Guantánamo at 23: Global Vigils on January 11 and an Ongoing Photo Campaign Marking 8,400 Days on January 9

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UPDATE: Just after I posted this article, the news broke that eleven of the 14 men approved for release from Guantánamo have been resettled in Oman. My article celebrating this news will be published tomorrow, but the photo campaign and the vigils will, of course, be proceeding as planned, because 15 men are still held — three who have also long been approved for release, three “forever prisoners”, never charged, but never approved for release either, and nine others in the military commissions trial system. Here’s my article about the release of these eleven men, containing more information than you’ll find in the mainstream media!

With the plight of 14 men who have long been approved for release from Guantánamo but are still held dominating the thoughts of those of us who have spent years — or decades — calling for the prison’s closure, this coming week — which includes the 23rd anniversary of the prison’s opening, on Saturday January 11 — is a crucial time for highlighting the need for urgent action from the Biden administration, in the last few weeks before Donald Trump once more occupies the White House, bringing with him, no doubt, a profound antipathy towards any of the men still held, and a hunger for sealing the prison shut as he did during his first term in office.

This Thursday, January 9, marks 8,400 days since the prison opened, and, as I’ve been doing every 100 days for the last seven years, I’m encouraging people across the US and around the world to show their solidarity with the men still held by taking a photo with the Close Guantánamo campaign’s poster marking this grim milestone, and calling for the prison’s closure. The poster is here, and please send your photo here. If you don’t have a printer, you can bring up the poster on a phone, or on a tablet or laptop, and get someone to take a photo with their phone.

Normally, I also produce a separate poster marking the number of days that Guantánamo has been open on the anniversary of its opening, but this year, because the anniversary falls just two days after 8,400 days, I’m encouraging everyone holding vigils on January 11 to print off the 8,400 days poster and to use that. After 8,400 days, two days really make very little difference at all.

In addition, if you’re seeking some inspiration, please check out the photos from the last year, which are available on the Close Guantánamo website here and here, and which provide a heartwarming antidote to the amnesia or indifference that normally envelops Guantánamo, showing that US citizens, in particular, care about what is being done in their name, even though it is rarely, if ever spoken about.

A number of vigils are taking place on January 11, most involving groups who have been taking part in the monthly “First Wednesday” vigils that I initiated nearly two years ago, in February 2023, and which have grown to include ten regular locations across the US and around the world, as shown in the poster above, and in the list below. I hope you can join us — and if there isn’t a vigil near you, please consider holding one of your own, but don’t forget to take photos and send them to me. 

Close Guantánamo January 11 vigils

Cobleskill, NY, 11am-noon ET
Corner of Main and Union Street.
Contact: Sue Spivack.

Detroit, MI, 11-11.30am ET
McNamara Federal Building, 477 Michigan Avenue.
Contact: Geraldine Grunow.

London, 12-3pm GMT
March and rally, from Old Palace Yard to Trafalgar Square, with speakers including Close Guantánamo co-founder Andy Worthington, followed by the delivery of a letter to 10 Downing Street.
Contact: Sara Birch on 07710 789616.

Los Angeles, CA, 12-1.30pm PT  UPDATE: POSTPONED DUE TO THE WILDFIRES
Wilshire/Westwood Federal Building, 11000 Wilshire Blvd., with speakers.
Contact: Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace

New York, NY, 1-2pm ET
Steps of the NY Public Library, 5th Ave & 42nd St., with speakers. See the Facebook page here.
Contact: Debra Sweet.

Portland, OR, 4.30-6pm PT
Terry Schrunk Plaza, 431 SW Madison St.
Contact: Dan Shea on 503-750-7649.

San Francisco, CA, 3-4pm PT
50 United Nations Plaza (at the Simon Bolivar statue).
Contact: Gavrilah Wells.

Washington, D.C., Noon-1pm ET
In front of the White House on Pennsylvania Ave., with singing.
Contact: Steve Lane on 571- 221-4120

Other dates

Wednesday January 8
US Embassy, Avenida Paseo de la Reforma, Mexico City, 10.30am
Contact: Natalia on 55 3993 1730.

Thursday January 16
Brussels, Belgium, 5pm
Outside the European Parliament.
Contact: Luk Vervaet.

