First, do no harm
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) released a chilling report yesterday revealing that CIA medical personnel appear to have conducted illegal experiments on detainees in US custody. The healthcare professionals, working for US military and intelligence agencies, were tasked with testing and refining the torture techniques used at Guantanamo Bay.
Baptist ethicist Glen Stassen at EthicsDaily.com said it best:
"These doctors were not trying to develop cures for diseases. They were helping to refine techniques for causing pain. They were not serving patients. They were helping a few government lawyers write justifications for human degradation that violated international law that the United States has ratified, and that is the law of our land. There was no therapeutic purpose."
And, the National Religious Coalition Against Torture partnered with Physicians for Human Rights on this video (heads up--it's about 5 minutes long!), detailing the horrific abuses and why the faith community can't stand by:
Spinning and Distorting Faith
When former Bush administration staffer Marc Thiessen appeared on EWTN (a Catholic television network) last week and cloaked torture under the euphemistic guise of "enhanced interrogation" and made a theological case for waterboarding, many people of faith took exception and refuted Thiessen's preposterous claims.
Now Faithful America is launching the taking the "Don't Spin Our Faith" campaign, flooding EWTN with email petitions calling for a correction of Thiessen's misinformation -- which they made no effort to do while he was on the air or afterward -- and reminding them that they have a moral and journalistic responsibility to tell the truth about torture.
EWTN is certainly not the first outlet to let torture defenders spin and deceive (recall that the Washington Post hired Thiessen as a columnist), but religious media have a special obligation to the millions of people of faith rely on religious media to stay informed on the pressing issues of the day in a manner consistent with their values. Click here to join Faithful America's campaign to make sure that religious media is a "No Spin Zone" when it comes to torture.
Investigating torture
According to numerous reports, a renewed push to investigate US-sponsored torture is under way in Washington. Depending on who you ask, the will is coming from either Members of Congress or the Justice Department, but regardless of their origin, the winds are blowing in the same direction -- toward a criminal investigation.
This differs somewhat from the goals of many religious anti-torture activists, who have been pushing for a commission of inquiry, which the National Religious Campaign Against Torture describes as
...an impartial, nonpartisan, and independent Commission...Its purpose should be to gather all the facts and make recommendations. It should ascertain the extent to which our interrogation practices have constituted torture and "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment". Understanding the causes, nature and scope of U.S.-sponsored torture is essential for preventing it in the future and eliminating it from our system without loopholes. U.S. law will determine the extent of any criminal culpability.
While this resurgence of commitment to accountability is encouraging, criminal charges don't make a Commission of Inquiry any less necessary. The goal of a criminal investigation is fundamentally more limited than a broader search for "the causes, nature and scope of U.S.-sponsored torture." Further, a criminal probe will likely be painted as a partisan witch-hunt, rightly or wrongly. Even if it manages to bring to justice those responsible for torture, more work will need to be done to establish a national consensus that we must never torture again. Even if justice is served, we can't let a moral crisis turn into a political football.
Turning the page on torture
June is Torture Awareness Month, and religious leaders are spending time this month to help ensure that America never tortures again. Between now and the end of the month, events from Iowa to California will lift up the faith community's call for a Commission of Inquiry. This would be an independent, non-partisan commission, and its purpose would be to shed light on post-9/11 U.S. interrogation and detainee treatment practices.
Today scores of faith leaders from across the nation (coming from Maine, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and more) are taking part in the National Religious Campaign Against Torture's public witness across the street from the White House in Lafayette Square, and dozens of faith leaders are meeting with White House officials, including representatives of the Office of Public Engagement and the White House Counsel's office to present the administration with an interfaith letter calling for a Commission of Inquiry.
The religiously-motivated call for a Commission of Inquiry is grounded in a deep concern for our country's soul. People of faith are speaking out to encourage leaders of both parties to put aside partisan interests and find out once and for all how our torture regime came to be. NRCAT's statement that "nothing less is at stake in the torture abuse crisis than the soul of our nation" is poignant and true. A thorough accounting will require courage and will, and that's why we need voices of conscience from the faith community to push our leaders to uphold our values and ideals.
