TORTURE

• NEW  Accountability for Torture – The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act demanding the release of information about detainees held overseas by the United States. While many documents have been released, many vital records are still being withheld by the government.
  
  
• NEW  Torture and the United States – Wikipedia: Legislation and treaties; Historical practices of torture; Recent allegations of torture (domestic and abroad); Torture, interrogation and prisons in the War on Terror...
  
  
• Eight Lessons of Torture    Based on CVT's experience with torture survivors – 1. Torture does not yield reliable information. 2. Torture does not yield information quickly. 3. Torture will not be used only against the guilty... The Center for Victims of Torture
  
  
• Medical Ethics and Torture – Dr. Steven Miles' text of the speech he was not allowed to give. "The destruction of a person is the path—the destruction of a community is the goal." St. Joan of Arc, May 4, 2008   Nick Coleman's column on the controversy.
  
  
• It's Our Cage, Too – Torture betrays us and breeds new enemies. The assertions that "torture works" may reassure a fearful public, but it is a false security. We don't know what's been gained through this fear-driven program. But we do know the consequences. – By Charles C. Krulak and Joseph P. Hoar, The Washington Post, May 17, 2007
  
  
• 5 Reasons Torture Is Always Wrong 1. Torture violates the dignity of the human being. 2. Torture mistreats the vulnerable and violates the demands of justice. 3. Authorizing torture trusts government too much. 4. Torture dehumanizes the torturer. 5. Torture erodes the character of the nation that tortures. – Christianity Today, February 1, 2006
  
  
• End Unjust Security Detention and Abuse: 10-Point Strategy – 1. Commit to upholding the laws on interrogation and detention. 2. Investigate and prosecute all acts of torture and abuse and publicly report on all cases. 3. Ban the use of torture... –Human Rights Watch
  
  
• Denounce Torture Teach-In Guide – You don't need to be an expert on issues of torture and ill treatment in the context of the 'was on terror" to hold a teach-in. This guide will give you the tools you need. Amnesty International USA
  
  
• Detainee Bill Shifts Power to President – Military Commissions Act of 2006: With the final passage through Congress of the detainee treatment bill, President Bush achieved a signal victory, shoring up with legislation his determined conduct of the campaign against terrorism in the face of challenges from critics and the courts. – New York Times, September 30, 2006
  

• NEW  Campaign to Ban Torture – A broad coalition seeks to preserve America’s ideals and regain our moral leadership by creating a national consensus to reject torture and cruelty. Sign the Declaration. Learn from Resources.
  
  
• Witness Against Torture – A campaign to shut down Guantanamo. In December 2005, 24 friends walked to Guantanamo to visit the prisoners. When they returned, they launched the "Campaign to Shut Down Guantanamo," public education and community outreach, networking and resource sharing, and acts of nonviolent civil disobedience to draw attention to the plight of prisoners in Guantanamo, and victims of the war on terrorism everywhere.
  
  
• National Religious Campaign Against Torture – Joins people of faith committed to ensuring that the United States does not engage in torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment of anyone, without exceptions.
  
  
• Amnesty International USA – The America that you and I believe in: does not torture people; does not hold people without charges, without trials, without hope and without end ...
  
  
• Amnesty International is a worldwide movement of people who campaign for internationally recognized human rights: No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
  
  
• Pax Christi USA – A Christian Call to Stop Torture "The thought of Jesus being stripped, beaten and derided until his final agony on the cross should always prompt a Christian to protest against similar treatment of their fellow beings." Pope John Paul II
  
  
• The Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) – The largest peace lobby in Washington, DC, founded in 1943 by members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). Issues page: Enemy Combatants, Guantanamo Bay Prison, Torture
  
  
• Center for Bioethics, University of Minnesota – Professor Steven Miles, MD, spoke at the St. Anthony Park Neighbors for Peace Forum on Torture.
  
  
• The Center for Victims of Torture exists to heal the wounds of government-sponsored torture on individuals, their families and their communities, and to stop its practice.
  
  
• Human Rights First is a leading human rights advocacy organization. Since 1978, we have worked in the U.S. and abroad to create a secure and humane world – advancing justice, human dignity, and respect for the rule of law. All of our activities are supported by private contributions. We accept no government funds.
  
  
• Human Rights Watch is dedicated to protecting the human rights of people around the world. We stand with victims and activists to prevent discrimination, to uphold political freedom, to protect people from inhumane conduct in wartime, and to bring offenders to justice. We investigate and expose human rights violations and hold abusers accountable...
  NEW  Fighting Terrorism Fairly and Effectively 11 Recommendations for President-Elect Barack Obama
  
  
• Physicians for Human Rights – Investigates and works to prevent abuse in US interrogation practices and to end health professionals’ participation in them. This campaign continues PHR’s 20 year history of combating torture throughout the world and giving voice to the human rights concerns of health professionals.
  
  
• Unitarian Universalist Service Committee A Guide to Torture & Human Rights – The right to be free of torture is one of the most fundamental human rights recognized by the global community today. In the United States, torture has been deemed abhorrent to our values and legal principles since the framing of the constitution.

