National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance (NCNR)

10/17/2019

Press Release For Immediate Release:

Local contact – Max Obuszewski 727-256-5789 or mobuszewski2001 at Comcast dot net

Ellsberg: Plowshares Action Justified to Prevent Omnicide -- Interviews Available

Last week, accuracy.org released the news release: "The Coming Trial: Activists Facing Decades in Prison for Turning Weapons into Plowshares."

Today, Daniel Ellsberg, who exposed the Pentagon Papers, said in a statement to accuracy.org: "I strongly endorse the action of civil resistance by the Kings Bay Plowshares 7 defendants who are now on trial for having 'nonviolently and symbolically disarmed the Trident nuclear submarine base at Kings Bay, Georgia.' The sign they displayed during their action on the base -- 'The Ultimate Logic of Trident is Omnicide' -- is exactly right. I believe they are definitely entitled to the legal defense, among others, of 'Justification' or 'Necessity:' that an action which would under other circumstances be illegal can be justified as legal by a reasonable belief that it is necessary to avert a much greater evil: in this case, omnicide, the collateral murder of nearly every human on earth in a war in which the nuclear missiles aboard Trident submarines were launched.

"I lay out the argument for that defense in this case in an affidavit that has been submitted to the court. It is based on an earlier affidavit, much longer and more detailed, with legal references, that I have entered in similar trials of anti-nuclear resistance. A key point is that without the impact on myself of actions of civil resistance during the Vietnam War like those of the defendants in this case -- including those of Father Philip Berrigan, the late husband of the current defendant Elizabeth McAlister, and of Dorothy Day, grandmother of another defendant Martha Hennessy -- I would never have considered revealing the top secret Pentagon Papers: which legal scholars have described as having had, 'arguably at least,' a causal effect in shortening the Vietnam War.
"I believe that omnicide, the end of civilization and most of humanity, will not be averted without a moral transformation and political mobilization that requires actions of civil disobedience -- including that of the Kings Bay Plowshares 7-- to inspire."

Ellsberg's latest book is The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner.

Six of The Kings Bay Plowshares 7 -- activists who entered into a Trident nuclear submarine military base on April 4, 2018 -- are available for interviews. Father Stephen Kelly, a Jesuit priest, continues to be in jail. See the website for more information: KingsBayPlowshares7.org.

Their trial is set for Oct. 21 in Brunswick, Georgia. The judge is Lisa Godbey Wood. They still do not know if they will be able to argue various justifications for their actions, like a Defense of Necessity as outlined by Ellsberg. However, they can address all of this in interviews:

ELIZABETH McALISTER, (310) 359-2118,
McAlister, 79, was recently released -- after over a year and a half in jail. Eventually the government allowed her not to wear an ankle monitor, but she still has to regularly report. She is the widow of Philip Berrigan.

MARTHA HENNESSY, cell: (802) 230-6328, [email protected]
Hennessy is also one of the Kings Bay Plowshares 7. She is the granddaughter of Dorothy Day, the founder of the Catholic Worker movement. Hennessy was featured on the Intercepted podcast earlier this year. Also see a recent interview with her that gives an overview of the legal and moral justifications for their action, including ongoing U.S.nuclear weapons policy.

MARK COLVILLE, (203) 645-5417, [email protected], (also via his wife, Luz Catarineau, (203) 812-0340, [email protected])
See background on Colville, who has raised several children with his wife at the Amistad Catholic Worker in Connecticut. He spent most of the last two years in jail. See his statement justifying their actions, including on the basis of religious freedom at a hearing in August. He also notes a whole series of onerous conditions the court has placed on the Plowshares activists, for example: "for over nine months now this court has denied me the opportunity to meet with my co-defendants and their lawyers to prepare for court appearances or to discuss written submissions to the court."

CLARE GRADY, (607) 279-7187, [email protected]
Grady, of the Ithaca Catholic Worker, coordinated the local soup kitchen dinners for 17 years and is an anti-war activist. She is featured in a video on the Plowshares website noting that the U.S. government effectively uses nuclear weapons regularly -- as when a one uses a gun to rob a store. See video.

PATRICK O'NEILL, [email protected]
O'Neill is the father of six daughters and two sons. With his wife, Mary Rider, he co-founded the Fr. Charlie Mulholland Catholic Worker House in Garner, N.C. See his statement to the court which also highlights his defense on religious freedom grounds. He also wrote a piece for The Baltimore Sun about McAlister.

