WORLD CAN'T WAIT

don't let hunger strikers die

2013-05-18T06:12:00Z

click here for video of New York action and a statement from World Can't Wait Director Debra Sweet

sign onto and financially support our message in the New York Times

In 2002, the Bush regime set up a primitive prison camp at a U.S. base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Over six years they held 776 men there without charges, using what they called "enhanced interrogation" and the rest of the world calls "torture." Bush called these men "the worst of the worst," though most had been turned in for $5,000 cash bounties the U.S. paid, and had no connection to attacks on the U.S. An international outcry brought about the release of more than 500 of the prisoners.

The word "Guantanamo" came to mean torture & injustice. One of Obama's first acts as president in 2008 was an order to close Guantanamo within one year, leading most people to think the terrible violation of peoples' rights by indefinite detention without trial is over. But it isn't.

166 men remain imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, 157 haven't been charged and 86 have been cleared for release.

On April 11th, supporters across the U.S. demonstrated solidarity with prisoners,

demanding an end to indefinite detention and closure of the facility.

Guantanamo hunger strikers are determined to free themselves from America's death camp -- one way or another. Lives are on the line. Today marks Day 83 of their strike. Time is running out.

Prisoner lawyers describe worsening conditions, religious provocation, and the crushing reality of 11 years of indefinite detention. Forced feeding employed to keep the prisoners alive, to save face for the government, is itself a form of torture condemned by the United Nations Human Rights Commission.

Guantanamo: how will WE be judged?

Our government has done it's best to hide the torture practiced at the experimental prison camp of Guantanamo, and forestall any attempts at accountability for the perpetrators and enablers of those crimes. But thanks to the courageous actions of the prisoners held there we now know more details of continuing brutality and excuses of ignorance about what is transpiring, short of deliberate head-turning, are no longer plausible.

The U.S. engaged in torture and it is up to us to demand closure of the death camp and repudiation of the lawlessness exhibited there. The hunger strike by the Guantánamo prisoners is their cry to the world, which we must hear and support. Right now, today -- our voices and our actions can make a difference.

No safe harbor for torture advocates

If you're not sure that John Yoo teaching constitutional law at Berkeley Law still demands protest and resistance, check out the newly released report from The Constitution Project's Task Force on Detainee Treatment, which provides a damning indictment of Yoo's role in the state torture program practiced at Guantanamo.

Contents of the report provide a basis for administrative action on law school dean Christopher Edley's stipulation that "a competent body makes findings of fact and offers conclusions of law concerning Professor Yoo's actions related to torture and human rights."

Don't let Obama get away with murder by attrition

There are moments in history that require a truly heroic transformation of consciousness. The prisoners' hunger strike represents a ghastly humanitarian crisis; but also presents an opportunity to raise the volume of resistance.

Anti-torture activists know that it will take a massive demonstration of support to stop the suffering and to save the lives of those who have not yet crossed the threshold beyond recovery (the body starts shutting down after 40 days of starvation; some of these men have denied food since early February). As it stands now, the only way out of their hell-on-earth is in a coffin.

The President and Congress have responded to prisoner demands with callous disregard for basic legal and human rights. Obama has demonstrated that he has no intention of closing the prison camp. He has shut down the office working to close the facility. Funds are being allocated to rebuild Camp 7. It is impossible to predict how long the scenario of force-feeding can play out.

The Guantanamo hunger strikers are literally starving for your attention

Murder by neglect... is this the end of the line? Will Americans accept this version of history? Or will we step up to the task at hand and close down Guantanamo once and for all? When ignore -ance = death, silence is not an option.

support the closure of U.S. prison camps

2013-05-02T22:38:55Z

"Guantanamo Prisoners" address the UC Berkeley campus

The hunger strike by the Guantánamo prisoners is their cry to the world, which we must hear and support. Right now, today - our voices and our actions can make a difference.

Our April 11th rally at the Federal Building identified the systemic nature of the torture being carried out in our names, sanctioned by illegal and immoral policies adopted by the Obama regime.

The April 18th Call to Action (San Francisco City Hall photo, right) was part of a week-long drive to initiate public protests in every corner of this country to demand closure of the Guantanamo death camp and repudiation of the lawlessness exhibited there.

In this NY Times Op-Ed page you hear the cry from one hunger striking prisoner - describing the despair of the prisoners, the torture of force-feedings. There seems to be no limit to the levels of the U.S. government's assault on the human rights of these "detainees".

Click here for a KPFA Flashpoints interview of London-based Guantánamo expert/journalist Andy Worthington, detainee attorney Candace Gorman of Chicago, and Stephanie Tang with World Can't Wait.

