Action Needed Now to End Torture

Do you support a presidential executive order that will fully and completely, without exception, ban torture and cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment of prisoners in U.S. custody, anywhere in the world, including the transfer of prisoners to another country for torture?

Then join The Washington State Religious Campaign Against Torture (WSRCAT) and The National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) http://www.nrcat.org/ in supporting the Declaration of Principles for a Presidential Executive Order On Prisoner Treatment, Torture and Cruelty.

Sign on at:

http://www.nrcat.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=211&Itemid=160

anti-torture events Nov 1 in Tacoma, Nov 12 in Seattle

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Public Forum
The Washington State Religious Campaign Against Torture (WSRCAT) presents "Torture, America's Moral Authority and the Question of National Security: A Pre-Election Ecumenical Forum".
Saturday, November 1, 2008, 7-9:15 p.m,
at St Mark’s Lutheran Church by-the-Narrows, 6730 N 17th Street, Tacoma; co-sponsored with several TACOMA congregations and Assocciated Ministries. The forum will include a talk by WSRCAT co-founder, Prof. Rob Crawford, a panel of responders, and time for discussion.

Keynote Address
“Torture and the American Future- a Moral and Political Reflection”
Speaker: Professor Rob Crawford is professor of modern history and culture at the University of Washington, Tacoma, where he teaches, among other courses, Post 9/11 America and Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust. Since 2004, he has been active in the anti-torture movement and in 2006 co-founded the Washington State Religious Campaign Against Torture.
Panel Discussion with Moderator: Mr. Rick Samyn, MSW, Pastoral Assistant for Social Justice Ministry - St. Leo Catholic Parish

Panelists:
Mr. Michael Collier is chair of First United Methodist MICAH Project and is a graduate from
Washington State University-Pullman. His post-graduate education included University of Washington, Concordia Lutheran College (Portland), Carthage College, Kenosha, Wisconsin, and University of California, Berkeley.

Dr. Pauline Kaurin holds a PhD in Philosophy from Temple University, Philadelphia and is a specialist in military ethics, just war theory, philosophy of law and applied ethics. She is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at PLU and teaches courses in military ethics, warfare, business ethics and philosophy of law. Recent articles include: Nothing New Under the Sun At Guantanamo Bay: Precedent and Prisoners of War and When Less is not More: Expanding the Combatant/Non-Combatant Distinction.

Andrew Williams, a former Lt. commander in the U.S. Navy, is now a practicing Silverdale attorney. In the Navy he was a Judge Advocate who served both at Naval Submarine Base, King’s Bay, Georgia, and on the USS NIMITZ. Mr. Williams recently resigned his commission in the Individual Ready Reserve due to torture and other improprieties committed by U.S. forces.

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Public Forum
The Church Council of Greater Seattle (CCGS) and
the Washington State Religious Campaign Against Torture (WSRCAT) issue
A Call to End All Torture!
November 12, 2008, 7:30–9 pm, in Seattle
University Congregational UCC, 4515 16th Ave. N.E., Seattle, WA
Introduction: Rev. Monica Corsaro, CCGS
Speakers:
*Brig. General Stephen Xenakis, US Army (Ret). M.D. Psychiatrist, former Commanding General of the Southeast Regional Army Medical command; board member of NRCAT and works with Physicians for Human Rights on the issue of torture.
*Jorge Quiroga - Board member of CCGS, and an organizer for SEIU Local 6. He was tortured for three years in Argentina in the late 1970s.
*David Marshall, J.D. - Seattle attorney who represents three prisoners at Guantanamo in cooperation with the Center for Constitutional Rights.
*J. David Kinzie, M.D. - Professor of Psychiatry and Director of The Torture Treatment Center of Oregon.
*The Rev. Michael Denton - Conference Minister, Pacific North West Conference for the United Church of Christ.
WSRCAT and the Church Council have invited Washington’s Congressional representatives to this event. Rob Crawford, facilitator for WSRCAT, will present signatures calling for an Executive Order to Ban Torture Without Exception.
Co-sponsored by Western Washington Fellowship of Reconciliation
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