Coalition Endorses Call to Drop Boeing from Chicago Air and Water Show

The Chicago Coalition to Shut Down Guantanamo has endorsed the following call by Anti-War Committee – Chicago, Jews for Justice in Palestine, U.S. Palestinian Community Network and 8th Day Center for Justice:

Protest Boeing Death Machines in Gaza:

Demand Chicago Drop Boeing from Air and Water Show!

Press Conference & Die-in

Wednesday, July 30, 10:00 a.m.

City Hall, 121 N. LaSalle St., 2nd Floor

UPDATE: see event photos and press links on No Drones Illinois website.

READ: statement by Father Bob Bossie representing
Chicago Coalition to Shut Down Guantanamo.

More links and discussion on the Facebook event page.

Boeing Company is a major sponsor of Chicago’s annual Air and Water Show this summer. Many people come to the lake shore every year to see displays of jets and other aircraft.

Boeing weaponry are responsible for many of the over 1000 dead and over 6000 seriously wounded Palestinians in Gaza in the past three weeks. The dead are mostly civilians, including over 200 children. Israel’s fighter jets – the F15s and F16s – as well as Apache helicopters are all made by Boeing.

Boeing has made billions from the sale of weapons for use in Israel's attacks, as part of its eight year old siege of Gaza.

The City of Chicago should drop Boeing from the sponsors of the Air and Water Show. No company that makes profit from the slaughter of civilians should be included.

Protest initiated by: Anti-War Committee – Chicago, Jews for Justice in Palestine, U.S. Palestinian Community Network and 8th Day Center for Justice. Endorsed by: Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, Chicago Coalition to Shut Down Guantanamo, Chicago Committee to Defend the Bill of Rights, Chicago Faith Coalition on Middle East Policy, Illinois Coalition Against Torture, American Friends Service Committee, Jewish Voice for Peace

Statement by Father Bob Bossie representing

Chicago Coalition to Shut Down Guantanamo

 
In 1991, my brother Paul Bossie, organized the first of many protests of Chicago’s Air and Water show. He did so because he knew the 2 million persons who filled the lakefront each year looking for family entertainment were being subjected to a military commercial (or propaganda) with three goals: (1) to recruit our young to learn to kill (2) to promote support for huge military budgets, a large portion of which goes to corporations like Boeing and (3) to foster support for wars around the world.

Boeing Corporation, with headquarters here in Chicago and the second largest weapons maker in the world, knows only too well these goals of the Air & Water show and is most glad to be a sponsor because it supports their bottom line through their weapon sales. In 2012 alone, Boeing received $27.6 Billion of U.S. income tax dollars for weapons.

We know, those in the halls of power in our country know, and Boeing certainly knows that their weapons reign down death and destruction on our sisters and brothers world-wide and destroy the environment upon which we all depend. Today, this is especially true in Gaza where over one thousand Palestinians have been killed and thousands more maimed by, among other weapons, Boeing’s weapons supplied to Israel and used by Israel to foster U.S. interests.

While we in the Chicago Coalition to Shut Down Guantanamo oppose the Air & Water show as a whole as a propaganda tool for death, today specifically we call upon the Chicago city council to rescind Boeing’s sponsorship of this military commercial. This is the least they can do to say NO to the carnage in Gaza and to pay homage, in a small way, to the innocent men, women and children who already have been killed and maimed by Boeing’s weapons.

Boeing is not a sponsor to be proud of.

Thank you.


Related posts

Now that the Israeli government's killings in Gaza are front-page news -- particularly the way military aircraft is being used to mow down innocent men, women, and children -- Boeing's involvement is in everyone's face.

(See Boeing Has an Israel Problem . . . and Chicago Has a Boeing Problem)

Year after year, hundreds of thousands of people from Chicago and the surrounding area gather on the lakeshore to watch aerial displays by an array of planes. Most don't suspect that they are being subjected to an intense propaganda effort by multiple branches of the U.S. military.  The Chicago Coalition to Shut Down Guantanamo views this as a perfect opportunity to engage with the public and enlist them in the growing movement against U.S. war, torture, surveillance, and other crimes.  We will join activists from many other peace and justice groups who have had a growing presence at this event in recent years.

