Blog
Published on August 11, 2010
The trial of Omar Khadr, the child soldier held in Guantánamo for a quarter of his life, began this week. Daphne Eviatar is posting real-time updates on this blog, live from Gitmo. But while we watch this trial proceed at Guantánamo, what a lot of us would like to know is: what happened to plans to close the prison?
Six years after they began, military commissions have only convicted four people. In the same time period, federal courts have convicted more than 400 terrorists.
With midterm elections upon us, Human Rights First is taking advantage of this critical moment to turn up the heat on lawmakers and candidates.
Human Rights First is teaming up with retired military leaders to bring the facts about Guantánamo to candidates from both parties in key states. Watch a video of them making the case that our nation will be stronger when we close Guantánamo and use our courts.
Next week we’ll be in Illinois. We’ve already made an impact in Pennsylvania and Delaware—where, in June, 10 retired flag officers met with over a dozen candidates to educate them about why Guantánamo needs to close and why federal court trials beat military commissions.
Join us! Add your name to the thousands who are standing up against fear with facts–we’ll hand-deliver the petition to candiates we meet with next week.
