Since February 2007, the London Guantánamo Campaign has been holding a weekly vigil outside the US Embassy in Mayfair . At 6-7pm at the start of every weekend, come rain or shine, we’ve been there, supported by many individuals and groups over the past 14 months, to call on the American government to shut down Guantánamo Bay and other illegal jails in the “war on terror” and to respect human rights and the rule of law. The message is simple: no torture, no detention without trial!
From April 2008, we will be taking our weekly protest all over London , visiting different sites each week. Many corporations and governments, including our own, are complicit in the spider web of abuse and torture in the name of the “war on terror” in Guantánamo and all over the world.
Join us at our weekly actions in April at:
Friday 4 April: 6-7pm: Starbucks Café, 55-59 Oxford Street , London , W1D 2EQ (nearest tube: Tottenham Court Rd.) – Soho side of Oxford Street : a frappuccino to go and a spot of “waterboarding” is all in a day’s work for interrogators at Guantánamo Bay . Detainees have allegedly been offered Starbucks coffee in return for confessions. Join us outside this outlet of a co-operator in torture.
Friday 11 April, 5-7pm: US Embassy, Grosvenor Square, London, W1A 2LQ (nearest tube: Bond Street): we will be joined on this day by Solidarity for an Independent and Unified Iraq in a longer, silent vigil to mark the fifth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad in the war in Iraq. Join us for this anti-war protest and against secret jails and detention without trial by the US in Iraq , Guantánamo Bay and elsewhere.
Saturday 19 April, 1-3pm: Ladbroke Grove tube station, Ladbroke Grove , W10 6HJ (nearest tube: Ladbroke Grove): a monthly stall to raise awareness about the plight of Binyam Mohamed, the last Londoner in Guantánamo, in his local area. For more details about this action, please call Sheraz on 07717 204 297.
Friday 25 April, 6-7pm: US Embassy, Grosvenor Square , London , W1A 2LQ (nearest tube: Bond Street ): Shut Down Guantánamo! vigil.
For the last two weeks of March, 21 and 28 March, we will be continuing our regular vigils outside the US Embassy. We are currently meeting at the corner of North Audley Street and Upper Brook Street as the Embassy has completely shut off access to one side of Grosvenor Square . Come and join us there!
We will be updating details of vigils each month so please watch this space!
Guantánamo news: The most important news from Guantánamo this month, relating to the United Kingdom, concerns the practice of extraordinary rendition. Extraordinary rendition is the illegal CIA practice by which individuals are usually “kidnapped” (detained illegally) and transferred to third countries where they are tortured, as these countries are known to use such practices regularly to extract confessions (such as Morocco, Syria, Jordan, etc.). Many Guantánamo detainees have ended up there through this practice; often by having been “detained” in Pakistan, transferred to the hands of the US military and then taken to Bagram and other illegal jails in Afghanistan before being transferred to Guantánamo Bay. British nationals and residents who have been victims of extraordinary rendition from countries other than Pakistan include Martin Mubanga (kidnapped in Zambia), Bisher El-Rawi and Jamil El-Banna (both kidnapped in Gambia). Most of the British nationals and residents claim to have been visited by British intelligence officers before being transferred to Guantánamo Bay and hence the British government has long been aware of and complicit in this practice.
A series of events took place in London this week calling for justice for Guantánamo detainees past and present, and for the detention camp to be closed down, taking in protests outside the Spanish Embassy and Westminster Magistrates’ Court, London Fashion Week and a packed meeting with Moazzam Begg in East London.
On Tuesday 12 February, seven activists from the London Guantánamo Campaign and the Muslim Prisoner Support Group held a lunchtime demonstration outside the Spanish Embassy in Knightsbridge. Peaceful yet vociferous, the message got through to the Embassy staff inside where a meeting was taking place.
Urgent Action: Binyam Mohamed, 29 year old British resident in Guantánamo Bay Background:
Binyam Mohamed is a 29 year old Ethiopian who came to the UK in 1994 as an asylum seeker. He lived in Notting Hill, West London, for seven years.
In June 2001, he travelled to Afghanistan to see whether it was a “good Islamic country or not”. After 9/11, he left for Pakistan. In April 2002, he tried to return to the UK but was arrested at the airport. For the next three months, he was imprisoned by the Pakistani authorities.
