2. Bradley Manning
-- DDF takes lead organizing Quantico protest (January 2011)
--Manning transferred from Quantico, conditions improve (April 2011)
-- UN Special Rapporteur on Torture expresses concern about Manning's detention (July 2011)
-- Wired.com releases unredacted chat logs (July 2011)

-- Take Action -- visit the Bradley Manning Support Network

3. Torture in Chicago
Former Chicago police Commander Jon Burge convicted of lying about torture

4. Accountability for Torture
Letter to President Obama calling for accountability and transperency

Protesters Block DOJ Entrances

January 11, 2011 marked the beginning of the 10th year of confinement, abuse and injustice for the men at Guantanamo. To mark the shameful anniversary, DDF joined Witness Against Torture, Center for Constitutional Rights and others at the White House for a press conference, followed by a “prisoner procession” to the Department of Justice for nonviolent direct action. Dozens of members of Witness Against Torture remained in Washington until January 22 to fast and hold daily vigils and demonstrations throughout Washington, haunting the sites of power with the specter of Guantanamo’s cruel injustice. January 22, 2009 is the day President Obama promised to close Guantanamo within a year, but two years later, 174 men are still imprisoned there.

Activist outline demands and concerns

In a letter to the Department of Justice, Witness Against Torture, Bill of Rights Defense Committee, Center for Constitutional Rights, Defending Dissent Foundation, No More Guantanámos, Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition International, and Voices for Creative Non-Violence outline their concerns and demands regarding detention policy. Read the letter here

On June 15, 2010, DDF and activists from Witness Against Torture, Center for Constitutional Rights and the Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition International (TASSC) pressed the Department of Justice on detention policy and accountability for torture at a meeting with Portia Roberson, Director of the Office of Public Relations. We were joined by two powerful voices whose personal experiences appeared to move Ms. Roberson: Orlando Tizon, and Syed Anwar Hashmi. Orlando spoke of his experience in the Philippines where he was unjustly imprisoned and tortured in 1982. He said torture still continues today in the Philippines because those who tortured him decades ago were never held accountable. Mr. Hashmi’s son Fahad spent 3 years in pre-trial solitary confinement in prison in New York where he was held under Special Administrative Orders (SAMs). Mr. Hashmi spoke of the nightmare conditions his son suffered and the unjustifiable brutality of SAMs.

The meeting was initially viewed as constructive and Ms. Roberson pledged to arrange additional meetings with DOJ staff responsible for policy decisions. See Jeremy Varon's report about the meeting here, and the letter we sent before the meeting here.

Three months after this intial meeting, activists sent another letter to the Department of Justice seeking accountability for the lack of progress on the issues we raised on June 15. In the letter, we noted a number of alarming developments:

- The New York Times reported in its June 26 article “Closing Guantánamo Fades as a Priority” that the Obama administration has essentially abandoned its efforts to close the detention facility anytime soon. The administration’s reported inertia, cynicism, and political fear with respect to Guantánamo leads us to wonder if the will exists within it to close Guantánamo at any point in the future.

- despite the outcry of both domestic and international human rights organizations and legal observers, the United States has gone ahead with the prosecution by Military Commission of Omar Khadr for alleged conduct while he was a “child soldier.”

- men detained at Guantánamo continue to win their habeas cases but remain incarcerated. Without a mechanism for the speedy release of those whom Federal Judges rule are detained in error, the habeas right becomes all but meaningless, negating the victory for the rule of law, the Constitution, and the rights of the accused that the 2007 Boumediene decision represents.

- Fahad Hashmi, whose father was present at our meeting and pleaded for the humane treatment of his son, has since been transferred from the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City to the federal high security prison in Florence, Colorado. He remains under the severe isolation of SAMs. The Florence facility is the most draconian prison in the federal system, and has been criticized by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the European Court of Human Rights, among others, for the severe isolation that the prisoners there endure.

Unfortunately, after many phone calls seeking the promised follow-up meeting, it became apparent that none would be forthcoming. On October 2, 2010, activists protested outside the Justice Department, and issued this press release vowing to keep up the pressure.

January 11, 2011 marked the beginning of the 10th year of confinement, abuse and injustice for the men at Guantanamo. To mark the shameful anniversary, DDF joined Witness Against Torture, Center for Constitutional Rights and others at the White House for a press conference, followed by a “prisoner procession” to the Department of Justice for nonviolent direct action. Dozens of members of Witness Against Torture remained in Washington until January 22 to fast and hold daily vigils and demonstrations throughout Washington, haunting the sites of power with the specter of Guantanamo’s cruel injustice. January 22, 2009 is the day President Obama promised to close Guantanamo within a year, but two years later, 174 men are still imprisoned there.