(See August 16-17: Protest U.S. Kidnapping, Torture, and Drone Assassinations at the 2014 Chicago Air and Water Show Protest )


As reported on local TV news, at Fight Back News, and by Progress Illinois, Dozens of activists came to the Field Museum in Chicago last Monday (4/28) to speak out against Boeing's involvement in developing the next generation of killer drone.

(See Activists Challenge Boeing to Disinvest from Drone Research )

CCSDG Supports Call for Apology to Survivor of U.S. Extraordinary Rendition (i.e. Kidnapping and Torture)

Survivor of U.S. kidnapping and torture:
Abou ElKassim Britel

The Chicago Coalition to Shut Down Guantanamo supports the call by North Carolina Stop Torture Now and others for an apology to survivors of U.S. "extraordinary rendition" (i.e. kidnapping and torture). We will be focusing on this call at our protest during the 2014 Chicago Air and Water Show.

This is especially relevant to the work of CCSDG and the work it is doing at the 2014 Chicago Air and Water Show, August 16-17, 2014, because:

(a) The practice of "extraordinary rendition" is intimately connected to the illegal and illegitimate practices of the U.S. government -- kidnapping, torture, and imprisonment "outside the law" -- epitomized by the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center. (See "extraordinary rendition" article on Wikipedia.)

(b) The flight logistics and coordination firm employed by the U.S. government in its kidnapping flights was Jeppesen DataPlan, a subsidiary of Boeing. Boeing is a prime sponsor of the 2014 Chicago Air and Water Show. (See "Jeppesen" article on Wikipedia.)

Below is further detail about U.S. kidnapping flights provided by North Carolina Stop Torture Now . . . .

Acknowledge and apologize 

for the wrongful imprisonment and torture of 

Abou ElKassim Britel

Since September 11, 2001, over 135 people have been seized, abducted and tortured as part of the U.S. extraordinary rendition program (Globalizing Torture, OSJI). Abou ElKassim Britel, an Italian citizen of Moroccan descent, is one of them.

"The wrong has been done, sadly. What I can ask now is some form of reparation, so that I can have a fresh start and try to forget, even if it won’t be easy ... I want an apology; it is only fair to say that someone who has done something wrong must apologize." – Abou ElKassim Britel

The campaign for apologies to rendition survivor Abou elKassim Britel is gaining steam! We have a growing number of signatures on an e-petition to the governments of the U.S. and the three other countries that helped with his capture, kidnapping, and torture. Would you sign too?

So far, there are signers in California, Massachusetts, New York, Wisconsin, Rhode Island, Ohio, Georgia, Texas, Illinois, Minnesota, Washington, Oregon, North Carolina, and the greater DC area. There are some from Italy, Morocco, the UK, and other countries.

Here's why we're doing this....

Pending declassification of the Senate torture report, we're trying to help keep the need for torture accountability alive for Americans. Connecting folks to the costs of torture is important. Mr. Britel's appalling experience is a good example of a broader problem. We've been in touch with Mr. Britel and his wife Khadija Anna for several years, and the family continues to suffer seriously in the aftermath of their terrible ordeal.

We're building on previous efforts in the Britel case. The ACLU sued Jeppesen DataPlan on behalf of Britel and four others (and the U.S. Justice Department intervened and shut the suit down). A team at the Constitution Project interviewed Kassim and Anna for the 2013 report of the Task Force on Detainee Treatment.

Recently, a team at the University of North Carolina School of Law submitted a brief and petition to special rapporteurs at the United Nations, requesting UN action vis-a-vis the four responsible governments in the Britel case. To complement the appeal to the UN, we're circulating this petition calling for apologies from the governments of the U.S., Pakistan, Italy, and Morocco.

We would be grateful for your help. Besides giving some heart to Kassim and Anna, we hope this campaign helps point people, especially in the U.S., toward the need for meaningful amends to all survivors of U.S.-directed kidnapping and torture. The world should know there are Americans who want our government to take responsibility for disappearance and torture carried out in our names.