In July 2002, he was transferred to American custody. The CIA flew him to Morocco where he was held for 18 months, during which time he was subject to torture and gross human rights violations. He eventually confessed to being involved in the “dirty bomb” plot targeted at the US with Jose Padilla.
In January 2004, he was rendered to Afghanistan where he was held in Kabul’s notorious “Dark Prison” for five months where he endured further torture. The Americans then took him to Bagram and then Guantánamo Bay in September 2004 where he has been held ever since.
In November 2005, he was charged with conspiring to plot terror attacks against the US; the evidence for this was procured through torture in Morocco. He had a preliminary hearing in June 2006 but his trial was halted when, later in 2006, the US Supreme Court ruled that the trials were illegal.
In August 2007, the British government made representations with the American government to have five British residents, including Binyam Mohamed, returned to the UK. The British government does not believe he poses a threat.
In December 2007, three of the residents returned to the UK, with a fourth man likely to return to Saudi Arabia. Binyam was not allowed to return as the Americans consider him to still be highly dangerous and intend to prosecute him.
In recent months, Binyam Mohamed’s physical and mental health has deteriorated considerably, to the extent that he has taken to smearing the walls of his cell with his own faeces. He is suffering from severe depression.
Take action!! Binyam Mohamed has been held in Guantánamo Bay for three and a half years and has been subjected to nearly six years of abuse. No evidence of wrongdoing has been substantiated against him. Write to the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith and the Foreign Secretary David Miliband: ¨ Tell them that Binyam Mohamed’s case is of the utmost urgency. He is close to a complete breakdown and his behaviour, including smearing his excrement on the walls of his cell, demonstrates severe depression. The British government must act on humanitarian grounds to get Binyam released immediately. ¨ Ask what they are doing for Binyam Mohamed to secure his return to the UK. At what stage are negotiations for his release and return? ¨ The British government must act on its verbal pledges to have Guantánamo Bay shut down by acting to bring men such as Binyam, who have close links to the UK, back to this country and pressuring the US government to close down this and other illegal prisons in the “war on terror”.
Sample letter: Dear Mr/Ms.
I am writing to you concerning the urgent case of a British resident held in Guantánamo Bay. Binyam Mohamed, a 29 year old British resident of Ethiopian nationality, has been held in Guantánamo Bay since September 2004 and had spent two years before that being “rendered” between illegal American jails in Morocco, Pakistan and Afghanistan where he was tortured into making false confessions. Due to the severe torture and abuse he has faced, Mr. Mohamed is in an extremely poor mental and physical state. A medical report commissioned by his legal representative, Clive Stafford-Smith, has shown that he is suffering from severe depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. The American psychiatrist who prepared the report has stated that he is “reaching the end of his psychological tether”. While your government has acted successfully to return other British residents from Guantánamo Bay and has sought the return of Mr. Mohamed, I am urging you to take immediate and urgent action to intervene in Mr. Mohamed’s case to have him released from Guantánamo Bay and returned to the UK now. I am calling on you to take urgent humanitarian action to prevent Mr. Mohamed’s fragile state deteriorating further. I would like to know at stage negotiations are between the British and American governments to release Mr. Mohamed and exactly what actions the British government is currently taking on his behalf. The UK has a moral and ethical obligation to do whatever it can to have Mr. Mohamed released. Your government has called for the closure of Guantánamo Bay, which is laudable, however it must also act to help close down Guantánamo Bay by allowing men like Binyam Mohamed to be returned to the UK and seek the total closure of this extralegal detention camp by the US government. I look forward to your response. Yours sincerely, Gordon Brown (Prime Minister)
Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown, MP
House of Commons
London
SW1A 1AA
David Miliband (Foreign Secretary)
Rt. Hon. David Miliband MP
Foreign Secretary,
Foreign and Commonwealth Office, King Charles St , London SW1A 2AH
Jacqui Smith (Home Secretary)
Rt. Hon. Jacqui Smith MP
Home Secretary Home Office, 3rd Floor, Peel Building 2 Marsham Street London, SW1P 4DF
Also write to your MP (contact details at www.theyworkforyou.com) and ask them to contact and bring pressure to bear on the Foreign Secretary concerning Binyam Mohamed on your behalf.
