Roger Waters — Wish You Were Here

Yesterday, the UK Supreme Court rejected Julian Assange’s appeal against his extradition to the United States. At the Belmarsh Tribunal in New York City on 25 February 2022, Roger Waters played a stunning rendition of Wish You Were Here for Assange. Watch the Belmarsh Tribunal here: ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• ABOUT THE BELMARSH TRIBUNAL Inspired by the Russell-Sartre Tribunals of the late 1960s, which put the US government on trial for its war crimes in Vietnam, the Belmarsh Tribunal will expose the crimes of the so-called War on Terror 20 years after the first prisoners were brought to Guantánamo Bay — and call for Assange’s freedom. The event — convened in partnership with @DiEM25, the Courage Foundation, @The People’s Forum NYC, DSA International Committee, @The Intercept, @Peoples Dispatch and the International People’s Assembly — was chaired by philosopher Srećko Horvat and civil rights attorney Margaret Kunstler. Witnesses included: Alice Walker, Angela Richter, Austin González, Balthesar Garzón, Chip Gibbons, Chris Hedges, Clare Daly, Claudia De la Cruz, Cornel West, Deborah Hrbek, Golriz Ghahraman, Guillaume Long, Jeremy Scahill, Jodi Dean, Milo Rau, Nancy Hollander, Nathan Fuller, Nick Estes, Noam Chomsky, Renata Avila, Roger Waters, Sevim Dagdalen, Srećko Horvat, Steven Donziger, Vijay Prashad, and Yanis Varoufakis. The Belmarsh Tribunal coincided with the 20th anniversary of the opening of the concentration camp at occupied Guantánamo Bay on Cuba’s southeastern shore. In January 2002, the first 20 detainees arrived at the site. Since then, 779 Muslim men and boys from 49 countries have been held there. The youngest detainee was just 14 when he arrived. The oldest was 89. Over years and decades, detainees faced torture, ritual humiliation, and the uncertainty of prolonged detention without charges or trial. Two decades after the facility opened its doors, 39 people continue to languish at Guantánamo, 27 of them without charge — “eternal prisoners” with little hope for release, and no prospects for justice. Many of them remain confined for the simple reason that their release would allow them to testify to the brutal treatment they endured. Classified documents leaked by Chelsea Manning and published by Wikileaks in 2011 revealed the grim contours of the US regime of detention and torture at Guantánamo. Many prisoners — among them a journalist from Al Jazeera — were held for years despite officially posing no threat to the US. Many developed severe mental health problems as a result of their treatment. Some committed suicide. But, today, it is not the perpetrators who face persecution, but the whistleblowers. In April this year, Julian Assange will enter his third year of detention at HMP Belmarsh — a maximum-security prison, sometimes referred to as “Britain’s Guantánamo”, that was infamously used to detain terrorist suspects without trial — as he seeks to appeal a court decision to extradite him to the US. On 25 February 2022, at the People’s Forum in New York City, we convened legal experts, UN representatives, whistleblowers, journalists, and many others to investigate and expose the crimes of the so-called War on Terror, to seek justice for its victims, and to demand the closure of the concentration camp at Guantánamo Bay. ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• SUPPORT US It is time for progressives of the world to unite. Show your support. FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA Facebook: Twitter: Instagram: