Anonymous: We are legion.

We are imprisoning the wrong men for all the wrong reasons.

Releasing the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay will require  US Government officials to do something it is not used to doing, and something it does not like to do — admit it was wrong. It is wrong to hold these men for more than a decade, wrong to torture them, and wrong to deny their release.

This is why I believe more than 80 prisoners at Guantanamo, who have not been charged with any crimes, who have not had a trial, and who have been cleared for release are still there, wasting away in solitary cells.

If the US Government does not act to release these prisoners, they will be forced with the reality that they are losing public confidence. It is up to each of us to tell government officials that they are wrong in continuing this inhumane injustice.

Please read the following letter by SAMIR NAJI al HASAN MOQBEL.

Here’s an excerpt:

ONE man here weighs just 77 pounds. Another, 98. Last thing I knew, I weighed 132, but that was a month ago.

I’ve been on a hunger strike since Feb. 10 and have lost well over 30 pounds. I will not eat until they restore my dignity.

I’ve been detained at Guantánamo for 11 years and three months. I have never been charged with any crime. I have never received a trial.

I could have been home years ago — no one seriously thinks I am a threat — but still I am here. Years ago the military said I was a “guard” for Osama bin Laden, but this was nonsense, like something out of the American movies I used to watch. They don’t even seem to believe it anymore. But they don’t seem to care how long I sit here, either.

When I was at home in Yemen, in 2000, a childhood friend told me that in Afghanistan I could do better than the $50 a month I earned in a factory, and support my family. I’d never really traveled, and knew nothing about Afghanistan, but I gave it a try.

I was wrong to trust him. There was no work. I wanted to leave, but had no money to fly home. After the American invasion in 2001, I fled to Pakistan like everyone else. The Pakistanis arrested me when I asked to see someone from the Yemeni Embassy. I was then sent to Kandahar, and put on the first plane to Gitmo.

Read the rest here: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/15/opinion/hunger-striking-at-guantanamo-bay.html?_r=0

Samir has been cleared for release. He’s being painfully force-fed by tubes being jammed into his nose, into his stomach. He’s being stripped of all dignity, all due process, and any shred of humanity.

We are doing this. If we don’t speak up, the deaths of these men, who have not been charged with any crimes, will be on our hands.

Guantanamo is a great place to work (You get to torture people!)

Guantanamo Prisoner Profile: Shaker Aamer

The US Government has paid over $10 million dollars in their quest to detain and torture an innocent man that they themselves have admitted (5 years ago) is innocent.

Shaker Aamer is a Saudi National who moved to the UK in 1996 with his wife and 4 children. He was picked up on the street in Afghanistan and suffered numerous beatings at a CIA black site before being moved to Guantanamo, where he endured more beatings.

Shaker was cleared for release in 2007 when the Bush Administration admitted that it had no evidence against him.  The evidence that was obtained related to Shaker was gained through torture. This means the U.S. Government spent $5.4 Million dollars housing someone they knew wasn’t a criminal, and the US government has spent over $10 million (so far) holding this man in prison at Guantanamo.

What’s worse than the economic costs are the humanitarian costs. Again,  Shaker Aamer has been subjected to torture.  Humanitarian groups such as Amnesty International have pleaded with the US government requesting his release, to no avail. The Pentagon claims the UK government isn’t really interested in his release, however the UK Defense secretary says this is not the case.

Shaker has had to endure various forms of torture: He was told his children would all be murdered. He was left in a detention room with a gun, possibly so they could “catch him” with a gun and kill him, or so that he might commit suicide. Either way, we feel this shows the US government’s true goal — that Shaker Aamer not be released. In addition to those threats, guards staged an execution with a power drill in the cell room next to his, and have also physically beat him. Please join with us in calling for his release, and for the release of the other prisoners who have been cleared for release by the US government.

You can follow others in the movement to save Shaker by going to http://www.saveshaker.org/

Guantanamo protest art and photos

Guantanamo Protest Events - May 2013 (and beyond)

There are a number of Protests/direct actions/marches/vigils coming up in May 2013 (and beyond) in protest of Guantanamo. Please help shut down Guantanamo. 

SENATE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE INQUIRY INTO THE TREATMENT OF DETAINEES IN U.S. CUSTODY

#opGTMO - Close Guantanamo for good.

Greeting Citizens of the World,

We have watched with dismay as a great injustice is being committed by the UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT in the Guantanamo Bay concentration camp.

Imagine your Father, Your Brother, Your Husband Arrested
Sold for a bounty.
Black bagged and sent away to a foreign country.
Tortured for years on end.
Accused of being a terrorist.
No trial or charge is given.
No lawyer is brought in.
No one is allowed to see him.
With no end in sight.

