Washington State Religious Campaign Against Torture

Protest Indefinite Detention Seattle 1/11/12 on 10th Anniversary of 1st Prisoners to Guantanamo

2011-12-31T12:03:00.000-08:00

Candlelight Vigil

Join Washington State Religious Campaign Against Torture, Amnesty International USA - including local Amnesty International USA Group-4 of Seattle, Western Washington Fellowship of Reconciliation, Code Pink Washington, and other justice activists to

**Protest indefinite imprisonment without charges on the 10th Anniversary of the arrival of prisoners at Guantanamo. 171 prisoners remain at Guantanamo. Many have been cleared of any role in combat. Hardly any have been charged with a crime.

**Protest torture and other inhumane treatment of prisoners anywhere

**Protest Congress's action to "legalize" indefinite detention without charges or trial, and other violations of the Bill of Rights (part of the recently passed NDAA, National Defense Authorization Act of 2012)

Wednesday January 11, 2012, 5-6 pm, on sidewalk outside of the Jackson Federal Building, 2nd avenue between Madison and Marion, downtown Seattle; if you can please bring a candle in a container to protect against wind (paper cups with holes in bottom work) and if you can, a sign indicating your opposition to indefinite detention and torture and/or your support of the Bill of Rights.

The Seattle Vigil will be one of many actions around the country. See the National Religious Campaign Against Torture website http://www.nrcat.org/ and also Amnesty International USA's Day of Action website http://www.amnestyusa.org/events/sign-up-day-of-action-against-guantanamo for more information.

The Bill of Rights

Passed by Congress September 25, 1789.
Ratified December 15, 1791.

Amendment I

Freedoms, Petitions, Assembly
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Amendment II
Right to bear arms
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Amendment III
Quartering of soldiers
No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

Amendment IV
Search and arrest
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Amendment V
Rights in criminal cases
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb, nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Amendment VI
Right to a fair trial
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed; which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defence.

Amendment VII
Rights in civil cases
In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

Amendment VIII
Bail, fines, punishment
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Amendment IX
Rights retained by the People
The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Amendment X
States' rights
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

[Thanks to http://www.ushistory.org/documents/amendments.htm ]

Joshua Phillips to speak in Seattle on Fri. Nov. 18

2011-11-08T21:14:00.000-08:00

Joshua Phillips, author of "None of Us Were Like This Before: Reflections on American Soldiers and Torture."

Friday, November 18, 3:30 pm, University of Washington, Thomson 317, Seattle

Phillips will discuss his recent book, None of Us Were Like This Before: American Soldiers and Torture (Verso, 2010). Gen (ret.) Antonio Taguba, author of the Taguba Report on the Treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, writes: "Joshua Phillips' incredible work in documenting the experience of soldiers who detained and interrogated detainees reflects the huge dilemma and consequences of their actions. His book is about accountability where senior leaders in the military and in the highest level of government failed to account for their actions, failed to protect soldiers who expected clear instructions, and failed the Nation in preventing torture and abuse of the enemy."

Joshua E. S. Phillips has reported from Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and South Asia. His work has appeared in the Washington Post, Newsweek,The Nation, Salon, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, among other publications. His radio features have been broadcast on NPR and the BBC. Phillips won a Heywood Broun Award and Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Award for excellence in broadcast journalism for his American Radio Works documentary What Killed Sergeant Gray.

Sponsored by the UW Law, Societies & Justice Program; UW Center for Human Rights; and Washington State Religious Campaign Against Torture.

Tacoma event Nov 16, 2011

2011-11-07T23:36:00.000-08:00

Weds Nov 16, 7-8:45 pm, at University of Washington-Tacoma, Carwein Auditorium (Keystone 102), 1990 S. Commerce Street, Tacoma; Joshua Phillips will speak on his book, None of Us Were Like This Before: American Soldiers and Torture. How do torture and abuse affect the perpetrators as well as the victims? Co-sponsored by Washington State Religious Campaign Against Torture, United for Peace of Pierce County (UFPPC), Veterans For Peace, Amnesty International, HOPE Network (UWT's human rights organization), Western Washington Fellowship of Reconciliation. info crawford@uw.edu or Rob Crawford, 253-692-4460

June Is Torture Awareness Month

2011-06-03T00:14:00.000-07:00

On behalf of the Washington State Religious Campaign Against Torture (WSRCAT) we want to remind friends that June is designated as Torture Awareness Month. This is indeed a difficult topic to address because it so deeply offends our religious and humane principles. But precisely because torture is so deeply offensive to our legal, moral and spiritual bearings, it is all the more important that we attend to its offense by holding it in prayer and our political consciousness. Please consider observing June as Torture Awareness Month by doing one or more of the following three things:

1) Go to the new WSRCAT website http://www.wsrcat.org/ for local articles (see especially our own RobCrawford's http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2014985267_guest09crawford.html as well as links to other end-torture websites;

2) Take a few minutes to view a brief new video, "Repairing the Brokenness," at http://www.nrcat.org [www.nrcat.org], that offers responses to torture from leaders from various religious traditions. After you have viewed the video please consider offering it to a post-worship group or any group audience;

3) and finally, please consider an individual or group letter to your Congressperson and Senators Cantwell and Murray to call for a much needed Commission of Inquiry that would lay bare the full facts of U.S. torture and cruel treatment. WSRCAT's position is that in order to become a nation of law committed to human rights, public awareness of what has happened and accountability for these actions - including criminal investigations and prosecutions - are absolutely essential if we are to prevent torture in the future.

Tom Ewell
tewell@whidbey.com

WSRCAT Co-founder OpEd in Seattle Times 5/9/11

2011-05-09T13:13:00.000-07:00

Rob Crawford's OpEd "In the wake of Osama bin Laden's death, America wrestles with itself over torture" published in The Seattle Times May 9, 2011, can be viewed at

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2014985267_guest09crawford.html

Rob, a Professor at University of Washington-Tacoma, co-founded Washington State Religious Campaign Against Torture. He has advocated for accountability for torture as a means to prevent future torture, and has spoken to dozens of religious congregations about the immorality of torture.

WSRCAT website now under construction

2011-05-04T23:25:00.000-07:00

We have a website!

See http://www.wsrcat.org - watch for increasing content.

That address formerly forwarded to this blogsite. To come directly to the blogsite, use http://stopustorture.blogspot.com/

WSRCAT Activist to Speak on Guantanamo May 22

2011-05-04T23:21:00.000-07:00

Seattle Chapter Fellowship of Reconciliation presents

Jamie Mayerfeld of Washington State Religious Campaign Against Torture on
"Why Guantanamo Is Important to You"

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Potluck 5 p.m., Announcements 6 p.m., Program 6:30 p.m.
at Woodland Park Presbyterian Church, 225 N 70 St, Seattle
All are welcome! Free, an offering will be taken. Info 206-789-5565

Human rights advocates held high hopes that President Obama would end the human rights abuses at Guantanamo Prison. Sadly, although torture has decreased, Obama quickly institutionalized indefinite detention without trial for most of the prisoners. Contrary to widespread perception, Obama was not forced into this policy by political circumstances. We will conclude with an action to support the release of one unjustly detained prisoner.

Jamie Mayerfeld is Associate Professor of Political Science and Law, Societies & Justice at the University of Washington. His research focuses on the justification of international human rights institutions and the origins of the U.S. torture policy. His recent articles include "In Defense of the Absolute Prohibition of Torture," Public Affairs Quarterly (2008).

ANTI TORTURE WORKSHOP Jan 17, 2011, Seattle

2011-01-16T01:16:00.000-08:00

The Martin Luther King Celebration Committee presents the 29th annual region-wide Martin Luther King, Jr., Celebration with Workshops, Rally, and March, theme "Many Voices United to Build the Beloved Community"

Monday, January 17, 2011,
starts at Garfield High School, 400 23rd Avenue at East Jefferson, Seattle
9:30 a.m. Workshops, see details of ANTI TORTURE WORKSHOP below
11 a.m.-noon. Rally
12 noon March to Federal Building, 2nd & Marion, downtown Seattle
~1:15 p.m. 2nd Rally at March end, time is approximate
Buses will return marchers to Garfield High School

Information: Eddie Rye, Jr., 206-786-2763, or Larry Gossett 206-296-1002 or larry.gossett@kingcounty.gov, or http://www.MLKseattle.org

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

ANTI TORTURE WORKSHOP
Workshop "There Is No Torture in the Beloved Community"
(This is Workshop #13, and will be held in Garfield High School room 205.)

The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., often spoke of the Beloved Community, where conflicts would be resolved nonviolently with the goal of adversaries becoming reconciled. War crimes such as torture make continuing violence more likely and reconciliation less likely. Yet U.S. torture continues and torturers of prior administrations have not been held accountable. Besides being morally unacceptable, politically damaging, and ineffective, torture is illegal according to U.S. and international law. Panelists will present information about U.S. torture and lead a discussion of what we can do to end torture - a requisite step in building a truly Beloved Community.

Facilitator

Rob Crawford, co-founder of Washington State Religious Campaign Against Torture (WSRCAT), Professor of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, UWTacoma, with specialty in 20th Century History. WSRCAT includes people of many faiths as well as humanists who oppose torture under any circumstance.

Panelists

David Marshall, Seattle attorney who has represented Guantanamo prisoners since 2006. Mr. Marshall has practiced law for 29 years and specializes in child abuse cases.