CARMEN TROTTA, (347) 898-2217, [email protected]
Trotta has been a member of the New York Catholic Worker for over thirty years and cares for his elderly father. He was also featured on the Intercepted podcast earlier this year with Jeremy Scahill.

More information is available at KingsBayPlowshares7.org and via:
Mary Anne Grady Flores, (607) 280-8797, [email protected]
Bill Ofenloch, (212) 369-1590, [email protected]

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020, (202) 421-6858; David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

October 15, 2019

Institute for Public Accuracy
980 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045
(202) 347-0020 * accuracy.org * [email protected]
* ipaccuracy

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09/05/2019

We got back to Baltimore late Wednesday night after an action in Newark, New Jersey outside the federal building on Broad Street. Some prayed, all of us marched, and many speeches were heard as well as testimony from a mother whose daughter was in the federal building facing deportation. We were there to say no more inhumanity, no more separation of families and no more caging of children. Around 50 of us were risking arrest. Nevertheless, the Newark Police Department informed us the this locale was a sanctuary city and there was no need to arrest us. More information will follow.

08/03/2019

For the 35th year, the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Commemoration Committee will remember the atomic bombings of Japan on August 6 & 9, 1945, which killed more than 200,000 people. It has been 74 years since these awful events occurred. Other organizations involved in the commemorations will be Homewood Friends Meeting, Chesapeake Physicians for Social Responsibility, Prevent Nuclear War/Maryland and the Baltimore Nonviolence Center.

HIROSHIMA COMMEMORATION on Tuesday, August 6, 2019
5 PM Commemorate the atomic bombing of Hiroshima by demonstrating at 34th & N. Charles Streets against Johns Hopkins University’s weapons contracts, including research on killer drones. Note that the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center has a strategic partnership with JHU’s Applied Physics Laboratory.
6:30 PM At Homewood Friends Meetinghouse, 3107 N. Charles St., Baltimore 21218, get an update on the Back From the Brink movement and how to be involved with Prevent Nuclear War/Maryland. Ms. Michiko Kodama, a Hibakusha who was 7 years old when she experienced the Hiroshima bombing will do a presentation by. As the Assistant Secretary General of the Japan Confederation of A-and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations (Nihon Hidankyo), she will appeal for the abolition of nuclear weapons.
8 PM Depart for a community dinner at 18-8 Sushi, 727 W. 40th St., Suite 138, Baltimore 21211.

03/09/2019

Friends,

Let me know if you would be interested in delivering this letter to Mike Pompeo. The idea would be to do the delivery a few days after the March 30 anti-NATO rally. Possible dates are April 1st through April 3rd.

Kagiso,

Max

April --, 2019

Michael R. Pompeo
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20520

Secretary of State Pompeo:

We are a group of peace and justice advocates who are seeking a meeting with you. We are not writing out of enmity, but out of a sincere desire to offer our suggestion that diplomacy rather than threats will help relieve tension and might create stability which will be a benefit for the United States and for other countries.

For example, we appreciate that the Trump administration has engendered hope regarding the policy with North Korea. It is welcome that military exercises with South Korea are unnecessary and provocative and that there is a need for peace agreement to finally be signed.

However, it has to be pointed out that the U.S. is engaging in numerous wars, most notably in Yemen. The military budget is bankrupting the government. The War on Terror has failed miserably. Even allies of the United States have criticized this abhorrent foreign policy of which you are a principal architect. We think you could benefit from a meeting with us where we would share our constructive criticism aimed at radically changing U.S. foreign policy.

You have supported waterboarding and other forms of torture. You criticized the Obama administration for closing "black sites" - secret prisons used to interrogate suspects overseas - and the requirement for interrogators to adhere to anti-torture laws. You are resisting ending US military support for the Saudi-led war on the people of Yemen. You are aware that in Yemen, US interrogators have questioned detainees in secret prisons run by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and UAE-backed Yemeni forces where torture is widespread. You are also a proponent of denying due process to prisoners languishing in Guantanamo.

Like the president, you have embraced many dictatorial regimes, including Egypt, the Philippines, Brazil and of course Saudi Arabia. You have embraced his choices of John Bolton, who has called for the bombing of Iran and North Korea, as national security advisor, and Elliott Abrams, who was involved with death squads in El Salvador and Guatemala, as special envoy for Venezuela.

Now you, Bolton and Abrams are involved in trying to overthrow the government in Venezuela. And at the height of hypocrisy, you have insulted the citizens of Venezuela by declaring Juan Guaido as the interim president. The U.S. sanctions imposed upon Venezuela are hurting the people there much more than the government

Venezuela does not represent a threat to the United States. Instead of trying to destabilize Venezuela, the US should engage in dialogue with the Maduro government to assist the country in these difficult times.