Other vigils are also taking place, via groups that aren’t part of the regular monthly vigils, as follows:

Saturday January 11
Greenfield, MA, Noon
Speakers at the Town Common followed by a march up and down Main Street.
Contact: Nancy Talanian.

Saturday January 11
Augusta, ME, 1-2pm ET
Augusta National Armory, intersection of Route 202 and Armory St., with speakers. More info here.
Contact: Mary Kate Small.

Monday January 13
Cleveland OH, 1:45-3pm ET
Federal Building at E 9th & Lakeside, with a walking meditation while J.D. Vance is visiting.

Monday January 13
Toledo, OH, 4-5pm ET
NE corner of Talmadge Rd. and Monroe St.

Other events

Saturday January 11, 6pm GMT
CAGE International is holding an online event, “Guantánamo: Survivors speak,” featuring former prisoners Mansoor Adayfi, Sufyian Barhoumi, Moazzam Begg, Omar Khadr and Abdellatif Nasser. Register here.

Tuesday January 14, Noon-1pm ET
“Guantánamo at Twenty-Three”: New America panel discussion with Close Guantánamo co-founders Tom Wilner and Andy Worthington, and Karen Greenberg. Register here.

Wednesday January 15, 1-2.30pm ET
“Migrants and Muslims at Guantánamo: A history of demonization, social control and resistance,” tracing the legacy of detention and brutality, starting with Haitians, then Muslim men, and now fleeing migrants, with speakers including Mansoor Adayfi and Dr. Maha Hilal. Register here.

Witness Against Torture is also holding two Zoom circles:

Wednesday January 8, 8pm ET
Join on Zoom “for poetry, a brief Guantánamo update, and a sharing circle to grieve and hope for the men as well as to reflect on where we are at this moment in history.”

Saturday January 11, 8pm ET
Join on Zoom (different link from January 8) “for poetry and a sharing circle to celebrate the joys of our work together and to prepare for what lies ahead.”

Please feel free to contact the White House to call for the 14 men who have long been approved for release to be freed, and, if you want to help those who have been released from Guantánamo, only to find themselves abandoned by the US and struggling to rebuild their lives, often because of indifference or even hostility from their home governments or from their host governments if they were released in third countries, please consider making a donation to the Guantánamo Survivors Fund, which provides support for their most urgent needs, including medical care, rent, language classes, tuition and job training.

* * * * *

Andy Worthington is a freelance investigative journalist, activist, author, photographer (of an ongoing photo-journalism project, ‘The State of London’), film-maker and singer-songwriter (the lead singer and main songwriter for the London-based band The Four Fathers, whose music is available via Bandcamp). He is the co-founder of the Close Guantánamo campaign (see the ongoing photo campaign here) and the successful We Stand With Shaker campaign of 2014-15, and the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison and of two other books: Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion and The Battle of the Beanfield. He is also the co-director (with Polly Nash) of the documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (available on DVD here, or you can watch it online here, via the production company Spectacle, for £2.50).

In 2017, Andy became very involved in housing issues. He is the narrator of the documentary film, ‘Concrete Soldiers UK’, about the destruction of council estates, and the inspiring resistance of residents, he wrote a song ‘Grenfell’, in the aftermath of the entirely preventable fire in June 2017 that killed over 70 people, and, in 2018, he was part of the occupation of the Old Tidemill Wildlife Garden in Deptford, to try to prevent its destruction — and that of 16 structurally sound council flats next door — by Lewisham Council and Peabody.

Since 2019, Andy has become increasingly involved in environmental activism, recognizing that climate change poses an unprecedented threat to life on earth, and that the window for change — requiring a severe reduction in the emission of all greenhouse gases, and the dismantling of our suicidal global capitalist system — is rapidly shrinking, as tipping points are reached that are occurring much quicker than even pessimistic climate scientists expected. You can read his articles about the climate crisis here.

To receive new articles in your inbox, please subscribe to Andy’s new Substack account, set up in November 2024, where he’ll be sending out a weekly newsletter, or his RSS feed — and he can also be found on Facebook (and here), Twitter, Flickr and YouTube. Also see the six-part definitive Guantánamo prisoner list, The Complete Guantánamo Files, the definitive Guantánamo habeas list, the full military commissions list, and the chronological list of all Andy’s articles.

Please also consider joining the Close Guantánamo campaign, and, if you appreciate Andy’s work, feel free to make a donation.