Bjoern Meinhardt, Pastor at Vashon Lutheran Church, and active member of WSRCAT

Jamal Rahman, Sufi Muslim leader of Interfaith Community Church who works extensively with Christian, Jewish, and Muslim groups to advance interfaith understanding, has participated in WSRCAT activism

These panelists will be joined by Prof. Jamie Mayerfeld with a brief update on WSRCAT's work on Guantanamo and by Tom Buchanan with a few words about solitary confinement as torture. Each will present a quick action participants can perform.

Human Rights Day March & Rally Dec 11, 2010, Seattle

2010-12-01T21:46:00.000-08:00

Washington State Religious Campaign Against Torture is proud to support this Human Rights Day event!

HUMAN RIGHTS DAY EVENT

Saturday December 11, 2010, rain or shine!

gather 11:30 am at Hing Hay Park, Maynard Ave S at S Jackson St, International District, Seattle

Human Rights Day rally and march 2010 Theme: "Imagine Human Rights" initiated by PUSO (Philippine-United States Solidarity Organization) which has organized successful events around International Day of Human Rights in Seattle for several years. Take a Stand Against Human Rights Abuse and Work Together to Imagine a World Where Human Rights are Valued!

March starting noon through downtown for 1 pm (approximate time) rally at Victor Steinbrueck Park just north of Pike Place Market.

Endorsed by many peace and justice groups including
Amnesty International,
Anak Bayan Seattle,
Arts Kollective,
Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA),
Backbone Campaign,
BAYAN-USA,
Coalition of Anti-Racist Whites,
Community Alliance for Global Justice,
Evergreen Peace & Justice Community,
Interfaith Network of Concern for the People of Iraq,
International Action Center,
Philippine-United States Solidarity Organization (PUSO),
Pinay sa Seattle,
Pride at Work,
Sahngnoksoo,
Seattle Chapter Fellowship of Reconciliation,
Seattle CISPES
SNOW (Sound Nonviolent Opponents of War),
Tadaima,
United Nations Association - Seattle,
Washington State Religious Campaign Against Torture,
Western Washington Fellowship of Reconciliation.

information http://pusoseattle.wordpress.com/

PLANNING, TRAINING, AND WORK GATHERINGS BEFORE THE EVENT:

Sat Dec 4, 10 am - 3 pm, at Filipino Community Center, 5740 MLK Jr. Way South, Seattle; Work Party, bring poster making materials and ideas, or just bring yourself!

Tues Dec 7, 6 - 8 pm, at Seattle University, Hunthausen 160. Planning meeting including discussion of security and training

Fri Dec 10, 6 - 8 pm, at Seattle University, Casey Room 517, Planning meeting includes discussion of logistics for the next day

Founder of National Religious Campaign Against Torture in Seattle Oct 16 & 17

2010-08-16T23:27:00.000-07:00

Mark your calendar for 2 presentations!

Sat Oct 16, 7:30 pm, at Town Hall Seattle, 1119 8th Ave at Seneca, downstairs, enter on Seneca St, Seattle; Washington State Religious Campaign Against Torture presents a talk by Presbyterian theologian and activist George Hunsinger, co-founder of National Religious Campaign Against Torture, on "Unfinished Business: Ending U.S. Torture Forever." Hunsinger, Princeton Theological Seminary's Hazel Thompson McCord Professor of Systematic Theology, is the recipient of the 2010 Karl Barth prize to be conferred in 2011 by the Union of Evangelical Churches in Germany. Co-sponsored by National Religious Campaign Against Torture, Pax Christi Pacific Northwest, Seattle Chapter Fellowship of Rconciliation, Western Washington Fellowship of Rconciliation, and others to be added. Dr. Hunsinger will sign copies of his books after his presentation. Doors open 6:30 pm. Tickets $5 at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/124397 or 800-838-3006, and at the door beginning at 6:30 pm. Nobody turned away for lack of funds. info end.torture.wsrcat@gmail.com or http://www.wsrcat.org

Sun Oct 17, 10 a.m., at Plymouth Church-United Church of Christ, 1217 6th Ave, Seattle; Plymouth's Adult Forum and Washington State Religious Campaign Against Torture present Presbyterian theologian and activist George Hunsinger, co-founder of National Religious Campaign Against Torture, on "Violence Finds Refuge in Falsehood". Hunsinger, Princeton Theological Seminary's Hazel Thompson McCord Professor of Systematic Theology, is the recipient of the 2010 Karl Barth prize to be conferred in 2011 by the Union of Evangelical Churches in Germany. info end.torture.wsrcat@gmail.com

Torture Awareness Month

2010-05-31T02:02:00.000-07:00

We encourage all congregations and individuals to participate in Torture Awareness Month. In fact, we are working to make it Torture Awareness summer.

