Local Activists to Mark 21 Years of Torture and Injustice at Guantanamo

CONTACT: Nancy Talanian, No More Guantanamos, ntalanian@nogitmos.org, 413-665-4561

NORTHAMPTON, MA - On JANUARY 11th from noon to 1:00 p.m. area residents will stand out in front of the Hampshire County Courthouse in Northampton with banners and signs to mark 21 years since the first of 779 Muslim men were shackled and deposited in the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and to call for the prison’s closure.

Similar protests will take place in Washington, DC, across the United States, and in cities around the world.

Within the prison’s long history, only a handful of prisoners have been charged with crimes though most of the men were tortured. Nine men have died in the prison, and 745 have been transferred to their home countries or resettled elsewhere after having spent years and sometimes a decade or more imprisoned without charge.

Twenty of the 35 men who remain in Guantanamo have been cleared for transfer, yet they remain confined until the Biden administration can find a country that is willing to accept them. One was convicted and another pled guilty to war crimes. Ten more await trial by military commission.

No More Guantanamos (NMG), which organized the local protest, was founded in 2009 to educate the public about the prison and to share stories of the men imprisoned there who have been described by US administrations since 2002 as “terrorists” though never charged with crimes. They will also distribute information about the Guantanamo Survivors Fund, which was established last year to help meet urgent needs of former Guantanamo prisoners who have been resettled around the world but left to fend for themselves. The Fund is a program of NMG, Witness Against Torture, the Muslim Counterpublics Lab, Healing and Recovery After Trauma, and others.

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