Help us close Guantanamo

Well be welcoming Kenny Richey back to the UK from Ohios death row tomorrow, but for me today is devoted to preparing for the anniversary of illegal US detentions at Guantanamo Bay. So todays blog is a plea for your help.

This Friday 11 January marks the sixth anniversary of Guantanamo and to mark it, we are holding a demo outside the US embassy in London, calling on the US to close Guantanamo and either try or release the 300+ detainees still held there. There will also be demos in Edinburgh, Belfast, Washington and around the world.

We will have hundreds of people outside the embassy dressed in orange boiler suits, with Amnesty staff dressed as US guards with real guard dogs shouting instructions at them. It should be quite an event.

We need more people to come along so we have more impact! Last year we had around 400 people and were all over the news- have a look at some of the pics here and here - but this year we want to be bigger, bolder and louder so please, come along if you can.

All the details are here.

If youd like to come, please let Vanessa know at guantanamoanniversary6@amnesty.org.uk

Were asking people to assemble at Grosvenor Square, London W1 at 9.30am on Friday 11 January, where theyll be given an orange boiler suit and instructions on how it will all work. The demo starts at 10.30 and finishes at 11.30.

Heres a link to a map of the location from Streetmap.

Hope to see you there.

On a domestic note, check out Shami Chakrabatis well-written piece today on Comment is Free, urging the UK government to recapture some moral authority and abandon plans to allow police to lock people up for 42 days without charge. Its an issue were also campaigning on and we echo her arguments.