In the months since this statement was written, courts have ruled that innocents who have been tortured may not sue, while those who advocated torture are defended by the current administration.
Join Noam Chomsky, Cindy Sheehan, Cornel West, Chris Hedges, Daniel Ellsberg and thousands more in signing and publishing this statement.
![[A US officer silhouetted at the Bagram prison. "The entire world is not a battlefield," says Melissa Goodman of the ACLU. "We cannot just capture people far from any zone of armed conflict and lock up them up indefinitely without any access to the courts or due process.(AFP)]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/bagram_critique.jpg "bagram_critique.jpg")
A US officer silhouetted at the Bagram prison. "The entire world is not a battlefield," says Melissa Goodman of the ACLU. "We cannot just capture people far from any zone of armed conflict and lock up them up indefinitely without any access to the courts or due process.(AFP)
Part 1 of an eight-part series starts here... | Waterboarding. Sleep deprivation. Sensory manipulation. Stress positions. Over the last several years, these and other methods of torture have become garden variety words for practically anyone who reads about current events in a newspaper or blog. We know exactly what they are, how to administer them, and, disturbingly, that they were secretly authorized by the Bush Administration in its efforts to extract information from people detained in its war on terror. What we lack, however, is a larger lens through which to view America's policy of torture -- one that dissects America's long relationship with interrogation and torture, which roots back to the 1950s and has been applied, mostly in secret, to "enemies," ever since. How did America come to embrace this practice so fully, and how was it justified from a moral, legal, and psychological perspective? more... |
She then moves on to an event hosted by the Commonwealth Club to detail her story of a remarkable childhood
Intercontinental Mark Hopkins Hotel, 999 California Street                                                11 a.m. check-in, noon program
Also know: Attendees may be subject to search. Underwritten by the Koret Foundation as part of the Principles of a Free Society Series.
Tens of thousands of detainees are being held without trial in Iraqi prisons and face violent and psychological abuse as well as other forms of mistreatment, Amnesty International said on Monday.
The London-based human rights watchdog estimates 30,000 people are held in Iraqi jails, noting several are known to have died in custody, while cataloguing physical and psychological abuses against others...
"Iraq's security forces have been responsible for systematically violating detainees' rights and they have been permitted to do so with impunity," said Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa director Malcolm Smart.
new Amnesty International report here
Protest at Jeppesen -- Hold the Torturers Accountable! Thursday, September 9 at 5:00 PM in front of Jeppesen office, 225 W. Santa Clara St, San Jose On Wednesday, September 8, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals threw out the lawsuit that charged Jeppesen Dataplan (a Boeing subsidiary) with complicity in the CIA torture flights. The Obama Justice Dept. had asked the court to throw out the lawsuit because it might reveal "state secrets." What secrets? Bush administration officials have admitted that torture, including waterboarding (almost drowning) was used often, against detainees in various hidden prisons around the world. There should be no secrecy but rather full disclosure of all the facts around the torture flights. All participants--government agencies, corporations like Jeppesen, and individuals who planned and carried out the torture--must be held accountable. |
What can YOU do to add your strength to "Berkeley Says No to Torture" Week?
