cia

Witness Against Torture Reflects on “The Guantánamo ‘Suicides’: A Camp Delta Sergeant Blows the Whistle,” by Scott Horton (Harper Magazine's March 2010 cover story)

We learned of the deaths of Salah Ahmed Al-Salami, Mani Shaman Al-Utaybi and Yasser Talal Al-Zahrani at Guantanamo as we prepared for a big birthday celebration for Daniel Berrigan’s 85th in New York City. It was June 9, 2006. We were saddened and outraged, but not really surprised. more...

We have been talking a lot this past week about how a good deal of our work seems to be about understanding the "other," and how it is especially difficult to understand the one inflicting the torture: the one in a position of power. In our reflection this morning, Jack contributed to this discussion and aided in our understanding by sharing with us his own story, which he described as "coming to this world from another world." Later we headed to the CIA headquarters to be a presence at the "Peace of the Action" rally focused on the CIA's use of drones. Two fasters, Kathy Kelly & Jack Ryan, spoke at the rally. more...

Day Three of the fast began with a morning reflection and discussion led by John and Jericha from Chicago. Later some of us took off for the Supreme Court, where we began a long procession around Capitol Hill, which included a walk up the steps leading to the Capitol. The procession concluded at the Senate Hart building, where the other half of our group was inside lobbying. In the evening we heard poetry and music from David Rovics, followed by a talk from Cindy Sheehan and Ray McGovern about drones and the CIA, more...