Oct 19, 06:36 PM
Tell Congress: Protect the anti-torture amendment!
The McCain anti-torture amendment is in danger from Senate Republicans who would, in a disgusting reversal, actually turn it into the Congress’s first on-record endorsement of torture carried out by the CIA.
The defense appropriations bill to which the amendment is attached is now being considered in a House/Senate Conference Committee. Write to your members of Congress and tell them to oppose any changes. If you have a representative or senator on the committee (check this list), be sure to point out that this person has a special responsibility to protect the anti-torture amendment.
You can also go here to write a message to Bush demanding that he withdraw his threat to veto the amendment if it crosses his desk in its original form. Be sure to point out that using the only veto of one’s presidency to protect torture is pretty disgusting.
Here’s the email I sent to Senator Dick Durbin; feel free to copy it in your email to senators and representatives:
Keep Sen. McCain’s anti-torture amendment intact.
Dear Senator Durbin,
As your constituent, I trust that you will see the critical importance of keeping intact the anti-torture amendment attached to the defense appropriations bill. As a member of the House/Senate Conference Committee, you must ensure that no changes are made to the amendment during conference negotiations.
In particular, I implore you to oppose vigorously Sen. Ted Steven’s stated intention to see that the amendment is “augmented with guidance that enables certain classified interrogations to proceed under different terms.”
As law prof. Martin Lederman has written in his Web log,
Steven’s alterations would effectively, and perversely, turn McCain’s amendment into a Congressional approval of inhuman treatment carried out by the CIA.
If “Senator Stevens has his way,” Lederman points out, “and successfully exempts the CIA from the McCain Amendment’s otherwise unequivocal ban on cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, the Congress will for the first time have ratified the Administration’s view that such cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment is not uniformly off-limits, and will have given a green light to the CIA to engage in such conduct.”
Senator Durbin, America needs you to stand up for human rights and real American values and oppose any changes to the McCain amendment. Make Illinois proud.
Sincerely,
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— MarksBrain » Blog Archive » Dissent on torture Nov 2, 05:00 PM #