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After 11 years, it's time to close Guantanamo

Thursday 10 January 2013
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Tomorrow marks 11 long years since the US detention facility at Guantanamo opened.

It is universally regarded as a place of torture and abuse, where human rights are routinely violated.

While it remains in existence, it stains the reputation of the United States and its supporters, and denies justice to the prisoners still held there beyond the rule of law.

The re-election of President Barack Obama should be the green light to its closure. Obama could end what he himself described as "this sad chapter in American history."

His nomination of Chuck Hagel as secretary of defence is a hopeful sign - he is on record to have stated that "the military prison is why the US is losing the image war."

Tomorrow, campaigners will join the London Guantanamo Campaign to tour London embassies, marking the rendition routes of prisoners who were cruelly transported to Guantanamo on secret CIA torture flights.

Many countries including Turkey, Portugal, Spain and Britain, allowed the use of their airspace and facilities for these covert operations across national borders in breach of international rules and agreements.

The Save Shaker Aamer Campaign welcomes support for Shaker Aamer's Rendition Route to torture.

Please meet outside South Kensington Tube station at 2pm to start the tour, marking Shaker's cruel abduction and torture and rendition journey from Bagram, Afghanistan, to Guantanamo.

The route will end at the US embassy for a candle-lit vigil from 6pm.

Join us to demand that President Obama fulfils his pledge to close Guantanamo.

He could start now with the release and return to Britain of British resident Shaker, held for nearly 11 years in Guantanamo without charge or trial.

Joy Hurcombe

Worthing

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