[Announce] Anti-Torture Activisit found guilty in Wash DC today

[Robert Waldrop]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Frank Cordaro" <frank.cordaro at gmail.com>
..
(Four Iowans were among those found guilty in DC 
today; They were
Maloy Catholic Worker Brian Terrell, Christine 
Gaunt of Grinnell IA
and Des Moines Catholic Workers Ed Bloomer and 
Kirk Brown.)
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Contact: Frida Berrigan (347) 683-4928
Frida.berrigan at gmail.com
www.witnesstorture.org
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ANTI-TORTURE ACTIVISTS CONVICTED - GUANTANAMO 
PRISON PUT ON TRIAL
WASHINGTON, D.C. – May 29, 2008
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Thirty-four Americans arrested at the Supreme 
Court on January 11,
2008 were found guilty after a three-day trial 
which began on Tuesday,
May 27th in D.C. Superior Court. The defendants 
represented
themselves, mounting a spirited defense of their 
First Amendment
rights to protest the gross injustice of abuse and 
indefinite
detention of men at the U.S. Naval Base at 
Guantanamo Bay. Charged
with "unlawful free speech," the defendants were 
part of a larger
group that appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court on 
January 11—the day
marking six years of indefinite detention and 
torture at Guantanamo.
"I knelt and prayed on the steps of the Supreme 
Court wearing an
orange jumpsuit and black hood to be present for 
Fnu Fazaldad," said
Tim Nolan, a nurse practitioner from Asheville, NC 
who provides health
care for people with HIV.
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Defendants and witnesses argued that they did not 
expect to be
arrested at the Supreme Court, "an internationally 
known temple to
free speech."  Ashley Casale, a student at 
Wellesley College in
Massachusetts, told the court, "I am 19-- the 
youngest person in this
courtroom—and I come on behalf of all the 
prisoners at Guantanamo who
were younger than I am now when they were 
detained. According to the
U.S. Constitution we have a right to petition the 
government for a
redress of grievances and Guantanamo Bay prison is 
beyond grievous."
Historian Michael S. Foley, a professor at the 
City University of New
York, teaches the U.S. Constitution to 
undergraduates.  He testified
that if "you told me that the defendants would be 
arrested for
'unlawful free speech' just twenty feet from where 
the Justices decide
First Amendment cases, I'd say you were 'crazy.'"
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Those who stood trial this week were arrested 
(along with 43 others)
without their identification and taken into 
custody under the names of
Guantanamo prisoners. This twist on traditional 
protest allowed the
defendants to symbolically grant the Guantanamo 
prisoners the day in
court that the Bush administration and the 
Pentagon have denied them.
"I am not surprised at being convicted," continued 
Nolan, "but I felt
compelled as a medical professional to speak out 
against torture that
is facilitated by medical personnel at Guantanamo. 
I have to act on my
ethical principles every day:  if I know child 
abuse is occurring, I
am required to report it.  The abuses at 
Guantanamo must also be acted
upon."
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The defendants are common citizens: priests and 
pastors, construction
workers and farmers, schoolteachers and 
professors.  They come from
Charlottesville, Des Moines, New York City, 
Scranton, Saratoga,
Worcester, and other cities and towns.
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Judge Wendell Gardner will sentence the defendants 
tomorrow (Friday,
May 30), in D.C. Superior Court (courtroom 218, 
500 Indiana Ave), and
has indicated that some are likely to receive 
prison sentences. A
number of the defendants waived their right to 
speak during the trial,
recognizing the near–total denial of legal and 
human rights to the
Guantanamo detainees. "We could not in conscience 
exercise our
rights," says Matthew Daloisio of this courtroom 
witness, "when our
country continues to deny the rights of others. It 
was powerful to
hold the name of Yasser Al Zahrani in my heart as 
I sat in a court of
law. Yasser was a 22-year-old Yemeni man. He was 
arrested at 17, and
brought to Guantanamo. He was never charged or 
tried. On June 10th,
2006, he apparently took his own life. He will 
never have the chance
to sit in this court room, and my conviction today 
seems a small price
to pay to bring his name in court."
