Guantanamo Prison Camp activist speaks at KVCC

MARTHA ALLEN, News Correspondent
KEENE VALLEY — A diverse group of about 30 people, some members of the congregation, others from out of town, gathered at Keene Valley Congregational Church on the evening of Aug. 8 to hear Matt Daloisio, associate editor of the “Catholic Worker,” speak.

The subject of his speech, accompanied by slides, was the U.S. detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He spoke about a demonstration outside the U.S. Supreme Court in 2007 to advocate for Guantanamo inmates’ legal rights, and the activist religious group who embarked on “a pilgrimage to shut down Guantanamo” in December 2005.

His son Tobias played at his feet, sometimes climbing into his lap before being retrieved by his mother, Amamnda Daloisio, also an editor at the Catholic Worker. Daloisio discussed with his audience the problems involved in closing Guantanamo, with possible repatriation of some of its inmates. He said it can be used as a “squeaky wheel” to bear pressure on the subjects of torture and foreign prisons, although he said that, due to its exposure, Guantanamo is the best of the U.S. prisons on foreign soil.

“We do what is right because it’s right,” he said. “Perhaps we can be effective. Two presidential candidates (Obama and McCain) say that they will close Guantanamo.”

He told the group that there will be a public fast and peaceful protest outside the White House Jan. 11 until inauguration day Jan. 20. A group will remain, Monday through Friday, until May 9, protesting torture, rendition and treatment of inmates at the prison at Guantanamo.

“Once we’ve closed Guantanamo, there will still be a lot of work to do,” Daloisio said.

Daloisio is a member of the Catholic Worker movement, an organization founded in 1933 that promotes nonviolence and good works, and Witness Against Torture, a group of 25 U.S. Christians.

After graduating from Loyola University, he worked in Boston AIDS programs, as well as for GI rights (“Many vets have no support when they come home”) and the anti-war movement. He was part of a delegation of 25 men and women, most of them Catholic, ranging in age from 24 to 79, who traveled to Santiago to protest the treatment of the prisoners at Guantanamo.

In May 2005, the Catholic Worker group, based in New York, discussed the question, “How do we, as Catholics, Americans and citizens, respond to the War on Terror?”

Daloisio believes that there are “huge political and

spiritual issues” involved in the War on Terror and the Iraq War.

According to U.S. Government statistics, he told the audience, only 8 percent of Guantanamo detainees are still considered to be enemy combatants. Many of the prisoners were handed over by the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan and Pakistan by bounty hunters, in exchange for money. At “GITMO,” he said, 140 inmates have remained for more than four years without being charged with a crime, and denied due process of law. Further, they have been systematically subjected to torture and to sexual and religious humilation, as were inmates at Abu Ghraid in Iraq.

“Kids being ordered to do these things is criminal,” he stated. “We are trying to bring these issues into churches. Jesus was a victim of torture. We are trying to make connections.”

Calling their campaign “Witness Against Torture,” they walked 60 miles from Santiago to Guantanamo last December to hold a prayer vigil outside the prison.

“Walking is a nonviolent posture. We really wanted to go with this nonviolent posture,” Daloisio said. “Cuban people were friendly and hospitable, and let us camp in their back yards. Can you imagine if it were turned around, Americans letting Cubans camp in their back

yards?”

The audience laughed; no one could imagine it.

“Bush had said in a speech, ‘If you have a problem with

Guantanamo, you should go and see for yourself.’ So we did,” Daloisio said.

“We met with lawyers and Cuban officials to try to gauge public opinion. The Cubans told us, it’s not a good plan. We were warned off, but we went anyway.”

The group obtained tourist visas from the Cuban government. All 25 informed the U.S. State Department of their plans in writing. They were in violation of U.S. law, however, Daloisio said, and could eventually be subject to 10 years in prison, with fines of up to $200,000.

Daloisio pointed out that the closing-down of the Guantanamo Prison has been called for by Amnesty International (May 2005), the United Nations (February 2006) and the European Union (May 2006).

“The president has violated the Geneva Convention,” he maintained.

The United States has owned the 45-mile base at Cuba’s southern tip since defeating Spain in the Spanish-American War in 1902. Since 1934, when Franklin D. Roosevelt sent 29 war ships to Cuba to clinch the deal, the United States has maintained a lease

with Cuba which cannot be broken unless both parties agree to end it.

Cuba’s present government argues that article 52 of the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties declares a treaty void if procured by the threat or use of force. The United States administration counters that Fidel Castro cashed the annual lease check when he came to power in 1959 (he has cashed none since), implying consent.

“We’re not lawyers, doctors or prominent people,” Daloisio told the audience. “Our goal is to make public all torture — no rendition, moving detainees to prisons abroad for torture — and to see that detainees get trials.”

After the talk, many of those in the audience collected literature and bought GITMO-uniform-orange T-shirts stamped “Close Guantanamo.”

Daloisio offered the shirts free of charge to those unable to come up with five dollars, but “only if you wear them.”