• NEW   A Christian Rationale for a Truth Commission – David P. Gushee
  we need to know, at last, exactly what happened. We need the truth, and we need it from multiple perspectives. Minimally, such a body needs to gain access to all government documents in which policies related to detainee interrogation were debated and articulated. – Evangelicals for Human Rights,
  
  
• NEW   If Everyone Knew, Who's to Blame? – Mark Danner
  President Obama and Congress need to authorize an authoritative bipartisan investigation of what was done and how, for that is the only way to destroy definitively the idea that the US must torture to defend itself. – The Washington Post, April 26, 2009
  
  
• NEW   The Corruption That Is Torture – George Hunsinger
  These crimes cannot be ignored without terrible consequences for our society. A Commission of Inquiry is now essential. A Commission is no substitute for prosecution, which is also needed. – CommonDreams.org, March 27, 2009
  
  
• NEW   Investigating Bush: the political consequences – Frederick A.O. Schwarz Jr. and Jeremy A. Rabkin debate.
  Will Republicans feel alienated? That's up to them. A 'gotcha' game for Bush haters. Two Point-Counterpoint articles. – Los Angeles Times Opinion, March 13, 2009
  
  
• NEW   One Nation Under Law and Under God: A Faith-Based Perspective on Accountability for Torture – Carol Wickersham
  Through our legislative and legal systems we must unambiguously reinforce the limits on executive power, as spelled out by our Constitution and laws. As a people, we are entitled to know the facts and enforce our laws, to determine how far the Executive branch can go in ordering, or permitting, brutal practices. – National Religious Campaign Against Torture
  
  

• Inspectors Find More Torture at Iraqi Jails – Ellen Knickmeyer
  Last November, U.S. soldiers found 173 incarcerated men, some of them emaciated and showing signs of torture, in a secret bunker in Baghdad. Since then, there have been at least six joint U.S.-Iraqi inspections of detention centers, and abuse of prisoners was found at all the sites – Washington Post, April 24, 2006
  
  
• Tough U.S. Steps in Hunger Strike at Camp in Cuba – Tim Golden, New York Times
  United States military authorities have taken tougher measures to force-feed detainees engaged in hunger strikes at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, after concluding that some were determined to commit suicide to protest their indefinite confinement, military officials have said. – Common Dreams, February 9, 2006
  
  
• 'Never Before!' Our Amnesiac Torture Debate – Naomi Klein
  This is not the first time the US government has used torture. The School of the Americas influenced war crimes in El Salvador, Argentina and Panama. – The Nation, December 26, 2005 iossue: The Torture Complex
  
  
• Doing unto others as they did unto us – M. Gregg Bloche and Jonathan Marks, The New York Times
  The Pentagon effectively signed off on a strategy that mimics Red Army methods. But those tactics were not only inhumane, they were ineffective. – International Herald Tribune, November 14, 2005
  
  
• CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons – Dana Priest
  The CIA has been hiding and interrogating some of its most important al Qaeda captives at a Soviet-era compound in Eastern Europe, according to U.S. and foreign officials familiar with the arrangement. The secret facility is part of a covert prison system set up by the CIA nearly four years ago that at various times has included sites in eight countries. – Washington Post, Nov 2, 2005
  
  
• Outsourcing Torture – Jane Mayer
  The secret history of America’s “extraordinary rendition” program, devised as a means of extraditing terrorism suspects to another foreign state for interrogation and prosecution. – The New Yorker, February 7, 2005
  
  
• Torture's Dirty Secret: It Works – Naomi Klein, The Nation
  Torture's true purpose is to terrorize. It may not work as an interrogation tool, but as an intimidation tactic, its success is clear. – AlterNet, May 14, 2005
  
  
• Torture at Abu Ghraib – Seymour M. Hersh
  American soldiers brutalized Iraqis. How far up does the responsibility go? – The New Yorker, April 30, 2004
  
  
• Government Releases New Documents Detailing Abuse at Guantánamo Bay – American Civil Liberties Union
  The Pentagon is still keeping information from the public, the ACLU charges. New documents provide vivid descriptions of how interrogation techniques, approved by Rumsfeld, constituted serious abuse. – ACLU.org, July 27, 2005
  
  

• NEW  President-elect Obama recommits to closing Guantánamo and ending torture – Amnesty International
  "I have said repeatedly that I intend to close Guantánamo, and I will follow through on that... I have said repeatedly that America doesn't torture. And I'm gonna make sure that we don't torture." – November 18, 2008
  
  
• NEW   Obama Advisers Say No Charges Likely Against Those Who Authorized Torture – Lara Jakes Jordan, AP
  Obama's most ardent supporters are split on whether he should prosecute Bush officials. "Both for policy and political reasons, it would not be beneficial to spend a lot of time hauling people up before Congress or before grand juries and going over what went on." – truthout, November 17, 2008
  