The time for justice is at hand
The torture memos released by the Justice Department yesterday detailed shockingly cruel tactics and sickeningly amoral justifications for them. As awful as past revelations of torture have been, the details keep getting worse. The newly released documents reveal that the Office of Legal Council and the CIA worked together to create an earthly hell for detainees.
Now that we have a clearer picture of what was done to detainees and how it was justified, we need clear and full accountability -- the time for justice is at hand. Faithful America members are petitioning their local newspapers' editorial boards to call for both a commission of inquiry and a special prosecutor to bring the architects of US torture to justice.
Members of Congress read the editorial pages of the papers in their districts--an editorial in a key paper in their home state or district can have real impact. And a wave of editorials across the country will show Congress and the White House that the American people aren't content to just turn the page. Please join the effort by clicking here and writing your editorial board a letter asking them to demand accountability for torture!
The truth will set us free
A recently leaked secret Red Cross report has joined the growing body of evidence calling our treatment of detainees what it is -- torture. When we saw it, we knew we had to do something. Faithful America, FPL's online activist community, was founded in a campaign expressing regret for the prisoner abuse at Abu Graib prison. Since then, we have continued to fight for human rights and against torture. FPL has also worked closely with the National Religious Campaign Against Torture for several years. You could say the issue is dear to us.
We can't just keep relying on leaked reports and the efforts of journalists. As much as we've learned, we're still just peeking under the rug. That's why Faithful America and the National Religous Campaign Against Torture are stepping up to call for a Commission of Inquiry into U.S. interrogation practices since 9/11. Please join our effort calling for an official Commission.
The Commission of Inquiry is just one part of a process to uncover the truth and restore justice to our national security policies. The Commission will have subpoena power, and will not block any possible prosecution of perpetrators.
We have to act now before too much time and too many crises wipe these despicable acts from our memory. Please sign our petition and amplify our call. The slow trickle of damning revelations is festering. We need to shine a light now.
When the Right Thing Works
Faith groups celebrate torture ban
For three years, religious leaders and organizations from across the faith and ideological spectrum have worked tirelessly to end America’s torture of detainees in its custody. Today, the faith community applauds President Obama’s executive orders banning torture, closing the prisons at Guantanamo Bay and secret locations, ensuring Red Cross access to all detainees, and ending extraordinary rendition. Together, we call for continuing diligence in the effort to ensure the US government never tortures again.
Religious organizations who have led the struggle to end our immoral treatment of detainees have issue statements respondingt to the executive orders:
Dr. David P. Gushee, President of Evangelicals for Human Rights, the leading Evangelical voice against U.S.-sponsored torture:
• The president has implicitly but clearly recognized today that the aberrant detainee and interrogation policies of the last seven years in fact damaged our national security, harmed our foreign policy interests, and violated core principles of justice... While we celebrate today, there is more to do...We need a religious and moral accounting, not just a legal one.
Linda Gustitus, President of National Religious Campaign Against Torture, which includes diverse Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders:
• The religious community has labored faithfully for three years to end U.S.-sponsored torture. We are grateful today for this important step. The dark, dark days of the past are behind us, and we all must work to make sure they never return again.
Rabbi Brian Walt, Executive Director of Rabbis for Human Rights North America, the leading voice of the Jewish community against U.S.-sponsored torture:
• “Torture is not a subjective term. It dishonors the image of God found in every person. Today, we can say that the United States is on the right path to restoring our moral standing. I am proud of the role that the Jewish community has played in bringing about this important day for American values.”
Faithful America, an 80,000-member online community of people of faith:
• Just last week, Faithful America called on then President-Elect Obama to sign an executive order banning all forms of torture as one of his first acts in office. Today, we commend the president for taking this important step toward restoring morality and justice to our treatment of detainees.
UPDATE:
Via Steve Waldman, Bishop Howard J. Hubbard, chairman of the Catholic Bishops' Committee on International Justice and Peace:
• "Based upon the teachings of the Catholic Church, our Conference of Bishops welcomes the executive order. Together with other religious leaders, we had pressed for this step to protect human dignity and help restore the moral and legal standing of the United States in the world. A ban on torture says much about us - who we are, what we believe about human life and dignity, and how we act as a nation."
