We have now come to a
defining moment, where before the world’s eyes the U.S. Congress is poised to
legalize torture. We reject such a
course outright. It does not represent
us.
 Send this statement to government officials Read a collection of articles, statement, & analysis on the torture “compromise” |
We remember the images
from Abu Ghraib prison — photos of depravity, even death. And what of the images we have never been
shown from a world of even more disturbing and more “professional”
horrors that have been concealed in secret prisons around the world?
To anyone of conscience, this
is unacceptable. But this is exactly
what your government will be making legitimate.
With bi-partisan support, the “Military Commissions Act of 2006”
will be made law unless people act to stop it.
Sold as a “compromise”,
this bill is fundamentally worse
than what has gone before.
The bill takes what has
existed in the shadowy world of clandestine action and now gives it the openly declared mantle of official,
legal approval. While the compromise is
being sold as complying with the Geneva Conventions, it gives the President
huge freedom to, by executive order, define “special methods” of
interrogation that HE feels “fit” that Convention. It removes the right of anyone to raise the
Geneva Conventions in federal court to challenge government action against
them.
The compromise allows the
government the power to use confessions and other testimony derived from
torture as evidence in criminal proceedings. The compromise officially, and legally, puts
Congress on record approving that the president may, at his own discretion,
declare anyone an “enemy combatant”.
This means the president can name anyone anywhere as such and remove
them from the reach of family or legal counsel and hold them indefinitely
without trial. It ends the Constitutional
right of habeas corpus.
All this is now to be done
openly, and in our name. All these
actions — and the Bush Regime which has commissioned war crimes — must be
brought to a halt. What is being met with silence in the halls of power must be
manifested as a real opposition in the streets. At stake here is what kind of country and what
kind of people we choose to be.
Let it not be said that
the people did nothing when their government moved to make torture lawful. Let the world know that the people of this country
did not acquiesce, but instead stood up and said
“TORTURE DOES NOT
REPRESENT US!
THIS REGIME DOES NOT
REPRESENT US!
WE WILL DRIVE IT
OUT!”
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Send this letter to all
your friends and have them send it to their friends. Tell them THIS MUST NOT PASS and that you are pledging to be in the streets on
October 5 because The World Can’t Wait. Drive Out the Bush Regime!
Send this message with
your comments to comments@whitehouse.gov
with a cc: to notorture@worldcantwait.org
And contact key members of
the Senate Armed Forces Committee:
Sen. John Warner
(Chairman), VA: Phone: (202) 224-2023 Fax: (202) 224-6295
Sen. John McCain,
AZ: Phone: (202)
224-2235 Fax: (202)
228-2862
Sen. Carl Levin, MI:
Phone: (202)
224-6221 Fax: (202)
224-1388
Sen. Susan Collins,
ME: Phone: (202)
224-2523 Fax: (202) 224-2693
Sen. Edward Kennedy,
MA: Phone: (202)
224-4543 Fax: (202) 224-2417
Sen. Lindsey Graham,
SC: Phone: (202)
224-5972 Fax: (202)
224-3808
Sen. Robert Byrd,
WV: Phone:
(202) 224-3954 Fax: (202)
228-0002
Sen. Hillary Clinton,
NY: Phone:
(202) 224-4451 Fax: (202)
228-0282
In the next week we intend
to send over 50 thousand of your responses to President Bush and the Congress. Send a copy of your messages to
notorture@worldcantwait.org
Excellent opinion pieces against
torture:
Ariel
Dorfman in the Washington Post Sunday 9-24-06
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