Can you please promote signing the e-petition via Twitter, blogging, an email listserve, etc? Or you can print this version, circulate it among friends and faith / activist communities, and return it to:

Britel Apology
NC Stop Torture Now
P.O. Box 12707
Raleigh, NC 27605

Or, scan and e-mail to: contact [at] ncstoptorturenow.org

Thank you very much!!


Related posts

For the third year in a row, supporters of the Chicago Coalition to Shut Down Guantanamo,  No Drones Illinois, and others will do public outreach at the 2014 Chicago Air and Water Show, August 16-17, 2014.

(See August 16-17: Protest U.S. Kidnapping, Torture, and Drone Assassinations at the 2014 Chicago Air and Water Show Protest .)

July 4th, 2014: “transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences”

Conditions aboard the HMS Jersey

American's Independence Day is an important occasion to consider how the very behaviors that provoked the separation of the American colonies from England are echoed in current U.S. behavior toward others.

Consider, for instance, this 2010 Independence Day essay by Amy Davidson, which points out that England had a sort of "parallel universe" set up to the north of the colonies, where the usual rules didn't apply.  The colonists referred to the Quebec Act as one of the "Intolerable Acts." Davidson says that the objections of the colonists

also have to do with a fundamental concern: liberty is not something one can simply sneak around. It wasn’t fair that colonists had their rights as Englishmen denied while living under British rule, even if they weren’t technically in England. And they didn’t like the idea of the King’s government setting up what appeared to them as a sort of extraterritorial legal limbo next door. Listening to their words—“at once an example and fit instrument” for the subversion of rights—it is very easy to think of Guantánamo. 

See "The Declaration and Guantánamo" by Amy Davidson, July 2, 2010, in The New Yorker.

Similarly, the King of England was in the habit of detaining and rendering abroad those he took issue with. Hence the language in the Declaration of Independence about “transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences." As pointed out at the website Founding.com,

This policy was so obnoxious to the Americans that the first Continental Congress on October 21, 1774, adopted a resolution declaring "That the seizing, or attempting to seize, any person in America, in order to transport such person beyond the sea, for trial of offenses, committed within the body of a county in America, being against law, will justify, and ought to meet with resistance and reprisal."

(See the discussion of Founding.com: A Project of the Claremont Institute)

So: the 4th of July -- an important day for thinking about our roots and the standards to which we hold ourselves.

Happy 238th anniversary of our "liberty."

Guantánamo's “Forever Prisoner”: Muaz al-Alawi

"It is, I believe, impossible to argue with the logic of Muaz al-Alawi, a Yemeni prisoner in Guantánamo," says analyst Andy Worthington . . .

[Al-Alawi] recently told his lawyer, Ramzi Kassem, that, when attempting to make sense of Guantánamo, only one analysis is necessary: “It is all political,” al-Alawi told him. “It is all theater, it is all a game….”

Held mostly without charge or trial for 12 and a half years, they [prisoners] have discovered that being cleared for release means nothing, as 78 of the 149 men still held have been cleared for release—all but three since January 2010, when a high-level task force appointed by President Obama issued its recommendations regarding the disposition of the remaining prisoners.

Muaz al-Alawi

Al-Alawi, on the other hand, is one of 61 other prisoners recommended for ongoing imprisonment without charge or trial by the task force, or for prosecutions that are no longer going ahead, who are slowly having their cases reviewed by Periodic Review Boards. These review boards have so far recommended three men for release, but they have not been freed….

In February 2013, al-Alawi responded to this seemingly endless injustice by embarking on a hunger strike, as part of the prison-wide hunger strike that took place last year, and was force-fed every day. Moreover, he has continued on a hunger strike, and is still force-fed, and, although reliable figures for the current number of hunger strikers are hard to come by, because the authorities stopped reporting them at the end of last year, the legal team for another force-fed prisoner, Abu Wa’el Dhiab, recently stated that they believe there are currently 34 hunger strikers, and that 18 are being force-fed.

Read the full commentary: “It Is All Theater, It Is All A Game,” Yemeni “Forever Prisoner” Says from Guantánamo on Andy Worthington's website.

401 Days Have Passed Since President Obama’s Renewed Promise to Close Guantánamo: Only 17 Men Released as of June 27, 2014

• 149 men remain imprisoned. 141 of them haven’t been charged.
• 78 men have been cleared for release, most of whom have been imprisoned without charge for more than 11 years.
• An unknown number of men are on hunger strike and are being force-fed.

