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Fri 11 Jan - International Day of Action
Today is the sixth anniversary of the first prisoners arriving at Guantanamo. In the US, the Anerican Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is calling on everyone to wear orange today. There will be demonstrations in many US cities and in other cities around the world. Moazzam Begg will this afternoon lead a delegation of former prisoners to deliver a letter to Gordon Brown calling on him to press for the release of british residents still held there and to press for Guantanamo Bay to be closed.  Orange Friday - Close Guantanamo organised by Amnesty International www.amnesty.org
1:00 pm US Consulate, 3 Regent Terrace, Edinburgh
Protest outside the consulate followed by parade along Princes Street towards the Mound finishing in the open space beside the National Gallery. Orange boilersuits available at the demo from Amnesty International and SACC
Public Meeting: Defend Civil Liberties: six years of Guantanamo and the "War on Terror"
7:30 pm Augustine Church, George 4th Bridge Organised by Edinburgh Stop The War Coalition and SACC www.sacc.org
Speakers include Aamer Anwar (human rights lawyer), Tom Leonard (poet), Shirley-Anne Somerville (MSP), Noman Tahir (editor of Iwitness, Scotland's Muslim newspaper)
Writer and poet Tom Leonard will be talking about freedom of expression and will be reading some of his poems as well as poems by Guantanamo prisoners from a recently-published anthology of their poetry. The book was one of three that Tom Leonard submitted as his books of the year to the Sunday Herald. Copies will be on sale.
Three British residents held at Guantanamo Bay came home in December - but two of them are still being hounded with an extradition warrant from Spain. What's going on?
Two other British residents are still incarcerated at Guantanamo Bay and the government is doing nothing to help them. Moazzam Begg will this afternoon lead a delegation of former prisoners to deliver a letter to Gordon Brown calling on him to press for the release of these men and to press for Guantanamo Bay to be closed. The letter has been signed by a number of individuals and organisations, including SACC.
Here in Britain, attacks on our civil libeties continue. The government wants to give police the power to hold "terrorist suspects" for up to 6 weeks before having to bring charges. People are being jailed for visiting the wrong sort of website. British troops are still occupying Iraq and Afghanistan. How can we fight back to defend our freedom?
"Entering its seventh year, the internment of hundreds of men in Guantanamo Bay - without charge or trial – continues to be amongst the most visibly repugnant and persistently embarrassing episodes of the US-led 'War on Terror'. Last year, even former US Secretary of State, Colin Powell declared, '...if it were up to me I would close Guantanamo not tomorrow but this afternoon ....' The intervention by the present UK administration in securing the return of four British residents last year is most welcome. But a similar assertion to that of Mr. Powell's by the British government is now highly overdue." - Moazzam Begg (former Guantanamo prisoner) |
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