2-hour blockade prevents hundreds of military personnel from entering Beale Air Force Base

2013-05-02T00:36:59Z

www.youtube.com

Five arrested protesting President Obama's killer drone program

San Francisco protests Obama's crimes against our planet

2013-04-04T21:56:33Z

Dozens of anti-war activists rallied with hundreds of disgruntled environmentalists in the streets around the cordoned-off home of Ann and Gordon Getty Wednesday, where the President was visiting with loyal benefactors. Just months into Obama's second term in office, the administration is facing growing opposition to domestic political repression, mass incarceration, surveillance, and government action speeding climate destruction. The World Can't Wait recognizes the potential for disaffection from business-as-usual to grow, and translate into concrete acts of resistance to the crimes of this government.

The month of April presents opportunity for protest on two particular fronts:

Public debate surrounding the 'legality' and morality of drone attacks on civilians in the Middle East and Africa has prompted a national campaign to stop production of these robotic killing machines and to confront Presidential claims of unilateral authority to kill at whim. Visit www.KnowDrones.com to find what you should know about war drones and what you can do.

Second, step up to the responsibility to support the Guantanamo hunger strikers. We cannot stand by while these men endure murder by attrition. After 11 years of hell-on-earth in the U.S. experimental death camp, prisoners have resigned themselves to getting out - one way or the other. We must not let that be by coffin. Check back here soon for local events on April 11: National Day of Action.

The world can't wait - Close Guantanamo Now

More photos here, here and here

lives on the line: Obama's death list

2013-03-29T05:18:33Z

Murder comes in many guises. It can be perpetrated by one individual or many, spontaneously or premeditated, as isolated incident or institutionalized policy. Sanctioned by the state it takes on a particularly ugly persona in that it relies on at least the appearance of public authorization.

Capital punishment represents the most common example of the later. The veneer of legality is thin, and rejected by most civilized society. But the politically motivated power to assassinate "undesirables" that the Obama administration embraces lacks any such veneer, let alone legal justification. The presumptive policy of preemptive punishment, employed in drone strikes on civilians and the indefinite detention of subjects without charge, is perhaps the most dangerous threat to humanity we currently face; its accommodation by legislators and some members of the public is unprecedented and requires mass repudiation.

Protesters support Guantanamo hunger strikers. Photo c/o WITNESS AGAINST TORTURE

The list of deaths by presidential decree, i.e. those on Obama's Kill List, is about to include new victims -- murdered by neglect -- if we let it happen. The President's deliberate indifference to the plight of Guantanamo hunger strikers (including his shuttering of the office working to close the prison) represents a gross miscarriage of oversight. And a shocking example of inhumanity.

"It's going to take the American people to demand Guantanamo Bay prison facilities
be closed... Until the issue catches the public's attention, there is little hope for
improvement -- former prison official Ret. Col. Morris Davis

When leaders fail to halt atrocities, in this case so readily preventable, the responsibility falls on us to step up to the task at hand. There is no reason, or possible excuse, for the Guantanamo hunger strikers to die.

As you know, the massive prisoner hunger strike at Guantanamo is going on 52 58 days now. Force-feeding (widely recognized as a form of torture) has begun for some. Others suffer alarming loss of body weight, intensifying weakness and other traumatic symptoms of starvation. And now with all flights to Guantanamo banned, the prisoners' lawyers are unable to go to them, so that legal rights and communication are being totally shut down.

The situation is dire, and the time to act is NOW.

Living Under Drones: the "Double-Tap"

2013-03-01T23:50:44Z

The double tap is when a targeted strike site is hit multiple times by hellfire missiles in relatively quick succession, meaning that the second missile often strikes first responders...

Evidence That Drones Are Targeting Civilian Rescuers In Afghanistan

Bradley Manning's Supporters Mark His 1,000th Day in Jail

2013-02-24T23:54:41Z

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SAN FRANCISCO, February 23, 2013

Elaine Pasquini reports:

"Free Bradley Manning! Free Bradley Manning!" chanted human rights supporters in San Francisco's Justin Herman Plaza this afternoon. For nearly 1,000 days, PFC Bradley Manning, the 25-year-old former intelligence analyst for the U.S. Army, has been incarcerated for allegedly passing classified documents to the whistleblower Web site, Wikileaks, including the video "Collateral Murder" showing the killing of 11 Iraqi civilians by U.S. attack helicopters. Among the dead were two working Reuters reporters. Two children were also severely wounded in the attack.

