Torture is a War Crime by Cindy Sheehan: Read, Act, Organize
SEE SPECIFIC ACTIONS with talking points links below (NC is the next stop for the Journey DC coming up!
Sign to impeach–add yours to 908,086 others! www.impeachbush.org/site/PageServer
(Journey details here as well as Cindy’s ongoing blog)
Also find info here (which is url for the article below by Cindy Sheehan) www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php
Sunday July 15, 2007 Torture is a War Crime–Journey for Humanity and Accountability, Day 5, by Cindy Sheehan www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php
Today our Journey took us to Ft. Benning, Ga, where the cancer of the School of Americas (WHINSEC) is housed. I have written on torture before and I believet hat BushCo’s policy of imprisoning people without their basic due process and torturing them is one of the grossest breeches of international and Americanlaw and one of the overriding reasons that they shouldbe impeached.
The School of Torture has graduated many egregious violators of human rights like Panamanian drug lord, U.S. CIA employee, and Bush family friend (until he became an enemy), Manuel Noriega. If there is one issue that should unite Americans it should be against torture.
Incredibly, we still have neighbors in our communities who believe that torture is correct, humane and valuable. However to say torture is “wrong” is like saying the sky is blue. Torture is inherently wrong. Torture is pure evil. Torture is an abomination. Torture is disordered and demented. Torture is sick, sick, sick! Most significantly the people who are being tortured in such prison camps as Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib were mostly sold to the US Army by bounty hunters and the Northern Alliance.
Criminal charges against the prisoners are as rare as the truth in the Bush Regime. Most reasonable people would agree that information gleaned from such awfully brutal means (water-boarding, stress positions, extreme noise and temperatures, sodomy and other sexual humiliation, electrodes on genitalia, etc) is never reliable.
I can’t even fathom the sick, sadistic minds of the Bush Regime who not only have authorized and institutionalized this behavior but also refuse to end it and close the camps that have undermined any moral authority the US may have had. Torture not only dehumanizes the tortured, but the torturer. It hurts my heart deeply to think of our young soldiers carrying out such ruthless acts on other humans who for the most part were in the wrong place at the wrong time and do not know where Osama bin Laden is hiding.
Torture only compromises our soldiers’ lives in the field as the US cannot credibly claim any kind of moral high ground if one of oursoldiers is tragically captured. The abomination of Abu Ghraib is one of the reasons that the insurgency began on the day Casey was killed in Sadr City,Baghdad.
I personally know three men who were illegally and wrongly imprisoned in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib who can testify to the fact that, yes, America does torture and does so with extreme, callous and cold-hearted cruelty. The Geneva Conventions are clear on prohibiting the use of torture and the 8th Amendment to our own Constitution prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. When torture is official policy, where will it end?
When George can pick and choose who receives the centuries old right to habeas corpus and who doesn’t, where will it end? Will it end with the “terrorists” in Guantanamo or will it be used here in the USA against those who stand up against tyranny and struggle for our Constitution, freedoms, peace andhuman rights?
Torture has tarnished the soul of our nation and Congress has done little to restrain BushCo’s Torquemadas and even when a bill is passed restricting the use of torture, George adds a signing statement saying that he is above the law. BushCo is no better than a crime cabal and they must be Consitutionally controlled.
Apparently impeachment is the only remedy for torture and will go a long way to elevating our country’s standing in the international community and to healing our broken nation. Impeachment is not an optional menu item that can be set on a table but a Constitutionally mandated requirement (See section II, Article IV). Put it back on the table, Ms. Pelosi.
We have over a million signatures on petitions demanding that Congress end the misery of our nation and world by impeaching George Bush and Dick Cheney. Action items:
1) Go to: www.impeachbush.org/site/PageServer to sign petition & for details on the Journey
2) Call Nancy Pelosi’s office (202-225-4965) to tell her to green light impeachment. Call other legislators, leaders, media following the Journey from home or in person.
3) Join walk from Arlington Cemetery to Congressman John Conyer’s office for a sit-in for impeachment on July 23rd or organize sit-ins in your Congress Rep’s local office.
