Posted on 05/07/2009 11:58:13 AM PDT by freespirited
Many of the tourists filing past the White House since Barack Obama's inauguration have been taken aback by the weekday sight of silent, orange jumpsuit-clad, black-hooded protesters standing on the sidewalk as a reminder to the president that approximately 240 men are still being detained at the notorious Guantanamo Bay prison.
When my daughters joined me Easter Monday morning to be part of the Catholic Worker 100-Days Campaign to Close Guantanamo, we donned our jumpsuits and hoods and proceeded slowly through Lafayette Park to take our positions along Pennsylvania Avenue. Children gawked in wonder, asking their parents why we were there. Hundreds of people took out their cameras to snap pictures of us. It was a solemn and shocking sight, but one Americans have come to associate with one of the worst of many terrible things carried out by the Bush administration since 9/11.
What was most surprising to me, however, was the number of people who walked by our line and asked aloud why we were there -- since Obama has already closed Guantanamo. Although he issued an executive order to close the prison in Cuba by Jan. 31, 2010, nothing has changed for the men still being held there, most of whom, according to Lawrence B. Wilkerson, Colin Powell's former chief of staff, are innocent of any crimes. Last month, Wilkerson said fewer than two dozen of those who remain at Guantanamo can be considered a security risk, which means scores of innocent men remain in detention.
So great is their despair that approximately 50 detainees have been on a hunger strike to protest their indefinite detention. About three dozen of these men are being force-fed through nasal tubes twice daily, a painful procedure.
The history of Guantanamo is arguably one of the moral low points of U.S. history. It is well documented that many of the men sent there were kidnapped from their homelands. Some were even bought with CIA ransom money, often despite a lack of evidence that any had engaged in terrorist activity. Hundreds of innocent men have already been released, and many told harrowing stories of abuse and torture.
The United States was once known for championing human rights, but the events at Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and the Bagram Theater Internment Facility in Afghanistan have changed all that. Under former President George W. Bush's rules, the U.S. aligned itself with some of the world's worst human rights violators. It's time for Obama to begin a process of restoring our nation's credibility.
Step One: Order the immediate release of the Uighurs (WEE-gurs), the 17 Chinese Muslims who have already been cleared for release from Guantanamo. Last September, U.S. authorities formally conceded that none of the Uighur detainees is an enemy combatant. In China, the Uighurs are among the most persecuted minority groups. They face possible torture, persecution and even death if they are repatriated. Uighur families in the United States have agreed to provide resettlement assistance for the 17 men, yet the Obama administration has done nothing to correct this horrible injustice.
Step Two: Obama should allow groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch open access to all U.S. detention facilities to monitor conditions.
Obama has not allowed judicial oversight at Guantanamo. While in Washington, I visited Capitol Hill where an aide to Sen. Richard Burr who had visited the Guantanamo prison assured me that "harsh interrogations," as torture is often called, no longer take place at the prison. But how do we know that to be true? Many psychologists consider the fact that most of the Guantanamo detainees are being held in solitary confinement as torture.
Step Three: Obama should order an investigation into why detainees are on a hunger strike and take measures to improve conditions so these men will end their hunger strike .
Finally, Obama should immediately move the process forward that leads to the release of the innocent men the United States is detaining at all prisons.
I have no way of knowing whether Obama has been looking out the window of his new home and seeing the daily lineup of hooded protesters, but my hope is that his two daughters might have asked their father about those people standing on the sidewalk each day. We stand both as a reminder of the promises Obama has made and of the corrective action still not taken. It is my hope that he will do the right thing and reverse the shameful Bush legacy at Guantanamo.
Patrick O'Neill is co-founder of Garner's Fr. Charlie Mulholland Catholic Worker House, a pacifist, Christian community that provides hospitality to women and children in crisis.
This is Exhibit A in the Case of Liberalism as a Mental Disorder. The 17 Chinese Muslims (Uighurs) that he insists should be released were at an Al-Qaeda training camp. Only a liberal with several screws loose and even more brain circuits crossed can maintain that such individuals are mere innocents.
Protest all you want as long as you pay your taxes...
These folks follow Karl Marx not Yah'shua.
shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach
These guys? I thought they were filming one of those AT&T "more bars in more places" ads.
And that is why nobody really listens to you - everything is torture.
In fact, your breathing air is torture to me.
Heck - I bet some ingenious soul could make a pretty penny renting out paintball guns for use on the mock “detainees”.
Loose screws indeed. I have an idea. Why doesn’t Patrick O’Neill volunteer to take them all in at his Fr. Charlie Mulholland Catholic Worker House in Garner. I am sure the good people in that community would be pleased and thrilled to host them. Note to Patrick O’Neill: watch your back once you’ve got them settled.
Where was he when the Border Patrol Agents were in solitary?
Maybe they should consider suppositories...?
When my daughters joined me Easter Monday morning to be part of the Catholic Worker 100-Days Campaign to Close Guantanamo, we donned our jumpsuits and hoods and proceeded slowly through Lafayette Park to take our positions along Pennsylvania Avenue. Children gawked in wonder, asking their parents . . .
“What if it had been HIS children on 911”?
Hey Patrick O'Neil...Did it ever occur to you that these were sarcastic comments questioning your naivety and Obama's truthfulness?
“Hey Patrick O’Neil...Did it ever occur to you that these were sarcastic comments questioning your naivety and Obama’s truthfulness?”
Hey Patrick O’Neil... Did it ever occur to you that the creatures you so fervently advocate for happen to eat, breathe, sleep and live for the opportunity to cut your head off with a pocket knife?
I know a lot could be said, but these people are unreachable by thought or reason. They are driven purely by emotion wrapped by adamantine ignorance and they are proud of it.
If it had been HIS children, along with so many others, he would have filed a suit against President Bush as the cause. He would have announced that when he received the $$$$$$proceeds from his just cause, he would donate 75% of the money to the poor suffering and mourning families of the 9/11 “martyrs” in the Middle East.
I’d like to see him pull this crap in one of the Islamic pieces of heaven. Whew.
Wonder how thick their files are?
Actually I think alot of it is attention-drawing to soothe their own insecurities.
If you think about the people who generally protest things like this . . . well, you know the type.
I guess men in crisis are screwed as far as this idiot is concerned. So much for equality.
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