House Republicans pass legislation to allow torture – by whatever name    [9-28-06]

Yesterday the House passed a bill that would allow the Bush administration to use interrogation methods that certainly look a lot like torture, even though the President has been careful to call them something a little less than torture. The bill also would allow the President to prosecute detainees accused of terrorism, with little regard for the niceties of basic and constitutional rights.

The Senate is likely to act soon on a similar bill, which has been allowed to move forward because some of the leading Republican "moderates" reached a compromise with Bush.

It seems unlikely that any mere citizens can resist this legitimizing of torture and abandonment of basic human rights, but just in case you want to try – or at least do informed grumbling about it – here are some helpful resources:

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Rogue State
Lawbreaker and torturer -- that's America, loud and proud.

Matthew Yglesias, a staff writer of The American Prospect, reminds us of George W. Bush’s statement in 2003: "The United States is committed to the world-wide elimination of torture,and we are leading this fight by example." He also said then that "torture continues to be practiced around the world by rogue regimes whose cruel methods match their determination to crush the human spirit."

But now things have changed. With the "compromise" between the Administration advocates of torture (nicely redefined) and the "moderate" Republicans who oppose torture, the U.S. is placing itself firmly among the rogue regimes.

Yglesias continues:

Other countries, of course, practice torture in violation of international law. As has now been clear for a while, we have been in their company for some years. The latest twist, however, is that we now won't show any shame about it. Rather than simply violating the laws to which we have agreed to adhere, we're repudiating them, simply denying that the standard by which civilized nations operate apply to us.

The full article >>

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The New York Times, in an editorial the day after the passage of the bill, offers a good commentary on the politics behind the bill’s passage, and "some of the bill’s biggest flaws."   The editorial >>

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The National Religious Campaign against Torture provides much good material, suggestions for action, and more.

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The Center for Victims of Torture has produced excellent material based on their years of experience in helping survivors of torture to recover.

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Both FaithfulAmerica.com, which is related to the National Council of Churches, and the Friends Committee on National Legislation, have issued calls for people of faith to raise their voices, encouraging members of Congress to resist the pressures from the President to legitimize the use of torture (which he may be moderating slightly in response to the many Senators and Representatives, even from his own party, who are refusing to support his efforts).

They both provide helpful information to use in writing to Congress.

Religious coalition calls for ban on use of torture
Presbyterian-founded group publishes anti-torture newspaper ad    [9-19-06]

Witherspooner Rev. Betty Hale writes:

I would think the Center [for Victims of Torture] would be one of the best sources of perspective we can find....   It's still hard to believe that America is having a debate about this

shalom, salaam, peace
Betty

As the Administration presses for more freedom to use torture, it’s time to speak out together:

The Center is urging people to contact their representatives in Congress, calling them to hold the CIA accountable for the torture methods they have used.

CCR publishes first report on torture at Guantánamo with declassified primary accounts from current detainees and attorneys    [7-15-06]

On July 10, 2006, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) published the first report citing declassified primary accounts from current detainees and their American attorneys to detail torture and inhumane treatment by U.S. officials at Guantanamo Bay prison.

The "Report on Torture and Cruel, Inhuman, and Degrading Treatment of Prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba" is the most comprehensive primary source account ever published of ongoing abuse at the prison, detailing systematic physical, psychological, sexual, medical and religious abuse of detainees, filling 51 pages and 279 footnotes. The report is particularly significant in light of the Supreme Court's recent Hamdan decision because it catalogues conduct by U.S. officials in violation of the Geneva Conventions, which the court applied to detainees, and analyzes the administration's attempt to create a "legal black hole" for enemy combatants in sections discussing the administration's liability concerns regarding conduct at the base Geneva, war crimes, and the forthcoming revisions to the Army Field Manual.

More from CCR >>                  For the full text of the report in PDF format >>

Thanks to George Hunsinger

Presbyterians urged to fight torture

'Torture Awareness Month' includes Chicago gathering    [5-25-06]

LOUISVILLE - May 24, 2006 – As the Bush administration continues defending its treatment of terrorism suspects, Presbyterians and other faith followers are being urged to participate in "Torture Awareness Month" activities in June.

A number of human rights, civil liberties and religious organizations have declared the month-long observance to protest the practice of torture wherever it occurs, especially amid growing evidence that the United States government is systematically engaging in the use of torture and inhuman treatment against prisoners held in connection with the war on terror.

"The Presbyterian Peacemaking Program encourages Presbyterians to identify appropriate ways to participate in Torture Awareness Month," said the Rev. Mark Koenig, the peacemaking program's associate for resources and publications. "Our confessions affirm that human beings are created in God's image. Rooted in that affirmation, Presbyterian General Assemblies have consistently spoken against the use of torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment."

Koenig said the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program (http://www.pcusa.org/peacemaking/) is also encouraging Presbyterians to take part in the June 26 United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture (http://www.un.org/events/torture/).

The initiative is being spearheaded by the Torture Abolition and Survivor Support Coalition International (http://www.tassc.org/) (TASSC), a coalition of torture survivors from more than 60 countries. TASSC is planning a number of events and activities during the month including prayer vigils, fasting, education and advocacy.

Coinciding with the start of Torture Awareness Month, a grassroots network of Presbyterians called the No2Torture (http://www.no2torture.org/) movement will hold a gathering in the Chicago-area to demand fair treatment for prisoners and to educate people about the U.S. government's questionable interrogation methods.

The two-day event, which will feature speakers, worship, and the stories of torture victims, will kick off June 2 at First Presbyterian Church in LaGrange, IL.

Organizers of the symposium say that the use of torture for any reason - even in the name of fighting terrorism - is immoral and ineffective, a crime against humanity that cannot be justified.

"Torture is just an absolute violation of God's creation of human beings in God's image," said the Rev. Kirsten Klepfer, a Presbyterian pastor in Iowa who is helping organize the gathering. "Torture, both for the person being tortured and for the person torturing, is a violation of who we're created to be."

In January, the No2Torture group held a similar gathering in Miami, FL, calling for an end to inappropriate detention practices. Most of the 50 participants were Presbyterians. The turnout included pastors, church members, military chaplains, college students and seminary professors.  For our reports on the Miami gathering >>

Rick Ufford-Chase, moderator of the 216th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), was a catalyst for the group's first meetings during the 2005 Presbyterian Peacemaking Conference along with the Rev. Carol Wickersham, a Presbyterian minister and sociology professor at Beloit College in Wisconsin.

Christians are obligated as a matter of faith to speak out against severe human rights violations such as torture, according to Luis R. Rivera, an associate professor of theology at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago.

"The heart of our faith and gospel links us directly to the issue of torture," said Rivera, who will speak at the gathering. "After all, we live our faith and mission sustained by the memory, presence and hope of a tortured Christ who through resurrection became survivor and savior."

Rivera will be joined by other speakers at the event, including keynoter Rear Adm. (retired) John D. Hutson, the former chief Judge Advocate General of the U.S. Navy, a prominent attorney and the current dean and president of the Franklin Pierce Law Center in Concord, NH.

"It's important to us (to hear) what the military has to say about this because they are involved," Klepfer said. "His talk will be an important piece."

Also speaking will be the Rev. Jean Marie Peacock, vice moderator of the PC(USA)'s General Assembly and associate pastor of Lakeview Presbyterian Church in New Orleans; Catherine Gordon, the associate for international issues in the Presbyterian Washington Office; Doug Johnson, executive director of the Center for Victims of Torture in Minneapolis, MN; and Wickersham.

Wickersham said in January that the PC(USA) has condemned torture, specifically in a statement passed by the denomination's General Assembly in 2004, but never "got up above the noise."

"This is a moral outrage, and the faith community's voice needs to be weighing in on this," she said of torture.

United States Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-IL) will receive the group's 2006 No2Torture Award, which recognizes the exceptional effort of an individual or group that takes pragmatic steps toward ending the practice of torture.

Durbin has co-sponsored legislation prohibiting torture, including the McCain amendment that bans cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment of detainees in American custody. He is also co-sponsoring legislation currently before the Senate that would prohibit the "extraordinary rendition" of prisoners to other countries that practice torture.

McCormick seminary is among the event's co-sponsors along with the Peacemaking Mission Team of Chicago Presbytery, and the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT), a newly formed group organized by the Rev. George Hunsinger, a Presbyterian minister and theologian at Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, NJ.

Religious leaders such as Ufford-Chase have signed up to support the faith-based group at the NRCAT website: www.nrcat.org.

NRCAT hopes to convince prominent religious and political leaders to endorse an ad campaign it plans to start up next month to raise awareness about torture and to generate grassroots support for the group.

"We are gathering the forces that can and, I believe, will make a difference," Hunsinger said.

Allegations of torture have dogged the Bush administration since April 2004, when photographs of Army reservists mistreating prisoners at Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq became public.

Since then, evidence of other abuse has surfaced from the deaths of U.S.-held detainees to secret CIA prisons with "unique" interrogation methods, extraordinary rendition, and the torture of prisoners at facilities run by the U.S.-backed Iraqi regime.

These revelations have sparked a roiling debate centered on human rights, international law, and judicial argument.

