FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 26, 2013
Contact: Samantha Friedman, Rabinowitz/Dorf Communications, (202) 265-3000 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
National Interfaith Coalition Thanks President Obama for Moving to Repatriate Algerian Guantanamo Detainees
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the White House announced that the Department of Defense certified two detainees at the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for repatriation to Algeria.
Rev. Richard Killmer, Executive Director of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, said in response:
“Many times this year, the President has publicly committed his administration to closing the prison at Guantanamo. Today, the Obama administration has taken an important step toward following through on the President’s commitment by using the authority he and his administration have under current law to certify two Algerians for transfer out of the detention center."
Matt Hawthorne, Policy Director of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, added:
“While announcing the certifications, the Obama administration also called upon Congress to lift the restrictions that make it difficult to transfer prisoners out of Guantanamo. As people of faith, the members of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture join in calling upon Congress to assist in closing Guantanamo swiftly. Guantanamo is an open moral wound – a symbol of the torture that once occurred there and the indefinite detention without charge or trial that continues there to this day.
President Obama and his administration have done the right thing by certifying these transfers. We call upon the Obama administration to continue certifying additional detainees for transfer, and we call upon Congress to ease the restrictions on transfers. The prison at Guantanamo Bay is both financially expensive and morally indefensible. It is time to close it.”
The National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) is a membership organization committed to ending U.S.-sponsored torture, and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. Since its formation in January 2006, more than 320 religious organizations have joined NRCAT, including representatives from the Catholic, evangelical Christian, mainline Protestant, Unitarian Universalist, Quaker, Orthodox Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Baha’i, Buddhist, and Sikh communities. Members include national denominations and faith groups, regional organizations and local congregations.
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