Dear Friends, 

NRCAT applauds the announcement this week that the Biden Administration has transferred 3 men from the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay. 27 men now remain detained in the detention center that President Biden has said that he wants to close. We urge the Biden Administration to do all it can in its final weeks towards its closure, especially to transfer the 15 men who are already cleared for transfer. You can help by writing to the President today.

Yesterday, the Department of Defense announced Mohammed Abdul Malik Bajabu’s return to Kenya, three years after an extensive review process determined he could be transferred. He was never charged with a crime during his almost 18 years imprisoned at Guantánamo Bay. Also, today the Department of Defense announced the transfer to Malaysia of two men held in U.S. custody since 2003.

I invite you to donate to NRCAT today to support NRCAT's national staff and religious members in working to close the Guantánamo Bay detention center, a site of abhorrent torture and a symbol of torture the world over. 

January 11, 2025, will mark 23 years since the opening of the Guantánamo Bay detention center. The National Religious Campaign Against Torture is co-sponsoring vigils and rallies in cities across the country to call for the closure of the prison and end to indefinite detention. If your religious organization would like to host or co-sponsor an event or to receive a “Close Guantanamo” banner, please contact me, Rev. T.C. Morrow, at [email protected]. 

These next weeks are the last chance the Biden Administration has to fulfill its pledge to work toward a lawful solution for the men still held at Guantánamo. Your donation to our year-end fundraising campaign, “My Faith Says ‘No’ To Torture,” will buoy our work for the closure of Guantánamo.

Thank you for your on-going witness for the closure of the Guantánamo detention center, a moral stain on this country that must be shuttered. 

Sincerely,

Rev. T.C. Morrow
Director of Finance & Operations

PS – December 10, 2024 marked 10 years since the release of the 500-page executive summary and findings from the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on its investigation into the CIA’s post-9/11 torture program. I invite you to read and share an op-ed in The Hill, “10 years later: The CIA ‘Torture Report’ and America’s accountability deficit” by Yumna Rizvi, senior policy analyst at The Center for Victims of Torture.