"I think having Torture Awareness Month is a crying need right now in American public life," Hunsinger said. "Torture presents a threat to our national security and even to our democratic form of government. This is no time for complacency or for turning a blind eye to what is happening in U.S. detention facilities abroad."

Another group with which the No2Torture movement and Presbyterian Washington Office has been working is Stop Torture Now (http://www.tortureawareness.org/). The coalition of NGOs plans a daylong teach-in on June 25 in Washington, DC that will focus on extraordinary rendition.

On June 26, the group will hold a "Lobby Day" where activists will fan out across Capitol Hill to visit members of Congress to seek their support for legislation that would end the use of extraordinary rendition.

For more information about Torture Awareness Month and a schedule of events and activities, log on www.tassc.org.

For more information about the No2Torture Chicago-area gathering, log on www.no2torture.org, or call (319) 268-1132, or by email at LaGrange2006@No2Torture.org.

For more information about events sponsored by Stop Torture Now, log on http://www.tortureawareness.org/registration.html.

From FaithfulAmerica:

If the very thought of that saddens or angers you, you are not alone.   

We urged Congress to pass the McCain Amendment banning torture as U.S. policy, and it passed. However, when the President signed the measure, he added a "signing statement," essentially declaring that he could ignore it if he wants to.

We believe the Bush Administration's position in this action is shameful and wholly opposed to the convictions of people of faith and conscience in this nation. The world must know that America abhors all forms of torture.

Thousands of persons and more than three dozen faith-based organizations have come together to endorse a statement released by the National Religious Campaign Against Torture. FaithfulAmerica has endorsed this statement and today we are asking you to join with the thousands who believe that Torture is a Moral Issue by endorsing this statement as well.

Please click HERE to read and sign the statement.

Then pass the URL on to your friends and colleagues.

Other Efforts To Know About:

So many important efforts to halt torture deserve our attention. Here are two: Our brothers and sisters at Pax Christi USA, the national Catholic Peace Movement, has a national sign-on statement you may wish to read and sign as well. Here is the link.  (Look for "A Christian Call To Stop Torture Now.")

The Torture Abolition and Survivors and Support Coalition International (TASSC) are the sponsors of Torture Awareness Week. Here's where to learn more.

Let's end this national embarrassment and help reclaim the moral high ground on this issue. Thank you for your continued action to end torture.

Blessings to you as ever,

Friends,

I want to add my voice to the invitation to participate in the Chicago No2Torture gathering on June 2 and 3 as a part of the beginning of Torture Awareness month. This is an opportunity to come together to pray, learn, discuss and strategize as an act of solidarity with those who suffer and as a witness to our faith.

Our first event in Miami in January was one of the most significant events I've participated in during my moderatorial term. There was a strong sense of unity among folks who probably found themselves surprised to be in the same room with one another. I do believe that gatherings like this one are one of the building blocks for the new kind of church that builds a solid consensus and finds its voice in the broader society.

While you are together in Chicago, I will be participating in a 75 mile desert trek following the route of migrants who cross our border. Another important witness, though I'm sorry not to be able to be with you.

I am very pleased that Jean Marie Peacock will be there as the Vice Moderator of the General Assembly. I will be with you in Spirit, while in body at the border, a different witness but to the same Lord, tortured and made whole.

Blessings,

Say No! To Torture

[revised version, 5-1-06]

All are welcome to attend a gathering on June 2-3 at First Presbyterian Church, LaGrange, Illinois (Chicago west suburbs) to learn, pray, strategize and network. Presenters include:

Rear Adm. John Hutson (US Navy, ret.), President and Dean of Franklin Pierce Law School, former Executive Assistant to the Judge Advocate General of the Navy

Catherine Gordon, Associate for International Issues, Washington Office of the PC (USA)

The Rev. Jean Marie Peacock, Vice-Moderator of the Presbyterian Church (USA)

Ruth Barrett Rendler, Deputy Director of the Center for Victims of Torture (CVT)

Luis Rivera, Assoc. Professor of Theology, McCormick Seminary

The Rev. Carol Wickersham, No2 Torture Organizer, Sociology Faculty Beloit College

Who Is Jesus Christ for Us Today?
[5-1-06]

George Hunsinger, professor at Princeton Seminary and a leading voice in the Presbyterian movement to oppose torture, asks in a sermon, "Who is Jesus Christ for us today?"  His answer is that Christ today is found among the victims of U.S. torture. 

Torture is nothing new, but we need to learn more about it, including its long-term effects on victims, its limitations as a source of information, and its corrupting influence on those who use it.

The Berkeley Daily Planet reviews two new books which help meet this need.

The review begins:

The Bush-Cheney regime may represent a radical break with this nation’s traditions in many areas, but in making torture a central weapon in its "war on terror," the current administration is simply building on a body of theory and practice that goes back more than half a century.

