See details below for various events throughout the week.

• Tuesday January 5: Meet to Plan Opposition to Biden Pick for Intelligence Chief
• Thursday January 7: Virtual Training on Virtual Lobbying
• Monday January 11 Events:
  • 1:00 pm ET: Virtual vigil: 19 Years of Guantanamo: Remembering the Men Detained.  RSVP  and bring a candle or sign
  • 5-6:30 pm ET: Rights or Rightlessness? The Lives of Men Imprisoned at Guantanamo RSVP for Zoom link or watch live on Facebook
  • 8:00 pm ET: First Virtual WAT Circle for WAT fasters and solidarity activists
• Fast for Justice: Monday through Friday, January 11-15, at 8 pm ET each night RSVP to be sent the Zoom link.
  • 8 pm ET Zoom circles Monday through Friday will be like our morning gatherings in DC: opening with a reflection or song, and checking in with each other and sharing around the circle around a specific theme .
  • Friday night Zoom circle is a celebration, including poetry and music with the Peace Poets.
  • Fasting: In solidarity with the men detained in Guantanamo, especially the hunger strikers. You decide how to fast: Liquid only? Ramadan? Lenten? Other? Not this year?
  • Daily solidarity action menu (see details below):
    • Oppose Senate approval of Avril Haines, Drone War Sanitizer, for Biden Intelligence Chief (Planning Meeting Tue Jan 5 at 4 pm ET; Calling Senators ongoing)
    • Lobby Congress (Training Thu Jan 7 at 8 pm; Calling Congress ongoing)
    • Write letters to the detainees
    • Write letters to the editor of your local paper
    • Write comments about relevant news articles and blogs
    • Hold local vigils (many listed below, starting Jan 6th)
    • Share WAT’s letter to President-elect Biden with local circles
• January 20 Inauguration Day: a small but very visible group will converge on the outdoor events in orange jump suits and hoods. For details, email WitnessTorture@gmail.com.

 
Solidarity Actions for Fast for Justice

Oppose Senate approval of Avril Haines, Drone War Sanitizer, for Biden Intelligence Chief
It worked! In December, WAT and other human rights groups helped to block torture apologist Mike Morell from being nominated to lead the CIA. Shortly after we sent a letter to Biden detailing Morell’s lies about torture, signed by many torture survivors, Biden quietly withdrew the nomination.

Now we need you to take action to prevent Avril Haines from being appointed as Director of National Intelligence. Urge Senators to VOTE NO on torture apologist and drone strike authorizer Avril Haines for Director of National Intelligence. As Deputy Director of the CIA under Obama she signed off on drone murders and co-wrote guidelines blurring the difference between enemy combatants and civilians. Tuesday January 5 from 4 to 5 pm ET: Join Code Pink and anti-drone activists for a call focusing on the upcoming confirmation hearings. After that, call Senators!
Get details for the call and talking points and numbers for calling Senators.

Lobby Congress
Attend the training: Lobbying in a Time of Pandemic Thursday January 7 at 8 pm ET.  If you can’t make the training, contact Richard Sroczynski (rsroczynski@verizon.net) for handouts and information. Call your Congresspeople the week of January 11.  The prospect of moving Guantanamo to a just and overdue resolution is better than we’ve had in years with the new incoming administration. The Biden transition team assures us that they are committed to closing Guantanamo, and recommendations have been offered regarding how the President can close Guantanamo without Congress. However it is more likely to happen quickly with Congressional and public support. We encourage everyone to contact your Congresspersons, especially if they are members of the Armed Services or Homeland Security Committee, the week of January 11 to encourage them to close Guantanamo in a just and quick manner. Talking points and Congressional targets will be circulated soon.

Send letters to the men in Guantanamo
NCSTN’s (North Carolina Stop Torture Now) new website helps to mobilize letter-writers and to track which men have already received letters. Go to the Google doc: It’s easy.  A sample letter is linked on the site and the mailing address is provided.  Letters are even more important now because of COVID-19: the men are even further isolated because their attorneys have reduced their visits and the International Committee of the Red Cross (the ONLY NGO allowed to visit them) has stopped visits entirely.

Attend local vigils
Here’s a list of ones we know about; check your local happenings too (let us know if you have a vigil to add: witnesstorture@gmail.com):

• January 6 at 12:15 PM ET: Albany Friends Meeting vigil, east side of the state capitol, where State and Eagle streets meet in Albany.
• January 8 at noon ET: Schenectady Neighbors for Peace vigil, corner of State Street and Erie Boulevard in Schenectady.
• January 9 at noon ET: Chatham Neighbors for Peace vigil, Village Green gazebo, between Park Row & Depot Square and Park Row & Main Street (Route 66) in Chatham.
• January 11: Upper NY Veterans for Peace/ Western Massachusetts Peace Action.
• January 11 at 10 AM PT: Interfaith Community for Justice and Peace webinar in Los Angeles: http://www.icujp.org/close_guantanamo_2021.
• January 11 at noon to 1 PM ET: No More Guantanamos vigil in Commons, Greenfield Mass.
• January 11 at 1:30-2:30 PM: No More Guantanamos vigil, Downtown Northampton, MA.
• January 11 at 4:00 PM: Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace vigil, corner of Delaware and Kenwood Avenues (the five corners) in Delmar.
• January 15 at noon: Schenectady Neighbors for Peace vigil, corner of State Street and Erie Boulevard in Schenectady.

Share the WAT letter to Biden with your local peace circles
WAT sent a letter to Biden in October urging his team to remember the men in Guantanamo.  Print or download and share our letter with your local peace circles and urge them to join in: 1) making calls to the Senate about the Avril Haines nomination; and 2) calling your Congresspeople urging pressure on Biden to do the right thing for the men detained in Guantanamo.

Get updates on Guantanamo
Andy Worthington summarizes and critiques a recent NYT article documenting the decaying infrastructure of the prison.  The Times largely sidestepped the glaring injustice of the entire facility — where 40 men are still held, for the most part, in open-ended indefinite detention without charge or trial, in defiance of domestic and international norms regarding imprisonment — focusing instead on the prison’s “decaying infrastructure” and its broken judicial system, the military commissions.