Friday 11 January 2008 marked the sixth year since the American Guantánamo Bay detention facility opened up to accommodate “enemy combatants” in the “war on terror”. Opened to detain and interrogate those deemed to be “dangerous men” involved in the 9/11 attacks and attacks on the US in Afghanistan, no one held there has ever been charged in connection with the attack on the twin towers and only one person has ever been convicted of a minor charge. Of the over 800 men who have passed through in the past six years, the vast majority have been released and returned home without charge or conviction. Five men, including three in their early twenties, have returned home in coffins – four having died in uninvestigated, suspicious circumstances and the fifth died recently of cancer.
Deemed “enemy combatants” and thus not held under recognised international law, the detainees have sustained years of arbitrary detention with no real sign of an end in sight and have been subjected to a regime of torture, sensory deprivation, abuse of their human rights and have been deprived of adequate medical and legal assistance and access to their families…without any evidence of culpability or wrongdoing.
To mark this sad anniversary, on a damp Friday across the UK, demonstrations and actions were held in many towns, including Edinburgh, Bradford, Leeds, Sheffield, Birmingham and London. A variety of actions took place in London.
Campaigners in London from the London Guantánamo Campaign and Cageprisoners focused their actions on the British government, calling on it to act to bring the two remaining British residents in Guantánamo – Binyam Mohammed and Ahmed Belbacha – back to the UK, to urge the American government to close down Guantánamo Bay and to urge action by safe, third countries to accept innocent detainees who have nowhere to go upon release. In 2007, the British government took positive actions, resulting in four British residents being returned to the UK. The government must continue this course of action and back up its verbal declarations that Guantánamo must close down with concrete action.
At 11.30am, former Guantánamo Bay detainees Moazzam Begg (now a spokesman for Cageprisoners), Bisher El-Rawi, and Taher Deghayes, brother of recently released Brighton resident Omar Deghayes, headed a contingent of well-known activists to present a letter signed by prominent individuals and organisations calling for the British government to work to close down Guantánamo Bay (see the letter here). The letter also urged the government to take action to seek the release and return to the UK of British residents Ahmed Belbacha and Binyam Mohammed, the latter for whom the government has made representations but whose return was blocked by the US authorities. Having been cleared for release in February 2007 and deemed to pose no threat at all, the former has languished in Guantánamo Bay for almost a year for want of a safe country to be released to. Outside Downing Street on a rainy morning, Messrs. Begg, El-Rawi and Deghayes were joined by Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP, Jean Lambert MEP, actors Joanna Lumley, Corin Redgrave and Kika Markham, Zachary Katznelson, senior counsel at Reprieve, the legal charity representing several dozen Guantánamo detainees and journalists Yvonne Ridley, Victoria Brittain and Andy Worthington, author of The Guantánamo Files. After handing in the letter, those present held interviews with the press including ITV, Al-Jazeera, Al Arabiya, Press TV, Reuters TV and the Islam Channel.
Simultaneously, the London Guantánamo Campaign organised a “statues” event at various sites all over London throughout the day. Starting off at 8am in the cold and wet at Liverpool Street Station in East London and Paddington Station in West London, groups went around various parts of east, west, north, south and central London with 1-2 people dressed in the orange jumpsuits now symbolic of Guantánamo Bay and sometimes with their heads covered in black hoods posing as human statues as other members of the group handed out leaflets and spoke to the public. Overall the public response from Londoners was positive with many people expressing surprise that Guantánamo Bay had been open for so long and showed sympathy with the plight of the detainees. Some hostility was shown by City-working folk at the ever-busy Liverpool Street Station who showed little sympathy for victims of torture.
Politicians took part in the day’s events too with Martin Linton MP (Battersea) joining the South London group as they raised awareness about local man Shaker Aamer, who is still held in Guantánamo Bay, and other detainees outside the Asda supermarket in Clapham Junction.
In East London, after attending the handing in of the letter to Downing Street, Green MEP Jean Lambert joined the East London group outside the East London Mosque in Whitechapel where the public were very receptive to the campaigners and the message they were putting across. Ms. Lambert stated, in a press release issued for this event, “The British government must aid the closure of the Guantánamo Bay facility and other illegal prisons and help repatriate detainees. It is outrageous that so many have been imprisoned for so long without charge. That America has allowed this situation to continue for six years represents a complete disregard for human rights”.
