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Prosecute the Torture Team: Protest at Spanish Consulate in New York

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This Thursday, April 23rd, 5:00 p.m., come to a public gathering at the Spanish Consulate to the United Nations with a message from people here: PROSECUTE the torture team!  It is located at 150 East 58th Street (between 3rd Ave. and Lexington Ave.) in New York City. 

While a group gathers outside the Consulate, a delegation will deliver a letter to the people of Spain praising Judge Garzon for considering investigation of John Yoo, William Haynes, Jay Bybee, Donald Rumsfeld, Douglas Feith and Alberto Gonzales for war crimes, specifically torture.

A waterboarding demonstration will also take place.

 Sign the Petition to the Spanish people: Help the World Prosecute Bush War Crimes!

Report from SF Bay Chapter: Confronting Torture Professor John Yoo at California College Republicans State Convention

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 For several hours Saturday night, a loudly chanting line of two dozen protestors marched slowly back and forth across the entry of the Hyatt at Fisherman’s Wharf. Some wore the orange jumpsuits and black hoods representing the detainees – some wore giant human billboard signs denouncing torture as a war crime,and John Yoo as a war criminal who should be fired, disbarred, and prosecuted for his role in green lighting torture for the Bush Regime. The action was planned overnight, with activists learning of Yoo’s appearance at this conference only late the previous evening.

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Resistance Events this Week

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 Thursday, April 30 in DC

 Two hundred-fifty prisoners remain detained in Guantanamo, including many already cleared for release, Bagram prison is expanding. Indefinite detention is continuing. Witness Against Torture is calling for people to join, on the 100th Day of the Obama presidency, April 30, for a procession in orange jump suits and a nonviolent direct action at the White House
 
April 30th Action: 10:00am- Gather at the Capital Reflecting Pool http://www.100dayscampaign.org/a30
 
Saturday May 2, activists from around the east coast are converging on suburban Philadelphia at the "Army Experience Center" (AEC). The AEC gives kids as young as 13 a chance to play extremely violent video games, as well as sit inside Apache helicopters, tanks & humvees mounted with M-16 assault rifles. The youth are enticed to jump on board and kill the "hadjis." Right next door is a large indoor skateboard park. Kids can be seen going from having fun skateboarding to playing bloody "war games" sanctioned by the US Army. This center is the first of its kind and if recruitment is successful, others will be built. We must say NO! Hundreds will gather in the parking lot at St. Luke's United Church of Christ, 11080 Knights Road in Philadelphia, at 1:00 PM. A coalition of 30 groups will march along Knights Road to the mall's entrance with signs reading "War Is Not A Game" and "Shut Down the AEC."
 
Protesters will attempt to serve a criminal complaint on the Army Experience Center as well as the mall owners, Simon Property Group, which states, in part, "the Army Experience Center is therefore involved in the "Criminal Solicitation of Minors" - soliciting underage persons to act in a violent manner and thereby promoting and supporting criminal and corrupt behavior?"
 
For more information see www.shutdowntheaec.net, or contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
 
 
Debra Sweet, Director, The World Can't Wait

 

Thursday MAY 28 National Day of Resistance to U.S. TORTURE!

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On or by May 28, the Obama administration is being forced to release 2000 photos of detainee abuse in US facilities from 2001-2006. The Abu Ghraib photos, released in 2004 only because a solider was horrified over the torture, brought an international storm of protest against the US torture state. The new photos, including many from Bagram, where the detention facilities have just been doubled to hold 60,000 Afganis, will show that US torture was widespread, sustained, and systemic, not an “aberration,” but an integral part of the “global war on terror.” 

 
Weeks after 4 more torture memos revealed the detail with which George Bush’s lawyers managed the torture of individual detainees, calls to prosecute those responsible – from the White House principals, to the legal torture team, to the CIA agents who tortured – have met objections from Washington. Cheney and the open advocates of torture scream that they must be able to use “harsh methods” to win the global war on terror. The Obama administration, after deciding to continue indefinite detention, CIA rendition, and Bush’s executive powers, says prosecution would stop them from “moving forward.” Democratic party leader Nancy Pelosi knew about the torture and waterboarding since 2002, saying and doing nothing to stop it..
 
It’s up to the people to act!  World Can’t Wait and other groups are planning non-violent civil resistance protests, programs digging into the substance of the charges, waterboarding and rendition re-enactments, and film showings in communities around the country to demand prosecution of the Bush era war criminals. More information, listings, posters, flyers & background on the war criminals at warcriminalswatch.org. 
 
Wherever the Bush era war criminals are appearing this month, raise the cry “Torture is a War Crime! Prosecute!”

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Protesting to Stop Military Recruiting and War for Empire Is NO CRIME Stephanie Tang's Trial Begins May 18: No Crime — No Time—NO Fine!

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 By the SF Bay Area Chapter of The World Can't Wait

 On May 18, Stephanie Tang, a leading World Can't Wait organizer, will face trial in a case stemming from last year's "Battle of Berkeley." Stephanie is charged with obstructing and resisting the Berkeley police; she faces a year in jail and a $1000 fine. While many others were arrested during those intense months of "no business as usual" protest and resistance, all of them have long ago had all charges dismissed, or never even filed. Stephanie Tang is the only person still facing charges.
 
