Muusja Mailing List: Immediate Action Item

[Lauren Culbert (lculbert]

MUUSJA People,
This was forwarded from the Center for Victims of Torture. Please act on it
today.

Torture is Un-American 

 <http://img.getactivehub.com/alert_images/congress.gif> Congress is taking
up the Military Commissions Act of 2006 with the compromise language agreed
to last week.   The compromise does not reinterpret Common Article 3 of the
Geneva Conventions, which prohibits torture and cruel and inhumane
treatment.  But it does allow the President to interpret the Geneva
Conventions.  Torture, cruel or inhuman treatment, biological experiments,
murder, mutilation, serious bodily injury, rape, sexual assault and the
taking of hostages are expressly prohibited. However, acts not rising to
these levels are left to the discretion of the president.  

Urge your Senators and Representative to ensure the compromise legislation
explicitly prohibits all U.S. government agencies, including the CIA, from
using torture and interrogation techniques that are cruel, inhumane and
degrading. Tell your elected officials you expect the U.S. to respect the
rule of law, fairness and human dignity. There should be no loopholes for
torture.

 <http://ga3.org/campaign/noloopholesfortorture/idd73ew4f5bimtx?> 

Send a letter to the following decision maker(s): 
Your Congressperson 
Your Senators 

Below is the sample letter:

Subject: No Loopholes for Torture

Dear [decision maker name automatically inserted here],

I was pleased to hear that the compromise reached last week over the
Military Commissions Act of 2006 includes an agreement not to reinterpret
America's commitment to Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, which
bans torture and cruel and inhumane treatment.

As your constituent, I urge you to make sure the compromise will explicitly
prohibit all U.S. government agencies, including the CIA, from using torture
and interrogation techniques that are cruel, inhuman and degrading,
including: Prolonged sleep deprivation, induced hypothermia, stress
positions, shaking, sensory deprivation and overload, and waterboarding.
These are the same techniques the U.S. State Department reports as torture
and cruelty in its annual human rights country reports.

I also urge you to oppose eliminating judicial oversight. Detention without
transparency invites continued abuses. And if there is no judicial review,
then the ban against torture and cruel and inhuman treatment will be
undermined. It is also vital that evidence obtained under coercion not be
allowed. 

Torture does not yield reliable results. Well-trained interrogators within
the military, the FBI and the police have testified that torture does not
work, is unreliable and distracts from the hard work of interrogation.
Torture is also un-American. I urge you to stand for the rule of law,
respect for human dignity and fairness

Thank you for your time and attention. I look forward to your response on
this important issue. 

Sincerely,

<http://ga3.org/campaign/noloopholesfortorture/idd73ew4f5bimtx?> 

What's At Stake:

Based on CVT's experience with torture survivors and understanding the
systems in which they have been abused, CVT believes it is important that
discussions about the U.S. use of torture and cruel, inhuman, degrading
treatment not be shaped by speculation but rather through an understanding
of how torture is actually used in the world.

Torture does not yield reliable information.  Well-trained interrogators,
within the military, the FBI, and the police have testified that torture
does not work, is unreliable and distracting from the hard work of
interrogation. Nearly every client at the Center for Victims of Torture,
when subjected to torture, confessed to a crime they did not commit, gave up
extraneous information, or supplied names of innocent friends or colleagues
to their torturers.  Such extraneous information distracts, rather than
supports, valid investigations.

Torture will not be used only against the guilty.  Our clients are living
testimony that once used, torture becomes a fishing expedition to find
information.  The estimate from the Red Cross was that at least 80 percent
of those imprisoned at Abu Ghraib, for example, should never have been
arrested, but were there because it was easier to arrest persons than to let
them go (people feared letting go a terrorist more than protecting the
innocent).  

Torture has never been confined to narrow conditions.  Torture has often
been justified by reference to a small number of people who know about the
"ticking time bomb," but in practice, it has always been extended to a much
wider population.

Psychological torture is damaging.  When torture is defined as strictly a
physical act, many believe that psychological coercion is okay.  CVT's
clients say it was the psychological forms of torture that were the most
debilitating over a long period.  The source of their nightmares, 15 and 20
years later, was the mock executions or hearing others being tortured.  

Stress and duress techniques are forms of torture.  Every democratic
nation's court system and international court which has reviewed them has
concluded that they are forms of torture. (Source: Judgment on the
Interrogation Methods applied by the GSS
<http://www.derechos.org/human-rights/mena/doc/torture.html> , Israeli
Supreme Court,  September 6, 1999)

We cannot use torture and still retain the moral high ground.  The arguments
we hear are not so different in form and content from those used by the
repressive governments of CVT's clients, and which the U.S. has refused to
accept from other nations that have used torture to combat their real or
perceived enemies.  Torture is not an effective or efficient producer of
reliable information.  But it is effective and efficient at producing fear
and rage, both in the individuals tortured and in their broader communities.

        

 

        
 

                

 



        

 

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