The rally drew a crowd of more than 100, including tourists in town for this evening's Chinese New Year Parade. Speakers at today's rally included Jeff Patterson of Courage to Resist, Rainey Reitman and Michael Thurman of the Bradley Manning Support Network, Art Persyko of the 99% Coalition, Mary Ann Thomas of World Can't Wait and Denny Riley of Veterans for Peace, among others.

"Two and a half years ago we made a promise to Bradley and his family that we would pay his entire legal bill for any legal team that he chose," Gulf war resister Jeff Patterson told the crowd. "More than 16,500 people have donated to Bradley's defense and we have raised almost $1 million for him. We have been sitting behind Bradley for each hearing and he knows about our support for him. Knowing this is the fight of his life, he looks hopeful because he knows he has millions of people around the world, like you, that support him. He couldn't face that without you to have his back. We will keep fighting until Bradley Manning is free."

Rainey Reitman, co-founder of the Bradley Manning Support Network, said, "One of the tactics that the United States government is using to deal with the 'Bradley Manning' problem is pushing his trial off again, and again, and again in hopes the American public won't notice. Our fundraising keeps Bradley's family from having to mortgage their home to pay his legal expenses. I am so impressed that after two and a half years we are still able to energize and engage people to show up at events like this and continue to donate to make sure we have enough funding to cover Brad's legal costs. It has been a very difficult and frustrating legal battle. We've had a few wins; we've had a few losses. We need public awareness now, not just for Bradley Manning, but for every whistleblower that comes in the future - post Bradley Manning - that exposes war crimes."

"It is dangerous when people are quiet or paralyzed, cowed and complicit as the crimes go on and on," World Can't Wait's Mary Ann Thomas told the crowd. "You can usually tell something about a society by the kind of military force it wields. Look at the kinds of weapons created and used by the U.S. - poison gas in World War I, nukes in World War II, napalm against the Vietnamese people, white phosphorus in the Gulf war. These technologies are so heinous that millions of people removed their support from U.S. belligerence. And now we have killer drones - the Reaper, the Predator - murder by drone is a strategy and it is made in America."

As Manning's supporters are not only in the Bay Area, solidarity rallies for him were held in 70 cities around the world. Photo messages from his supporters both here and abroad were displayed in the plaza. These messages were part of an online "photo petition" on the Web site www.iambradleymanning.org.

Also, on display in the plaza was a 1/5 scale replica of a MQ-9 Reaper drone provided by knowdrones.com, which provides drone replicas and educational materials to support citizen action to achieve an international ban on weaponized drones and surveillance drones - war drones.

Manning's trial is scheduled to begin on June 3, 2013, three years after he was arrested. For the first 10 months of his incarceration, Manning was tortured and held in solitary confinement, amid international outrage among human rights supporters and military resisters and veterans.

On February 26, Manning's attorney, David Coombs, will submit a motion to dismiss the case for lack of a speedy trial. In the motion, Coombs states: "PFC Manning's statutory and constitutional speedy trial rights have been trampled upon with impunity...by violating the 5th and 6th Constitutional Amendments, Rule for Court Martial 707, and Uniform Code of Military Justice Article 10." Manning was required to be arraigned within 120 days but prosecutors took over 600 days. Coombs also showed substantial periods of inactivity and needless delay by the prosecutors. Judge Denise Lind could dismiss the charges with prejudice, if she determines the government intentionally delayed the trial. This ruling would allow Manning to be released, but she could also dismiss without prejudice, which would allow the government to retry the case.

The Bradley Manning Support Network and Courage to Resist initiated the rally. For more information, visit <www.bradleymanning.org/>

"Just Say NO to Drones...

2013-02-17T19:15:38Z

I think it's important to know about the larger context that we're now hearing, that's the militarization of law enforcement that is progressing at a breakneck pace," said Susan Harmon of Code Pink, an anti-war group.

The Alameda County Sheriff faced off with the ACLU, other activist groups and local residents before the Alameda County Board of Supervisors' Public Safety Committee in a hearing on the sheriff's plan to purchase and deploy a surveillance drone.

c/o KGO TV:

A life sized model of a predator drone [actually 1/5 scale] sat menacingly among the protesters at the Alameda County Board of Supervisors Thursday. They won't be flying over the East Bay any time soon, but small, unmanned helicopters equipped with cameras might...