In early 2008, an important wave of mass anti-war resistance broke out in Berkeley, California. Berkeley made national headlines when a Marine Corps recruiting station sparked bold demonstrations, and then a storm of controversy over the City Council denouncing the Marines as "uninvited and unwelcome intruders." Thousands young and old joined the activists of World Can't Wait, Code Pink, Veterans for Peace and other groups to demand the recruiters be shut down—while pro-war flag-wavers mobilized by right-wing talk radio demanded that Berkeley shut up and apologize. [See the Revolution online article "The Battle of Berkeley: This War Must Stop!"]

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Honolulu Protest: Prosecute Bybee!

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 From World Can’t Wait, Hawai’i

 On May 12 more than 50 people responded to a call made by World Can't Wait-Hawai`i to demand the prosecution of Jay Bybee, the signatory to the now-notorious 2002 “torture memo” authorizing waterboarding, walling, sleep deprivation and other horrific forms of torture.  The crowd was diverse.  Lawyers and long-time activists.  Pacifists and revolutionaries.  Office workers and retirees.  Some stayed for the morning.  Some could only escape from their offices for an hour.

Signs reading “Torture is a War Crime!  Prosecute!”, “Stop Torture”, “Prosecute Bybee”, “Bye-Bye Bybee”, “Impeach the Torture Judge” lined Bishop Street in the heart of downtown Honolulu where Bybee was hearing Hawai`i cases being appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.  Some banners and signs were brilliant orange; some had been hastily scrawled on banker’s box covers or pieces of cardboard.  Pedestrians asked “Who’s Bybee?” and the conversations began.
 
(Listent to NPR coverage of Honolulu protest).

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Chicago Anti-Torture Protest: This is About Humanity!

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From the Chicago Chapter of World Can’t Wait

On Saturday May 16th at 9am many came out in downtown Chicago to celebrate the opening of the Modern Wing at the Art Institute, Armed Forces Day, Green Fest, or the nice weather, but World Can’t Wait was there to take a stance and remind people of the tortures being carried out in our names.

We had a banner which read “Torture=War Crime / PROSECUTE!”, signs, a bullhorn, and our drive to stop the torture of human beings. Major assets for us were enlarged posters of a few paintings by Fernando Botero of Abu Ghraib, which were very effective. They caught a lot of attention and allowed anyone interested to take a flyer and find out more information. We were met by a range of emotions: confusion, hostility, intense anger, and much support.

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May 28 National Day of Resistance to U.S. Torture

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The Fight to Stop Torture Comes to a Chicago High School

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From World Can’t Wait, Chicago
 
On May 21, World Can't Wait Chicago held torture workshops at the "We Are Everywhere" Youth Summit at the Multicultural Arts School in Little Village a high school that was built after fierce struggle in the community, including a group of Latina mothers waging a nineteen-day hunger strike demanding a new school for their children.
 
We started off the workshops by asking, American lives more valuable than the lives of people around the world? Resoundingly the students responded no, though many thought that the reality was that people around the world were treated as if they were worth less.
 
This led directly into the topic of torture. Showing the video produced for the May 28th National Day of Protest Against U.S. Torture, the students were shocked to see the images from Abu Ghraib, which many of them had not seen before and did not know about.
 

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Protests This Week Throughout U.S. Demand Release of Torture Photos by Obama Administration, Prosecution of Bush Era War Crimes

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By Debra Sweet

What: Highly Visual, Dramatic Protest Demonstrations/Photo Ops
When: May 26-27-28
Where: 15 cities: New York City; Los Angeles; Chicago; San Francisco; Boston; Seattle; Atlanta; Houston; Cleveland; Philadelphia; Honolulu; Fresno; Greensboro, NC; Portland, OR; Benton Harbor, MI
 
(New York City, NY) In the face of the Obama administration's refusal to release a reported 2,000 additional photographs of detainee abuse, in spite of being ordered by a federal court to do so, torture opponents will hold visible protests to demand that the government make the photos public. In 15 cities, they will also call for prosecution of those who ordered, legally justified and carried out torture in US detention and secret prisons during the Bush years.

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From Coast to Coast and Beyond – Protesting War and Torture

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Throughout May – especially on May 28th, when Barack Obama was supposed to release the images of 2,000 photos of U.S. torture – protests took place from New York to Honolulu. Initial reports on these manifestations of opposition to the wars and torture begun during the years of the Bush Regime, and now continued and in many ways intensified during Obama’s tenure as president, have begun to come into World Can’t Wait. More will be coming soon – click here to read the first accounts.

photo by Mike Chickey


 

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World Can't Wait mobilizes people living in the United States to stand up and stop war on the world, repression and torture carried out by the US government. We take action, regardless of which political party holds power, to expose the crimes of our government, from war crimes to systematic mass incarceration, and to put humanity and the planet first.

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