Guantanamo at 10: Crowds defy cold drizzle for protest

By Matthew Rusling Jan 12, 2012, 2:06 GMT

Washington - As a former military prosecutor at Guantanamo's military tribunal, US Air Force Colonel Morris Davis had always fought to protect the US constitution.

That is why he resigned in protest when he realized that the United States was not staying true to its promise of holding fair trials for detainees there.

'Guantanamo has become a symbol that is contrary to American values,' he told a crowd of hundreds at a demonstration at the White House Wednesday. 'For 200 years our strength was the rule of law. For the past decade we've turned our back on the law.'

He has now left the military, taking a post as director of the private Crimes of War education project, which aims to educate policy makers and journalists on legal issues in war.

The demonstrators, from young adults to seniors, gathered in front of the White House and marched to the US Supreme Court amid a cold drizzle to mark the tenth anniversary of the prison. Around 100 wore orange jumpsuits with black hoods masking their faces, in portrayal of detainees held in the controversial facility at the US Naval base in Cuba.

Among the current 171 terrorist suspects still held there are 11 who have held since January 11, 2002, without charges being brought against them or being tried.

The prison has for a decade elicited criticism from rights groups and the international community.

Protesters held orange-lettered banners that read 'Obama Close Gitmo,' and sprouted umbrellas against the persistent rain. Participants included Witness Against Torture, Amnesty International and the Centre for Constitutional Rights.

One demonstrator sat in a cage across the street from the White House, dressed in an orange jumpsuit and black bag over his head with ankles and wrists shackled to demonstrate reported inhumane treatment of detainees.

In London earlier this week, a former detainee who now heads a human rights charity described the lasting effects of the two years he spent at Guantanamo.

Moazzam Begg, 43, a Briton of Pakistani origin, said the worst part was his treatment after he was seized in Pakistan and taken to Bagram military base in Afghanistan, where he said he watched two prisoners beaten to death.

'We were stripped, punched, kicked, humiliated, shaved, thrown into a small converted barn while guns were constantly pointed at our heads,' said Begg. He heads a group called Repreive and an awareness group, Cage Prisoners.

After his transfer to Guantanamo, charges were never brought during the two years he spent there. 'I've never been to America, but America has been to me. It has shaped the person I am today,' he said.

At the demonstration in Washington, Vivian Shibata, 24, a native of Japan who now works for Amnesty International in New York, said she was disappointed in the US.

'As an American born in a different country, its a little shocking to me,' she told dpa. 'I came here thinking that things would be a little more just,' she said, noting the lack of fair trials for detainees.

Abdullah Ray, a new convert to Islam and a US Army veteran, told dpa, 'We say we are going to other countries to look for terrorists, but we are the ones who are committing torture.'

Wearing a white skull cap and thin, black beard, he said the public needed to educate itself about Islam and that the government is targeting Muslims, a belief shared by many in predominately Muslim countries. He appeared to be in his mid-to-late 20's.

Kyle Szlosek, 21, wore a black-and-white striped prison get-up and told dpa he was there to protest the treatment of inmates at Guantanamo, saying 'you can't just throw them into a cage.'

With long, curly blond hair, the Kennebunk, Maine native said he is a member of the Occupy movement.

Joann Riordan, a 27-year-old Dubliner, told dpa the facility in Guantanamo would never exist in her native Ireland.

A volunteer for Amnesty in New York, she said the issue largely flies under the radar in the US. 'It's unfortunate,' she said.

Indeed, public debate about Guantanamo has been largely overshadowed by more pressing issues such as high unemployment and next year's presidential elections, but the protests drew people from as far away as South Carolina and New York.

Davis, the former military prosecutor, lamented that the issue is largely 'out of sight, out of mind,' for much of the US public, amid shouts of 'Yeah!' from the crowd.

'Congress has failed (to shutter the facility), the president has failed us, it's up to the people to demand that our government do the right thing and restore American values,' he said to applause.