Jim Wallis, founder and President of Sojourners:
• Today, we at Sojourners stand shoulder to shoulder with our sisters and brothers at the National Religious Campaign Against Torture in celebration of the executive order issued by President Barack Obama putting an end to the use of torture. We affirm, with NRCAT, that President Obama has “… rejected the use of torture as an interrogation technique and allowed the United States to again find its moral bearing.” We will continue to walk with our other partners in assuring that this step forward is part of the continuing effort to lead the country back to an embrace of the moral high ground on issues relating to the treatment of prisoners and detainees.
Rabbi David Saperstein, Director and Counsel, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism:
• We understand that the process of closing Guantanamo may be lengthy. The profound problems with Guantanamo do not erase the fact that many detainees are dangerous and wish our nation and its people harm. Yet these same detainees have been stuck in a legal no-man’s-land without the ability to challenge their detention through a writ of habeas corpus and without the right to be charged or hear the evidence against them. Many have been subjected to tortuous treatment that defiles both the victim and the perpetrator. No matter the circumstances, every individual, including the most dangerous detainee in our prisons, is created b’tselem elohim, in the image of God, and must be treated with dignity and respect.
Just a thought...
A promise kept
President Obama signed executive orders requiring all interrogations to adhere to the Army Field Manual and requiring closure of Guantanamo within one year.
Faith coalitions such as NRCAT played a key role in keeping torture on the public agenda and elevating its profile as a pressing moral issue. Kudos to them for their inspiring and dogged efforts! You can read their letter to the administration here.
And thanks, President Obama, for doing the right thing.
Countdown to end torture
This weekend our friends at the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) kicked off their "Countdown to End Torture: Ten Days of Prayer," which will end on Inauguration Day, and their web site has a cool clock counting down until the moment they expect their prayers to be answered:
The countdown clock...was started on the morning of January 11th, the seventh anniversary of the opening of Guantanamo. It is counting down the hours until President Obama's first workday in office, when we hope and expect he will sign an executive order ending torture. If President Obama does not issue an executive order by 9:00 am (EST) on January 21st, the clock will begin "counting up," marking the hours that have passed without an executive order ending torture."
News reports yesterday and today suggest that the clock won't have to count up too high:
The Guantanamo directive would be one of a series of executive orders Obama plans to issue shortly after he takes office next Tuesday, according to the two advisers. Also expected is an executive order about certain interrogation methods, but details were not immediately available Monday.
Here's hoping NRCAT's prayers are answered in short order. The outlook is good, but nothing to be taken for granted.
Putting Torture Behind Us?
Some promising presidential appointment news for those of us committed to ending U.S.-sponsored torture -- Leon Panetta has been named director of the CIA, and Dawn Johnson has been appointed to head the Office of Legal Council. (The OLC is the branch of the Department of Justice that advises the White House on the lawfulness of its actions. Previous office-holder, John Yoo, was the author of the infamous torture memos, intended to provide a legal framework for torture during the Bush administration).
Panetta's condemnation of torture (and specifically, the manipulation of fear to justify it) and Johnson's call for the OLC to serve as a much-need check, not "rubber-stamp" for the administration have anti-torture acolytes Andrew Sullivan and Glenn Greenwald feeling optimistic.
However, as we've noted previously, public pronouncements of policy ideals are one thing, implementation is wholly another. As today's story about the military detention center in Bagram, Afghanistan shows, ending morally questionable interrogation and detention practices will be a complicated task indeed.
In other words, we have reason to be encouraged, but not complacent. Let's keep up the pressure, and hopefully we'll see real progress soon.
Alleviating Torture Anxiety
Early reports that John Brennan was on the short list to be Obama's CIA Director or Director of National Intelligence drew justified condemnation. The man, after all, had been an ardent supporter of the Bush administration's torture regime. So it's a great relief that he's withdrawn his name from consideration for either post.
