For Immediate Release
October 23, 2009
Contact: Eric Schmeltzer, eric@votevets.org. 646-290-8586

VETERANS STAND WITH MUSICIANS ON CALL TO CLOSE GUANTANAMO

Senior Interrogator, Counter-Intelligence Agent
Stand Firm Against Liz Cheney’s helping al Qaeda
recruit by keeping Gitmo open

WASHINGTON, DC - Veterans with experience in interrogations and intelligence are standing with musicians who have joined the National Campaign to Close Guantanamo (which includes VoteVets.org), and hitting back at those who argue that the prison facility in Cuba should be kept open.

Earlier in the week, a coalition of US and international musicians, including Trent Reznor, R.E.M., Pearl Jam, Jackson Browne, Rise Against, Rosanne Cash, Billy Bragg and the Roots announced they were joining the National Campaign to Close Guantanamo (www.closegitmonow.org)

"Guantanamo Bay remains an effective recruiting tool for Al Qaida to this day.  The longer it remains open, the longer we'll fail to do all we can to protect ourselves from terrorist attacks.  It is the epitome of everything we could have done wrong in the fight against Islamic extremism -- unlawful detentions without charge and torture and abuse.  We can only defeat ourselves in this battle, and Guantanamo Bay was, and remains, a big step in that direction," said Matthew Alexander, a former senior military interrogator who led the team that found Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, the former leader of Al Qaida in Iraq.  Alexander has conducted over 300 interrogations and supervised more than 1,000.  He is the author of How to Break a Terrorist.

A radical neo-conservative group led by Liz Cheney called those who are fighting to close Guantanamo "pathetic" in a story in the Washington Times on Thursday.

Yet, a former counter-intelligence agent in Afghanistan saw first-hand that it's Cheney who is off-base.  Jay Bagwell, who served in Afghanistan said in a video recorded previously for VoteVets.org, "Torture makes our troops less safe.  Torture creates terrorists.  It's used so widely as a propaganda tool, now.  In Afghanistan, all too often detainees had pamphlets on them depicting what happened at Guantanamo."  That video can be found here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cEJRxngNt4

VoteVets.org is the leading pro-troop, pro-security progressive group of war veterans.  It recently joined the National Campaign to Close Guantanamo, with Retired Generals Bob Gard and John Johns, and former US Congressman Tom Andrews.  The campaign will support President Obama’s call to close the prison and urge Congress to reject the scare tactics of Dick Cheney, and the far right, and shut down the Guantanamo.

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