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Activists Rally To Close Guantanamo

WAMC

Activists in 46 cities demonstrated Friday to call on President Obama to make good on a promise to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay.

Activists in Springfield, Massachusetts, some dressed in orange jumpsuits with black hoods, walked slowly down Main Street and then stood silently in a plaza with a banner that read “Close Guantanamo.”  Bruce Miller said the protests come exactly one year after President Obama recommitted to closing down the facility that has been used to hold terrorist suspects since 9-11.

"We are a country that  prides ourselves on the rule of law. Holding people and abusing them for a dozen years without any charges is an affront to everything we stand for."

Groups are also calling for the release of the full Senate report on the CIA detainee program.

The record-setting tenure of Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno. The 2011 tornado and its recovery that remade the largest city in Western Massachusetts. The fallout from the deadly COVID outbreak at the Holyoke Soldiers Home. Those are just a few of the thousands and thousands of stories WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill has covered for WAMC in his nearly 17 years with the station.