Anti-Torture Activists to Rally, Commit Civil Disobedience at White House

The following news advisory comes from Witness Against Torture.

On April 30th, hundreds of human rights activists will gather near the White House to call on the Obama administration to support a criminal

inquiry into torture under the Bush administration and to fully break with past detention policies.

At a rally at Lafayette Park at 11:15 am, members of Witness Against Torture, Amnesty International, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the Torture Abolition Survivors Support Coalition will speak out about the need for accountability and an end to Bush-era policies. At noon, sixty activists from Witness Against Torture -- each representing one of the Guantanamo inmates cleared for release but still imprisoned – will risk arrest.

“Despite early, encouraging signs,” says Matthew Daloisio of Witness Against Torture, “the Obama administration has been a disappointment with respect to detainee issues and torture. President Obama has been reluctant to investigate possible, past crimes, and many of the immoral and illegal policies of the Bush administration -- from the denial of habeas rights at Bagram Air Base, to the continued detention of innocent men in Guantanamo -- remain in place. We need accountability, not immunity, and an end to the abuse of detainees. This president and many members of Congress are in office partly

because of their promise to repudiate Bush's detention regime. It's time they live up to that promise."