Tag Archives: Save Shaker Aamer Campaign

Shaker Aamer – Ten Years On

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Shaker Aamer is one of the 171 men still held in Guantanamo Bay and its last remaining British resident. Despite never having had a trial, having been approved for release twice and been the focus of a high-profile campaign for his immediate release, Shaker has remained in detention for more than ten years. His physical and mental health deterioration is also a prevalent concern.

Spectacle is making a short film about Shaker Aamer to mark the tenth anniversary of his incarceration. The film includes interviews with activists and former detainees and paints a picture of who Shaker Aamer is and the injustices he has endured for the last decade.

The project area of the Spectacle website also contains full information about Shaker Aamer, the progress of the campaign and links to more content such as Scott Horton’s 2010 article, ‘The Guantánamo “Suicides”: A Camp Delta sergeant blows the whistle’, published in Harper’s Magazine.

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A screening of “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantanamo” at the European Parliament in Brussels- January 24

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On Tuesday January 24, at 7 pm, there will be a special screening of the acclaimed documentary film “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” at the European Parliament in Brussels. The screening will take place in the main European Parliament building, the Altiero Spinelli Building, Rue Wiertz, in Room ASP – 3G2, on the 3rd floor, and Moazzam Begg, former Guantánamo prisoner, and the director of the NGO Cageprisoners, will be joining Andy Worthington and Polly Nash for the screening, and for the Q&A session afterwards.

 

The screening has been arranged by Jean Lambert (UK Green MEP), with the support of Sarah Ludford (UK Liberal Democrat MEP) and Ana Gomes (Portuguese Socialist MEP), and the purpose of the screening is to raise awareness of the continued existence of Guantánamo, and its mockery of universal notions of fairness and justice, ten years after the prison opened, on January 11, 2002. Given President Obama’s very public failure to close the prison as promised, it is essential that other countries step forward to take cleared prisoners who cannot be safely repatriated, and one of the main purposes of the screening is to encourage EU countries to re-engage with the process of resettling prisoners that was so successful in 2009 and 2010.

The screening is free, but anyone who wishes to attend needs to contact Rachel Sheppard, the Parliamentary Assistant to Jean Lambert MEP:  jean.lambert@europarl.europa.eu

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

If those wishing to attend do not already have an access badge for the European Parliament, they need to provide their full name, date of birth, nationality, passport number or ID card and number and also specify the type of document (passport, ID card) so that access badges can be arranged. Without an access badge, those wishing to attend the screening will not be allowed.

Moazzam Begg and Andy Worthington will be available to talk to the press along with Jean Lambert MP, Sarah Ludford MEP and Ana Gomes MEP they are hoping to have the opportunity to discuss the need for European countries to revisit the generosity shown in 2009 and 2010, when many offered new homes to cleared Guantánamo prisoners who could not be safely repatriated.

171 prisoners are still held in Guantánamo, and 89 of these have been cleared for release by President Obama’s interagency Guantánamo Review Task Force. 58 of these men are Yemenis, whose release is being prevented by President Obama, and by Congress, but others remain in need of new homes, and it is only the absence of offers from, for example, countries in Europe, that is preventing them from finally being freed.

As Guantánamo recently marked the 10th anniversary of its opening, with no sign of when, if ever it will close, given Congressional opposition, and the President’s refusal, or inability to assert his authority, it would be a powerful humanitarian gesture if European countries once more agreed to take cleared prisoners, to help to close this shameful icon of the Bush administration’s misguided “war on terror.”

 

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“Ten Hours for Ten Years” – A demonstration for Shaker Aamer, Trafalgar Square – Sat 8 Oct

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Coinciding with tomorrow’s Anti-war Mass Assembly in Trafalgar Square tomorrow, there will be a demonstration marking Shaker Aamer’s 10 year incarceration in Guantanamo.

“Ten Hours for Ten Years”  – Demonstration for Shaker Aamer will be staged by The Save Shaker Aamer Campaign’s (SSAC) where a Guantanamo cage will be set up for ten hours from 10am to 8pm in the south-west corner of Trafalgar Square.

The Shaker Aamer Campaign urges the UK Government to demand the immediate release of British Resident Shaker Aamer to the UK as a matter of great urgency. Shaker is a UK resident and was originally cleared for release in 2007.

Shaker Aamer is the last British Resident still held in Guantanamo without charge or trial – a victim of US aggression following 9/11.

For more details on Shaker Aamer and the demonstration, visit the SSAC’s website and their Facebook page.