The Central London group visited various sites of historic and touristic interest, taking in Downing Street, Parliament, St. Paul’s Cathedral, the City of London, the Millennium Bridge and the Tate Modern, mingling among both Londoners and visitors to the capital.
Campaigners on the West London route met Karen Buck MP outside her constituency office in North Kensington where she called Guantánamo Bay “an abomination and [it] should be closed down”. Karen Buck, MP for Binyam Mohammed who lived and worked in the West London area for over 7 years has agreed to meet campaigners from the London Guantánamo Campaign to work towards his release. In West London, campaigners also met individuals at the Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre in Westbourne Park who knew Mr. Mohammed.
In North London, campaigners were joined outside Brent Town Hall by several Liberal Democrat councillors. Brent, home to three former detainees – Martin Mubanga, Jamil El-Banna and Abdel Nour Sameur – has been particularly supportive of the Guantánamo detainees with local MPs taking positive action, including a sustained campaign by MP Sarah Teather to have her constituent Jamil El-Banna released and the local council passing several motions in support of the detainees and the closure of Guantánamo Bay.
The North London and West London groups joined forces outside Paddington Green Police Station, where many of the British nationals and residents have been detained upon their return to the UK, although none have been charged in Britain, before joining a demonstration outside the American Embassy organised by London Catholic Worker at 4-6pm. Around 20 people attended this vigil, including a candlelit vigil for the five men who have died at Guantánamo Bay. At 5pm, the names of all the men at Guantánamo Bay were read out, including their ages and their nationalities. This was a particularly poignant and effective moment and many passers by stopped to watch for a while at least; reading the names of those the US has effectively sought to gag and make vanish was all the more relevant outside its own embassy, showing that the injustice and repression suffered at Guantánamo Bay has not gone unnoticed elsewhere.
Over 150 people braved the weather and joined the London Guantánamo Campaign at 6-8pm in Parliament Square for a demonstration opposite the Houses of Parliament calling on the British government to act to close down Guantánamo Bay. Demonstrators were addressed by Victoria Brittain, Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP, Andy Worthington, Gareth Peirce, Moazzam Begg, Jean Lambert MEP, Bruce Kent, Yvonne Ridley, Hugo Charlton from CAMPACC, Stewart Halforty from the Stop The War Coalition, Jackie Chase from the Save Omar Campaign in Brighton and Chris Chang, an investigator from Reprieve.
All the speakers raised important points about the continuing regime of arbitrary detention at Guantánamo Bay. Baroness Sarah Ludford stated that the detainees must be released or tried and that there could be no third way out for the US. Speakers also emphasised the point that over the last six years, it is not just the lives of the detainees that have been destroyed, but also those of their families and all those who knew them. Several speakers drew parallels with the current situation in the UK and Britain’s own Guantánamo-style regime of arbitrary detention in Belmarsh and Long Lartin as well as through control orders. Gareth Peirce and several others addressed the hypocrisy of this country in its acquiescence to what is happening in Guantánamo Bay. Prisoners at other secret prisons in the “war on terror” were also remembered as well as those Guantánamo detainees who are now effectively refugees – innocent men who cannot be released because their safety cannot be guaranteed in their countries of origin and need to find a safe third country to be sent to.
The demonstration was sung out by Chris Chang performing his rap version of Guantanamera and chanting led by Daniel Viesnik from the London Guantánamo Campaign.
The message from this day of action in the UK and other protests in other parts of the world clearly got through to the American government as on 13 January, during a visit to Guantánamo Bay, the American Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen said that he favoured the closure of Guantánamo due to the damage it had done to the US’s reputation.
While continuing to call for the closure of Guantánamo Bay and the return of Binyam Mohammed and Ahmed Belbacha to the UK, campaigners hope that there will be no anniversary to mark on 11 January 2009 and that by then, Guantánamo and other American secret prisons will be confined to the waste bin of history.
Special thanks to the Green Party, Wandsworth Stop the War, We Are Change, Barnet, Enfield and Palmers Green Amnesty, Peace and Justice in East London and all the volunteers on the day.
