[torture] Protest Grows, from Washington to Copenhagen!

[announcement-only list for witness against torture]

Dear friends,

Well, it has been nice to see our friends in the newspapers in the
last few days. Yesterday's New York Times (July 12, 2006) featured a
photo of Medea Benjamin from Global Exchange and friends holding up
"Close Guantanamo" signs during testimony by Daniel Dell'Orio before
the Senate Judiciary Committee. Columnist Maureen Dowd also wrote
about three women wearing orange jumpsuits and black hoods who stood
like the "supernatural chorus in Macbeth," throughout the proceedings.

In today's New York Times (July 13, 2006) the article titled
"Administration Prods Congress to Curb the Rights of Detainees,"
features a picture of "a group of protesters, two of them wearing mock
prison attire, waited to enter the hearing room of the House Armed
Services Committee." The picture showed peace activist and Franciscan
priest Father Louie Vitale and Ann Wright, both of whom are fasting as
part of Code Pink's Troops Out Fast (troopsoutfast.org). Ann Wright,
an Army veteran and former diplomat who resigned from the State
Department in 2003 to protest the Iraq war, is shown wearing Witness
Against Torture's "Shut Down Guantanamo" t-shirt (which can be ordered
online at http://www.caebuttons.com/guantanamo.php for the low cost of
ten dollars).

We are so grateful to those in Washington, bringing the suffering and
humanity of the men held at Guantanamo into the halls of power, where
lawmakers are trying to figure out a new way around the Geneva
Conventions in the wake of the Supreme Court's affirmation of their
universal applicability.

We are with those who are fasting for an end to the war in Iraq, and
those protesting to Shut Down Guantanamo. On July 15th, On Saturday,
July 15th, concerned citizens throughout the world will join together
to Shut Down Guantánamo, and end illegal and indefinite detention.
Called by CagePrisoners.Com, a British organization supporting
Guantánamo prisoners, this day of action includes events in a dozen
countries, and at least six demonstrations in the United States. For
more on this, visit
http://www.witnesstorture.org/node/338

Finally, we were "blown away" by an Fourth of July action in
Copenhagen, Denmark that we just learned of. On our "Independence
Day," close to 300 people dressed in orange demonstrated in
Copenhagen, Denmark.

Many hundred persons dressed all in orange, with a black sack covering
their heads, and hands and feet in chains marched through the city.
All silent. Starting at the Danish Ministry of Defense and ending at
the U.S. embassy. Here the procession stood still, singing the
American hymn "Amazing Grace" in triple harmony.

Many of the guards at the embassy wept, one policeman said.

This manifestation was a greeting to America and the world, telling
that many Danes feel that the Guantánamo base is a disgrace to human
values and that we salute that the u.s. high court has doomed the
Guantánamo prison camp illegal according to the American
constitution.

That prison camp must be shut down immediately and the prisoners given
a fair trial.

Behind the demonstration are veterans from a well known street theatre
from the 1970's, named "The Sun Waggon." For more pictures of the
action, please visit http://www.vestfilm.dk/guantanamo.html

The movement to Shut Down Guantánamo grows every day, and Witness
Against Torture is just a small part, but we hope that you will
utilize our resources, wear the orange "Shut Down Guantánamo "
t-shirts and continue to break the silence with demands for justice,
mercy and humanity for all people.

With gratitude,

WAT, www.witnesstorture.org
-- 
Frida Berrigan
frida.berrigan at gmail.com