WSRCAT supports the National Religious Campaign Against Torture's call for access to all US held prisoners by the International Committee of the Red Cross. We are collecting signatures on postcards to members of Congress, and we hope to deliver the cards in face-to-face meetings with our Washington State elected officials. See http://www.nrcat.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=440&Itemid=316 for information or download postcards at http://www.nrcat.org/storage/nrcat/documents/icrc_access_postcard.pdf

Both WSRCAT and NRCAT call for a Commission of Inquiry to look into crimes committed since 2001, and we call on Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a Special Prosecutor to hold accountable those responsible for US torture.
See NRCAT's petition calling for a Commission of Inquiry at http://www.nrcat.org/storage/nrcat/documents/petition_form_3_2_09.doc or http://www.nrcat.org/storage/nrcat/documents/petition_form_3_2_09.pdf or sign on individually via the web at http://www.nrcat.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=197

WSRCAT is circulating a petition to Attorney General Eric Holder calling for a Special Prosecutor, with this wording:
"We urge you to appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate ALL violations of federal law related to torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of prisoners since 2001. Those who authorized illegal policies as well as those who carried them out must be prosecuted. We believe that in order to prevent future torture and abuse, there must be full accountability."
Please contact us for postcards or petitions!

2 talks by Torture Opponent Matthew Alexander

2010-05-10T23:00:00.000-07:00

Fri May 21, 7 - 8:30 pm, at University of Washington, Kane Hall Room #120, Seattle. Amnesty International, Washington State Religious Campaign Against Torture, and the UW Law, Societies & Justice Program present Torture opponent Matthew Alexander in "A Chair, A Brain, and A Heart: An Interrogator's Mission to Return America to the Rule of Law." He has written a book and spoken out about the moral and practical objections to torture. Matthew Alexander, a former senior military interrogator in Iraq and the author of "How to Break a Terrorist: The U.S. Interrogators Who Used Brains, Not Brutality, to Take Down the Deadliest Man in Iraq." Matthew Alexander led an interrogation team that refused to use coercive interrogation methods on detainees and gathered the intelligence that directly led to the successful airstrike on Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, who was the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq and mastermind of the suicide bombing campaign that helped plunge Iraq into civil war. Followed by reception with light refreshments. Free and open to the public. Event co-sponsors include American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Washington, UW American Constitution Society, UW Center for Human Rights, UW International Law Society, and Western Washington Fellowship of Reconciliation. info http://www.wsrcat.org/ or 206-463-5653 or robcrawford2@gmail.com or http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=116939868334060

Sat May 22, 7:30 pm, at Blessed Sacrament Church, 5043 9th Ave NE, in Seattle's University District; Matthew Alexander on How To Break A Terrorist. Matthew Alexander is an outspoken opponent of torture. He refutes torture's effectiveness, citing its negative long term effects - such as recruiting for Al Qaida - and argues that torture is contrary to the American principles of freedom, liberty, and justice. His book, How to Break A Terrorist, provides an inside look at the non-coercive interrogation techniques which lead to the whereabouts and targeting of Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, the notorious Al Qaida leader. Matthew Alexander served fourteen years in the US Air Force, and is a former criminal investigator and interrogator for the US military. He has conducted missions in over thirty countries, and has personally conducted more than three hundred interrogations, supervising more than a thousand. He was awarded the Bronze Star for his achievements in Iraq. Sponsors include the Washington State Religious Campaign Against Torture - WSRCAT, Amnesty International, and the Blessed Sacrament Peace and Justice Committee. Free and open to the public. info Nina Butorac 206-732-7351 or nbutorac@yahoo.com

quick action needed - phone Sen. Cantwell

2010-02-26T12:54:00.000-08:00

Sen. Lindsay Graham of South Carolina has introduced a bill, S. 2977, which prohibits the Dept. Of Justice from using funds to prosecute 9-11 planners or conspirators in Federal Courts. This means that suspected terrorists would be tried in the untested and legally shaky Military Commissions system.

Under Military Commissions, innocent people would not have their rights, and guilty people might have convictions overturned later. Our courts have worked well for over 200 years. Attorney General Holder has called our justice system "one of the most effective weapons available to our government for both incapacitating terrorists and collecting intelligence from them." He called removing the courts foolish and dangerous.

PLEASE CONTACT SENATOR MARIA CANTWELL, today if possible, to OPPOSE S. 2977. She has a mixed record on this issue. Please ask for a response.

CONTACT INFO: DC phone 202-224-3441, DC fax 202-228-0514, email via http://cantwell.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm, Seattle phone 206-220-6400, Seattle Fax 206-220-6404, toll-free (Seattle office) 1-888-648-7328

p.s. At 12:30 pm (Seattle time) on 2/26/10, a staff person said that Sen. Cantwell has not made up her mind yet.

