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Anthony: Thank you Senator Leahy, both for your courage and our wisdom. We want to present
you today with colleagues from ours from seven other nonprofit groups who've been working
hard over these last several months: Linda Andros from Public Citizen, Tony from the
Alliance For Justice, Dorothy Scott-Martin from The True Majority, Mary Harding from
the Torture, Abuse, and Survivors Support Coalition, the Rev. Richard Kilmer from the
National Religious Campaign Against Torture, Sergio Lopez from People For The American
Way, and my girlfriend, Caroline Fredrickson from the ACLU. We want to present you with
these 250,000 petitions from true patriots who've demanded the restoration of Habeas
Corpus, addressed to the representatives of the House and Senate. Thank you for your leadership
and we look forward to working with you in the years and the months ahead. Thank you
very much Senator. Senator Leahy: Thank you all.
Anthony: Now my friends, are there any card-carrying members in the house? Are there only that
many? Where are the others? Come on. I didn't hear. Are there any others? I want to really
thank you all for turning out today. This is a remarkable day when true patriots storm
Capital Hill to demand the return of our basic liberties and basic rights. My friends, we've
lived through some very dark times over these last six years, but we're making process.
We look across this incredible crowd of people who've come from all across the country, and
you can't help but feel the fact that the pendulum is swinging back in our direction.
We've come today to say to the House and Senate offices that we demand the restoration of
our basic liberties and basic rights. We demand the shutting down of Guantanamo. We demand
the end of rendition and torture. These assaults on our basic freedoms and liberty must stop.
We work today with the leadership of Amnesty International, with the Leadership Conference
on Civil Rights, with the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, and dozens of other
organizations who've come together. Now many of your, however, are the true heroes. Many
of you have come very long distances, by plane, by car. Many of you even made overnight bus
trips from the Midwest, from the South, from the Northeast. We have representatives from
every state of the Union today, and whether you've come a few blocks or several thousand
miles, the one thing that we appreciate from you is that you have stepped away from your
very busy lives to ensure that the basic rights are protected. If they haul me away, someone
call a lawyer. We're here to say that Habeas Corpus has to
be restored, that due process is a constitutional right, not a privilege, that it is immoral
and illegal for the government to imprison people indefinitely without charge. We're
here to say that Guantanamo Bay is a terrible stain on America's reputation in the world.
It is a colossal disgrace. It makes a mockery of our legal system, and Guantanamo must be
closed now. We join together as true patriots because we care deeply about these basic rights
that attach to all persons because the right to live with dignity is what defines our great
democracy. We must remind the American leadership, the American leadership across the street
that we cannot let their fears override our basic rights.
Otherwise, America loses it's way. Thank you very much for all of your efforts. I want
to thank you for coming out here. Thank you for your voices. Thank you for staying involved.
Thank you for not being timid and standing up for the most important rights that are
before us. And now we want to introduce Senator Harkin. Will you please come join us at the
podium? One of the other great ...