Six years of Guantanamo - What do the candidates think?

Today marks a shameful anniversary: it is six years since the opening of the detention camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Six years after the first 20 men arrived at the offshore prison camp, Guantánamo has held close to 800 men and become an international symbol of torture, abuse of executive power, and disregard for the rule of law. Guantánamo should be a central issue for the presidential candidates: please help us pin them down to concrete plans and solutions, not just vague statements. Write the candidates today and demand that they promise to close Guantánamo.

Hundreds of detainees remain imprisoned, and not one detainee has had a fair hearing before a real court despite the Supreme Court's 2004 decision in our landmark case Rasul v. Bush that the men at Guantánamo have the right to habeas corpus. In December, we represented detainees before the Supreme Court yet again and await the decision this spring.

CCR is leading the legal battle to close Guantánamo, but it will take a commitment from all branches of our government to shut down the detention center safely and permanently. Many of the 2008 presidential candidates have said they will close Guantánamo, but promises oftentimes aren't backed up by action. President Bush himself has repeatedly said he would like to close Guantánamo, but many empty promises later, it still remains open.

And it's not just about closing Guantánamo: it's about making sure that detainees who are released are safely resettled, without fear of further torture or indefinite detention; it's about closing U.S. detention sites - like Bagram in Afghanistan and the CIA black sites - that are scattered all around the world. It's about rescuing our Constitution.

Take action today! Write to all of the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates and demand that they promise to:

* Close Guantánamo and provide a detailed plan for how and when they would do so;
* End the use of torture, extraordinary rendition, and ghost detention;
* Rescind the legal memos that have been used by this administration to justify and redefine torture;
* Safely resettle all released detainees and work actively to find safe third countries for those who fear torture in their home countries;
* Abide by the Geneva Conventions, international law, and all of the treaties we have signed.

It's past time to move our country Beyond Guantánamo, beyond torture, and beyond the impunity of the Bush administration and the executive branch. Let the Democratic and Republican candidates know that whoever is elected our next President must respect the rule of law and restore the Constitution.

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