FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jan. 9, 2023
Media Contact: Melissa Garriga [email protected]
Tomorrow in Berkeley: Press Conference, Bake Sale, and a Citizen’s Arrest?
WHERE: UC Berkeley Law School, 2763 Bancroft Way, Berkeley (Bancroft @ College Ave.)
(Note: If raining, the press conference will be held inside the Law School on the ground floor)
BERKELEY, CA – The Bay Area Chapter of CODEPINK will hold a bake sale and press conference on Wednesday, January 10 at noon next to the UC Berkeley Law School to mark the 22nd anniversary of Guantanamo Prison. The bake sale will benefit the Guantanamo Survivors Fund.
Bake sale participants have invited Berkeley Law Professor John Yoo to donate a year's salary (about $500,000) to the Guantanamo Survivors Fund, which has so far raised $92,000. Professor Yoo is tenured and has been honored with an endowed chair at the law school despite the fact he is a war criminal.
Professor Yoo's “Torture Memos”, which have since been discredited as "shoddy" and "unprofessional", enabled the Bush Administration to establish the U.S. torture program at Guantanamo and elsewhere. It is only fitting and expected that Yoo would contribute to helping the men tortured at Guantanamo recover from their trauma. We welcome this gesture of restitution by Professor Yoo in the spirit of restorative justice.
The Survivors Fund aims to help former Guantanamo prisoners who were released and who were tortured, some held without charge for up to 14 years. Former prisoners need medical care, rent, language classes, tuition, and job training to to be reintegrated into society but received nothing when they were released from Guantanamo by the U.S. government. They never even received their confiscated belongings when they were released.
Participants will be on the scene in orange Guantanamo jumpsuits. They will carry handcuffs, crime scene tape, and a black and white prison suit if needed for a possible citizens' arrest of a war criminal. For more information, please contact: Cynthia at 510-365-1500 or [email protected].
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