veiled4allah

activism: sign petition for Senate to investigate torture

Kudos to Wes Clark:

The time has come to investigate the Bush Administration's role in the prisoner abuse and humiliation that has motivated our enemies in the war on terror and endangers the well-being of our fighting forces.

He's set up a petition asking Senator John Warner, chair of the Armed Services Committee to start this investigation: Sign the petition

outsourcing torture

Via Body and Soul and Procrastination, comes this post from Obsidian Wings:

The Republican leadership of Congress is attempting to legalize extraordinary rendition. "Extraordinary rendition" is the euphemism we use for sending terrorism suspects to countries that practice torture for interrogation. As one intelligence official described it in the Washington Post, "We don't kick the sh*t out of them. We send them to other countries so they can kick the sh*t out of them.” The best known example of this is the case of Maher Arar. Arar, a Canadian citizen, was deported to Syria from JFK airport. In Syria he was beaten with electrical cables for two weeks, and then imprisoned in an underground cell for the better part of a year. Arar is probably innocent of any connection to terrorism

Here are the details on the bill:

The provision Rep. Markey referred to is contained in Section 3032 and 3033 of H.R. 10, the "9/11 Recommendations Implementation Act of 2004," introduced by House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL). The provision would require the Secretary of Homeland Security to issue new regulations to exclude from the protection of the U.N. Convention Against Torture and Other Forms of Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, any suspected terrorist - thereby allowing them to be deported or transferred to a country that may engage in torture. The provision would put the burden of proof on the person being deported or rendered to establish "by clear and convincing evidence that he or she would be tortured," would bar the courts from having jurisdiction to review the Secretary's regulations, and would free the Secretary to deport or remove terrorist suspects to any country in the world at will - even countries other than the person's home country or the country in which they were born. The provision would also apply retroactively. This provision was not part of the 9/11 Commission's recommendations, and the Commission actually called upon the U.S. to "offer an example of moral leadership in the world, committed to treat people humanely, abide by the rule of law, and be generous and caring to our neighbors." The Commission noted that "The United States should engage its friends to develop a common coalition approach to the detention and humane treatment of captured terrorists. New principles might draw upon Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions on the law of armed conflict. That article was specifically designed for those cases in which the usual laws of war did not apply. Its minimum standards are generally accepted throughout the world as customary international law." These standards prohibit the use of torture or other cruel or degrading treatment.... Rep. Markey said, "When the Republicans 9/11 bill is considered in the House, I intend to offer an amendment to strike the torture outsourcing provisions from the Republican bill and replace it with restrictions restoring international law as provided in my bill. It is absolutely disgraceful that the Republican Leadership has decided to load up the 9/11 Commission bill with legislative provisions that would legitimize torture, particularly when the Commission itself called for the U.S to move in exactly the opposite direction."

Obsidian Wings is asking people to write to their Representatives and for bloggers to link to their post, and to post about the issue themselves. Didn't we learn anything after Abu Ghuraib? Is torture what America is going to stand for now? God help us. Update 10/1: Katherine at Obsidian Wings has posted an update. She provides some statements on the issue from various groups as well as the lastest news on what's happening in Congress with the attempts to oppose these provisions. She also provides a sample message that you can send to your Congressperson to ask them to oppose the provisions. Please check out her post. Thanks. Update 10/9: Katherine reports that the House has passed a watered down version of this provision, but did not remove it entirely.

what he said

Via Is That Legal, I found this from Michael Froomkin:

I find it shocking and horrible that anyone running the government, anyone running the Justice Department, could argue for torturing prisoners of war, or any other class of person. I find it frightening that anyone running the government, anyone running the Justice Department, could even entertain arguments that US Citizens should be held in solitary confinement, indefinitely, without charges or access to court and counsel. The assertion of this power strikes at the hear of our democracy. It is in my view many steps down the road to serious, genuine, good-old-fashioned tyranny, with or without raising the almost distracting issue of whether this is some nascent form of fascism. (And the bankrupt-America policies of this administration, with many mainstream economists predicting a crash of the dollar or other economic disaster unless we change our policies doesn’t make me feel all that great either. Especially when I think about the political developments that often tend to follow an economic crisis.) So, one reason I’ve kept on doing this is that I don’t want to look back in twenty years and discover that during the crunch time I was the modern equivalent of a ‘good German’—busy with the demands of family and career while ‘the great experiment,’ the USA, went down the tubes around me. Even bearing witness against these trends serves, I hope, in some small way to begin to roll them back.

I've felt that way too sometimes. There are things that I see happening in this country that are very disturbing to me, things that I feel go against all the ideals that America is supposed to stand for. When someone you love is doing something wrong, don't you try to speak up and let them know so they can fix it? The same is true of countries. Many people criticize the direction America is going because we love our country and don't want to see it do something wrong.

torture destroys our humanity

David Neiwert at Orcinus posts a powerful argument by Dr. James Rockford against the use of torture. It can be summed up by paraphrasing Jim Henley. Why should we not use torture? Because we're fucking human beings (Arthur Silber already said this). I thought torture was one of the things that make our enemies so evil. How much further can we sink towards their level before we become them? Why are we even starting on the path? Aside: Read about how Islam condemns torture Updated 3/11: Zack Ajmal provides more links (1, 2). And don't miss Jonathan Edelstein's discussion of how the U.S. has been subcontracting torture for decades - in the War on Drugs. Also, Orcinus has more from Rockford. Updated 3/12: More good stuff from Eve Tushnet (and scroll up, she has lots more), Lynn Gazis-Sax of Noli Irritare Leones, and Kynn Bartlett of Shock and Awe. Updated 3/13: A great post by James Landrith. Updated 3/14: Found another good one, from Kevin Drum of CalPundit Updated 3/15: Arthur Silber has more to say.