Statement on the 24th Anniversary of the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center

January 11th, 2026

September 11^th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows’ members observe with great sadness and  concern the 24th anniversary of the Guantanamo Bay detention center. On January 11, 2002,  the first ’War on Terror’ detainees arrived at Camp X-Ray. Unnamed and unknown, these twenty men in orange jumpsuits ushered in an era of extraordinary rendition, terror jingoism, and a lack of accountability that continues to this day.

When men in blindfolds arrived at the Guantanamo Naval base, they found themselves in a jurisdictional no man’s land. 24 years later, the world remains blind to the situation of the 15 men who remain at Guantanamo, and the history of how we got here. Furthermore, the five men alleged to have planned and supported the 9/11 attacks have yet to be held legally accountable. Indeed, the Guantanamo Military Commission has not even set a trial date.

Extraordinary renditions continue today, but in reverse. Masked, unidentified agents of the U.S. government are kidnapping an untold number of people off the streets of America, often without warrants or charges, and currently with impunity. As the murder of Nicole Good in Minnesota has shown, American citizens are not immune to this lawlessness.

Those abducted are swept into a vast network of American jails and prisons, leaving family members and loved ones searching for their whereabouts. Far exceeding the 780 men known to have ever been detained at Guantanamo, tens of thousands have been detained by ICE and Border Patrol since January 2025. Over 97% of the ’War on Terror’ Guantanamo detainees were never charged, instead being rendered yet again to various countries around the world without the men’s input or consent. Today, there are men and women living in the United States being abducted and rendered to a new legal purgatory – CECOT  – the notorious prison in El Salvador, or to other nations around the globe.

America has institutionalized a politics of fear. Just as our nation was scared into compliance in the aftermath of 9/11, we are being frightened into numbness now. The terrorists of 2001 were labeled the ‘worst of the worst’ and Americans in general were ready to trade their civil liberties for a fleeting and ambiguous sense of security. Eventually we lost both. The ‘nouveau’ terrorists – identified by the current Administration –  are labeled ‘narcoterrorists’. Yes, there is a vast addiction problem here in the United States. But allowing the Administration to blow up boats off the coasts of Latin America, kill people extra judiciously without charge or due process, and invade Venezuela, is not going to end the opioid epidemic. The real terror is addiction. Not the bogeyman on a speedboat.

January 11, 2002, marks an infamous day in U.S. history. It is a day the Bush Administration allowed fear to drive policy. Americans and the current Administration have an opportunity to right the course of history. We must affirm that no person nor political endpoint is above the rule of law. We can choose to firmly reject fear, focusing instead on the hard work of actually solving difficult issues.

Peaceful Tomorrows has joined 114 other civil society organizations in calling for the closure of the military detention facility at Guantánamo Bay. READ THE STATEMENT HERE.