By
Nancy Talanian
Guantánamo Bay prison and a network of other offshore detention and interrogation centers established to be outside the law are both a black mark on the U.S. and a historic opportunity for the American people to right our country’s course.
Government officials have delayed and denied justice for the imprisoned men by portraying them as monstrous, inhuman, and undeserving of legal protections and other human rights. Eight years of the secrecy, fear- and hate-mongering that have supported legal limbo for the men now threaten President Obama’s planned closure of the prison by blocking, at least temporarily, obvious steps for forward movement—such as resettling in the U.S.at least some cleared prisoners who cannot safely return home.
No More Guantánamos (NMG) seeks an end to the fear-mongering that delays and denies justice for the men by restoring the men’s humanity, telling the men’s stories in our communities and appealing to Americans’ innate sense of justice and fairness. We are a coalition of concerned U.S. residents, communities, organizations, and attorneys who are working together to ensure justice for the prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Bagram air base in Afghanistan, and other offshore prison sites maintained by the CIA and the Pentagon around the world. We work to ensure basic human rights for all prisoners, including the legal right to be either charged for crimes and tried in accordance with international law or released, and to find homes for prisoners who cannot return home.
NMG grassroots chapters are already at work in four states, with more expected soon, and our first success story—the overwhelming passage in Amherst, MA, of a resolution to welcome two cleared prisoners to the community—is a model for other communities and proof of the effectiveness of using true stories about individual men at Guantánamo to counteract misinformation and stereotypes. You can help by joining us online today and sharing this newsletter with friends who want to close all of the U.S.’s “Guantánamos” with justice.