MCLU Applauds Portland Council Vote on Closing Guantánamo

For immediate release June 3, 2008

PORTLAND – The Maine Civil Liberties Union today congratulated the Portland City Council, who in a majority vote Monday night urged closure of the American detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The resolution, which passed on a 6-3 vote, also encourages residents to visit the replica of a Guantánamo cell which will be in Monument Square from Thursday, June 5 to Saturday, June 7.

“The very moral fabric of our society is threatened by the abuses that continue to occur at Guantánamo,” said Shenna Bellows, Executive Director of the MCLU. “The Portland City Council represents all of us who refuse to be silent or complicit in the tragedy of Guantánamo."

The Council’s vote comes as a coalition of groups including the MCLU, Portland prepares for the visit this week of a full-sized replica of a Guantánamo prison cell which will be in Monument Square from Thursday June 5 to Saturday, June 7. The cell will provide Mainers with a chance to reflect on the conditions in which many detainees have been held without charges and subjected to abuse.  The kick-off rally for the cell visit will be Thursday, June 5 at 11:30 p.m.

The cell’s visit to Portland is part of a series of events, “Counter Terror With Justice,” which highlights the conditions at the facility. Documents uncovered by the ACLU using the Freedom of Information Act described prisoners shackled in humiliating positions, subjected to extremes of heat and cold, and stripped, hooded and terrorized by dogs.

The issues surrounding Guantánamo will be discussed at a MCLU and Amnesty hosted Keynote Panel Discussion featuring ACLU National Security Program Director Jameel Jaffer, who was instrumental in documenting the abuses at Guantánamo and has served as a monitor of the military commissioners there. Also on the panel, which will be held at Rines Auditorium in the Portland Public Library at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, June 5, will be Amnesty International Executive Director Larry Cox and Center for Constitutional Rights Staff Attorney Pardiss Kabriaei.

A poetry reading and film showing, as well as other events, will take place throughout the next week as part of the “Counter Terror with Justice” campaign surrounding the cell visit.

For more information, on the schedule of events, visit our website at MCLU.org.