No2Torture – a great source for information and action against torture
[2-27-06]

Over the past few months we have posted a number of reports and commentary on the painful issue of torture, especially as it has become an important element in U.S. policy. 

One group, mostly Presbyterians, has played a great role in this campaign: No2Torture was initiated by people who took part in the 2005 Peacemaking Conference at Ghost Ranch. They held an important conference and witness in Miami early in January. 

More recently, Carol Wickersham, one of the founders of No2Torture, reports that in one village of 2,000, two of the participants in the Miami gathering, Michelle Dennis and Mirjam Melin have organized a small study group using the "Out of Horror, Hope" curriculum. This group was brought together through personal invitations. The local paper also ran a portion of the piece by Evan Silverstein about the Miami event. Michelle and Mirjam also shared their insights with the local Kiwanis group – a venue others might approach.

Anti-torture efforts were the major focus of Peace Week at Beloit College. Each day there were very well attended events that included a panel of torture survivors and a lecture by Michael Spezio, who spoke in Miami, on the neuro-psychological effects of torture on victims and perpetrators. One of the major local papers carried a significant interview with Dr. Spezio.

More local and regional events are in the works. 

Visit their web site >>

Jane Mayer reports in the New Yorker on a 22-page memo written by the former general counsel of the Navy that is highly critical of the Bush administration's policy toward detainees at Guantánamo.

Read the article in the New Yorker, or on TruthOut.org

NPR journalist Robert Siegel interviews Mayer on All Things Considered.

The National Council of Churches USA has "emphatically supported" a United Nations report released yesterday that calls upon the United States to close its Guantanamo Bay detention facility "without further delay."

The report of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights of the Economic and Social Council also recommended that the U.S. refrain from "any practice amounting to torture" and either bring detainees to trial or "release them without further delay."

In a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, NCC General Secretary, the Rev. Dr. Bob Edgar, also renewed a request to allow the NCC to send "a small interfaith delegation" to Guantánamo "to monitor the physical, mental and spiritual condition of the detainees." A similar request was turned down by former Secretary of State Colin Powell in 2003 and 2004.

In an email dated February 17, Bob Edgar, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches reports that "thousands of faithful persons have added their names to this project in just 24 hours." He urges others to add their signatures by Monday, adding: "It is important for the Administration to know how the US religious community feels about this issue. Also, feel free to pass the word to your friends and colleagues. Our goal is 25,000 signatures."

Click here for the Faithful America website, where the information is currently on their front page.

Alfred W. McCoy gives compelling evidence that the ban on torture, passed by Congress in December, will have little impact against "the Bush legacy of legalized torture."

He begins:

Just before Christmas, two of the world's most venerable legislative bodies engaged in erudite, impassioned debate over what the right balance should be between the imperatives of national security and international prohibitions on torture. They arrived at starkly divergent conclusions that reveal the depth of damage the war on terror is doing to this country's civil liberties.

On December 7, the House of Lords, reviewing cases in which a dozen Muslim militants were to be deported, spoke with moral clarity on the issue of torture, branding it "an unqualified evil" which should have no place in the proud, thousand-year tradition of British justice. Just a week later, the U.S. Senate amended the Defense Appropriations Bill to prohibit the "abuse" of detainees in American custody, including the many Muslims at our Guantanamo prison, but did so on the purely pragmatic, almost amoral grounds that it "leads to bad intelligence." Under pressure from the White House, the senators also loaded this legislation with loopholes that may soon allow coerced testimony - extracted through torture - into American courts for the first time in two centuries.

McCoy is the author of A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation, from the Cold War to the War on Terror, and a professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Christianity Today Magazine has published a lengthy article by David P. Gushee, professor of moral philosophy at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee, considers carefully the US administration’s efforts since 9/11 to justify its interrogation techniques as something other than torture. Perhaps "torture lite"??

But he concludes that for five very basic reasons, Christians must say No to torture – lite or regular:

Retired military leaders express concern after the president made ambiguous remarks on the new ban last month.     [1-23-06]

A group of retired military officers urged President Bush on Thursday [January 19, 2006] to spell out how he would enforce a ban on the torture of U.S.-held prisoners, complaining that he muddied the issue in a statement last month that some experts said signaled he would bypass rules for treatment of detainees when he saw fit, even after he signed them into law.

Bush reluctantly accepted the ban, pushed by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), after scandals over abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, harsh interrogations at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and reports that the CIA ran secret prisons abroad to hold terrorism suspects.

Retired military leaders, including Marine Gen. Joseph P. Hoar, who was commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, said Bush should clarify his stance after his statement last month.

Matthew R. Schlimm, of Duke University, has published a very good article in the Society of Biblical Literature Forum, on "Teaching the Hebrew Bible amid the Current Human Rights Crisis: The Opportunities Presented by Amos 1:3-2:3."

Acknowledging that "these oracles do not delineate a developed doctrine of human rights in times of war," nevertheless Schlimm shows how "each of Amos' six oracles against the nations condemns war crimes broadly understood as inhumane actions committed in times of violence. Each crime that Amos focuses on would be deemed, at least by today's standards, a crime against humanity and a severe human rights violation."

The full article >>

Thanks to Terri Brink, on the e-list of No2Torture

''In 2005 it became disturbingly clear that the abuse of detainees had become a deliberate, central part of the Bush administration's strategy of interrogating terrorist suspects,'' the report said.

The rest of the story    

on TruthOut.org >>

in the New York Times >>

This note is from the Rev. Robert Moore, Executive Director of the Coalition for Peace Action &
Peace Action Education Fund.