With no hope for justice, over 100 men who have been held and tortured for years have gone on a hunger strike. On May 18th, it will have been 100 days since they have eaten voluntarily. Prisoners have died suddenly, violently, and suspiciously. All inmates in Guantanamo Bay have been locked in solitary confinement. Some are being force fed, an international crime. These men face the prospect of a terrible death in prison despite many of them having been cleared for release years ago. One defense attorney has already committed suicide.

It is time for the Obama administration to admit that this is a disgrace for any civilized country which upholds the rule of law. Guantanamo Bay must be closed at once, and the prisoners should be either returned to their home countries or given a fair trial in a federal court. Guantanamo Bay is an ongoing war crime. Anonymous will no longer tolerate this atrocity.

We are outraged. We, the people and Anonymous, will not allow the most expensive prison on earth to be run without any respect for international laws. We stand in solidarity with the Guantanamo hunger strikers. We will shut down Guantanamo.

On May 17 to May 19, to coincide with the 100th day of the hunger strike, we urge everyone to join global actions on the ground and hacktivist protests as well as twitterstorms, email bombs, and fax bombs, in 3 days of nonstop action.

Phonebomb the representatives

Call the White House and insist that President Obama fulfill his promise to close Guantanamo: 202-456-1111, 202-456-1414

Call the U.S. Southern Command to decry the conditions at Guantanamo: 305-437-1213

Call the Department of Defense, voice your concerns about the treatment of hunger strikers: 703-571-3343

Call your senators and representatives and urge them to support the closure of Guantanamo: http://congresslookup.com/

Sign the petition

https://www.change.org/CloseGTMO

For updates

Twitter : @opGTMO
Hashtag: #opGTMO

We are Anonymous
We are Legion
We are Everywhere
We do not Forgive
We do not Forget
Expect us

#Paypal14 Due in court on May 13, 2013. BE THERE!!

Urgent Call to Action!!

In a little over one week from now, the internationally lauded ‘PayPal 14′ are due in San Francisco Federal Court (450 Golden Gate Avenue) on Monday, May 13th, 2013 and Anonymous is calling for a rally all day beginning at 9:30am (may go as late as 5pm) to support the heroes who allegedly dared to act against the gross media censorship by e-Bay’s subsidiary PayPal after terminating its donation processing service for Wikileaks when nation-states began targeting them for revealing international war crimes and crimes against humanity from the Bush-era of the “War on Terror.”


The defendants were arrested in July of 2011 after PayPal reportedly suffered 3.5 million pounds in damages in 2010 due to a cyber-sit-in or DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack on their website. The incident was allegedly a response to the online giant’s unprecedented decision to cut off journalists Julian Assange and Wikileaks from revenue and legal defense funds.

Though the Federal Gov’t has been calling Julian Assange a terrorist and finally beginning to try Bradley Manning for espionage charges after 1000 days in cruel confinement, the public by and large considers the Bradley Manning/Wikileaks leak, including Collateral Murder, to be an act of whistleblowing and journalism on crimes against humanity. Similarly, the European Human Rights Court recently found the CIA guilty of torturing and sodomizing German Citizen Mr. el-Masri after subjecting him to illegal extraordinary rendition in a case of mistaken identity.


Please come show your support for whistleblowers, First Amendment Rights and their heroic defenders.

Bring your mask…and maybe a sign.

When: 9:30 a.m.
Where: 450 Golden Gate Avenue, San Francisco USA - at the U.S. District Court house.
What: A show of solidarity with the Paypal14.
Who: EVERYONE. Bring all your friends.

Use the hashtag #paypal14 when tweeting about this.

mellevh asked: What does Anonymous think of the Fact that BREIN blocked thepiratebay in the Netherlands?

We think it’s shitty.

comanchetek asked: Apologies if I'm not in the right place to ask this question. I'm concerned about the transparency of my internet browsing (and no, am not into porn; I just don't like having my "mail" opened and read. How can I setup private browsing? Every thing I find online seems insufficient to maintain privacey. Any advice, or direction toward self-learning would be much appreciated. Am intermittently competent with networking tech, like NAT, Proxy, VPN and using WRT flashed linksys home router. Thanks

Install tails. https://tails.boum.org/  This is called “The amnesiac incognito live system”. It’s an ISO that installs as an operating system. You can burn it to a CD and boot from it, or to a USB. If that doesn’t work for you, install the tor browser bundle. https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html.en

Don’t assume complete anonymity, and ALWAYS use “https” when using it, else if someone sniffing the exit node is watching, they can see where you’re going and what you’re saying online, and they may be able to track it back to you if you say anything to identify yourself.

That’s a good start.

ohmyashlyn asked: So My friend is being questioned by the FBI as I type this, about his affiliation with Anon. I didn't even know this site existed until a second ago. I don't know how it works either but I am afraid for my friend. Is there anything the FBI could even do to him, being affiliated with this group?

Yes, they can do what they’re doing right now. They can scare him into inaction. More than likely, they want information. I suggest your friend not talk to them without a lawyer present, and not without a tape recording the conversation. The feds will twist his words against him if they decide to target him for prosecution.

