SAMPLE LETTER TO EDITOR
(Look up your newspaper's contact information here)
January 11, 2007 marks the fifth anniversary of the arrival of the first detainees to Guantánamo Bay. For five years, the vast majority of these men have been held in indefinite detention, without charge or trial. For five years, we have heard stories of torture and ill-treatment, hunger strikes, and suicides attempts and apparent suicides. And for five years, we have been assured that these detainees were captured “on the battlefield” and represent the “worst of the worst”.
Yet our government’s own tribunals have determined that over half of those detained never committed any hostile acts against the United States. And most of those held at Guantánamo were not captured on any battlefield, but were handed over to the US by others in exchange for cash rewards.
Undoubtedly, this practice of paying bounties for prisoners has led to mistakes, yet for five years the US government has denied that these men have the basic right to challenge their detentions.
The past five years have been a degrading experience, both for Guantánamo Bay detainees and for the United States. The America I believe in does not torture people, leave people in a hopeless legal limbo, or undermine due process. It is time for the US government to end this unhealthy attachment to Guantánamo Bay. We should close Guantánamo, and either charge and fairly try the detainees, or release them. Five years of lawlessness is too long.
[Your name]
[Amnesty International, group # or other AIUSA affiliation]
[Daytime phone number, not for publication, just for verification of authorship]
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