First, see links below to excellent press coverage of this weekend's Conference on Torture, attended by 165 religious leaders from across the US, which launched the National Religious Campaign Against Torture. I'm especially pleased that The Trentonian, a very conservative newspaper, featured photos and quotes about our Conference on Sunday's entire front page and most of the third page! Unfortunately, the first link below only has the story, but it was tremendous coverage aimed at a constituency we hope to reach on this issue! News 12 New Jersey television also covered the event.  The Trenton Times >>

Featured speakers included Ray McGovern, creator of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, who served as a CIA analyst for 27 years; Retired General Richard O'Meara, and James Yee, a former Muslim chaplain at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, who was arrested, charged with espionage and treated like the "enemy," until charges against him were dropeed and he received an honorable discharge.    The Trentonian >>

In this report Ray McGovern is quoted as saying of torture: "It’s not wrong because it’s condemned by law. It’s condemned by law because it’s wrong." When asked if he gave any weight to the argument that torture tactics are necessary in today’s "war on terrorism" because it’s a new kind of war, McGovern answered immediately, "No weight at all. Torture is terrorism."

A note from your WebWeaver: We will soon have a report from three members of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship who participated in this event. One of them described her experience there as "mind-blowing .... high-power ... stunning." So we gather it was pretty good.

Fresh claims of torture and abuse at Guantánamo Bay have been published by Amnesty International to mark the US detention center's fourth anniversary.

The London-based human rights group said 500 detainees continued to be held without charge or trial and repeated its call for the center to be shut.

One excerpt:

"Everything is done in the name of self-defense, so they can do anything because nothing is forbidden in the war powers act," said one official who was briefed on the CIA's original cover program and who is skeptical of its legal underpinnings. "It's an amazing legal justification that allows them to do anything," said the official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issues.

The Nation has gathered a number of very good articles on torture, in its December 26, 2005 issue. Details and links >>  

And the view from Canada – Robin Matthews, writing on the website ViveleCanada, lays out differing views of U.S. use of torture from two Canadians and two U.S. students of the issue. More >>

High schoolers comment on torture

The New York Times has reported in a December 16 editorial that the agreement by the President to accept Sen. John McCain’s amendment to ban the use of torture by the US has some serious limitations. These include:
- Habeas corpus is being restricted
- Coerced evidence will be allowed
- Attorney General Gonzales et al. still will not define techniques like waterboarding as torture
- Those charged with torture can use the defense that a reasonable person could have concluded they were following a lawful order

Dr. George Hunsinger, convener of the planned Princeton conference on human rights and torture, has sent this letter to religious leaders who are being invited to the conference. 

The Senate recently voted on two important bills: the Defense Appropriations bill and the Defense Authorization bill. You may well want to urge your Representative (and Senators too, if you have time) to support the Anti-Torture Amendment as passed by the Senate 90-9 and offered by Senator John McCain.  It's important to address this issue in both the Defense Appropriations bill and the Defense Authorization bill.   Details >>

Also ...

"Torture" takes on new meaning in post-9/11 U.S.

Harold Kurtz, former mission worker and Senior Associate of the Presbyterian Frontier Fellowship, writes as a veteran of World War II (along with his four brothers) and as an evangelical, saying: "Lately I feel like a stranger in the United States. I am a remnant of what has been called ‘the greatest generation,’ but it's not the thinning ranks of my generation that has me feeling lost and confused. It's the debate about torture that has been swirling around me for months. I never imagined such a debate in my country."

His family helped feed and care for German POWs who were brought to work on their farm, and he concludes by wondering, "What has happened to my country? How can my country be debating the merits of torture? Why has my country lost the will to make friends out of its enemies?"

Council and Church World Service support Senate bill, term opposition 'abhorrent'
[11-22-05]

[This report is being posted a bit tardily, because it came after I had left for Sri Lanka, where internet connections were pretty iffy. And costly. I’ll try to catch up on a few important items like this, though, over the next few days. Doug King]

The General Assembly of the National Council of Churches USA (NCC) and Church World Service, meeting in Maryland during the second week of November, commended the U.S. Senate for "anti-torture provisions" in the 2006 Defense Appropriations bill.

But as the House of Representatives began debate on the bill, some high-ranking U.S. government officials declined to support the provisions.

"As delegates to the General Assembly of the National Council of Churches USA and Church World Service, we find any and all use of torture unacceptable and contrary to U.S. and international legal norms," the delegates said.

The Washington Office reports that the House of Representatives may vote on torture in the next few days. Call the Capitol Hill switchboard at (202) 224-3121. Ask to be connected to your Congressperson's office. After reaching your Member of Congress's office, ask for the staffer who covers defense issues. If they are not available, ask if you can leave a message on their voicemail. Talking points from Amnesty International:

Mark Koenig of the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program has sent this note from Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) in Iraq:

Civilians in Iraq need you to help end state-sponsored torture by Iraqi security forces.    [11-1-05]

CPT Iraq spent nearly two years documenting abuse of Iraqi detainees in U.S.-run prisons in Iraq. But for the past several months, the team has received more and more reports of detentions, killings, and torture perpetrated by the new Iraqi security forces – forces trained by U.S. military and now given responsibility for security in their country. Methods of torture reported by survivors and families include beatings with cables, electric shock, electric drilling, food and sleep deprivation, beating of feet, stress positions, and suspension from the ceiling. CPT has received first-hand testimonies alleging that the Iraqi Army, Iraqi Police and new commando groups such as the Wolf and Scorpion Brigades have targeted particular communities, such as Iraqi Sunni neighborhoods as well as neighborhoods of Palestinians born in Iraq.