A wise friend of mine recently prayed that the President-elect be granted discernment, wisdom and courage as he is given the full breadth of national security secrets. I've often wondered what Obama would do if given a for-your-eyes-only briefing that information obtained via torture had prevented a 9/11-scale attack. Sure, it's easy to say things like "never" and "without exceptions" from a distance. But it's another thing entirely to have the guardians of a secret realm of knowledge present you with evidence that "enhanced interrogation techniques" saved lives. Weighing such matters of life, death and faith in an environment of secrecy is a test of faith. So I'm glad that the person giving him the briefing isn't someone with a history of supporting torture.
America's Moral Stature
President-Elect Barack Obama restates his intention to close Guantanamo Bay prison and ensure that America is a nation that "doesn't torture," saying these steps are crucial for the United States to regain "moral stature" in the world.
Strong and admirable words, but it shouldn't placate us into assuming that the torture regime is over. TAPPED's Adam Serwer drops a healthy dose of skepticism:
Bush was just as "clear" in his public statements about torture declaring famously "we do not torture...we will aggressively pursue [terrorists], but we will do so under the law." The point is that public statements are important for drawing lines but are meaningless unless the same hard lines are drawn in policy and practice. To give Obama credit for having ended a policy of torture before he takes office is just as silly as claiming unequivocally that he has no intention of doing so. Giving Obama credit for doing the right thing before he does it eliminates the ability of torture opponents to pressure Obama to, in fact, do the right thing.
If there's anything as a given, it should be that the religious community's moral witness plays a necessary role in holding the President-elect to his word.
"With one stroke of a pen..."
...Barack Obama can end America's practice of torture as soon as he takes office. That's what the National Religious Campaign Against Torture yesterday urged the President-elect to do after he's sworn in. NRCAT also conducted lobbying visits to numerous Congressional offices across the country, including Nancy Pelosi's.
There's a clear Scriptural call and moral imperative to end torture and inhumane treatment of detainees, and the faith community's requests are straightforward (an executive order, adherence to the Geneva Conventions, a Select-committee investigation into abuses), and Obama has denounced torture unequivocally to faith leaders. However, a quick glance across the internets shows that countervailing pressures abound in Washington.
Andrew Sullivan links to a Wall Street Journal article citing agovernment officials' speculation that Obama "may decide he wants to keep the road open in certain cases for the CIA to use techniques not approved by the military."
Glenn Greenwald highlights a Washington Post article featuring a high-ranking Justice Department official discouraging Obama from investigating and prosecuting torture perpetrated by agents of the US government. Glenn also describes and excoriates the beltway conventional wisdom that we should eschew investigation in the name of post-partisan harmony.
Whether you favor a truth and reconciliation commission or a war-crimes trial, whether you support adherence to the Army Field Manual or the Geneva Conventions, I suspect and hope that all faith-inspired opponents of torture can share the convictions that a ban on torture not be subject to exceptions and that we shouldn't sweep past abuses under the rug. That's NRCAT's stand. Thanks to their lobbying and leadership, the new President and the next Congress will approach torture not just as a strategic and legal issue, but a moral one as well. We hope.
9/12 -- Terrorism, torture and our souls
I remember receiving an email on 9/12 with pictures of dozens of vigils across the world, from London to Tehran, Cairo to Moscow. The outpouring of grief and support from abroad was a moment of community that mirrored our instinctive and inspiring unity at home. But on 9/16, Dick Cheney went on Meet the Press and foreshadowed the response that squandered this global good will and divided the country:
We also have to work, though, sort of the dark side, if you will. We've got to spend time in the shadows in the intelligence world. A lot of what needs to be done here will have to be done quietly, without any discussion, using sources and methods that are available to our intelligence agencies, if we're going to be successful. That's the world these folks operate in, and so it's going to be vital for us to use any means at our disposal, basically, to achieve our objective.