Feb. 27 event Accountability for Torture

2010-02-26T12:52:00.000-08:00

Sat Feb 27, 4 pm, at SGI-USA Seattle Culture Center, 3438 S. 148th St., Tukwila;
Culture of Peace Distinguished Speaker Series What do we do now? VALUES, DIALOGUE AND ACCOUNTABILITY IN RESPONSE TO U.S. TORTURE.

A talk by Rob Crawford, Ph.D., Professor, Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences, University of Washington, Tacoma.

Sponsored by Soka Gakkai International-USA www.sgi-usa.org Free and open to the public. Free parking. info sboyd@sgi-usa.org

Rob Crawford is one of thirteen founding faculty of UW Tacoma and is a recipient of UWT’s Distinguished Teaching Award. He is a member of the core faculty of the IAS Master’s program, teaches in UWT’s Global Honors program, and served as Chair of the Faculty Assembly. He is also a Faculty Associate at the University of Washington Center for Human Rights. He currently teaches an undergraduate course on Torture and Human Rights and a graduate course on Torture and Ideology. In 2007, Dr. Crawford co-founded the Washington State Religious Campaign Against Torture (WSRCAT), a multi-faith and secular organization committed to ending U.S. torture.

Feb 17 Amnesty Intl film event cosponsored by WSRCAT

2010-02-11T14:36:00.000-08:00

Wednesday February 17, 6:30 pm, in Johnson Hall #102, University of Washington, Seattle, map at http://www.washington.edu/home/maps/northcentral.html?JHN ; Amnesty International presents a Screening of "The Response," an award-winning courtroom drama exploring the trial of a suspected enemy combatant, based on actual transcripts of the Guantanamo Bay military tribunals. This powerful film has not yet been released to the general public. Besides the 30-minute film screening, a panel of speakers will discuss the issues, including Arsalan Bukhari, the Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in Washington, and Joseph McMillan, from the Perkins Coie legal defense team for Salim Ahmed Hamdan, Osama bin Laden's personal driver. Co-sponsors include Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Washington State Religious Campaign Against Torture (WSRCAT), and the Veterans for Peace - Tacoma chapter. info on the film http://www.theresponsemovie.com/

Take Action! Hold US accountable for rendition and torture

2010-02-11T14:25:00.000-08:00

MAHAR ARAR CASE. Mr. Arar is a Canadian who was apprehended by the US at JFK airport in New York where he was changing planes. The U.S. sent him to Syria where he was held for 10 months and tortured. He has never been charged with any crime. He has sued the US, and the latest court action by the US was an Appeals Court denying him the right to sue. The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) is trying to get the case heard by the Supreme Court.

Please see the CCR website for more information and an easy-to-use web form to send a message to Attorney General Eric Holder to get justice for Mr. Arar.
http://www.ccrjustice.org/get-involved/action/tell-eric-holder%3A-stop-defending-bush-administration%E2%80%99s-wrongs
Or you can write, phone, fax, or email directly:

Attorney General Eric Holder
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001

Phone 202-353-1555
Fax 202-307-6777
Email AskDOJ@usdoj.gov

“Torture: Morality and Accountability” sermon by Tom Ewell

2010-01-18T21:44:00.000-08:00

"Torture: Morality and Accountability"
Sermon at the Unitarian-Universalist Meeting House, January 10, 2010 by Tom Ewell

"Do not do unto others what you would not want done to yourself." – The Golden Rule

"Remember them that are in prison, as if you were imprisoned with them; and them that are being tortured…" Hebrews 13:3

I want to begin by thanking you all for the somewhat courageous invitation to ask me to talk to you about the unsavory topic of torture. And I want to thank each of you who actually showed up this morning. This is a difficult topic. It is a tale of immorality and illegality. And I want you to know that I speak with you this morning with my own sense of trepidation and humility as I explore with you a dark side of our human species.

Let me begin with a bit of personal history. How did I get involved and committed to the study and prevention of torture?

Like many of you I grew up in the 1950s during the Korean War that we generally considered was part of a wider war with China. And one of the often-repeated pieces of propaganda about why we were fighting that war is that "those people" didn’t care about life, and they tortured people by running bamboo under your fingernails. This made a very strong impression on me at age 9 or 10, and I thought that torture must be the most awful thing that could happen to you, and "those people" must be very awful people indeed to commit such things. Could I ever stand to be tortured myself? Do you remember any of this, those of you old enough to remember?

