawless imprisonment and torture at Guantanamo, Witness Against Torture conducted a ritual in front of the White House making our plea to let the Guantanamo prisoners go home.

[woventruths]

A moving ceremony that renewed our perseverance in the cause. 

[kawrage-deactivated20160618]

To speak of Islamophobia as sentiment is a euphemism. Islamophobia is first and foremost state racism.

“Islamophobia: when the Whites lose their Triple A rating” by “Houria Bouteldja (via kawrage)

Bouteldja is pretty insightful here (emphasis is mine):

Such racism has no purpose other than to maintain a population in a subaltern state. The term “Muslim” is itself problematic. I am a Muslim, although 25 years ago – when I was already a Muslim – I wasn’t considered one. At that time I was considered a “beurette” or a second-generation immigrant. Self-identifying as a Muslim is not a problem; it’s even a source of pride. However, the fact that I am automatically considered a Muslim bothers me. After all, non-Muslims are not identified above all by their religion. It is a way of defining citizens according to categories and classifications put in place by public policy and debate. A whole population is automatically classified as Muslim without differentiating the practicing, agnostic or atheists among them. We are placed in the Muslim category regardless of our subjectivity.

Make sure you also read her piece on Western feminism

(via globalwarmist)

[witnesstorture]

At the Mitchell Cohen U.S. Courthouse today in Camden, NJ in support of the Duka brothers and the Fort Dix 5.  Witness Against Torture members joined members of the Fort Dix Five Support Committee, Project SALAM, the Duka family and community members to stand in solidarity with the Duka Brothers as they seek justice at a hearing in federal court today.

[woventruths]

#FortDixFive

[witnesstorture]

Are you listening?

Message from Guantanamo Bay

#closegitmo

[nickturse]

A tweet

US drones from Chabelley Airfield, Djibouti “neutraliz[ed]” 69 people, 5 of “high value” Who were the others? http://pic.twitter.com/kRGZ5X2qbQ

— Nick Turse (@nickturse) November 30, 2015

[witnesstorture]

On Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, we faced the base directly and announced one-by-one our political, personal and spiritual intention in being there.  Each person’s words were followed by the somber singing of “Courage, Muslim Brother”:

Courage, Muslim brother

You do not walk alone

We will walk with you

And sing your spirit home.

[think-progress]

The Native American Community Faces Dangerously High Rates Of Food Insecurity

It’s been nearly 400 years since the Wampanoag people encountered the starving, cold pilgrims in Plymouth Bay. With an already thriving agricultural model in fertile Massachusetts, the Indigenous tribe taught the uneducated British settlers how to cultivate their own food, eventually culminating in a three-day-long shared meal celebrating the harvest — and securing the future of colonial expansion in the United States.

[witnesstorture]

Coming to the table: Witness Against Torture activists in #Cuba fasting in solidarity with hunger strikers at #Guantanamo on Thanksgiving weekend.

“Street” theater

http://www.witnesstorture.org/blog/2015/11/27/update-photos-and-more-from-cuba/

[woventruths]

Fasting, not feasting on Thanksgiving in Cuba

[witnesstorture]

Looking out over Guantanamo Bay, activists stand in solidarity with captives in extrajudicial limbo inside the prison camp.

Witness Against Torture in Cuba on Thanksgiving weekend.

http://www.witnesstorture.org/blog/2015/11/25/us-human-rights-advocates-hold-protest-at-guantanamo-naval-base/

[woventruths]

Standing in solidarity, may we be moved to remember each other’s humanity.

[witnesstorture]

This Thanksgiving we remember the men in Guantánamo who are fasting instead of feasting.

14 activists from Witness Against Torture spent Thanksgiving at the gates of Guantanamo, fasting in solidarity with the hunger striking prisoners inside the prison. 

#closegitmo #HappyThanksgiving

[woventruths]

#Grateful for these activists’ witness, compassion, and solidarity.

[witnesstorture]

US activists to launch Guantánamo protest along camp's perimeter

Members of Witness Against Torture, seeking camp’s closure, to begin protest on Wednesday before a fast starting on Thanksgiving in solidarity with inmates

“We want to hold a space as physically close to them as possible, full of love and prayer and humanity. We also want to remind the American people what our state is doing in our name to these people and their families.” - Frida Berrigan

[woventruths]

We hold these gutsy activists in our thoughts and prayers as they hike to Gitmo’s gates this afternoon.

[witnesstorture]

The Peace Poets performing in Guantanamo City last night with Witness Against Torture.

“This is the peace that keeps me radical…”

#closegitmo #nobases

[woventruths]

Journalist on Shooting of Laquan McDonald By Chicago Police Officer: “It Was An Horrific Execution”

Chicago is bracing for several new developments in the police-involved death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, who was shot and killed over a year ago. Officer Jason Van Dyke will reportedly be charged with first-degree murder on Tuesday, and the city has until Wednesday to release the video footage of the shooting, ordered last week by Cook County Judge Franklin Valderrama. An autopsy report shows McDonald was shot 16 times on October 20, 2014, including multiple times in the back. Police have said that the teenager lunged at the officer with a small knife. But people who have seen the video from police dashcam footage say it contradicts the police account, instead showing Van Dyke opening fire on the teenager while he was walking away, and continuing to shoot him even after the teenager was lying on the pavement. Despite the fact that McDonald’s family did not file a lawsuit, the city paid them $5 million in April and fought to conceal the video, even after the Wall Street Journal, the Chicago Tribune and a freelance journalist all filed FOIA requests for its release. Van Dyke remains on paid desk duty, as the shooting is investigated by the FBI and the United States attorney’s office in Chicago. For more we are joined by Jamie Kalven, founder of the Invisible Institute, a nonprofit journalism outlet that recently released tens of thousands of pages of civilian complaints filed against the Chicago Police Department — 97 percent of which resulted in absolutely no disciplinary action. Kalven is also the freelance journalist who uncovered Laquan McDonald’s autopsy report.

“Despite the fact that McDonald’s family did not file a lawsuit, the city paid them $5 million in April and fought to conceal the video, even after the Wall Street Journal, the Chicago Tribune and a freelance journalist all filed FOIA requests for its release. “