Force-feeding is in violation of Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. A mass hunger strike began on February 6, 2013. At its height, in June 2013, 106 men were reportedly participating in the hunger strike. On December 3, 2013, the U.S. military stopped daily reporting on the number of hunger strikers.

Torture Connection: From Guantanamo to Abu Ghraib

When you think "Iraq," one of the things you probably think about is Abu Ghraib.

And when you think "Abu Ghraib," you'll be right to ask, "Why does this seem so much like Guantanamo?"

From the Center for Torture Accountability:

As commanding officer responsible for interrogation of "high-value" prisoners at Guantanamo, Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller implemented policies aimed at combining degrading detention conditions with interrogation methods, [using] dogs… and daily doses of degradation in prison routine, aimed at breaking prisoners mentally and emotionally.

When legal officers confronted him about the illegality of his procedures…Miller responded that these detainees would never be brought to trial, not "after what we've done to them."

In September 2003, upon orders from Donald Rumsfeld, Gen. Miller led a mission to "reform" interrogation methods at prisons in Iraq, including Abu Ghraib…

He met with some resistance from officers…But within a few months, officers and contractors more comfortable with Gen. Miller's approach were assigned to Abu Ghraib, and dogs, hoods, and other implements of Miller's torture methods soon became widespread in Iraqi detention facilities. The infamous Abu Ghraib photos were taken about two months after Miller's visit.

In April 2004, Maj. Gen. Miller moved from Guantanamo to Iraq and formally took over command of prisons and interrogations. When news of Abu Ghraib broke, however, he denied involvement, insisting that the abuse there preceded his posting to Iraq. Gen. Janis Karpinski, who had supervised the prison when Miller first showed up to urge "gitmo- ization" and who had attempted to resist the new methods, was cited for losing control of the prison and removed from command. Eventually, the officer who investigated the incident, Gen. Taguba, concluded that Miller's new methods had led to the breakdown of discipline among soldiers assigned to guard duty at Abu Ghraib and thus could be considered ultimately responsible for the atrocities committed there.

[I]n May 2006, Miller was asked to testify at the trial of soldiers who had worked handling dogs at Abu Ghraib. Miller refused to testify, claiming his right against self-incrimination… Such claims by high-level officers are virtually unheard of. He was pressured to testify by threatened cancellation of his retirement plans, and he finally appeared in court to say that he ordered use of dogs only to maintain security in the prison, not to enhance interrogations. The next day, Lt. Col. Jerry Phillabaum directly contradicted this assertion.

Miller retired in August 2006. At his retirement ceremony, he was awarded a medal for distinguished service and a citation for "innovation" in his career.

Read the full article: Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller enhanced prisoner interrogation with degrading conditions of confinement

394 Days Have Passed Since President Obama’s Renewed Promise to Close Guantánamo: Only 17 Men Released as of June 20, 2014

. 149 men remain imprisoned. 141 of them haven’t been charged.
. 78 men have been cleared for release, most of whom have been imprisoned without charge for more than 11 years.
. An unknown number of men are on hunger strike and are being force-fed. A mass hunger strike began on February 6, 2013. At its height, in June 2013, 106 men were reportedly participating in the hunger strike. On December 3, 2013, the U.S. military stopped daily reporting on the number of hunger strikers.

Join the Chicago Coalition to Shut Down Guantanamo at our vigil every Friday.

Torture? Religious Humiliation? Just Standard Operating Procedure . . .

Yuksel Celikgogus
The plaintiffs in Celikgogus include Yuksel Celikgogus and
Ibrahim Sen, two Turkish citizens who were released from
Guantánamo in 2004; Turkish citizen Nuri Mert; Uzbekistan
citizen Zakirjan Hasam; and Algerian citizen Abu Muhammad.

Judge: their treatment “appear[ed] to be standard for all” U.S. military detainees in Guantanamo, Iraq, and Afghanistan....”



