U.S. Initiates Legal Processes Against Christian Group that Marched to Guantánamo
Seven individuals from Witness Against Torture, a group protesting the denial of rights to prisoners at the U.S. Naval
Base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, were served papers by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)
last week. The group of twenty-four U.S. Christians marched over 60 miles to the Naval Base in an attempt to practice
the Christian act of prisoner visitation. The group camped and fasted for four days at the gate of the militarized zone
while awaiting access to the base.
Five hundred prisoners are currently detained by the U.S. government in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Human rights organizations
and released detainees have documented torture and extreme prisoner abuse at the base, but the Bush administration
asserts that Guantánamo is beyond the jurisdiction of U.S. and international courts of law.
In a response sent through the Center for Constitutional Rights, Witness Against Torture refused to answer OFAC's
questions, maintaining that the true crime is the torture and abuse of civilian prisoners by U.S. soldiers at
Guantánamo, not the violation of the travel ban on Cuba. As the U.S. prohibits travel to Cuba, Witness Against Torture
members risk a maxiumum of 10 years in prison or a $250,00 fine for their actions to bring attention to U.S. practices
in Guantánamo.
"I find it extremely hypocritical that Washington is investigating this group for the 'crime' of traveling to Cuba. The
U.S. government is flagrantly violating even the most basic norms of human rights – such as indefinite detention without
charges, denial of fair trials and, most importantly, torture." says Michael Ratner, the President of the Center for
Constitutional Rights, which coordinates legal representation for many of the men held at the U.S. Base. "There are far
greater crimes at play here than Witness Against Torture's travel logistics."
Marchers included Fr. Steven Kelly, S.J. and 79-year-old Sister Anne Montgomery. Upon return to the U.S. all members of
the group openly shared that they had been to Cuba and gave their names and addresses to Customs officials. Despite this
high level of openness, the U.S. Treasury Department sent letters of inquiry to individuals that were not even on the
the trip.
Witness Against Torture member Gary Ashbeck, of Baltimore's Jonah House community, reflects, "We gave U.S. customs all
the current information on our group and they were still not able to accurately account for who travelled. It seems that
despite all their new methods of spying on U.S. citizens, our government has a very flawed intelligence program. It
makes us wonder how good the intelligence is on the cases of those who are imprisoned at Guantánamo. Do they even know
who is imprisoned there?"