In January 2008, there will still be over 250 detainees held in the American military detention camp in Guantánamo Bay. A legal no-man’s land, the detention camp opened its door on 11 January 2002. Initially touted as a detention camp for “enemy combatants” caught fighting the Americans in Afghanistan, it has since emerged that many of the detainees were nowhere near Afghanistan or combatants and were sold by the Pakistani military for a mere $5000. Over 800 men, of various nationalities, including 9 British nationals, have passed through its gates in the past six years. Only one detainee has ever been convicted of a minor charge, less than a handful face charges and the rest have been held arbitrarily without access to the legal process, at the whim of the US military, for almost six years. Enough is enough. Will 2008 be the year to see Guantánamo close?
The London Guantánamo Campaign, in conjunction with Cageprisoners, invites you to join us in a day of action on Friday 11 January 2008 to call on the British government to take action to help close Guantánamo Bay and bring the remaining British residents back to the UK. Recently, the British government has taken positive steps, bringing back four of the British residents to the UK in 2007 (Bisher El-Rawi, Jamil El-Banna, Omar Deghayes and Abdel Nour Sameur). Like the British nationals before them, none have been charged with any offence under British law. We are calling on the British government to bring Binyam Mohammed and Ahmed Belbacha back to the UK, to take positive action to help close down Guantánamo Bay and other illegal American jails in the “war on terror” for good and to assist in the repatriation of detainees who have nowhere to go on release.
The day of action will involve: A letter being handed in to Downing Street at 11am by former British detainees led by Moazzam Begg, now a Cageprisoners spokesperson, to call on the British government to take action.
In Birmingham, protesters in orange suits would meet outside the Birmingham Council on the 11th January 2008, between 12.30 pm and 2.30 pm(Vistoria Square) distributing leaflets highlighting the desperate circumstances the Guantanamo detainees have been facing for six years without a properly constituted legal process that can deliver justice.
Those unable to attend the rally on friday will be able to join a vigil by the Bull Ring, in Birmingham City Centre from 1.00 pm on the 12th January 2008.
Orange Friday - Close Guantanamo 1:00 pm US Consulate, 3 Regent Terrace, Edinburgh In Birmingham, outside the Birmingham Council protesters will be marking the Six years of Guantanamo and collecting petitions demanding the closure of Guantanamo and return of the two known British residents still at Guantanamo to their homes in England.
Fri Jan 11 - Public Meeting: Defend Civil Liberties: six years of Guantanamo and the "War on Terror" 7:30 pm Augustine Church, George 4th Bridge For further information click here
Speakers include Aamer Anwar (human rights lawyer), Tom Leonard (poet), Shirley-Anne Somerville (MSP), Paddy Hill (one of the Birmingham 6), Noman Tahir (editor of IWitness, Scotland's Muslim newspaper)
The meeting will include readings from the recently-published book "Poems from Guantanamo - The detainees speak"
Meeting organised by Edinburgh Stop The War Coalition and Scotland Against Criminalising Communities (www.sacc.org. uk) More information 07936432519
Sheffield Guantanamo Campaign will be having a vigil on Friday 11th 4.30-6pm outside the Town Hall, Pinstone Street, 4.30-6pm. The Sheffield campaigners will be getting people to sign the letter that Cage Prisoners are co-ordinating
A day-long “statues” action involving groups of people dressed in the orange jumpsuits symbolic of Guantánamo Bay visiting several sites in London on the day where one or two people will pose as human statues while others hand out leaflets about what is happening at Guantánamo Bay. There are five groups following set routes. Please contact us for more details if you would like to join a group, even if it is only for a few hours. The groups will be working through the following areas: Northwest London (Harrow, Wembley, Regent’s Park, Edgware Road), West London (focusing on Binyam Mohammed – Paddington, Kensington, Knightsbridge, Westbourne Grove), South London (focusing on Shaker Aamer, who must be allowed to return to his native Saudi Arabia – Wandsworth, Battersea, Balham), Central London (several key sites in central London) and East London (The City, Whitechapel) from 8am to 4pm. A briefing for volunteers will be held on Monday 7 January at 7pm in The Gallery, First Floor (to the right), ULU, Malet Street, WC1 (nearest tube: Euston/Euston Square). Please get in touch if you are interested in getting involved in this action.