Seven years on, it's common knowledge that agents of the American government torture detainees. We do. We deprive people of sleep for days on end, subject them to hypothermia, tie them in agonizing stress positions, slowly drown them, beat them, sexually humiliate them, hold them incommunicado for years on end. People of faith, like everyone else, have come down on both the right and wrong sides of this moral issue. As support for torture lingers, hopefully the golden rule persuasion message that worked so well in the poll we released yesterday will come into wide use and change the hearts and minds of misguided people.
New Evangelical Poll on Torture
Results of a new poll on Southern Evangelicals’ attitudes toward torture were released today at Mercer University in Atlanta during the opening day of A National Summit on Torture. You can read the poll memo, which details the poll’s findings, here.
A video recording of this morning's press conference about the poll is available here.
Speakers at the press conference included Dr. David P. Gushee, who authored the National Association of Evangelicals-endorsed Evangelical Declaration Against Torture, and is the Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics, at Mercer University and President of Evangelicals for Human Rights and Tyler Wigg Stevenson, Director of the Two Futures Project, a nuclear disarmament initiative centered around young evangelicals. Dr. Robert Jones, President of Public Religion Research presented the poll’s findings. Katie Paris of Faith in Public Life moderated the press conference.
Among the key findings:
• While a majority of white evangelical Christians in the South think that torture is often or sometimes justified, they are significantly more likely to oppose torture if they rely on Christian teachings or beliefs to form their views on the issue.
• A majority of white evangelical Christians in the South agree with the Golden Rule argument against torture—that the U.S. government should not use methods against our enemies that we would not want used on American soldiers.
We are all victims of torture
Tomorrow we observe the UN’s International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. As we mark this occasion, we do so at a time when people of faith are courageously stepping forward and saying enough is enough. Just today, an impressive lineup of leaders from different faiths and political philosophies called on President Bush to ban torture. Learn about their effort at http://www.campaigntobantorture.org/.
When I think about torture, the word flesh comes to mind. There are obvious reasons for this connection: torture often involves the beating and bruising of human flesh.
But, I’d like to focus on another link between these words. A link that reminds us there is a moral dimension to torture.
Brennan Manning, author and former Franciscan priest, has identified a concept that should be central to our views. He once wrote we need to be “for others, all others…to the extent that no human flesh is a stranger to us…to the extent that for us there are no ‘others.’”
Torture’s victims are as varied as its methods. Some we would hesitate to even call victim. Yet, Manning’s words suggest that if we are to uphold the idea (central to all faiths) that every human being possesses some dignity, we will apply this concept to the innocent and guilty of society.
Religious Bloggers Campaign to Stop Torture
Just after Easter this year, Americans were treated to the revelation that senior leaders of the Bush administration—later revealed to include the president himself—took part in meetings to approve “special interrogation” techniques to be used against terror suspects held by the CIA.Now, they didn’t just approve those techniques: these leaders went into great detail about what would happen to the suspects. Over and over again, they talked about “whether [the suspects] would be slapped, pushed, deprived of sleep or subjected to simulated drowning, called waterboarding,” according to ABC News. "Waterboarding," it should be noted, was classified as torture by the U.S. after WWII when several Japanese soldiers were convicted of war crimes for taking part in the practice.
At least some of those present at the meetings knew they were wrong. No less a Christian than John Ashcroft wanted the White House to distance itself from its own policy, saying “History will not judge this kindly.” The news reports do not record any Cabinet members sharing his concerns.The reaction to this rather startling news was a collective yawn.
Cruel and Unusual
Perhaps it's another example of the superficiality of our national debates that a Supreme Court Justice (Antonin Scalia) can claim that torture is not "cruel and unusual punishment" on national television and two days later hardly anyone's noticed (save Rolling Stone).
While Scalia claims he's no fan of torture, he fudges on the question of its Constitutionality claiming "defining it is going to be a nice trick."
What made this interview most "unusual," however, was Scalia's bizarre interpretation of what "punishment" means. Interrogation, it seems, doesn't qualify:
To the contrary...Has anybody ever referred to torture as punishment? I don't think so.""Well, I think if you are in custody, and you have a policeman who's taken you into custody…," Stahl says.
"And you say he's punishing you?" Scalia asks.
"Sure," Stahl replies.
"What's he punishing you for? You punish somebody…," Scalia says.