For more information on the Anti-war Mass Assembly please visit the Stop the War Coalition’s website and/or the Anti War Mass Assembly’s dedicated site.

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Guantánamo – 10 years on

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The London Guantánamo Campaign is marking the illegal detention centre’s first 10 years’ existence with a series of actions in January 2012.

Including a candlelight vigil outside the US embassy in London on 12th January, these actions have been designed to highlight a decade where over 800 prisoners were detained, most of them without charge or trial and subjected to torture and abuse.

The US Embassy can be found on Grosvenor Square, London W1A 1AE (nearest underground: Bond Street/ Marble.)

The LGC has also launched an e-petition which will be forwarded to the US ambassador to the UK, Louis Susman, on 11th January 2012 calling on the US government to repatriate UK prisoners Shaker Aamer and Ahmed Belbacha.

Click here to add your name to the e-petition.

Anyone wishing to get involved or obtain further information in any of the LGC’s planned events can email london.gtmo@gmail.com

Further details on the LGC can be found here

 

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SSAC urges people to write to Cameron & Obama

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The Save Shaker Aamer Campaign (SSAC) is urging people to write to David Cameron, Barack Obama, Hilary Clinton  and William Hague to demand the immediate return of Shaker Aamer to his family in London. Aamer is the last Briton still in the Guantánamo concentration camp but was originally cleared for release in 2007.

The addresses to write to are:

David Cameron, Prime Minister, 10 Downing Street, London, SW1A 2AG;

William Hague, Foreign Secretary, King Charles Street, London, SW1A 2AH;

President Barack Obama, The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington DC, 20500, USA

Hilary Clinton, USA secretary of State, 22o1 C Street NW, Washington DC, 20301, USA

Further information can be found on the SSAC’s official website or their Facebook page.

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Gibson Detainee Inquiry to go ahead but key witness still in Guantanamo.

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Shaker Aamer was detained in Bagram 2002 - a period under investigation by the Gibson inquiry into detainee torture by British agents.

The panel leading the Gibson inquiry into the government’s involvement in torture since 2001 has claimed it will go ahead despite NGOs and lawyers required for the inquiry rejecting its protocol due to a breech of Human Rights law. Though many expect very little in the way of justice resulting from the inquiry, it should remind us that the issue of torture is far from being a thing of the past.

Organisations such as Amnesty International, Liberty and Human Rights Watch refused to take part in the independent inquiry due to the lack of ‘credibility or transparency’. In a letter to the Inquiry panel, 10 non-governmental organisations claim that the protocol for the inquiry ‘would not comply with Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights’ – the absolute ban on torture. Once more, former detainees requested for testimony will not be allowed to hear the key evidence as this will be discussed in secret sessions leading lawyers of the detainees to also pull out of the inquiry.

One such detainee, Shaker Aamer, could be called as a witness to MI5 and 6 complicity into torture in Bagram 2002. However Shaker is currently still being held in Guantanamo Bay detention facility where he claims he also suffers torture at the hands of American security companies and officials. The British government will have to obtain permission from the American security services in order to interview Shaker inside Guantanamo, a fact that has also cast doubt on the ability of the inquiry. Shaker was given clearance for release by the United States in 2007 and his continued detention has led some to think he may have key evidence against the British government’s actions that could be exposed through the Gibson inquiry.

In December 2011, Shaker will have remained in American custody for 10 years without charge or trial. As a British resident with a British wife and children living in London, the Save Shaker Aamer Campaign believe he deserves British protection and call upon the government to secure his release. Spectacle Productions are working on a documentary on Shaker’s story following on from their film Outside The Law: Stories from Guantánamo  which has been screened across the UK and distributed in the USA. The London Guantanamo Campaign will be holding a protest outside the U.S embassy on Friday 2nd September from midday to call for the release of Shaker and over 100 other detainees still held in Guantanamo. Spectacle will be joining them to document this continued struggle to end torture, extraordinary rendition and other illegal practices conducted by US and UK forces. Get in touch with the London Guantamo Campaign if you would like to attend.

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Shaker Aamer: 10 Years on

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The Independent has drawn attention today to the “decade in detention without trial” of Shaker Aamer, cleared for release in 2007. The article emphasised Shaker’s current declining health and concerns about the amount of time he has endured in solitary confinement.