That, at least, is the conclusion suggested by two new books on the modern history of American torture.

A Question of Torture, by historian Alfred W. McCoy, traces the influence of "mind control" research conducted by and for the CIA in the 1950s in shaping the interrogation techniques used by American agents and allies ever since.

Truth, Torture, and the American Way, by lawyer and human-rights advocate Jennifer K. Harbury, highlights parallels in the practices of U.S. government operatives and their local "assets" in the current conflict and in the civil wars that wracked Central America in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Police target lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the USA
[3-27-06]

R. Boevingloh, a 60-year-old gay man, February 2004.

R. Boevingloh was walking in a park in St Louis, Missouri, in June 2001 when he made the mistake of greeting an undercover policeman who walked past him. He was arrested, charged with lewd conduct and placed on two years’ probation. "I did nothing wrong," he told AI, "I did not ‘cruise’ anyone, did not expose myself, did not hurt anyone and was targeted simply for being a gay male in a city park."

In a new report AI reveals a range of human rights violations perpetrated by law enforcement officials against LGBT people in the USA. Whilst some of these abuses are so violent that they amount to torture, by far the more pervasive are those abuses committed day in and day out, making life intolerable for many members of the LGBT community.

All too often US law enforcement officials share the prejudices prevalent in society, such as homophobia, racism or sexism. When vague laws give police officers the power to decide what is "offensive", the enforcement of these laws can become a means of punishing LGBT people for perceived transgression of social norms. LGBT people are frequently targeted for selective enforcement of minor public order or morals offences such as "loitering with intent to solicit","public lewdness" or "disorderly conduct". The California Supreme Court, for instance, noted that the State’s prohibition of "lewd conduct" had been selectively enforced against gay men.

Transgender women are particularly at risk of such prejudicial treatment as many police officers assume that they are sex workers. AI has received numerous reports of transgender women being stopped and questioned by police when going about everyday tasks such as shopping. LGBT rights activists in Chicago told AI that police officers see transgender women as easy targets when they need to meet their allotted arrest quota.

It is hardly surprising that when LGBT people are victims of crime, they often prefer not to report the crime than face a dismissive, hostile or abusive response from the police. AI has found a pattern of police failing to respond appropriately to crimes against LGBT individuals. Police lack of understanding, or in more extreme cases hostility, has resulted in some cases in officers arresting the victims of the crime rather than the perpetrators.

In July 2000 a lesbian in St Paul, Minnesota, reported to a police officer than she had been attacked and abused in a supermarket. The officer refused to take action and even threatened to arrest her and her partner. When she told him that her attacker had called them "dykes", the police officer replied that if they chose that lifestyle they must "expect some people to have a problem with it".
Discriminatory policing can affect individuals in virtually every sphere of their daily lives. The effect of police targeting of LGBT people can be profound. Transgender woman Rachel Thompson told AI how a violent attack by a police officer changed her life: "That is when I decided to become an activist – abuse can be very inspiring… I will never forget to fear the police. I will always mistrust the system…"

Read this on the AI website >>

This article will be published in the April 2006 edition of The Wire.

We have reported before on the conference on "Theology, International Law, and Torture," held last January at Princeton Theological Seminary. 

We are happy now to bring a more detailed account than we have been able to offer before, prepared for the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship by Lois Baker, Anne Barstow, and Tom Driver.

It begins:

Since the Abu Ghraib prison scandal was revealed in 2004, there has been considerable debate in secular quarters about the illegality of the U. S. use of torture. This debate has been dominated by references to human rights and international law. The religious community, however, has not spoken out in a unified voice against torture and has not made the case for its immorality. The conference held at Princeton Theological Seminary Jan. 13-15 was a major attempt to halt this silence by launching a national interfaith religious campaign against torture. Here the language would be that of theology in which religious groups could express the inherent wrong and sinfulness of our government’s use of inhumane treatment of prisoners in its custody.

Ray McGovern, who received a special commendation after his 27-year career with the CIA, has returned his medal and written a letter to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence: "As a matter of conscience, I am returning the Intelligence Commendation Award medallion given me for ‘especially commendable service’ during my 27-year career in CIA. The issue is torture, which inhabits the same category as rape and slavery - intrinsically evil. I do not wish to be associated, however remotely, with an agency engaged in torture."

TruthOut.com notes that "McGovern and 15 others took action [yesterday] in the halls of Congress. The 16 donned orange jumpsuits similar to those worn by detainees at Guantánamo Bay. They wore gags over their mouths decorated with one word - torture. Not another word needed to be said as they walked the halls of Congress."   The TruthOut report >>