PRESS RELEASE: Witness Against Torture
100 Days Campaign to Shut Down Guantanamo, End Torture

CONTACT:    Frida Berrigan, 347-683-4928, frida.berrigan@gmail.com
                        Matthew W. Daloisio, 201-264-4424, Daloisio@earthlink.net

EFFORTS TO CLOSE GUANTANAMO INTENSIFY IN THE NEW YEAR

WASHINGTON, DC January 1, 2009 – President-Elect Barack Obama has pledged to shut down the Guantanamo prison and end torture policies in his first days of office.^* Witness Against Torture, a national grassroots movement, is organizing to support him in carrying out that promise by launching a 100 Days Campaign to Shut Down Guantanamo and End Torture.

"This is a new year and a new political moment, and we are hopeful that—through our organizing and mobilizing—we can help bring a real end to the Bush policies of indefinite detention and torture," says organizer Matthew W. Daloisio of New York City.

Witness Against Torture's stepped-up efforts to shut down Guantanamo have three elements:

1) On Sunday, January 11, 2009 — the seven-year mark of the opening of detention facilities at Guantanamo — we will hold a Seven Years Too Long rally in DuPont Circle Park and a Guantanamo prisoner procession through the streets of Washington.

2) At the conclusion of the rally, Witness Against Torture will begin a nine-day, liquid-only "Fast for Justice," in which more than 40 people from across America will participate. The fast will span the period between January 11th and the inauguration of Barack Obama on January 20, 2009.

3) And with the inauguration, Witness Against Torture and partner groups will launch the 100 Days Campaign to Close Guantanamo and End Torture. Until April 30th, there will be a daily presence at the White House and throughout Washington, DC, including vigils, public and Congressional education, and creative, non-violent demonstrations to make sure that that Guantanamo is closed and torture stopped. Individuals and communities are coming from across the country to participate in the 100 Days presence at the White House.

Witness Against Torture is working in tandem with many other human rights groups to shut down Guantanamo early in the Obama administration. Organizations with major anti-Guantanamo and anti-torture campaigns include the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, the America Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Veterans for Peace and Amnesty International.

Witness Against Torture is a grassroots movement that came into being in December 2005 when 24 activists walked to Guantanamo to visit the prisoners and condemn torture policies. Since then, it has engaged in public education, community outreach, and non-violent civil disobedience. To learn more visit www.100dayscampaign.org .

^* "I have said repeatedly that I intend to close Guantánamo, and I will follow through on that. I have said repeatedly that America doesn't torture, and I'm going to make sure that we don't torture."

-- President-elect Barack Obama, November 16, 2008

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