Now jump ahead to the photographs and disclosures of torture committed by U.S. soldiers in Abu Ghraib. During that time I was having lunch each week with one of my primary mentors at my work with the Maine Council of Churches. Charles Arbuthnot was then well into his eighties and not well. He had retired to Maine after working many years with the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Geneva. Charles had been a Presbyterian chaplain in WWII and had accompanied the troops in the landing in Italy, and he was one of the few chaplains who survived that disastrous invasion. He went on to work with the WCC and he represented them at the Geneva Conventions. He told me that he had a special interest in the topic of preventing torture because he had argued so many times with the soldiers in the field that no matter what the temptation, they were never to torture a prisoner. That one of the main reasons we were fighting this war was because we were fighting to establish a sense of human decency on the earth where human life was respected, even the lives of our mortal enemies.

The news of Abu Ghraib was devastating to Charles. As he took in the travesty of Abu Ghraib he said he simply couldn’t believe it was true, and if it weren’t for the photos he still wouldn’t believe it. It felt like such a personal, spiritual, and national betrayal. My response to his distress was to assure him that I would take up on his behalf my own effort to confront our use of torture and try to secure the laws of the Geneva Convention against torture that he had help to establish. Charles died two months later.

So here I am trying to abolish torture in 2010. To do so I have joined cause with a number of others. I am a regular member of Washington State Religious Campaign Against Torture which, in turn, is an affiliate of the national, DC based, National Religious Campaign Against Torture. And I am also on the Executive Committee of the Friends Committee on National Legislation, also based in DC, and we helped initiate the NRCAT organization. And even beyond that I work with our Quaker organization specifically dedicated to ending US torture, the Quaker Initiative to End Torture or QUIT. All of these organizations work with a network of other organizations also trying to end torture: Amnesty International, the ACLU, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, Human Rights Watch among many others.

But I am getting ahead of myself.

It has been said that even thinking about torture runs chills down most peoples’ spines, and it also freezes the ability to act. The crime is too big, too secretive, to heinous, too gruesome to contemplate let alone try to address.

That’s why I like to begin by thinking in more general terms about the wider spectrum of violence which I define, in the succinct mode of the ten second sound bite, as "any force that inflicts or threatens uninvited harm." Torture, of course, is at the brutal end of that spectrum of violence, beyond murder, even perhaps beyond war, I think, because it involves a prolonged, personal engagement with another person while causing them unbearable pain and suffering, either as punishment or to hear confessions or attempt to retrieve by force information which the tormentor assumes the person being tormented possesses.

The basic morality regulating any level of violence is summarized in one of the only teachings that is referenced in all of the 21 major religious of the world, the "Ethic of Reciprocity," or, as it is commonly called in Christian teaching, the Golden Rule. You all know it. We begin teaching it to our children when they were tiny babies: A baby bites you. You yelp out of pain and to let the baby know it hurts. When the baby is old enough you explain that biting is wrong because it hurts - and you don’t want to hurt someone because you don’t want to be hurt. At a universal level the Hebrew text says it succinctly: "What is hateful to you, do not to others. This is the law: all the rest is commentary. (Talmud, Shabbat, 31a) Or "Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you." This is repeated time and again in all major religious teachings.

So if it is so universally wrong to bite and inflict all sorts of abuse and harm on others because we don’t like that sort of treatment done to ourselves, and if torture is the absolute dregs of this violation of the Ethic of Reciprocity, if it is such a basic wrong, so universally condemned, why am I standing here in 2010 trying to get my own government and people throughout the world to stop it? How could we have justified torture as a U.S. policy? And how did it come to be done in our name within our so-called "god-fearing country?" And how is that there are still those who defend it, allow it, condone it, and rationalize it, yes, even after Obama has declared that we not longer allow torture?

The simple answer is, with all acts of violence, we humans have the ability to place ourselves sufficiently beyond or outside "the other" that we can justify abusing "the other" because we are "bigger, stronger, more righteous or simply meaner," or because we simply don’t consider "the other" worthy of our respect as a human being.

I am now reading the Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Known World, by Edward Jones that chronicles the culture of slavery in a fictitious small town in Virginia in the 1830s and 40s. Slaves were most often referred to not even as slaves but as simply "property." And as such they need not to be treated as human beings. They could be whipped, separated from their families, sold or hung with impunity because they were not just "the other" as human beings, but in a whole category that defined "the other" as non-human "property." One way of avoiding the Golden Rule, then, is simply to disregard the humanity in "the other." Disconnect. Rationalize. When we think of "the other" as property, as unequal, undeserving, unworthy, threatening subhumans, we can do awful things to them. Over history people have been able to say, "I have a right to do violence even to my spouse, my child, my employee, my neighbor, and especially ‘my enemy’ because they are below me, less than, held in utter contempt, despised and hated."