"Well because he assumes you, one, either committed a crime…or that you know something that he wants to know," Stahl says.
"It's the latter. And when he's hurting you in order to get information from you…you don’t say he's punishing you. What’s he punishing you for?
While we certainly need to pay close attention to the words of the Constitution, I find it hard to believe this interpretation is consistent with the intent of the framers. If what really matters is the intent to "punish" rather than extract information, then a witness to terrorism could potentially be subjected to the most inhumane treatment (in order to get information about the terrorist) while the perpetrator would be spared such abuse.
(Even within Scalia's preposterous construction, torture is indeed a punishment for silence or obstruction.)
This is the same immoral reasoning behind the infamous "torture memos" which made the abuser's intent -- not his or her actions -- the benchmark for morality.
The thousands of Faithful Americans who signed a petition denouncing those memos may not be on the Supreme Court, but they know the United States has no business engaging in "cruel or unusual" behavior of any kind.
If only the government agreed.
NEVER: Faith leaders chime in
FoFPL Aaron posted the following this afternoon at his outstanding homestead, Faithfully Liberal:
As you have undoubtedly noticed the faith blogosphere has been putting pressure on former Governor Mike Huckabee to come out strongly against torture with two simple questions for him. We still await an answer but I want to emphasis how important it is for Mr. Huckabee to publicly state his position on the moral/value issue.I posed a quick question in that regard to a couple of different faith leaders and received two very well thought-out responses from Faith in Public Life Executive Director Jennifer Butler and from United Church of Christ President Rev. John Thomas.
Here’s the question that I posed to them:As a faith leader yourself, and someone who has adamantly opposed torture, what do you believe former Governor Mike Huckabee’s role in condoning or opposing torture is in regards to his newfound leadership in the religious right?
And their responses:The Emerging Evangelical Witness on Torture
A leading ethicist and a major evangelical voice at both a scholarly and popular level, Dr. David P. Gushee presented a series of lectures on the campus of Bluefield College, April 15-16. He is an authority on contemporary moral issues, especially torture.
His latest work is The Future of Faith in American Politics: The Public Witness of the Evangelical Center.
He helping to organize A National Summit on Torture: Religious Faith, Torture, and our National Soul, to be held at Mercer University on September 11-12, 2008.
Compassion Forum Focus: Human Rights and Torture
As you may know, Faith in Public Life is hosting presidential candidates Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama on April 13 for the Compassion Forum.
The April 13 CNN-televised Compassion Forum will focus on just five key issues to folks of faith: domestic and international poverty, global AIDS, climate change, genocide in Darfur, and human rights and torture.
Each day this week, this blog will highlight one of those five issues. See the flip side for Human Rights and Torture.
Torture exposed
On the heels of yesterday's torture memo release, Vanity Fair published a wrenching, in-depth story about the genesis and evolution of America's post-9/11 torture regime. It is a deeper and darker hole than I cared to imagine, and the story does a great job of laying the facts out, and of bringing it home on a gut level:
We went through the marked-up document slowly, pausing at each blue mark. Detainee 063’s reactions were recorded with regularity. I’ll string some of them together to convey the impression:
Detainee began to cry. Visibly shaken. Very emotional. Detainee cried. Disturbed. Detainee began to cry. Detainee bit the IV tube completely in two. Started moaning. Uncomfortable. Moaning. Began crying hard spontaneously. Crying and praying. Very agitated. Yelled. Agitated and violent. Detainee spat. Detainee proclaimed his innocence. Whining. Dizzy. Forgetting things. Angry. Upset. Yelled for Allah.
The blue highlights went on and on.
Urinated on himself. Began to cry. Asked God for forgiveness. Cried. Cried. Became violent. Began to cry. Broke down and cried. Began to pray and openly cried. Cried out to Allah several times. Trembled uncontrollably.