The list of disastrous foreign policy decisions is endless. For example, Trump abrogated the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, and is encouraging the development of “usable” nuclear weapons.

In Poland, you tried to rally various governments worldwide to join the U.S. in making war with Iran. Most European allies ignored your proposal, recognizing that Iran has been complying with the nuclear treaty negotiated with the Obama administration despite Trump’s decision to cancel it. However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu does support a US invasion of Iran.

The Trump administration cut about $200 million for development projects and humanitarian aid in the West Bank and Gaza. And it cut about $300 million to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees.

The US has an estimated 800 military bases around the world, all of which contribute to the climate chaos buffeting the world. The Pentagon is the greatest institutional consumer of fossil fuels. For example, Oil Change International estimates the Pentagon’s 2003-2007 $2 trillion Iraq War generated more than three million metric tons of CO2 pollution per month.

It seems that it would be in your best interest to meet with us. We would detail what must be done to bring about a significant change from the current foreign policy morass. Continuing the current policy will only cause more death, destruction, devastation and an immense drain of tax dollars. It is essential to severely cut military spending, end the belligerent threats of other countries, close a majority of the foreign bases, including Guantanamo, stop propping up dictators, show respect for human rights, end arm sales to dictatorial regimes, and engage in dialogue not belligerence. As the Secretary of State, you have an obligation to protect the people of this country. Real security can only happen when tax dollars are reallocated from military spending towards housing, education, environmental regulations, health services, the infrastructure and programs aimed at lifting people out of poverty.

Let us know when you or a representative would be willing to meet with us. We would adjust our schedules to be there.

Peace,

Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/

"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs

Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center , 325 E. 25th St. , Baltimore , MD 21218 . Email: mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast [dot] net.

02/21/2019

Friends,

The Baltimore Nonviolence Center and Peace Action Baltimore are planning a civil resistance action against Mike Pompeo sometime between the Mass Anti-NATO March and Rally in Washington, D.C. on March 30 and the April 4th NATO meeting. Let me know if you may be interested in planning the action and/or participating? Kagiso, Max

02/21/2019

Baltimore will join dozens of cities nationwide to protest U.S. threats to Venezuela on Sat. Feb. 23 at 4 PM at 33rd and N. Charles Sts. at 4 PM with signs and banners, bull horns and chants. It is sponsored by the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, Baltimore Peace Action and Peoples Power Assembly. Please promote this event. There will be a meeting of Baltimore Peace Action on Thurs., Feb. 21 at 7 PM at a place to be determined to make signs and banners. Contact Dick Ochs at 443-846-6638 [textable].

02/21/2019

• https://truthout.org/articles/missing-pieces-the-human-impact-of-drone-strikes/
NEWS ANALYSIS

WAR & PEACE
Missing Pieces: The Human Impact of Drone Strikes


A boy walks past a mural depicting a U.S. drone and reading "Why did you kill my family?" on December 13, 2013, in Sanaa, Yemen. MOHAMMED HUWAIS / AFP / GETTY IMAGES

