New Haven Independent

“We’re not blocking the sidewalk and we’re just practicing our right to free speech,” explained Stephen Kobasa (on the right in the picture, with a passerby). Asked by a reporter if there was a problem with that, one of the officers replied, “It’s just the orange suits are creating a little disturbance, that’s all. We got the courthouse over there [across the Green], we got the jailhouse. We don’t want to scare people.” They worked it out amicably.

Leafletter Barney Bate agreed the whole issue was scary — not for people strolling down Chapel Street at lunchtime on Friday, but for the 300 or so prisoners still held at Gitmo without charges or much hope of a trial. The Bush administration has quietly released several hundred men and boys since opening the prison on January 11, 2002, without ever charging them with a crime.

Bate (pictured on the right, eyeing his next potential leafletee) said said he wants the prison shut down immediately, although he said he has “no idea” what should then happen to the men. “I leave that to the policymakers,” he said.

Although many passersby declined the fliers, several who took them expressed similar, strongly worded condemnations. One said that President Bush “should be hung” for the policies he’s pursued since coming to office.

Joshua Schreier (pictured with Kobasa above) said he could see the protesters’ point of view, but also the administration’s. “They’ll argue that you can’t release the detainees for fear they’re going to be perpetrators of another September 11th-type attack.” But he went on to say that “human rights should pertain to all humans,” and he took several flyers he said he’d pass out.

One of the three “prisoners” in orange jump suits and black hoods was Mark Colville (pictured donning his suit), who journeyed with 25 others in December of 2005 to Cuba in hopes of visiting the prisoners at the camp. They walked for 50 miles to the outskirts of Gitmo, but were prevented by the U.S. military from going any further.

“Part of the reason I come out today,” he said, “is that if torture and the violation of our Constitution — if that ever becomes something we have to learn to get comfortable with, then we’re in serious trouble. Eventually that kind of violence always comes back to the people who purvey it. In many ways I’m out here for myself and my family and my community as well as the people in Guantanamo.”

Protests were held around the world on Jan. 11, organized by Amnesty International and other groups.