Six Years Late — Close Guantánamo Now!
January 11, 2008
January 11 marks a sad anniversary: the sixth year since the arrival of the first prisoners at the
Guantánamo Bay’s Camp X-Ray.
Six years after the shocking photos of blindfolded detainees in orange jumpsuits shackled in outdoor
cells shocked the world, Guantánamo remains a betrayal of American values and continues to
shame our country internationally. Our country has held detainees, some for all six years, without
granting even the most fundamental legal rights. Most prisoners are being held without any charge,
sometimes even after intelligence officials have determined they are not terrorists.
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell has declared that “we have shaken the belief the world had
in America’s justice system by keeping a place like Guantánamo open and creating things like the
military commission.”
The prisoners at Guantánamo should be transferred to the United States, charged with a crime and
tried, or sent to countries where they will not be tortured.
It’s long past time that we end this nightmarish treatment and close down Guantánamo. That’s why
today I’m joining with the ACLU and other human rights organizations who are calling on people of
conscience to wear orange. I hope you will join me and do the same.
— Schlesinger