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During the trial, some defendants took the stand 
to testify to their
motivations and intentions in acting on January 
11.  They argued that
they were there to appeal to the Supreme Court 
Justices to rule
against the Bush administration in the cases of 
Boumediene v. U.S. and
Al Odah v. Bush.  They contend that after all 
other remedies had been
exhausted; direct action and appeal were the only 
options.
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The judge refused to let Thomas Wilner, a partner 
at the Washington
law firm Shearman and Sterling, who represented 
twelve Kuwaiti
citizens detained at Guantanamo Bay in the case 
decided in their favor
by the U.S. Supreme Court on June 28, 2004. 
Wilner's descriptions of
the predicaments of his clients, and expressions 
of horror and dismay
at the failure of most Americans to act against 
the detainees'
indefinite detention and torture were part of 
forming many of the
defendants' motivation and intention. After his 
testimony was deemed
"not relevant" and "unnecessary" by Judge Gardner, 
Wilner addressed
defendants and supporters outside the courthouse, 
saying: "Hopefully,
we'll end torture and indefinite detention as a 
matter of law. And
then, we need to work to make sure that hysteria 
and false facts don't
sweep away the soul of the nation again." He then 
addressed those on
trial directly, saying, "You are standing up for 
the soul of this
nation."
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In the defendants' first closing statement, Father 
Emmett Jarrett, an
Episcopalian priest from New London, CT, told 
Judge Wendell Gardner,
"we came to the Supreme Court on January 11th with 
one intention-- to
put dramatically before the court—both the Supreme 
Court and the
higher court of public opinion and conscience—the 
plight of the men
and boys detained at Guantanamo. We came to the 
Supreme Court on
January 11th not to protest but to present a 
letter to the justices,
asking them to act on behalf of detainees 
imprisoned at Guantanamo, to
restore their human and legal rights—to give a 
voice to the
voiceless."
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Arthur Laffin followed with a closing statement 
that touched on both
legal and moral arguments for the defendants' 
innocence, and pleaded
with the court and the prosecution to join the 
defendants in "ending
the horrors." "The Nuremberg Accords," he 
asserted, "state that
individuals have a duty to prevent crimes against 
humanity and that if
people don't act to prevent such crimes, they are 
actually complicit
in them." He then concluded, "We, who are on trial 
today, along with
many friends, refuse to be complicit in these 
crimes."
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After Laffin finished, Claire Schaffer Duffy, of 
Worchester, MA
stood.and stated, "on behalf of Abbas Hasid Rumi 
Al Naely, I stand by
Art's.closing statement." And then, one after the 
other, each pro
se.defendant also stood, stated their own name, 
the name of the
prisoner.at Guantanamo they carried on January 11 
and through the
trial experience. Many were openly weeping as they 
stood.
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The action on January 11 was organized by Witness 
Against Torture,
a.group that formed in 2005 when 25 people walked 
from Cuba to the
U.S..detention facilities to protest conditions 
there.  January 11,
2008.marked six years since the opening of U.S. 
detention facilities
at.Guantanamo Bay.  The Supreme Court 
demonstrators were joined
by.protestors in London, Sydney, Edinburgh, 
Istanbul, Barcelona
and.throughout the world.
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Retired Admiral John D. Hutson, the former judge 
advocate general
of.the Navy, said of the Supreme Court 
demonstrators, "In the
military,.there is the concept of 'calling in 
artillery onto your own
position.'.It refers to heroic action taken in 
desperate situations
for a greater.good.  That's essentially what these 
courageous
Americans are doing….They accept that there may be 
an adverse
consequence to them.personally but they believe 
drawing attention to
the issue is worth.the sacrifice."
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Witness Against Torture will continue its efforts 
to have
the.detention facilities at Guantanamo shut down 
and torture by
United.States ended.
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###
--
Frida Berrigan
frida.berrigan at gmail.com
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