Aug,07 08

Dare To Be Imprisoned, Beaten, and Downtrodden! Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine. It is unconstitutional to prevent the people from petitioning, in a peaceable and orderly manner. The “right to petition” is guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution, and specifically prohibits Congress from abridging “the right of the people…to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

An Oakland Police officer fires a shotgun at a group of anti-war protesters
An Oakland Police officer fires a shotgun at a group of anti-war protesters near the Port of Oakland

protester hit by Oakland police rubber bullet weapon anti-war protest in Oakland, Calif
Female Protester hit by Oakland police rubber bullet weapon during peaceful anti-war protest in Oakland, California

man being dragged off by police for taking part in the 2006 Peace March to the Pentagon
This man faces a six-month jail sentence for taking part in the 2006 Peace March to the Pentagon (Photo by Matthew Bradley)

Man being arrested at Antiwar protests in San Francisco
Man being arrested at Antiwar protests in San Francisco (Photo by Franco Folini)

Police use force against a protester 2006 Peace march to the Pentagon
Police use force against a protester 2006 Peace March to the Pentagon (Photo by Matthew Bradley)

Iraq Die-in March 19th - four years of the Iraq war
Iraq Die-in March 19th - four years of the Iraq war (Photo by Steve Rhodes)

The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil Constitution, are worth defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors: they purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood, and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle… ~ Samuel Adams, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He signed the Declaration of Independence, and played a prominent role during protests against the Stamp Act, and in the protests during the Boston Tea Party in 1773.

To stand in silence when they should be protesting makes cowards out of men. This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or exercise their revolutionary right to overthrow it. ~ Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth President of the United States of America

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Apr,07 23

Omar is a Guantanamo detainee (prisoner). He is being held there by the United States of America without trial, and he is accused of terrorism, but doesn’t even know why. To learn more about Omar watch the following movie.

Save Omar - Justice for Omar Deghayes

Omar is not the only person being held this way, without rights, without a trial, without access to any information, or even access to evidence to prove why they are being held. There are many more just like him at Guantanamo. For reference read an excerpt of an article from the Guardian, a United Kingdom (UK) Paper.

No Fairytales Allowed

Lawyer Clive Stafford Smith has 36 clients in Guantanamo and has visited many times. In this powerful extract from a new book he argues that secrecy in the camp is a disease.

Former “detainee” Binyam Mohamed [British resident arrested in Pakistan] viewed the whole military commission process as a con, a lie that was meant to deceive the world. In June 2006 the supreme court said the same, in more temperate terms, and struck down the commissions as illegal. It rejected Donald Rumsfeld’s assurance that the trials would be fair, accusing the administration of “jettisoning” legal rights.

End of Excerpt

Hundreds of terrorist suspects have been kept without trial and investigation on the American naval base in Guantanamo Bay since 2002. More than 750 prisoners served their terms there over the past period. And there are about 400 prisoners there today. Newsmen have repeatedly reported about humiliations the inmates of the Guantanamo Bay prison are subjected to, about the ill treatment of prisoners, about the use of tortures and about religious abuse that have become the norm there. No accusations have been brought against them.

And this is an object of concern for the world community. Despite the existing decision on the establishment of special tribunals for the inmates of the Guantanamo Bay prison, the situation has undergone no changes at all.

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