4) Go to Amnesty International’s Campaign Against Torture to learn more about the issue web.amnesty.org/pages/stoptorture-index-eng news.amnesty.org/index/ENGPOL300352005
ALSO this great editorial from Sunday’s NYTimes www.nytimes.com/2007/07/15
Reference: Absolute Immunity? www.salon.com/news/primary_sources/2007/07/12/white_house_subpoena/
Bill of Rights Defense Committee (on going Bill of Rights /Consitutional news) www.bordc.org/news/
SPECIAL ACTIONS: NC
NEXT STOP TUES/MAYBE WED CHARLOTTE
OFFICE OF REP. MEL WATT 1230 W. Morehead St. Suite 306 Charlotte, NC 28208-5214 Tel. (704) 344-9950 Fax (704) 344-9971 Find MapQuest directions on this url Rep. Mel Watt watt.house.gov/contactinfo.asp
Rep. Mel Watt is already talking pre-impeachment talk. SEE Mel Watt Calls Miers No-show the “Last Straw” www.democrats.com/mel-watt-last-straw
July 16th & 17th Go to Charlotte, NC if you possibly can. Cindy Sheehan ET AL may be there but whether or not your paths cross, know that we are in this together–In person or by phone/FAX CONTACT office of Rep. Mel Watt watt.house.gov/contactinfo.asp
To connect with Charlotte organizer for details, call Ken Ashe Veterans For Peace chapter 099 at 828 400-1145 or Connie Nash 828 553-5467 Be ready to speak up & flyer the ImpeachBush.org petition at & around Congressional office.
CALL Mel Watt’s office supporting Rep. Watt’s efforts to stop war & encourage him to do all he can to help impeach Gonzales,Cheney & Bush beginning with by signing House Resolution 333 ( HR 333 ) kucinich.house.gov/UploadedFiles/int3.pdf
Kenneth Ashe tville33@yahoo.com of Veterans for Peace & Lyle, President of VFP will be in DC on July 23rd to lobby John Conyers July 23 Washington DC Includes 10am Walk from Arlington Cemetery to Capital
Please get whatever is pertinent out far & wide & ORGANIZE NOW (adapt for your own contacts & places. Urge CALLS to legislators, Phones, Local & National Legislation, Leaders, MEDIA–BE CREATIVE, POSITIVE CONFIDENT PEACEFUL (We only have the Bill of Rights & The Constitution on our side!) The Nation and the world is watching & can’t wait.
“Gold Star Families For Peace” gsfp@mail.democracyinaction.org
July 16th, 2007 at 12:28 pm
STOP the torture and injustice of NO HABEAS for too may not even charged with little if any legal help. There are two different bills. Please urge Senators to go with S. 576!
Please forward widely and please call TODAY (Monday, July 16) and/or at very latest EARLY Tuesday. And FAX if at all possible as well.
If your senator were to call you this evening, and ask you what kind of vote she or he should make on habeas corpus on Tuesday, July 17, what would you answer?
Yes, I want habeas corpus restored for all people from whom the Military Commmissions Act stripped that right–including U.S. residents who are not full citizens? Or would you focus on the Guantanamo Bay detainees, who have been imprisoned for years without the benefit of this basic mandate of fairness? THE BILL THAT WILL MOST COMPREHENSIVELY DISMANTLE THE MILITARY COMMISSIONS ACT IS S. 576. The bill that will simply restore habeas, but not touch torture or accountability is S. 185. So please cross that one off.
Either way, you know that your senator will not call you up to ask your opinion. YOU must make the call. Though you may have already called during our recent National Call-In to Congress on Habeas Corpus, please take just a few moments to speak with the office staff of both of your senators in Washington, DC, to make sure they know how their constituents want them to vote.
The universal number to call is 202-224-3121 for the direct number to your senator’s office.
The vote comes up TOMORROW, Tuesday (Jul 17), so you don’t have a moment to waste. Please forward this message to all friends, work associates, and others who care about basic rights for all. For talking points and more information, click here. To read the Sunday New York Times editorial, click here.
Thanks for all you do!
Hope
Hope Marston Bill of Rights Defense Committee Western Region Organizer PO Box 51434 Eugene, OR 97405 541-683-1604 hmarston@bordc.org http://bordc.org