T.J. Coles,
Truthout

February 20, 2019
Afghanistan’s Khaama Press recently reported on coalition drone strikes against alleged ISIS-Khorasan (ISIS-K) fighters, a branch of ISIS (also known as Daesh) operating in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The fighters were reportedly killed in two districts of Nangarhar Province in eastern Afghanistan. The U.S.- and British-trained Afghan military claimed that eight ISIS-K members were killed in the operation, with no civilian casualties. With no other reporters on the ground, the apparent lack of civilian deaths cannot be verified. The report serves as a reminder that drone strikes are continuing across the Middle East and Central Asia and are continuing to take lives.
The corporate media have covered the lack of congressional oversight concerning President Trump’s expansion of both the military and civilian drone program. For example, in 2017, NBC reported that Trump was relaxing the rules on drone strikes, which would mean “tolerating more civilian casualties.” A year later, The Atlantic reported on Trump’s progress in this respect. But both articles, as is typical of mainstream reporting, omitted what explosive devices fired from drones actually do to human beings. This makes empathizing with victims more difficult.
A report by the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom notes that many drone strikes occur in remote regions. It says that “media reports from these locations are extremely rare. This creates in the minds of many the idea that drone strikes are clean, safe and victimless.” The report also notes that, for many, life under the drones is one of constant stress and the fear of being annihilated at any second.
As I document in my new book, Manufacturing Terrorism (2018, Clairview Books), it is typical of mainstream media to simply omit the graphic and heartrending details of what happens to innocent civilians — so-called collateral damage — when a missile fired from a drone hits them. There is a danger of sensationalizing the horror of drone attacks and turning gore into exploitation. But not reporting the facts also dissociates U.S. and European readers from the reality of what their governments are doing to civilians abroad. If people knew the details of what happens to bodies when they are hit by missiles, more people might protest war and advocate for peace.
U.S. and British Drones
With program names like “Widowmaker,” U.S. and British ground-based drone operators launch Hellfire and other missiles from machines with names like “Predator.” The U.K. has a single drone operation program run by the Ministry of Defence. It includes killing alleged terrorist suspects in Iraq and Syria. The Ministry is reportedly working through a “kill list,” which includes British citizens like Reyaad Khan, who was killed by a British drone operator when Khan was allegedly fighting in Raqqa, Syria. Then-UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Ex*****on Philip Alston settled the issue of drone legality in 2010, writing, “A State killing is legal only if it is required to protect life (making lethal force proportionate) and there is no other means, such as capture or nonlethal incapacitation, of preventing that threat to life (making lethal force necessary).”
Since late 2001, according to data from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, U.S. drone strikes have killed at least 3,982 people in Afghanistan; 2,515 in Pakistan; 928 in Somalia; and 1,020 in Yemen (166 civilians, 44 children). These figures are minimum civilian casualties or confirmed (i.e., with physical evidence) deaths, though the actual toll is likely double. By 2014, the U.S. had targeted 41 alleged terror suspects, but in doing so, wiped out 1,147 people by mistake: a “success” rate of 3.57 percent.
What Happens When Bombs Explode
These statistics are important, but in order to better empathize with victims, it is worth considering what happens when an explosion occurs. First, there is a blast wave — the primary cause of injury. A blast wave occurs when air molecules are rapidly compressed and changed into a gas. The molecules are pushed out before oscillating (as supersonic waves). As they travel, peak overpressure is reached faster than the inverse-square of the distance relationship (as a suction wave).
One variety of thermobaric missile, the AGM-144N, was field-tested on human beings in Fallujah, Iraq, in 2004; a city resisting the U.S.-British occupation.
Depending on the explosive yield, type of bomb and environmental conditions, the blast waves of the tens of thousands of bombs dropped by the U.S. and U.K. on Afghanistan, Yemen, Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia, Libya and Syria have the following effects on millions of men, women and children:
High-order explosives are more susceptible to over-pressurization, so victims can experience trauma to one or more of their organs, including the lungs (“blast lung,” or pulmonary barotrauma, being the most common fatal injury), stomach perforation and bleeding, and eye and ear trauma. Humans can withstand overpressures of 15-pound force per square inch (psi) before half of the eardrums of people in the vicinity will burst. When standing within 50 feet of a landmine, 500-pound aerial bomb or three-inch mortar shell, ear drum rupture occurred in more than half of documented cases.
Secondary injuries come from debris, such as shrapnel. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cites blast-induced structural collapse as the most common killer in explosions. In addition, the CDC says that around 10 percent of all bomb-blast victims have some form of eye injury. Injuries are usually perforations caused by the high-velocity projectiles that result from the blast wave. “Symptoms include eye pain or irritation, foreign body sensation, altered vision, periorbital swelling or contusions,” notes the CDC. Other symptoms, temporary or permanent, can include sight loss, hyphema (red eyes), globe perforation, subconjunctival bleeding and eyelid laceration.