"Although they will argue that it's being used for, you know, basically good policing, we're afraid that it's going to be used to surveil protesters, dissents, you know, people that are against police brutality" -- Anne Weills, National Lawyers Guild

Unmanned aircraft debate continues in Alameda County photo of World Can't Wait sponsored drone replica by amo, c/o Indybay

Iceland MP Birgitta Jónsdóttir: "I refuse to live in fear"

2013-02-13T23:31:48Z

NOTE: Birgitta will speak at a public banking conference, San Rafael, June 2nd

Despite the possibility of her arrest by U.S. authorities, an Icelandic MP known for her roll in the release of the "Collateral Murder" video put out by Wikileaks in 2010 has announced plans to travel to the United States to garner support for the alleged whistleblower Bradley Manning.

Birgitta Jonsdottir, the Icelandic MP and former WikiLeaks volunteer (Halldor Kolbeins/AFP/Getty Images)

MP Birgitta Jónsdóttir was part of the WikiLeaks team who helped prepare the video which contains military footage from a U.S. Apache helicopter as it gunned down innocent civilians in Iraq, including a Reuters journalist and two children.

The leaks led to the subsequent arrest and indefinite detention of Manning, who is currently undergoing a lengthy pre-trial hearing process for his alleged roll in releasing the video and other military and diplomatic documents.

see In Support of Bradley Manning

How long can you 'hold your nose'?

2013-02-09T23:25:02Z

Voting for Obama was no guarantee of protection from 'the lesser of two evils'...

"there's no one at this table who could be exempt from some informed official, who we've now learned has the power to defend--to condemn us to death -- Daniel Ellsberg

Assassination of US Citizens "Has No Geographic Limit"

Say No to Indefinite Detention!

2013-02-09T22:51:00Z

Tuesday, February 12, SF City Hall. Photo by Bill Carpenter

c/o Nadia Kayyali, Bill of Rights Defense Committee:

activists gathered on the steps of San Francisco's city hall to oppose the indefinite military detention provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), and to support the introduction of a resolution by Supervisor and President of the Board David Chiu. The resolution of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors will uphold due process and articulate San Francisco's opposition of the NDAA...

The date of the resolution's introduction was timed to fall in advance of February 19th, the 71^st anniversary of the signing of Executive Order 9066. This order, signed by President Franklin Roosevelt, authorized the military to intern over 120,000 Japanese-Americans without any trial or due process. Japanese-americans in particular have raised their voices against the growing encroachment on civil liberties presented by the never-ending war on terror.

more here

Peace Fresno says NO DRONES

2013-02-03T01:19:07Z

"In the United States, the dominant narrative about the use of drones is of a surgically precise and effective tool that makes the US safer by enabling 'targeted killing' of terrorists, with minimal downsides or collateral impacts. This narrative is false."

NO DRONES demonstration on February 1, 2013 at Nees and Blackstone, Fresno, CA.

Photo by Mike Rhodes

We Won't Go Back!

2013-01-27T01:44:03Z

January 22 marked the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion. Yet today the procedure is more stigmatized, more dangerous to provide, and more difficult to access than at any time since legal confirmation of women's reproductive freedom. Bay Area activists commemorated this important milestone from the steps of San Francisco City Hall. Video here

Abortion on Demand & Without Apology

Saturday, January 26, defenders of reproductive rights confronted the ninth annual "Walk for Life" invasion of anti-abortion lemmings at Powell Street Plaza.

Are you outraged that the reactionary forces that would undo four decades of legal precedent target San Francisco with their hateful vision of repression? The use of violence and murder as "God's punishment" for abortion providers is intolerable and has no place in a decent world.

STOP PATRIARCHY: end the enslavement and degradation of women

Aaron Swartz another victim of the Justice Department

2013-01-21T00:39:05Z

In addition to a massive outpouring of grief, the suicide of Reddit co-founder, programmer, and Internet activist Aaron Swartz has prompted a great deal of anger among members of the online and tech communities who knew him best. Swartz was awaiting trial for using MIT's wireless network to download 4.8 million academic documents from JSTOR (he had legal access to the online library as Harvard researcher at the time) with the apparent intention of distributing them for free. Many seem to believe that the strain of the case, which the Swartz family called "the product of a criminal justice system rife with intimidation and prosecutorial overreach," pushed the already depressed 26-year-old over the edge...

see Outrage at Prosecutors

"The death of Aaron Swartz should provide the Justice Department with occasion for some serious introspection... An independent review of prosecutors' conduct would no doubt find that they proceeded with an erroneous vision of the law. If they had even an ounce of decency, these prosecutors would issue Swartz's survivors an apology and tender their resignations -- Scott Horton

Fasten your seat belts:

2013-01-20T04:04:19Z

Obama's second term officially started on Sunday at noon, as dictated by the Constitution, after a private swearing in at the White House.

Our work to stop the crimes of his administration has only begun.

PHOTO BY CHARLES OMMANNEY/GETTY IMAGES