PRESS RELEASE Witness Against Torture

www.100dayscampaign.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 21, 2009

CONTACT: Matt Daloisio, 201-264-4424, daloisio@earthlink.net

Tanya Theriault, 718-419-7619, tanyatheriault@yahoo.com

JAMES YEE TO SPEAK ON OBAMA’S EXECUTIVE ORDER TO CLOSE GUANTANAMO

NINE-DAY FAST TO CLOSE PRISON ENDS—AND 100 DAYS CAMPAIGN BEGINS--WITH INAUGURATION

January 21, 2009: Witness Against Torture, a group devoted to closing Guantanamo and ending torture, is hosting an evening talk with James Yee, who served as Muslim Chaplain for the US Military at the prison camp at Guantanamo. Yee will address the anticipated Executive Order from President Obama mandating the prison’s closure.

“Participating in the inauguration yesterday was the thrill of a lifetime,” says Yee, who was a national delegate for Barack Obama, “and I was moved by the clarion calls of hope and change. But restoring our Constitution and seeing that justice prevails in Guantanamo will take sustained action by many sectors of society.”

At Guantanamo, Captain Yee advised camp commanders on detainee religious practices and objected to the cruel and degrading treatment of the prisoners. As a result, he was falsely accused of spying and court martialed. While imprisoned by the military, Yee was treated much the same way as the men for whom he advocated. In his memoir, Yee describes that a guard “pulled the goggles over my eyes and covered my ears with the earmuffs. This sensory deprivation technique was just as [a Guantanamo detainee] had described… But until that moment I had never fully appreciated the power of it.”

Ultimately, all charges were dropped and Yee received an honorable discharge from the military. Chaplain Yee published a gripping account of his experience, For God And Country: Faith and Patriotism Under Fire, and has become one of the most important critics of Guantanamo and of torture.

Yee’s talk marks the beginning of Witness Against Torture’s 100 Days Campaign to Close Guantanamo and End Torture. The campaign includes a daily presence at the White House as well as public and Congressional education and creative, non-violent demonstrations to make sure that that Guantanamo is closed and torture stopped now, not next year.

“We must continue to be a visible reminder to the President, his cabinet and Congress,” says Tanya Theriault, an organizer with Witness Against Torture, “Obama’s Executive Order is an important first step, but it must be quickly followed by many more steps in order to dispense with the Bush administration’s policies of delayed and denied justice once and for all.”

“The men at Guantanamo need more than policies and procedures,” says faster Jim Margolis, “they need immediate action and justice – That is why we fasted for the last nine days and that is why we will be vigiling for the next 100 days. We remain intensely focused on the prisoners as human beings. Seven years of prison, sometimes in isolation, without charge and for an indefinite period, being questioned repeatedly when you have nothing to tell is torture. With all that, it would be heartbreaking to hear you will be released and then wait for another year or more.”

James Yee will speak on Wednesday, January 21st at 7 pm in George Washington University’s Law School’s Faculty Conference Center. This event is co-sponsored by Witness Against Torture and GWU Muslim Law Students Association. More than 100 people around the country joined Witness Against Torture in a Fast for Justice that was ended yesterday morning in a sunrise ceremony to celebrate Barack Obama’s inauguration.

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