The perpetrators of the Boston Marathon bombing in April 2013 reportedly used pressure cooker bombs, murdering three and injuring more than 260. Thirty-two of the 43 Boston Marathon bombing victims analyzed by Singh A.K., et al. had a total of 189 shrapnel fragments, including ball bearings, nails, metal, screws, gravel and glass, some buried deep in their flesh and bones. Aged between 19 and 65, the victims sustained injuries to the legs, pelvis and thighs.
Tertiary injuries result from falling or being pushed by the blast wave. Quaternary injuries are caused by, for example, resulting fires.
By 2014, the U.S. had targeted 41 alleged terror suspects, but in doing so, wiped out 1,147 people by mistake: a “success” rate of 3.57 percent.
Starting in the 1970s, various U.S. weapons companies began to build helicopter-launched Heliborne, Laser, Fire and Forget (Hellfire) missiles. Weighing 100 pounds, the bombs were intended as anti-tank munitions, but are now launched from drones to destroy human beings. Thermobaric weapons use surrounding oxygen to create high-temperature explosions whose blast wave is longer in duration than non-thermobarics. One variety of thermobaric missile, the AGM-144N, was field-tested on human beings in Fallujah, Iraq, in 2004; a city resisting the U.S.-British occupation. The reason that so many Fallujan children have severe deformities and the rate of cancer in Fallujah is so high is due to the use of radioactive uranium in the Hellfire thermobarics. Samira Alaani, et al., write:
Thermobaric weapons use high temperature/high pressure explosives as anti-personnel incendiary weapons. They char or vaporise victims in the immediate target location, or suffocate and collapse internal organs with their extended blast/vacuum effects. These weapons use a new generation of reactive metal explosives, some of which are suspected of using Uranium for the high temperature and increased kinetic blast effects.
Tragic Stories
Missing from most print media and all broadcast media is the detail of what happens to human bodies when drone and other missiles hit. Consider these few examples, some found in print media and others in human rights reports. On September 4, 2009, a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) strike ignited fuel tanks in the village of Eissa Khail, Kunduz, Afghanistan. At least 70 people were killed.
The head of the village, Omar Khan, told The Guardian, “We didn’t recognise any of the dead when we arrived…. The villagers were fighting over the corpses. People were saying this is my brother, this is my cousin, and no one could identify anyone…. The smell was so bad. For three days I smelled of burned meat and fuel.”
One elderly man, Jan Mohammad also told The Guardian, “I couldn’t find my son, so I took a piece of flesh with me home and I called it my son. I told my wife we had him, but I didn’t let his children or anyone see. We buried the flesh as it if was my son.”
On October 24, 2012, 68-year-old Mamana Bibi was gathering vegetables in Ghundi Kala village in northwest Pakistan, when, according to Amnesty International, which interviewed one of her grandchildren, Bibi “was blasted into pieces before her eyes.” Her granddaughter Nabeela (age 8 at the time) told Amnesty, “I saw her shoes. We found her mutilated body a short time afterwards…. It had been thrown quite a long distance away by the blast and it was in pieces. We collected as many different parts from the field and wrapped them in a cloth.”
Mohammed Tuaiman of al-Zur village, Yemen, was 13 years old when a CIA drone operator killed him on January 26, 2015, in Hareeb, near al-Zur. “A lot of the kids in this area wake up from sleeping because of nightmares from them [the drones] and some now have mental problems,” he said in an interview shortly before his death. Tuaiman lost his brother and father in an earlier strike. His surviving brother Maqded told The Guardian, “I saw all the bodies completely burned, like charcoal…. We couldn’t move the bodies so we just buried them there, near the car.”
On March 17, 2017, 200 Iraqis were killed in an airstrike on Aghawat Jadidah, Mosul. The strike included the deaths of nine of Munatha Jasim’s relatives, including her 7-year-old son Firas and 4-year-old daughter Taiba. Of Firas, Jasim told the Los Angeles Times, “We recovered half his body…. The other half is still there…. [B]ecause one Islamic State [fighter] was on our house, the aircraft bombed us.”
In addition to the human consequences of using hi-tech death weapons, the longer-term political consequences are also severe. The recent warning from Daniel Coats, director of National Intelligence, suggests that terrorism aimed at U.S. and European civilians will continue and possibly increase this year, as the U.S. and its allies continue to bomb the Middle East, Central Asia and North Africa. “While ISIS is nearing territorial defeat in Iraq and Syria,” says Coats, “the group has returned to its guerilla-warfare roots while continuing to plot attacks, and direct its supporters worldwide.” It would seem that letting people in foreign countries live and protecting those at home from political “blowback” is a low priority for the U.S. compared to dominating other nations.
This article is based on reporting the author has done for his book, Manufacturing Terrorism, and has been lightly revised for Truthout with permission from the author.
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Copyright © Truthout. May not be reprinted without permission.