A demonstration between 6-8pm (speeches between 6-7.30pm) in Parliament Square (nearest tube: Westminster) to call on the British government to close down Guantánamo Bay. Speakers include former detainees, politicians and celebrities. Please join us in the evening and call on the British government to take action. This is an authorised event.
Six years on, enough is enough. For more details and to get in touch, please contact the London Guantánamo Campaign on 07809 757 176 or by email
The speaker on behalf of security affairs at Ministry of Interior in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has announced today the 29th of December 2007 the return of 10 Saudi prisoners from Guantanamo. Their families have been informed of their arrivals, and arrangements have been made to meet them.
It is worth mentioning that there were not even one evidence to support USA‘s decision to imprison those people, and others at Guantanamo for almost 5 years.
The men were extremely exhausted after years of unfair imprisonment, and bad treatment. Their release was an outcome of the joint effort of human rights organisations and groups, lawyers, and a large number of individuals who respected the dignity of humans, and their rights.
The names of returned prisoners from Guantanamo to KSA are as follows:
The National Coalition welcomes the arrival of three of the British residents from Guantanamo to Britain last night. However, we are concerned and disappointed about their arrests on landing in Britain and specially the subsequent extradition request for Jamil el Banna by the Spanish law enforecment agencies. These same agencies had several years to consider any evidence they may have had against Jamil but refused to request his extradition from Guantanamo stating that they had no case against him. His extradition would be challenged and we also demand that all the other returnees be released immediately to their families. It is an ocassion of celebration in both the christian and muslim calanders and for the authorities to hold these men to fulfil some political agendas does not speak well for our society and its administrators. The families of the detainees and the detainees have suffered enough to have to go through such callous treatment at the end of their ordeal at Guantanamo.
Jamil el Banna will be presented to the Westminister Magistrates Court this morning thursday the 20th December 2007around 10.00 pm, the National Coalition would urge all those can to attend the court to show their support for Jamil and other returnees and impress on the court the unjust nature of the extradition request by the Spanish law enforcement authorities after the long ordeal these detainees have been through over the last several years.
Cageprisoners is hosting a series of events around the UK, and inviting people to attend a truly unique opportunity to hear former US army Chaplain James Yee speak and discuss his experiences with former Guantánamo detainee and Cageprisoners’ spokesman, Moazzam Begg.
There are few people in the world who have never heard of the notorious US military prison facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. However, very few people have heard eye-witness accounts from US military personnel who served there - and even more rarely from Muslims within the US military.
Chaplain (Yusuf) James J. Yee, a former US Army Chaplain and graduate of West Point served as the Muslim Chaplain for the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 2003. While ministering to prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Captain Yee advised camp commanders on detainee religious practices and objected to the cruel and degrading abuses to which the prisoners were subjected.
What sets Yee’s already unique story apart from others is how his fortune changed from being recognized twice as an outstanding officer serving the US military to being regarded as an enemy of the state. Captain Yee was arrested and imprisoned in a Naval brig for 76 days in September 2003 while being falsely accused of spying, espionage, and aiding the alleged Taliban and Al-Qaeda prisoners.
He was held in solitary confinement and subjected to the same sensory deprivation techniques that were being used against the prisoners in Cuba that he had been ministering to.
After months of government investigation, all criminal charges were dropped. He tendered his resignation from the U.S. Army and received an Honorable Discharge on January 7, 2005. Upon separation he was awarded with a second Army Commendation medal for “exceptionally meritorious service.”
James Yee will be speaking with Moazzam Begg at the London Muslim Centre on Wednesday 5th December, (in conjunction with Q News and Hidden Detainees), in Birmingham on Thursday 6th December (co-organised by the BirminghamGuantanamo Coalition), where they will also be joined by the ‘Tipton Three’, and in Luton on Sunday 9th December.
Yee will also be touring the UK, in conjunction with FOSIS, Scotland Against Criminalising Communities, Save Omar Deghayes Campaign, and speaking in a host of cities, amongst them Glasgow, Dundee, Brighton, Manchester, and Lampeter. For full details of his UK itinery see below.
