imagebrowser imageClick the map and join a local coalition or start one!

Find a Group

Sign Up

SUBSCRIBE to our newsletter and news digest

Read our July newsletter

Newsletter archive

Search: 2009

8 results

Results

Welcome

The Bush administration created the Guantánamo Bay prison in Cuba, a prison at Bagram air base in Afghanistan, and other offshore prisons as "law-free zones" that it believed were exempt from U.S. and international law, including the Geneva Conventions and the nearly 800-year-old writ of habeas corpus. The U.S. Supreme Court disagrees.
 
President Obama has promised to close Guantánamo Bay prison, and his administration has cleared more than 100 of the remaining prisoners for release.

Download Petition to Welcome Detainees in Your Town

If the small island nations of Bermuda and Palau can accept detainees wrongly held by the U.S. at Guantánamo and cleared for release, why can’t the U.S.?

Download a petition and tell President Obama and Congress, "As far as I am concerned, Guantánamo detainees cleared for release are welcome in my town. All other detainees should be charged and tried in federal court or released if they have not committed a crime."

Ravil Mingazov

A judge ordered Ravil's release on May 13, 2010, under the writ of habeas corpus
Current status: 
Cleared, no charges

Ravil Mingazov was born in Russia in 1967. He became a ballet dancer with several dance troupes. Conscripted into the Russian Army at the age of 19, he first served in the Army ballet troupe. After his conscription ended in 1988, he served voluntarily until 1996 and later returned to the military in the food supply section, where he took over a program that was in bad shape and transformed it into a model program, “the best in all the Army's.” In recognition of his achievement, he said that the General gave him a watch.

Newsroom

Press Contact:

Nancy Talanian, Director
No More Guantánamos
ntalanian@nogitmos.org
413-665-1150

Press Releases

5/13, Two Massachusetts Towns Welcome Guantánamo Detainee Ordered Released by a Federal Judge

Pioneer Valley No More Guantánamos

Western Massachusetts group

Location

Northampton, MA, 01060
United States
See map: Google Maps

The Pioneer Valley group has been meeting in Northampton, MA, since May 2009.  Its members come from several cities and towns, including Springfield to the south, Amherst to the east, Greenfield to the north, and many towns in between.  It is currently working on outreach to other groups, including interfaith, and advocating on behalf of two current Guantánamo detainees.

Our Staff

Nancy Talanian is NMG's Director.  Nancy has more than 25 years of grassroots organizing experience. She founded, directed, and grew the national Bill of Rights Defense Committee from a local volunteer coalition to a national organization with a staff of five, hundreds of volunteer affiliates, and thousands of subscribers. BORDC earned national recognition through the passage of more than 400 local government resolutions and eight statewide resolutions upholding the constitutional rights of more than 85 million U.S. residents.

Advisory Board

Buz Eisenberg

Buz Eisenberg is a civil rights attorney who represents six Guantánamo detainees.  He is President of the International Justice Network, the only non-governmental organization currently providing legal representation to detainees held abroad in the “War on Terror.”  He also teaches law-related topics at Greenfield Community College in Greenfield, Massachusetts.

Next Meeting

07/08/2010 7:30pm - 9:00pm
Edwards Church
297 Main Street
Northampton, MA, 01060
See map: Google Maps

About Guantánamo Bay Prison

“Sometimes, we just didn’t get the right folks.”

— Brigadier General Jay Hood, the top American officer in Guantanamo, to Wall Street Journal, 2005
 
On January 11, 2002, the first 20 prisoners picked up in Afghanistan arrived in Guantánamo, where the Bush administration believed they would be out of reach of U.S. courts. News photos show the men dressed in orange jumpsuits, shackled, with gloves, goggles, surgical masks and headphones for sensory deprivation.. [photo] Hundreds more prisoners followed.
 
But who are they, and were they really the so-called “worst of the worst”?
 

Detainees at Guantanamo Bay

Andy Worthington has prepared a list of all the detainees and their current status, which he has posted on his blog. He has also prepared a list of all federal district court rulings on Guantanamo detainees' habeas corpus petitions.

Abdul Ra’ouf Al Qassim

Abdul Rauf al-Qassim's wife, Rahima, and his daughter, Khiria.
Current status: 
Cleared, no charges

Mr. al-Qassim was released and sent to Albania in late February 2010.

Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif

Current status: 
Not cleared, no charges

Ahmed Belbacha

Current status: 
Cleared, no charges

by Andy Worthington

A former footballer, Ahmed Belbacha was born in Algiers in 1969. He left his homeland in 1999, after receiving death threats from militants because he worked for a government-run oil company, and sought asylum in the UK.

Ahmed lived and worked in Bournemouth, first at a laundry and then at the Swallow Royal Hotel, where he was responsible for cleaning John Prescott’s room during the 1999 Labour Party conference. For his diligence, he received a thank-you note from the Deputy Prime Minister and a tip for his service.

Amin al Bakri

Detained at Bagram prison with no habeas corpus right
Current status: 
Unknown

Djamel Ameziane

Current status: 
Not cleared, no charges

Ravil Mingazov

A judge ordered Ravil's release on May 13, 2010, under the writ of habeas corpus
Current status: 
Cleared, no charges

Ravil Mingazov was born in Russia in 1967. He became a ballet dancer with several dance troupes. Conscripted into the Russian Army at the age of 19, he first served in the Army ballet troupe. After his conscription ended in 1988, he served voluntarily until 1996 and later returned to the military in the food supply section, where he took over a program that was in bad shape and transformed it into a model program, “the best in all the Army's.” In recognition of his achievement, he said that the General gave him a watch.

Saifullah Paracha

Current status: 
Not cleared, no charges

Saifullah Paracha, 60, is a Pakistani national.  He traveled to the US to study when he was 26 years old and remained there with his family for approximately 10 years before returning to Pakistan to set up an export business.

Paracha was scheduled to fly to Thailand for a business meeting on in July 2003, but when he arrived at the Bangkok airport on July 6, he was seized, hooded, and cuffed, thrown into the back of a vehicle and taken to an unknown location where he was held for a few days, blindfolded, with his ears covered and his hands and legs cuffed.

Sharifullah

Current status: 
Not cleared, no charges

Sharifullah is among 12 Guantánamo prisoners whom the Obama administration repatriated on December 20.  Read the article, US sends 12 Gitmo detainees to their home nations.