(h/t David Kurtz at TPM)
Torture codified
Interrogators who harmed a prisoner would be protected by a "national and international version of the right to self-defense," Yoo wrote. He also articulated a definition of illegal conduct in interrogations -- that it must "shock the conscience" -- that the Bush administration advocated for years. "Whether conduct is conscience-shocking turns in part on whether it is without any justification," Yoo wrote, explaining, for example, that it would have to be inspired by malice or sadism before it could be prosecuted.So it's okay to torture, provided that you're not doing it just to be mean. Here's another torture memo -- the National Religious Campaign Against Torture's quotes from religious leaders:
Torturing Ourselves to the Dark Side
Right before the Academy Awards, I settled down to listen to my almost daily dose of Bloggingheads.tv, a virtual salon of substantive punditry. Instead of a debate about libertarian principles or the presidential election, I was treated to a 47 min. discussion between New York's film critic David Edelstein and Alex Gibney (Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room), the maker of Taxi to the Dark Side.
So impressed was I with Mr. Gibney's grasp of American torture policy under Bush and Cheney that I selected his film over SiCKO to win Best Documentary on my party ballot. The doc won, and so did I. "What? Victory and human rights, say it ain't so, Mr. Yoo."
The room of smart guys at the Jewish Council for Public Affairs also nail the sickness that torture brings. Jared writes:
While watching Taxi to the Dark Side, I found one scene particularly disturbing. Afghan detainees are being processed by U.S. troops as they enter U.S. custody. The detainees stand in a line; their sleeves, rolled up. A U.S. solider, with Sharpie indelible marker in hand, begins to write the prisoner's ID number on his right inner forearm. Even writing this post I am having a horrible visceral reaction to this image. Marking prisoners in this way harkens back directly to the number tattoos that mark Holocaust victims. The symbolism is disgusting.
If that's not enough for you, the Washington Monthly gives America 37 leaders articulating why we must stop torturing now. National Association of Evangelicals honcho Richard Cizik lists four reasons why Christians should fight torture. He adds, "A consensus is emerging within our churches about our obligation to speak out against torture. As evangelical Christians, we have a non-negotiable responsibility to oppose a policy that is a violation of both our religious values and our national ideals."
In the same issue, Jimmy Carter writes:
"Our nation, which overcame slavery and segregation to proudly raise the banner of human rights for all to see, now finds itself condemned amid the indelible images of human degradation, perpetrated by U.S. forces in charge of the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Our government's persistent unwillingness to ban the use of torture by its own agents or to grant access to legal counsel or prospect of a proper trial to hundreds of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay emboldens those who oppose human rights elsewhere."More and more folks of faith are speaking up on the torture issue, this is particularly significant because traditionally religion has been the most closely connected to issues of conscience and physical suffering. As the state steals the rack from the Grand Inquisitor, those who follow a higher ethic, from liberal Hollywood documentarians to evangelical moderates, are working to pull America back from the dark side.
FYI: June is Torture Awareness month. Find out how you can get involved with the National Religious Campaign Against Torture here. And join the 18,000 who have signed the statement.
Stop the Bush administration from going to the mat for torture
This is not a rhetorical question -- when in the history of representative democracy has a legislative body passed a measure prohibiting torture, only to have it vetoed by a chief executive? Has there ever been such an open and official approval of torture in a democratic society?
If the answer is yes, let's not join the ranks of whoever's crossed that rubicon of shame. If the answer is no, let's keep it that way. From NRCAT:
We ask you to call the White House at 202-456-1111, or to email the President at comments@whitehouse.gov to express your support for H.R. 2082 (the Intelligence Authorization bill). Tell the President that we cannot win the war on terror by abandoning the values that made us great, and that he can help return us to those values by signing H.R. 2082.
The Washington Post's Dan Froomkin asks some other pertinent questions that demand answers:
Who are we as a nation? Are we who we used to be? Did one terrorist attack really change all that? Can it be changed back?
If you believe in atonement and redemption, the answer to Dan's last question has to be a firm yes, but the answers to his other three are far more troubling.
On an upnote, if your Congressional representatives voted the right way, it'd be nice to drop them a note of a appreciation.
Bush administration reserves the right to torture
Hot on the heels of CIA director Michael V. Hayden's admission that CIA interrogators waterboarded three detainees between 2002 and 2003, the Bush administration says they can do it again.
