The Muslim Students Association and In Your Hands kicked off “‘86’ Gitmo—Shut It Down” Wednesday at Library Mall with the protest of the one-year anniversary of the Military Commissions Act.

Oct. 17, 2006, President George W. Bush signed the Military Commissions Act, a piece of legislation that “strips habeas corpus rights from all detainees at Guantanamo Bay,” according to a primary contact for the Amnesty International group Samuel Philipsek.

MSA and IYH will hold demonstrations for 86 days, ending Jan. 11, 2008, protesting the president’s abuse of Guantanamo Bay detainees’ civil liberties. Jan. 11, 2008 marks the one-year anniversary of the first person detained at Guantanamo.

“There are many allegations portraying Guantanamo Bay and the level of secrecy around it as a major problem [in our nation],” Philipsek said. “There is very limited access and a lack of attorneys [available for detainees].”

Stacy Harbaugh, a community advocate at the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin, asked the more than 40 people in attendance not to “wait for ’08,” the expiration year of the Military Commissions Act, and for people to take a stand against the “erosion of our Constitution and the basis of our democracy.”

“We’re witnessing how easy it is for people in power to abuse [our civil liberties] in the name of keeping us safe,” Harbaugh said.

Among the speakers was Progressive Magazine editor Matthew Rothschild, who equated the Military Commissions Act to a multitude of invasive policies enacted in the seven years Bush has been in office.

Rothschild said the Military Commissions Act violates many of the provisions in the Universal Declarations in Human Rights, particularly the articles ensuring against torture and due process.

“George Bush can conduct these kangaroo courts down in Guantanamo and deprive the dissidents, the detainees down there of their rights and deprive them of their ability to get due process,” Rothschild said.