Copies of Yee’s gripping account of his Guantanamo experience and struggle for justice For God And Country: Faith and Patriotism Under Fire will also be available at most events
Dates and Venues: Wednesday 28th November - Lancaster University Thursday 29th Nov - Kings College, London, 5 pm Friday 30th Nov - FOSIS, University of Sussex & University of Portsmouth Saturday 1st December - FOSIS, University of Kent Sunday 2nd Dec - FOSIS, University of Bristol & University of Exeter Monday 3rd Dec - FOSIS, Midlands Tuesday 4th Dec - FOSIS, Manchester Metropolitan & University of Leeds Wednesday 5th Dec - Cageprisoners, Hidden Detainees and Q News, London Muslim Centre, Whitechapel E1, 6:30pm. With Moazzam Begg http://www.cagepris oners.com/ campaigns. php?id=597 Thursday 6th Dec - Cageprisoners and BirminghamGuantanamo Campaign, Birmingham, 7pm, With Moazzam Begg and Tipton Three Friday 7th Dec - SACC, Glasgow Saturday 8th Dec - FOSIS, Dundee University Sunday 9th Dec - Cageprisoners, Dallow Community Centre, 234 Dallow Road, Luton, LU1 1TF, 5:30pm http://www.cagepris oners.com/ campaigns. php?id=598 Monday 10th Dec - Save Omar, Brighton
In August 2007, Gordon Brown’s government decided to allow FIVE men being held at the US-run Guantánamo Bay detention camp to return to the UK . All of these men have close links to the UK – having lived here for extended periods or as they have British families. While this is a welcome move by the British government, one man was significantly missed off the list: Ahmed Belbacha, a 36 year old Algerian national.
Ahmed was cleared for release by the Pentagon in February 2007 and is deemed to pose no threat by the US authorities but has since been left languishing in Guantánamo Bay for the best part of this year for want of a country to claim him.
Ahmed cannot return to his native Algeria as he fled the country after threats were made to his life by Islamists and is likely to face further persecution by the government if he is returned having been tarnished by unfounded claims of being an “enemy combatant”.
Ahmed’s claim for asylum in the UK was being appealed in 2001 when he was kidnapped and turned over to the US military in Pakistan . He should be allowed to return to the UK , where he had lived, in Bournemouth , for over two and a half years.
The US authorities are currently trying to return him to Algeria where his life will be in danger. His lawyers are currently appealing to the US courts to block his return there.
Take action – write to the Foreign Secretary David Miliband to ask him to write to Condoleezza Rice to request Ahmed Belbacha’s return to the UK (cut and paste the following letter, print it and post it or email it to milibandd@parliamen t.uk. This letter may also be sent to Jacqui Smith (smithjj@parliament. uk), the Home Secretary. Feel free to edit the content.
Rt. Hon. David Miliband MP
Foreign Secretary,
Foreign and Commonwealth Office, King Charles St , London SW1A 2AH
Dear Mr. Miliband,
I am writing to you concerning the plight of Ahmed Belbacha, who is currently being held at Guantánamo Bay .
Ahmed Belbacha is a 36 year old Algerian who fled to the UK in July 2000 and claimed asylum. Before fleeing Algeria he had been targeted by the GIA because he was an employee of the state-run Sonatrach Petroleum Company. His application for asylum was refused by the Home Office on the routine Home Office grounds for refusal that the GIA was not a force in the whole country so it was said that Ahmed could safely live elsewhere within Algeria. Unfortunately by the time of the hearing of his appeal in December 2001, Ahmed had already been kidnapped in Pakistan and was on his way to Guantánamo Bay , where he has been ever since. Consequently his appeal was heard in his absence and was denied on 2 January 2002.
Despite being deemed by the Military Annual Review Board in Guantánamo Bay in February 2007 not to pose a threat to the US and her allies and hence cleared for release, he remains detained at GTMO as he was not included in the list of former British residents whose return to this country you requested in August of this year.
As the US has publicly stated that its policy is to return cleared detainees to their country of nationality, Ahmed faces the real prospect of being returned to Algeria where his life will be in grave danger; particularly following the suspicion that must now attract to him as a person who at one point was deemed by the US military to be an ‘enemy combatant’.
The only humane course open is for you to allow Ahmed to return to the UK and give him an opportunity to pursue his application for asylum. This is a matter of natural justice.
