On January 11, 2008 the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay will celebrate an unfortunate anniversary. Its sixth anniversary.
The United States will have been holding detainees there, outside of legal guidelines and international law, for longer than the American involvement in, say, World War II. Longer than the Civil War. Longer than most Presidencies.
Six years.
The ACLU wants to make people aware that Guantanamo still exists. That people are still held there. That it’s time to close Guantanamo, and send the detainees home or accord them all the rights and privileges afforded prisoners of war.
The ACLU wants people to wear orange next Friday, on January 11th.
I’m not sure that I own anything orange. I think, this weekend, that’s going to change.
Guantanamo Bay. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell has declared that “we have shaken the belief the world had in America’s justice system by keeping a place like Guantánamo open and creating things like the military commission.” Secretary of State Condi Rice and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates have publicly stated they want it closed. It’s a national disgrace. It’s not what the United States stands for.
It’s long past time to close it.
Wear orange.