Say Guantanamo Injustice Tied to Torture Flights, Drone Killings
CHICAGO—(ENEWSPF)—August 15, 2014. A coalition of more than 15 local peace and justice groups has held a vigil every week for the past year at Federal Plaza, dramatizing the fate of Guantanamo detainees. On Saturday, August 16, the Chicago Coalition to Shut Down Guantanamo will take their protest to the millions of spectators at the Chicago Air & Water Show. They will demand an end to entertainment that glorifies war and tell the public about the role of Chicago-based Boeing in U.S. kidnappings, torture, and drone assassinations. The event will begin at 12 noon and take place on the North Avenue Beach, west side of North Avenue Bridge (park side).
“We’ll be there to help people connect the dots,” said Jay Becker of World Can’t Wait Chicago, a coalition founding member. “The CIA torture flights that became a common occurence in the late ‘90s were precursors to Guantanamo.” Those “extraordinary rendition” flights were coordinated by Boeing subsidiary Jeppesen Dataplan.
The protesters will also draw the connection between drone assassinations and Guantanamo detention. “In the Bush era, the government filled the detention center at Guantanamo with people who had never committed a crime, and were never given due process,” explained Joe Scarry, coordinator of No Drones Illinois, another coalition member. “The difference under Obama is that uncharged, untried, unconvicted people simply get assassinated with a U.S. drone.”
The Chicago Coalition to Shut Down Guantanamo has also joined the call for the end to U.S. drone assassinations and the suspension of production of new “killer” drones like Boeing’s “Phantom Ray,” as well as the call by the Anti-War Committee Chicago to drop Boeing as a sponsor of the Air & Water Show due to its central role in violence including Israel’s massacre in Gaza and renewed U.S. attacks in Iraq.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
http://shutdowngitmochicago.blogspot.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraordinary_rendition
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_Phantom_Ray
http://joescarry.blogspot.com/2014/08/this-is-your-war-chicago-boeing-fa-18s.html
http://antiwarcommitteechicago.blogspot.com/2014/08/newsalert-for-immediate-release-anti.html
