Take action to close Guantanamo prison.

To mark the 20th anniversary of the opening of the detention facility at U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, take action to close this place of lawlessness and human rights abuses: 

• Scroll down to write to your elected leaders to call for the closing of the prison and the release or fair trial of the prisoners.
• Join a webinar, “Guantanamo 20 Years on: A Religious Perspective,” hosted by the National Religious Campaign Against Torture on January 11 at 3:00pm ET.
• Join a virtual rally in front of the White House at 2pm ET, "Disrupt, Confront, and Close Guantánamo: 20th Anniversary Virtual Rally."

The Guantanamo Bay prison was opened as part of an effort to hold suspected terrorists outside of the protections of U.S. law. This wrongful move was compounded by the decision to torture many of the prisoners held there. In the years since its opening, we have learned that many of the people sent to Guantanamo were never involved in terrorism in the first place.

Even now, 20 years since the prison’s opening, most of the prisoners have never been tried or convicted of any crime. Whether a suspect is guilty or innocent, the right to a trial is a bedrock American value, yet it has been denied to those at Guantanamo.

In addition, maintaining Guantanamo prison is unreasonably expensive – costing more than half a billion dollars each year, or over $13 million per prisoner per year. This is an irrational and even immoral amount to spend on a prison for only 39 people.

Take action: Join us in calling for the closing of Guantanamo Bay today.

 

Photo: Close Guantanamo vigil in Washington DC on 12/8/21. Dan Moriarty of MOGC is the figure second from left in the photo.