Dr. T.J. Coles is an associate researcher at the Organisation for Propaganda Studies and the author of several books, including Manufacturing Terrorism (2018, Clairview Books).
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs

Media reports on the statistics of drone attacks seldom detail the physical and mental damage to civilians.

01/13/2019

PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release: Contact: Kathy Kelly 773 619 2418
January 10, 2019 Josie Setzler 419 559 3759
Witness Against Torture Activists Arrested for Sit-In at Senator Mitch McConnell’s office
Activists call on McConnell to schedule a vote on the War Powers Act, allowing discussion in the Senate regarding the war on Yemen, and to fully support closure of Guantanamo prison.

Four human rights activists were arrested today and charged with unlawfully demonstrating inside Senate office buildings after sitting-in at the office of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. They were among a group of about twenty-five Witness Against Torture activists who entered the office at 3:00 p.m. Many were clad in orange jumpsuits resembling those worn by prisoners in Guantanamo. They delivered a letter requesting McConnell’s assistance on two matters concerning human rights violations.
The letter asks him to “schedule a vote on the War Powers Act to end U.S. military involvement with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in the terror attacks on the people of Yemen.” The letter also asks that he use his influence to close down the prison facilities at Guantanamo.
Two of McConnell's aides listened to the activists' concerns for an hour.
The four who were arrested had remained seated in a conference room inside the Senator’s office. They said they were prepared to wait in McConnell’s office until he is able to meet with them and confirm that he will take action on a vote on the War Powers Act regarding Yemen and initiate a process to close down the prison at Guantanamo.
Photo captions:
Witness Against Torture Activists Enter Sen. Mitch McConnell's office
Activists sitting in at Sen. Mitch McConnell's office
Don Cunning (NJ), Max Obuszewski, (MD), Alice Sutter, (NY), Janice Sevre Duszynska (MD), and Pamela Stoner, (PA), inside a conference room at Sen. Mitch McConnell's office
Don Cunning (NJ), and Janice Sevre Duszynska (MD) review a letter they delivered to Sen. Mitch McConnell's office

Photo Credits: Steve Pavey

The four arrestees were released around 8:45 PM after being charged with demonstrating inside the Russell Senate Office Building. They are scheduled to appear in court in February. Below is a copy of the letter the activists wrote to Majority Leader Senator Mitch McConnell.

Witness Against Torture -- www.witnessagainsttorture.com or

Witness Against Torture will carry on in its activities until torture is decisively ended, its victims are fully acknowledged, Guantánamo and similar facilities are closed, and those who ordered and committed torture are held to account.

January 10, 2019

Senator Mitch McConnell
317 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator McConnell:

We are members of Witness Against Torture , and we are seeking your assistance on two matters, both of which concern human rights violations. We would like to meet with you as soon as possible to discuss these issues with you, the Senate Majority Leader.

First, we feel it is extremely important that you schedule a vote on the War Powers Act to end U.S. military involvement with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in the terror attacks on the people of Yemen. Immense human rights violations are being committed by these two countries with the assistance of the U.S. military and U.S. weapons contractors. You are quite aware that the situation in Yemen worsens on a daily basis, and thus we feel it is urgent to seek a meeting with you. On August 9, 2018, for example, the Saudi-led coalition conducted an airstrike in Yemen that destroyed a school bus and killed some forty children – using armaments allegedly provided by the United States. This attack took place more than three years into a conflict that has resulted in thousands of civilian casualties and a situation where 22 million people require humanitarian assistance. Besides the famine, Yemenis are dealing with a health crisis as diphtheria and cholera are at epidemic proportions.

Our second issue is the US detention center at Guantánamo Bay which has been open for over 17 years. Forty men remain imprisoned, five of whom are cleared for release. Witness Against Torture is working to raise awareness about their torture and indefinite detention. We’re also working to combat Islamophobia across the U.S. Playing to Islamophobic fears of Muslim peoples, Guantanamo was founded with the lie that it houses only “the worst of the worst” terrorists. It continues to hold exclusively Muslim men, many of whom were severely tortured, without charge or trial.

Other detained men face prosecution in the legally-flawed Military Commissions. The unworkable Commissions have failed to provide due process for the accused or justice for the victims of terrorism.
Guantanamo has been a place of physical and psychological torture, the imprisonment of innocent men, brutal forced-feedings to break hunger-striking prisoners, and the pain of indefinite detention without charge.

The prison remains a profound violation of law. It is a threat to U.S. security and a blow to our ideals. It is an insult to the world, to the tenets of all religious faiths, and to the idea of human rights. We are asking you to use your influence to close down the prison facilities at Guantanamo.

These two issues are so critical that we are prepared to wait in your office until you are able to meet with us and to confirm that you will take action on a vote on the War Powers Act regarding Yemen and that you will initiate a process to close down the prison at Guantanamo. Thank you for giving these matters your urgent attention.

In peace,

# # # # # #

Founded in 2005, Witness Against Torture seeks to end torture worldwide, close the Guantánamo detention center, and seek reparations for torture victims.