I look forward to your response.
Yours sincerely,
Also write to your MP (contact details at www.theyworkforyou. com) and ask them to contact and bring pressure to bear on the Foreign Secretary concerning Ahmed Belbacha on your behalf.
House of Commons
London, SW1A 0AA
Dear
I am writing to you as my Constituency MP, to express my concerns about the plight of Ahmed Belbacha, who is being held at Guantánamo Bay . I would appreciate a reply to my letter.
Ahmed Belbacha is a 36 year old Algerian who fled to the UK in July 2000 and claimed asylum. Before fleeing Algeria he had been targeted by the GIA because he was an employee of the state-run Sonatrach Petroleum Company. His application for asylum was refused by the Home Office on the routine Home Office grounds for refusal that the GIA was not a force in the whole country so it was said that Ahmed could safely live elsewhere within Algeria. Unfortunately by the time of the hearing of his appeal in December 2001, Ahmed had already been kidnapped in Pakistan and was on his way to Guantánamo Bay , where he has been ever since. Consequently his appeal was heard in his absence and was denied on 2 January 2002.
Despite being deemed by the Military Annual Review Board in Guantánamo Bay in February 2007 not to pose a threat to the US and her allies and hence cleared for release, he remains detained at GTMO as Ahmed was not included in the list of former British residents whose return to this country was requested by the Foreign Secretary in August of this year.
As the US has publicly stated that its policy is to return cleared detainees to their country of nationality, Ahmed faces the real prospect of being returned to Algeria where his life will be in grave danger; particularly following the suspicion that must now attract to him as a person who at one point was deemed by the US military to be an ‘enemy combatant’.
The only humane course open to the British Government is to allow Ahmed to return to the UK and give him an opportunity to pursue his application for asylum. This is a matter of natural justice.
I am writing to ask you to bring pressure to bear upon the Government to take a moral stance, by extending their efforts on behalf of Ahmed Belbacha to allow him to return to this country and pursue his claim for asylum.
I ask you to pass my concerns about this to the Foreign Secretary, and I look forward to hearing from you.
Home
A series of events took place in London this week calling for justice for Guantánamo detainees 
through in the past six years, the vast majority have been released and returned home without charge or conviction. Five men, including three in their early twenties, have returned home in coffins – four having died in uninvestigated, suspicious circumstances and the fifth died recently of cancer. 
safe, third countries to accept innocent detainees who have nowhere to go upon release. In 2007, the British government took positive actions, resulting in four British residents being returned to the UK. The government must continue this course of action and back up its verbal declarations that Guantánamo must close down with concrete action.
signed by prominent individuals and organisations calling for the British government to work to close down Guantánamo Bay (
various parts of east, west, north, south and central London with 1-2 people dressed in the orange jumpsuits now symbolic of Guantánamo Bay and sometimes with their heads covered in black hoods posing as human statues as other members of the group handed out leaflets and spoke to the public. Overall the public response from Londoners was positive with many people expressing surprise that Guantánamo Bay had been open for so long and showed sympathy with the plight of the detainees. Some hostility was shown by City-working folk at the ever-busy Liverpool Street Station who showed little sympathy for victims of torture.
8pm in Parliament Square for a demonstration opposite the Houses of Parliament calling on the British government to act to close down Guantánamo Bay. Demonstrators were addressed by Victoria Brittain, Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP, Andy Worthington, Gareth Peirce, Moazzam Begg, Jean Lambert MEP, Bruce Kent, Yvonne Ridley, Hugo Charlton from CAMPACC, Stewart Halforty from the Stop The War Coalition, Jackie Chase from the Save Omar Campaign in Brighton and Chris Chang, an investigator from Reprieve. 
destroyed, but also those of their families and all those who knew them. Several speakers drew parallels with the current situation in the UK and Britain’s own Guantánamo-style regime of arbitrary detention in Belmarsh and Long Lartin as well as through control orders. Gareth Peirce and several others addressed the hypocrisy of this country in its acquiescence to what is happening in Guantánamo Bay. Prisoners at other secret prisons in the “war on terror” were also remembered as well as those Guantánamo detainees who are now effectively refugees – innocent men who cannot be released because their safety cannot be guaranteed in their countries of origin and need to find a safe third country to be sent to.