From a June 10, 2014, press release by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR):

Court Finds Torture and Abuse of Former Guantánamo Detainees “Standard”, “Foreseeable”

June 10, 2014, Washington, DC – A federal appeals court today dismissed a civil lawsuit brought by six men formerly held at Guantánamo who were wrongly detained and abused while at the prison…

In dismissing their claims, the D.C. Circuit stated that the torture and religious humiliation these men endured—even after being cleared for release by the military—were incidental to the “need to maintain an orderly detention environment,” [and] “appear[ed] to be standard for all” U.S. military detainees in Guantanamo, Iraq, and Afghanistan....”

“It is deeply disturbing and disappointing that the court has refused to hold those in the military command responsible for the abuse and prolonged detention of individuals who were determined not to be enemy combatants. Torture and religious humiliation are unacceptable wherever they occur. When it is directed at individuals known not to be our enemies, it defies comprehension. This decision regrettably leaves these plaintiffs with nothing for their abuse,” said [attorney] Russell P. Cohen of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, who argued the case…

Unlike prior cases, three of the plaintiffs in this case were abused even after they were found to not be enemy combatants…

“If the court is correct that torture and religious humiliation are par for the course for detainees in the custody of our armed forces, that is an indictment of the way the United States treats its military detainees,” said Shayana Kadidal, counsel for the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) in the case and Senior Managing Attorney of the Guantanamo project at CCR.

Read the full press release from CCR: Court Finds Torture and Abuse of Former Guantánamo Detainees “Standard”, “Foreseeable”

President Obama Has the Authority - Why Haven't the Guantanamo Detainees Been Released?

IMPERIAL MOMENT?
President Obama can release detainees when it suits him

This week President Obama authorized a prisoner exchange, turning 5 Guantanamo prisoners alleged to be members of the Taliban over to the government of Qatar, in return for the release of a US soldier, showing that he has the means to keep his promise to shut down Guantanamo.

Cori Crider, the strategic director for Reprieve, a U.K.-based human rights charity, said Monday that the transfer of the five inmates in exchange for P.O.W. Bowe Bergdahl, a U.S. Army soldier, underscores that President Obama can move quickly to shutter Guantanamo if he has the political will to act.

“For years we at Reprieve have represented many of these people: a slew of warehoused individuals, cleared for years – meaning that they were determined by every [U.S.] security agency you and I have ever heard of to be no threat to anyone…”

“Many of these are being force-fed daily in a disgusting manner because they have been cleared so long they believe they will die in Gitmo,” Crider said. “Yet they could leave tomorrow with a stroke of Obama’s pen. Let’s hope this deal is a sign of more leadership from President Obama on letting the cleared men go home, too.”

(See The Guardian, June 3, 2014, "Forget the 'Taliban Five' – Obama's real chance is to free Gitmo's Cleared 78" by Cori Crider)

Raha Wala, an attorney with Human Rights First, told Al Jazeera if the administration can make the argument that the five Taliban detainees are transferrable “without any significant problems under the congressionally imposed transfer restrictions,” then certainly “the same argument can be made for the detainees who have already been cleared for release.”

(See Al-Jazeera, June 2, 2014, "Release of Taliban detainees shows Obama has power to close Gitmo" by Jason Leopold)

380 Days Have Passed Since President Obama’s Renewed Promise to Close Guantánamo: Only 17 Men Released as of June 6, 2014

* 149 men remain imprisoned. 141 of them haven’t been charged.
* 78 men have been cleared for release, most of whom have been imprisoned without charge for more than 11 years.
* An unknown number of men are on hunger strike and are being force-fed. Force-feeding is in violation of Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. A mass hunger strike began on February 6, 2013. At its height, in June 2013, 106 men were reportedly participating in the hunger strike. On December 3, 2013, the U.S. military stopped daily reporting on the number of hunger strikers.

Join the Chicago Coalition to Shut Down Guantanamo at our vigil every Friday.

Related links

"So the release of the five Afghans, including, by some accounts, known figures in the Taliban, fits a larger pattern in which the many dozens of inmates not accused of any crime and, in fact, cleared for release by successive American administrations languish for years on end. For many, the difference between liberation and limbo has nothing to do with justice or legality, but just the luck of what nationality a prisoner happens to hold . . . . "

June 8, 2014, The New York Times, "A View From Gitmo" by Ramzi Kassem.