However, simply for associating with members of Anonymous, you can’t be charged with a crime. This is still a free country, and you are free to associate with whomever you please.

#CISPA Blackout Monday, April 22st 2013

A death at Guantanamo on the eve of 9/11 and a cry for humanity.

It’s time we demand answers on Guantanamo, and demand its closure.

Don’t blindly swallow your government’s nationalistic religion. Chew it first and if it tastes bad, spit it out. Any action you see that is morally questionable should be examined closely and critically. The actions at Guantanamo do not stand up to humanitarian criticisms, and it needs to be closed. 

On this day for the past 11 years, we have listened to the bagpipes and bugles in honor of our fallen first responders and those who died on the attacks of 9/11, but today that isn’t why this is a solemn day for me. It’s solemn because I have realized that after 9/11, we responded to terror with terror. The terror that was visited upon us, also infected us, and that sickness has been visited upon the world in the days since in the form of wide-scale war, torture, and new laws that vindicate immoral, inhumane actions.

A disturbing perception has propagated throughout the United States in recent times.  That is, that the people held at Guantanamo Bay are “enemy combatants”, and because of this characterization aren’t and shouldn’t be afforded the full rights and privileges of humane treatment that “normal” POWs are supposed to be given. We see this trend laid out in numerous articles, with all the backing and authority of the state behind it. This thinking is akin to a massive, country-wide Milgram experiment. The government is trying to justify the need to treat these people by a code of conduct that by all accounts is inhumane. They do this by continually asserting that these people are less than human, by telling us that these people deserve punishment, and that the punishment must continue. They flex their authoritative muscle here, and in doing this, they are somewhat successful in subverting our moral objections.

I do not agree and cannot, in good conscience, continue to characterize these prisoners as “enemy combatants.” When we declare no official theater of war, it makes it all too easy for governments to claim anyone they want is an enemy combatant, and then subject them to any treatment they seem fit. This is how inhumane acts against man are made legal.

On the eve of this 9/11, a report came out that the 9th prisoner of war has died in our custody at Guantanamo Bay. Rest assured that there will be no transparency in reporting the events surrounding the death of this prisoner, or previous ones, unless we start demanding answers from our leaders.

Previous attempts to understand what is happening at Guantanamo have largely failed, resulting in mostly redacted reports that leave them unreadable. 

A report by Harpers Magazine investigative Journalist Scott Horton paints a picture in stark contrast to what the US Government wants the world to believe. Reports of a black site at Guantanamo, conflicting reports by guards who were present at previous deaths and odd actions by NCIS - namely that the investigation in previous deaths did not include an interview of the guards on duty. This article by Harper’s is required reading http://www.harpers.org/archive/2010/01/hbc-90006368

What’s needed is a wider realization that nothing will change until there is will - and there is action in the direction of that will. It’s up to us to seek out actions that will bring attention to the inhumane treatment of prisoners, and generate pressure to close  Guantanamo for good. Today, 9/11, is the perfect day to act, when the cruelty of man is at the forefront of our minds.

On being critical of bigots, and their racist friends

Hate mongers, bigots, homophobes, transphobes, racists — this goes out to you: Y U no liek people different from you? Seriously, chill the fuck out. 

This week, I tweeted about the arrest of known hater, Aaron Walker. Walker runs an “everyone draw Mohammed” blog, an Islamophobic project/campaign which now appears to be private. This was intended as an offshoot of the wider, international “everyone draw Mohammed day” movement that was inspired as a reaction to censorship. Walker, however, took it in a hateful direction, focusing on propagating Islamophobic ideas.  I will defend your right to say and draw whatever you like, but I will criticize it if your motives for doing so come from bigotry, and so will the court of public opinion. This is exactly what happened to Walker. He lost his job for his overt, virulent, and hateful Islamophobic position. He blames Kimberlin, and he hasn’t stopped wanting to hit back at him ever since. 

When I tweeted about his arrest, I didn’t expect to fall into a briar patch of hatemongers, nor for them to rally and make me part of a false narrative - mainly, that I’m “Neal Rauhauser”. I’m not, No really, honest to goodness!

Robert Stacy McCain, listed as a white supremacist and member of the League of the South by the Southern Poverty Law Center, seems to also be trying to craft a narrative that he was threatened and had to leave his home. I find it interesting that he hasn’t issued any peace orders against those he says are threatening him. McCain, I’d like to know why you really left your house.  Surely it wasn’t because you were found out to be a white supremacist and hate-monger? And what’s with all the tweets about the White Aryan Resistance? 
 

I will not apologize for criticizing bigots: 

If you guys want to continue to pull me into your game of mystery and political who-gives-a-shit-intrigue, be my guest:

But know this: I’ll continue to hound you for your bigotry and hatred.

//nyancat approves of this post.