[torture] Witness Against Torture Responds to President Bush

[announcement-only list for witness against torture]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 8, 2006

Witness Against Torture: A Campaign to Shut Down Guantánamo responds to 
President George Bush's statements on German television last week about 
the U.S. prison. According to a transcript of the program released on 
Sunday, President Bush acknowledged the prison was a "sensitive issue," 
and said, "I would like to close the camp and put the prisoners on 
trial." He went on to say that, "Our top court must still rule on 
whether they should go before a civil or military court… They will get 
their day in court. One can't say that of the people that they killed. 
They didn't give these people the opportunity for a fair trial."
Frida Berrigan
Brooklyn, New York:
347-683-4928
frida.berrigan at gmail.com <mailto:Frida.berrigan at gmail.com>

"How can President Bush say the prisoners will get their day in court 
and assert they are killers in the same breath? Analysis of the 
Pentagon's own declassified documents find that only 8% of those 
imprisoned in Guantánamo can be characterized as al Qaeda fighters… When 
you look closely at the documents and listen to the testimonies of the 
prisoners' abuse and torture, the fact that President Bush is now trying 
to ascend the moral and legal high ground is a sad joke."

Susan Crane
Jonah House, Baltimore, Maryland:
410-233-6238 or (cell) 443-804-6938
susan at jonahhouse.org <mailto:susan at jonahhouse.org>

"The prisoners at Guantánamo don't need statements. They need action. In 
December, after long months of prayer and discernment, we were moved to 
act on behalf of the prisoners at Guantánamo because we believe that our 
dignity and humanity are bound up undeniably with the dignity and 
humanity of all other people... especially the prisoners. The 
administration created Guantánamo to hide both the prisoners and their 
inhuman and illegal treatment, and we call on Bush to act to end the 
injustice."

Matthew Daloisio
Mary House Catholic Worker, New York, NY
201-264-4424
daloisio at earthlink.net <mailto:daloisio at earthlink.net>
"Bush's statement is just another pretty smokescreen meant to manipulate 
the public and evade culpability for his own policy. All along, Bush has 
asserted that Guantánamo falls under the exclusive authority of the 
executive. It was under his authority that the detention center was 
created and that these prisoners are held. Now he asserts that he is 
just a passive actor awaiting word from the Supreme Court. In fact, if 
he were to withdraw his controversial demand for military trials, there 
would be no case! We call for real action, not manipulative statements."
In December 2005, a group of twenty-four friends, following the 
nonviolent tradition of Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker and calling 
themselves "Witness Against Torture," walked to Guantánamo to visit the 
prisoners. When they returned, they launched the "Campaign to Shut Down 
Guantánamo ," which consists of public education and community outreach, 
networking and resource sharing, and acts of nonviolent civil 
disobedience to draw attention to the plight of prisoners in Guantánamo 
, and victims of the war on terrorism everywhere. www.witnesstorture.org 
<http://www.witnesstorture.org/>
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