  
• Nine Reasons to Investigate War Crimes Now – Jeremy Brecher & Brendan Smith
  1. World peace cannot be achieved without human rights and accountability. 2. The rule of law is central to our democracy. 3. We must not allow precedents to be set that promote war crimes. More... – The Nation, July 18, 2008
  
  
• Is Justice Possible After Torture? – Deborah Pearlstein
  The U.S. decision five years ago to torture detainees has infected a generation of terrorism cases where it might have once been possible to do justice -- but may not be anymore. – The Amercian Prospect, August 17, 2007
  
  
• Vice President Cheney: Pushing the Envelope on Presidential Power – Barton Gellman and Jo Becker
  Wars and Interrogations – Convinced that the "war on terror" required "robust interrogations" of captured suspects, Dick Cheney pressed the Bush administration to carve out exceptions to the Geneva Conventions. Part II of a series on The Cheney Vice Presidency. – Washington Post, June 25, 2007
  
  
• Bush's 'Dirty War' Amnesty Law – Robert Parry
  The United States is following the lead of “dirty war” nations, such as Argentina and Chile, in enacting what amounts to an amnesty law protecting U.S. government operatives, apparently up to and including President George W. Bush, who have committed or are responsible for human rights crimes. – Consortiumnews.com, September 23, 2006
  
  
• A Bad Bargain – The New York Times | Editorial
  Here is a way to measure how seriously President Bush was willing to compromise on the military tribunals bill: Less than an hour after an agreement was announced yesterday with three leading Republican senators, the White House was already laying a path to wiggle out of its one real concession. – truthout.com, September 22, 2006
  
  
• Who Profits Most From Torture? – Kenneth Roth, The Independent (UK)
  As global leaders discuss trade, nuclear proliferation, and global warming at the G8 summit in St. Petersburg, one might hope that respect for basic human rights could be taken for granted. Sadly, that is far from the case. Lawlessness is increasingly in fashion. – Common Dreams, July 14, 2006
  
  
• Unchecked Abuse – Editorial
  Having publicly accepted the ban on cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, Mr. Bush is planning to ignore it whenever he chooses. – The Washington Post, January 11, 2006
  
  
• Were my captors worse than the Guantánamo jailers? – Terry Waite
  A former hostage says: Our leaders' shallowness and short-termism has fuelled the engine of war. We need wisdom to overcome our darker side. – Guardian Unlimited, November 23, 2005
  
  
• The Torture Administration – Anthony Lewis
  It's a shock to discover that American leaders would open the way for torture of prisoners, that the President would fight legislation prohibiting inhumane treatment, and that Congress would barely react. It is time to establish an independent commission with a special prosecutor and bring executors of abuse to justice. – The Nation, December 26, 2005
  
  
• Silence on Suffering – Gary A. Haugen
  President Bush faces a defining question of morality on which he has yet to receive any discernible guidance from the faith-based coalition that helped put him in office. The question: whether it is ever right for Americans to inflict cruel and degrading treatment on suspected terrorist detainees. – Christianity Today Magazine, October 17, 2005
  
  
• Torture in Our Name – Ray McGovern
  The article by the Washington Post's Dana Priest (below) regarding CIA-run secret prisons abroad and the intense maneuvering this week in Congress over whether to legislate another ban on torture have again brought the issue of torture front and center. The next several days will show whether Congress has slipped its moral mooring. – t r u t h o u t | Perspective, Nov 4, 2005
  
  
• Continuing to Repudiate International Law, Rumsfeld Rejects UN Access to Guantanamo – Jim Lobe
  Amid growing concern over the fate and conditions of inmates engaged in a lengthy hunger strike at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld Tuesday said he would not permit UN investigators to interview detainees there. – Foreign Policy In Focus, November 3, 2005
  
  
• Binding the Hands of Torturers – New York Time Editorial
  When the Senate voted to bring America's chain of military prison camps under the rule of law, President Bush threatened a veto, saying the measure would bind the government's hands. Yes, exactly. – US Labor Against the War, October 8, 2005
  
  
• Bush Defies Military, Congress on Torture – Marjorie Cohn
  Bush seemed shocked to learn of torture committed by US forces. But then someone leaked an explosive Department of Justice memorandum that had been written in August 2002, a blueprint of how interrogators could torture prisoners and everyone in the chain of command could escape criminal liability for war crimes. – truthout.org, August 1, 2005
  
  
• Torture and Accountability – Elizabeth Holtzman
  The terrible revelations of torture at Abu Ghraib hit the front pages in April 2004, but no senior officials in the US military or the Bush Administration have yet been held accountable. The scandal has shamed and outraged many Americans, in addition to creating a greater threat of terrorism against the United States. – The Nation, June 28, 2005
  
  
• The Stain of Abu Ghraib – Reed Brody, Human Rights Watch
  The United States is doing what authoritarian governments do the world over when their abuses are discovered--loudly proclaiming its respect for human rights while covering up and shifting blame. – AlterNet, April 29, 2005