Avaaz .org  "voice" or "song" in several languages

Avaaz.org is an online community for global citizens to take action on urgent global issues, from climate change to global poverty to the crisis in the Middle East.  Our mission is to ensure that the views and values of the world's people shape global decisions. We use the latest technology to empower people to directly contact key global decision-makers, corporations, and the media when there is an urgent opportunity to make a difference. Avaaz.org was co-founded by MoveOn.org Civic Action and Res Publica.

Dear Avaaz Member,

Adel Hamad grew up in a small village in Sudan. Through hard work, he became a schoolteacher and hospital assistant. To support his family he took a better job at a community hospital in Afghanistan. Then late one night he was torn from his bed and sent to hell, as Guantanamo Bay Detainee #940.

Adel Hamad has had no trial. He has seen no family members for four years. Even US military officers reviewing his situation have called his detention "unconscionable." But he and nearly 400 other prisoners are still trapped at Guantanamo. Last week US Defense Secretary Robert Gates finally said Guantanamo should be closed. President Bush's advisors are split down the middle on this issue -- a massive global outcry could tip the balance, and push Bush to close Guantanamo forever. Click below to sign the Close Guantanamo petition, and we'll run ads next week in major US papers announcing the number of signatures:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/close_guantanamo

It's now clear that many of the detainees are simply innocent people caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. Guantanamo's former commander General Jay Hood has admitted, "Sometimes we just didn't get the right folks." This is what happens when people are held without charge or trial.
After being held for five years, last week Australian David Hicks was finally charged -- and sentenced to just 9 months in an Australian prison. This hardly looks like the "worst of the worst" - words the Bush Administration used to justify ignoring basic standards of justice. Meanwhile, as regimes around the world use Guantanamo to excuse their own human rights abuses, international law keeps taking a beating.

Sign the petition calling on the US government to close Guantanamo , and for its inmates to be tried in a legitimate court or set free. Let's run ads in Washington DC and show that citizens from every country on earth want this injustice to end:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/close_guantanamo

In hope,

Ricken, David, Iain, Lee-Sean, Galit, Graziela, and the whole AVAAZ team

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