To be able to torture someone you have to disconnect from the other person, to disassociate yourself. As you inflict pain, however, you also need to disconnect and disassociate from yourself. To abuse someone, especially to torture them, does terrible violence to your own humanity because torture is a bedrock violation of a bedrock moral principle. Those who have studied torture say that a disproportionate number of people who commit torture also commit suicide; they can not live with the memories of their inhumanity to another person and apparently their own sense of inhumanity. And most are not able to function in normal relationships when they return to society.

Although members of the Bush administration and their minions – and now the it seems, unfortunately, some members of the Obama administration as well - who develop and support torture policy never have to face those they cause to be tortured. But their efforts to legally justify torture is actually the greatest crime of all because it gives permission and direction for those who actually carry it out. And perhaps even worst of all, all Americans are now implicated in this crime, and continue to pay a price in terms of our sense of shame and our loss of our moral bearings, individually, as a nation, and in the eyes of the world. It is not unlike the lingering sense of moral complicity and shame felt by many Germans who lived during the Nazi regime.

[I need to interject at this point that the other end of the spectrum from violence is non-violence. The principles of nonviolence, in contrast, emphasize connection and unity with "the other," with empathy, compassion, and kindness. It is to honor, as Quakers and others say, "that there is that of God in each of us." For many of us, this is the basis of our peace testimony: we refuse to commit violence against another human being who is also seen as carrying the image of God, even if they are our enemy.]

So back to our topic of torture and the moral disconnect. I have tried to convince you – if you even needed convincing – that torture is essentially a moral issue, an issue of the spirit and the heart, and to commit torture is an egregious assault on our hearts and our moral bearings.

Here we are on January 10, 2010, trying to figure out how we can prevent and abolish this practice of torture in our own nation and throughout the planet. Astonishingly we find it is hard work. The United States has been taken prisoner by such a terrible immoral "Tar Baby" of governmentally sanctioned torture that we can’t seem to figure out how to get away from it.

Here are some facts:

1.) No matter how our government tries to rename it ("enhanced interrogation," for example), we have committed, as a sanctioned part of our national policy, acts of torture. This has now been documented and confirmed in various testimonies and research and photos. It has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt that we have committed torture. We have committed, as a nation, a crime against humanity.

2.) The Obama administration declared in the second day of the administration that the U.S. will not conduct acts of torture. But there are reports that acts of torture continue in places like the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, and our country continues the practice of rendition, of sending prisoners to other countries where torture is likely to occur.

3.) These acts of torture are in direct violation of international law that that the US has ratified. The prohibition against torture is among the most firmly anchored principles of human rights law, codified in more than ten international treaties. In 1966 the torture prohibition was given prominence in the cornerstone postwar human rights treaty, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that was ratified by some 160 countries and clearly stipulates that the prohibition against torture cannot be attenuated or suspended, even in times of public emergency. [A terrorist attack against the U.S., for example.] The most well known document against torture is included in the Geneva Conventions but it refers only to the conduct of war. The Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (the CAT Agreement), however, organized in 1984 and signed by President Reagan in 1988, extends to all political circumstances, including war, and explicitly applies to what is arguably the most threatening situation for people worldwide – imprisonment, abuse and torture by their own governments.

4.) It is very difficult to enforce these laws. As with the U.S. right now, and other countries like Chile in the past, national governments do not want to expose their own sinister complicity in illegal and inhuman acts such as torture. Those most likely to be prosecuted, moreover, may continue to personally hold great power within the government, or governmental agencies such as the CIA may totally resist a trial or Commission of Inquiry because of the information and the culpability it would undoubtedly expose. Unfortunately e have yet to establish the necessary international court and enforcement system that is capable of trying, convicting and punishing those who commit torture.

5.) Failure to prosecute the illegal and immoral policies and implementation of torture, however, establishes a precedent that normalizes the use of torture and puts our nation apparently above the law. Without accountability, it will be easier to commit and justify torture in the future. Any government that can operate with impunity and disregard of the law establishes the basis of tyranny and a police state. What is most at stake in the debate about torture, then, is whether we as a nation are outside the law, and if so, are we then not becoming a police state subject to despotic tyranny and lawlessness?

6.) So, my final point – my final fact - is that we have to do something, don’t we, if we don’t want to end up in a police state? Can we find the courage and political will to abide by and enforce such a basic code of law such as the prohibition of torture or will we allow ourselves to slide into a worsening condition of tyranny, lawlessness and a police state?

