Fresno Activists Demand - Close Gitmo Now!

Peace Fresno held a demonstration at the Federal Building in Fresno. Street theater included three hooded prisoners in jump suits and the protest focused on the U.S. Government’s use of Guantanamo Bay in Cuba as a center for torture - demonstrators demanded that Gitmo be immediately shut down. Here is the Press Statement from Peace Fresno:

The international community rallied around America as the images of September 11, 2001 flashed across newspapers and TV screens around the world. Support poured in from friends and foes alike. The Bush Administration called for international action against al Qaeda based in Afghanistan. The United States along with its NATO allies invaded Afghanistan.

The defeat of the Taliban government came swiftly and hundreds of fighters were captured. Under international law, these fighters should have been deemed soldiers and protected under the Geneva Conventions. However, under the guise of national security, the Bush Administration labeled those captured as enemy combatants and set up an extra-territorial prison in order to get around international conventions and laws.

Guantanamo Bay. This name immediately conjures up images of hooded, shackled prisoners shuffling between burly marines. Hundreds of teenage boys and adult males were sent to this prison and have been subject to harsh treatment including torture. By design, as enemy combatant, the prisoners have no legal recourse to challenge their status, imprisonment or treatment. Congress has aided the Bush Administration’s dismantling of due process through the passage of the Military Commissions Act of 2006. Cries for justice reverberate around the world.

Yet, Guantanamo Bay is merely the tip of the iceberg. The Bush Administration and a complicit Congress have taken away long held legal rights. From the prisoner in Guantanamo Bay to the average person on America’s streets, the loss of civil rights and liberties continues through the No Child Left Behind Act, The PATRIOT Act, The Military Commissions Act, the pending Homegrown Terrorism Protection Act, and the Presidential Executive Order of July 17, 2007.

Benjamin Franklin warned that “they who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary security deserve neither liberty nor security.” Enough is enough!

Franklin D. Roosevelt warned us: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” and Dwight D. Eisenhower warned us about the Military Industrial Complex taking control of American society. These warnings have fallen on deaf ears.

Today, the American people have largely succumbed to fear and to the power of the Military Industrial Complex. We have given up liberty for security. We have allowed our government to lead us into an unjust war, to curtail our civil liberties, and to arbitrarily subject human beings to secret rendition, torture and indefinite detention at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba without trial, access to attorneys or the rights and freedoms granted by our Constitution.

As part of a nationwide action, Peace Fresno, The Greater Fresno Area Chapter of the ACLU-NC, W.I.L.P.F., and the California Chapter of the National Network In Action join with Amnesty International, The National Religious Campaign Against Torture, United for Peace and Justice, and many other organizations in calling on all Americans to demand the immediate closure of Guantanamo and the end of U.S. sponsored torture.

We call on Congress to close Guantanamo Bay, to revoke the PATRIOT Act and the Military Commissions Act, and to prevent passage of the Homegrown Terrorism Protection Act. We call on Congress to restore the Constitution. We will tell Fresno that civil liberty is more important than a false security. We ask our neighbors to contact their Representatives and Senators and demand they honor their oaths of office to protect and preserve the Constitution of the United States.

Congress needs to do the right thing—stand up to President Bush and restore the Constitution!


For more information contact: Scott Key, President, Peace Fresno (559) 237-6331

Bill Simon, Chair, Fresno - ACLU (559) 227-6565
Jean Hays, W.I.L.P.F. (559) 439-0280
Rev. Floyd Harris, Director, NNIA (559) 803-0286