As a British resident, Shaker looks to be spending his tenth year in Guantanamo Prison where his recent hunger strike draws ever more concern about just exactly what it means to have been “cleared for release” in the United States of America. While this is a case that has drawn minimum media attention in the past ten years, what seems to be lacking is not just a public awareness of the issue but an informed public response to it.

One reader’s comment on the Independent article, with more than 10 ‘likes’, has expressed hostility about the idea of British taxpayers money being used on “lawyers looking after his interests” with a reluctance to accept Shaker as a British resident. This kind of prejudice dominating the response to the Independent article is disconcerting, especially given that we know of the torture received by Shaker in Guantanamo Prison and the trauma that has befallen his family for ten years now, particularly his son, who has never seen him. Shaker was abducted while residing in Afghanistan to build wells and a school for children as a charitable act. The real issue here is one of humanity and a huge injustice in the legal system of America – not one to do with terrorism or a bigoted gripe about who is paying for Shaker’s lawyers, who he has only had very little contact with anyway. He is a British citizen, it must be remembered.

The article brings little more to light than a reminder and a vague description of a decline in Shaker’s situation. Perhaps more prominent are the superfical and racist comments brought about by the article from an audience that seem unaware of the plight of Shaker, Omar Khadr and others suffering the injustices of Guantanamo.

It is interesting that fifty years after Stanley Milgram‘s experiment into obedience to authority; there has been no shift in human development. We still believe in upholding the justice system even when it is killing innocent people and destroying lives. We need to stop putting our trust in Government actions simply because it is easier to ignore them. Progress comes with education, so if you want more information about the save Shaker Aamer campaign, spend just five minutes getting to know his case and just why we need to call for his release today.

Please join the Save Shaker Aamer Campaign

Watch video- Omar Deghayes, former Guantanamo Bay detainee, describes his interrogation by British Intelligence agent, “Andrew”, and others (MI5 and MI6) while held illegally in Pakistan.

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UK’s secret policy on torture: a threat to national security

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Today the Guardian exclusively revealed  the UK’s secret policy on torture.
The document shows intelligence officers were instructed to “weigh the importance of information sought against the pain inflicted”.

One section states: “If […] that information will be or has been obtained through the mistreatment of detainees, the negative consequences may include […] adverse effects on national security if the fact […] were to be publicly revealed”

Not only does this document expose the UK’s complicity with torture, which it acknowledges is illegal under UK and international law, but it also attempts to justify the need for keeping the policy secret because it may increase the threat from terrorism. In other words it is not the illegal torture policy that is a problem- just people finding out about it.

In other words, as any criminal will surely agree, the real crime is being found out.  The document attempts to blame the messenger or whistle-blower for any potential negative “blow back” rather than the torture policy itself.

Behind this lies a remarkable confidence that both the victims and the perpetrators of torture will keep silent or will not be believed if they speak out.
This policy of secrecy would explain why credible witness and UK resident Shaker Aamer is still in Guantanamo. It would appear he will be held until tormented into insanity.

Please join the Save Shaker Aamer Campaign

Watch video- Omar Deghayes, former Guantanamo Bay detainee, describes his interrogation by British Intelligence agent, “Andrew”, and others (MI5 and MI6) while held illegally in Pakistan.

Order Spectacle’s DVD Outside The Law: Stories from Guantánamo

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British MPs view film highlighting the reality of Guantanamo

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Ekklesia

A new way of thinking

A powerful new documentary on the United States’ detention facility at Guantanamo Bay has been shown to MPs at the House of Commons.

The film screening this week was followed by a question and answer session with a panel of commentators including former Guantanamo prisoner Moazzam Begg, lawyers Tom Wilner and Gareth Peirce, and former Guardian newspaper journalist, Victoria Brittain.

‘Outside the Law: Stories from Guantanamo’ gives a vivid and penetrating account of the torture, extraordinary rendition and the network of secret prisons employed by the Bush administration in its infamous ‘war on terror’.

Proceed to Ekklesia to read full article.

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Guantánamo comes to Westminster: Hard-Hitting new Film on detention camp

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Green MP to co-host screening and directors’ Q&A with former Guantánamo detainee and international lawyers


“Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo”

Tomrorrow, Tuesday June 21, at 6 pm

The Atlee Suite

Portcullis House, opposite the Palace of  Westminster

RSVP: caroline.lucas.mp@parliament.uk


Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo gives a vivid and penetrating account of the torture, extraordinary rendition and the network of secret prisons employed by the Bush administration in its infamous ‘War on Terror’.

Stories from Guantánamo Trailer at The Spectacle Catalogue

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