Quantico Protest -- January 16, 2011
Scores of activists marched to the gates of Quanitco Marine Base on MLK Day to support accused whistleblower Bradley Manning, and protest the conditions of his detention. DDF took the lead in organzing the protest. Officials have put Manning under special detention conditions that amount to extreme pre-trial punishment: he is confined to his small cell for 23 hours per day, is allowed only limited exercise, and is not allowed to interact socially with other prisoners. Psychologists for Social Responsibility and Amnesty International have also raised concerns about the conditions of Manning’s confinement. It was the largest protest ever seen at the base, and we were not welcomed with open arms. We sought to deliver a box of “humanitarian aid” (books, a blanket, etc) to Bradley, but base officials refused to accept it. The protest garnered significant local news coverage, and may have led to punitive action against Manning by base officials. Bradley Manning Support Network founder Mike Gogulski stated “Immediately following a rally by more than 150 supporters at Quantico last week, Brad was put on suicide watch for two days for reasons his counsel could only conclude were punitive. He was stripped of all of his clothing except his boxer shorts and his glasses were taken away. It seems to me that the Marine command is now reacting in the worst possible way to rising pressure on them.”

Less than a week after the protest, David House (a friend of Brad’s and one of his few approved visitors) and Jane Hamsler (Firedoglake.com founder) attempted to visit Manning during visitor hours, and to deliver a petition to base officials. They were both detained, questioned and not allowed to visit. (In our December newsletter, we reported that David House had been detained at O’Hare in November, and his electronics confiscated).

Manning moved to Ft. Leavenworth - April 2011
In January, DDF took the lead in organizing a rally outside of Quantico Marine Base, where Bradley Manning had been held in pre-trial solitary confinement for over seven months. The protest highlighted the inhumane conditions of Manning’s confinement and helped propel the issue into the mainstream media. A flurry of incidents kept the issue in the media, including the firing of PJ Crowley, the assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs at the U.S. State Department over his strong public criticism of Manning’s treatment. He declared that “what is being done to Bradley Manning is ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid on the part of the Department of Defense.” In March, the Bradley Manning Support Network organized another, larger protest at Quantico, which culminated in a sit-in that shut down the highway in front of the base for hours and resulted in the arrest of over 30 activists.

Due to the international and domestic pressure campaign, the Department of Defense decided to move Manning out of Quantico to Fort Leavenworth prison in Kansas. He was moved on April 20 and his attorney reports that the conditions there are acceptable. Activists in Kansas City are planning a June 4th protest outside the prison. We expect his preliminary trial to be in early June in the D.C. area.

Many people think that Manning was treated so harshly in order to compel him to incriminate WikiLeaks and Julian Assange. We do know for sure that a Grand Jury has been impaneled to investigate Assange and WikiLeaks, and the government desperately wants to be able to show that Assange conspired with Manning to liberate the documents. On April 26, the FBI served a subpoena to a target who wishes to remain unnamed to appear before the Grand Jury. It looks like the Grand Jury is focusing on Manning, and is looking to find a way to indict Assange under the Espionage Act.

July 13, 2011: Bradley Manning Updates:
The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Juan Mendez, released a statement on July 12 expressing concerns about restrictions the U.S. has placed on his visits to Bradley Manning. He wants to be able to talk to Manning "under conditions where I can be assured that he is being absolutely candid," about conditions of his confinement at Quantico.

Wired.com releases unredacted chat logs. When the website initially released the redacted version last year, the logs seemed to incriminate Bradley Manning. Read the unredacted version here.

Take Action: Sign a letter to Bradley Manning and/or participate in the grassroots video campaign here.

Former Chicago police commander Jon Burge is accused of overseeing the torture over 100 African American men during his time on the police force over a decade ago. He was found guilty in June - not for the torture, but for lying about it. The statute of limitations on torture had expired by the time prosecutors got around to investigating Burge, so the only charges that could be brought were for perjury and obstruction of justice. Although he could face forty-five years in prison, the guilty verdict is bittersweet to many of the victims and activists who fought for justice. Count Representative Danny Davis (D-IL) among them: "The Jon Burge trial has ended with a verdict of guilty to the charge of perjury and obstruction of justice, which to me and countless others is simply not enough". So Davis has introduced the Law Enforcement Torture Prevention Act (H.R.5688), which criminalizes torture committed by law enforcement officials, creates a federal definition for torture and removes the statute of limitations.

November 24, 2009,
Defending Dissent Foundation has joined 28 other activist groups on a letter to President Obama calling for accountability and transparency on torture:
We write to express our support, in the strongest possible terms, for a complete and independent investigation of all former U.S. officials allegedly complicit in incidents—or policies—of torture of detainees housed at Guantánamo Bay and elsewhere. We also exhort you to reconsider your administration’s refusal to disclose evidence of torture even in the face of court orders mandating disclosure. More broadly, we write to remind you of the context in which this issue arises, explain why transparency and robust accountability are a strategic national security imperative, and to expose the self-interest of voices counseling against accountability.

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