Urge Congress to Shut Down Guantanamo Bay and Secret Prisons -- And ,,,,,

[rodeodance]

Good cause (i recieved as an email earlier today);

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Urge Congress to Shut Down Guantanamo Bay and Secret Prisons -- And Restore Rights
Date: Thu, 16 Jun 2005 11:55:56 -0500
From: ACLU Action Network <[e-mail]>
Reply-To: ACLU Action Network <[e-mail]>
Organization: ACLU
To: xxxx




Congress needs to act now to shut down the Guantanamo Bay prison and all secret federal government facilities where individuals have been tortured or abused, and make sure these horrors never happen again.

The federal government is holding people indefinitely without charge in Guantanamo Bay and in secret prisons around the globe. Persons as young as fourteen have been imprisoned for nearly four years at Guantanamo Bay without being charged, with no access to any attorney or court, and with no meaningful chance to prove their innocence.

Click here to urge your Members of Congress to shut down lawless government detention centers and ensure the government provides basic protections to all individuals being held.

Congress should act now to shut down Guantanamo Bay prison and government-run secret detention centers. To ensure that closing these prisons does not merely result in transferring abuse elsewhere, Congress must also ensure that all prisoners get basic protections such as humane treatment, access to a lawyer and a court, the right to know the government’s charge against them and a meaningful right to prove their innocence.

Abuse and torture occur at these lawless detentions centers. FBI agents have reported government-funded abuse of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, including persons “chained hand and foot in a fetal position to the floor, with no chair, food, or water. . . for 18, 24 hours or more.”

Some prisoners are being held in complete secrecy. The federal government continues to hold prisoners, known as “ghost detainees,” in secret prisons around the globe. These prisons were created after President Bush signed a secret presidential order based on a secret memorandum scheming to keep prisoners off prison rolls and outside the reach of the Red Cross.

The government is also regularly shackling people and flying them on government-chartered planes to countries such as Syria and Egypt where they are tortured -- typically without any criminal charge or any useful information being obtained. In one example, the government even kidnapped a Canadian citizen in New York, flew him to Syria where he was tortured for nine months, and then had him released -- without ever charging him with any crime.

The Defense Department estimates that it spends $100 million per year on the Guantanamo Bay prison alone -- nearly $200,000 per prisoner. Congress can cut all funds for Guantanamo Bay, for secret prisons and for sending people to foreign countries that torture people. But Congress must also make sure that it never happens again by making sure that all prisoners have basic protections under the rule of law.

Congress can restore checks and balances and bring detention policies in line with the Constitution and the rule of law.

Click here to urge your Members of Congress to shut down lawless government detention centers and ensure the government provides basic protections to all individuals being held.

http://action.aclu.org/lawlessprisons




June 16, 2005
Patriot Act Success!

In the last two weeks thousands of people across the country have been calling and writing Congress to speak out against the Patriot Act.

These actions contributed to our latest success: just yesterday the House of Representatives voted to deny funding for FBI access to library and bookstore records under section 215 of the Patriot Act.

Thank you for your efforts. If you haven’t called your members of Congress yet to oppose the Patriot Act, click here to find out how.

Unlawful detention.

Human rights violations.

Monitoring and tracking of peaceful protestors.

Expansion and renewal of the Patriot Act.

Retaliation against government whistleblowers.

Someone has to speak out. Take action today.
Forward this email to your Friends!

Tell Your Friends about the ACLU Action Center today!


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1. prisons

I read more than I post here. The prisoners in every US facility are treated with respect. The American and allied prisoners taken by Muslim extremists are put to death in most cases. Please look at more than one source when you read the news.