But in remarks that were greeted with disbelief by some members of Congress and human rights groups, White House spokesman Tony Fratto said that waterboarding was a legal technique that could be employed again "under certain circumstances."
Fratto said the nation's top intelligence officials "didn't rule anything out" during congressional testimony Tuesday on CIA interrogation methods, and he indicated that Bush might consider reauthorizing waterboarding or other harsh techniques in extreme cases, such as when there is "belief that an attack might be imminent."
To recap: a slowly administered drowning, invented by inquisitors, used by the Khmer Rouge, previously prosecuted by the US government as torture, is "a legal technique that could be employed again 'under certain circumstances.'" In other words, when push comes to shove, America tortures. Not like you didn't already know, but it's still noteworthy to hear them confess this moral calamity.
The National Religions Campaign Against Torture provides an extensive list of ways to get involved in the movement to ban torture by the US government (for real this time).
Guantanamo turns six
Check out this powerful witness against the absurd depravity of America's treatment of detainees.
Is waterboarding torture?
The National Religious Campaign Against Torture is calling on the Senate Judiciary Committee to reject any attorney general nominee who is not forcefully "against the use of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment."
But the call by the 130-member coalition seems likely to be too little, too late as the committee appears ready to send to the full Senate the nomination of Judge Michael Mukasey to replace Alberto Gonzalez.Of course, for the sensitive types like former Ambassador to the UN John Bolton, just talking about torture is torturous.
On Democracy Now, Amy Goodman interviews someone who actually has been subjected to waterboarding.According to Religion and Ethics Daily,
In a Nov. 1 letter to the Judiciary Committee, the interfaith group said it was "deeply concerned" about Mukasey's answers on the volatile issue of torture and what interrogation techniques may be permissible. "Our country already knows what happens when we have an attorney general who countenances torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment," the letter said. "We lose our moral compass; decent Americans are called upon on our behalf to commit acts that damage their souls; our soldiers who may be captured are placed in greater jeopardy; we are shamed in the eyes of the world. It would be tragic to allow an individual who has not clearly rejected the illegal and immoral practices of torture ... to become the leading law enforcement officer of our nation."
"Our principal health problem down there is gain of weight" -- Karl Rove on Gitmo
"Our principal health problem down there is gain of weight, we feed them so well," he said as many in the audience shook their heads and groaned in unison. [Denver Post, 7/9/07]Perhaps we should not be surprised considering the source, but Rove's remark is morally outrageous. Here's the reality:
Get to know: National Religious Campaign Against Torture and The Ghosts of Abu Ghraib
June is "Torture Awareness Month." Thanks to Real Time with Bill Maher, this clip from the most recent presidential debate reveals a reason why we might need a whole month to reflect on this in America..
There's a lot of torture in the air. Early on America was crafted on the principle of religious freedom in an historical moment when Catholics and varieties of Protestantism were employing terrorism and torture to defend their communities. (See Guy Fawkes, the Separatists, the Puritans, Bloody Mary, Fox's book of Martyrs and the Spanish Inquisition.) Just as these religious groups learned to find alternative methods of will-to-power through dialogue and religious tolerance, so too will the fearful in our day; but only if we refrain from inflaming fears and "enhancing" our interrogation techniques.
Get to know: Reclaiming the Prophetic Voice
According to the Hartford, CT, Courant newspaper Sen. Lieberman "is not particularly popular with the clergy crowd these days." The clergy crowd in question was an inspiring local interfaith voice for justice: Reclaiming the Prophetic Voice.
Reclaiming the Prophetic Voice is a Connecticut-wide interfaith "gathering of religious leaders and people of faith, joined by our belief in the God of justice and love, who calls us "to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with God." In this time of crisis and war, we believe that walking humbly with God requires us to advocate and practice nonviolent love, in the tradition of Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr."
Active supporters of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, they have also been busy holding events to increase Connecticut pressure for Senate Bill S 576 and House Bill HR 1415.
Rev. Peter Laarman Post: Torture, Democracy, and the Mark of Cain