What recourse do we have within our democratic system that will help us address this crucial question of stopping the immoral and illegal practice of torture?

o - The first thing we recommend is that you help bring the topic out of the closet. Talk about what is at stake in our social circles and at work. We suggest writing letters, either personally or collectively, to our congressional reps – Larsen, Cantwell, and Murray – expressing our concern about the U.S. sponsored torture and accountability for it, pressing them to support anti-torture legislation and other means of accountability, stating your expectation that they will work personally to abolish torture; specifically we encourage you to write AG Holder and ask him to appoint an independent Commission of Inquiry which you can also learn more about at the NRCAT website.

o - In terms of continuing to learn about torture, we suggest a 20 minute video and study guide, "Ending U.S. Sponsored Torture: A Study Guide for People of Faith," produced by the National Religious Campaign Against Torture which available to download at their website, www.nrcat.org. I also have a copy of the full length documentary, Ghosts of Abu Ghraib, to loan to those interested

o - Another suggestion is that you support one of the organizations working to prevent torture. Our own organization, WSRCAT or our national affiliate, NRCAT, of course, but the ACLU and Amnesty International among other organizations are equally active. Or even closer to home, inquire how your own denomination is addressing this issue at a national level.

o - Continue to pay attention to the continuing saga of disclosures about U.S. sponsored torture and the ongoing efforts to investigate and prosecute those responsible.

o - Write your thoughts about U.S. sponsored torture in a letter to the editor, a personal blog, Facebook, or other sources of social communication.

o - Another suggestion, closer to home, is to write a prisoner in Monroe prison. Although this prisoner is hopefully not being tortured, this personal contact would engage the correspondent in the life of not only the individual prisoner, but with all those who are incarcerated throughout the world.

o - A final suggestion – the most challenging of all – would be to form a small working group to continue to address the issue of torture within your congregation if there were sufficient interest to do so.

Again, I thank you for this opportunity for me to share this concern with you and for your attentiveness to this extremely difficult topic.

I would like to close in a spirit of prayer for all those who have been subjected to torture; for those who have planned, justified, and committed the torture; and for all of us who have been implicated in this crime. May we all find a way to abolish torture from the face of the earth.

Amen.

Jan 18, 2010, workshop on Torture in US Prisons

2010-01-10T14:12:00.000-08:00

Workshop "Torture in US Prisons" organized by Washington State Religious Campaign Against Torture (WSRCAT) at Seattle's MLK Day celebration:

Mon Jan 18, 9:30 am, starts at Garfield High School, 400 23rd Ave at East Jefferson, Seattle; annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Rally and March, theme "Justice Now! Healthcare, Housing, Jobs & Education" 9:30 am workshops, 11 am rally with speakers, music; noon march, destination Federal Building, 2nd & Madison, downtown Seattle; We honor the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., for his work toward racial equality and toward economic justice for all people, for his commitment to nonviolence, and for his stand against war and militarism. one of the largest MLK Day events in the country. info http://www.MLKSeattle.org or Larry Gossett 206-296-1002 or Eddie Rye, Jr., 206-786-2763

Rev Anthony Robinson interviews Ray McGovern, writes on the truth of torture

2009-11-17T13:48:00.000-08:00

Article by the Rev. Anthony Robinson in Crosscut

"Telling the Truth about Torture:
Former CIA analyst Ray McGovern, now an advocate for release of U.S. interrogation records, says he didn't change sides. The truth did."
By Anthony B. Robinson
http://crosscut.com/2009/11/17/law-justice/19375/

Rev. Robinson is a retired pastor from Plymouth Congregational Church in Seattle, and formerly wrote a column on religion for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. He interviewed Ray McGovern in Seattle during McGovern's speaking tour, organized by Washington State Religious Coalition Against Torture.

photos from Ray McGovern Talk 11/12/09

2009-11-16T16:38:00.000-08:00

Ray McGovern spoke to a standing-room only crowd on "Why Accountability for Torture Is Crucial for Human Rights, Our Security and Our Souls" at University of Washington, Seattle on November 12, 2009.

Ellen Finkelstein staffs the Washington State Religious Campaign Against Torture Table, where attendees learned of WSRCAT projects and signed up for information.

Ray McGovern Seattle visit on the web & upcoming events

2009-11-15T00:55:00.000-08:00

Ray McGovern has had 3 live radio interviews plus a presentation at the University of Washington during his visit to Seattle. He has an OpEd in the Tacoma News Tribune 11/15/09. Below are links to his interviews and talks. Also, reminders of the 11/15/09 Tacoma event and 11/16/09 Olympia event.

Interview KUOW 94.9 FM Radio Seattle 11/12/09 "Weekday" with Steve Scher 9-10 am
Former CIA Analyst Ray McGovern on Torture
http://kuow.org/program.php?id=18761

Video of Ray McGovern talk, Thurs 11/12/09, 7 pm, Kane Hall, UW Seattle
"Why Accountability for Torture Is Crucial for Human Rights, Our Security and Our Souls"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWBRyzPzKbY
Thanks to independent videographer, Mike McCormick

Interview KIRO 97.3 FM Radio Seattle 11/13/09 Dave Ross show 10- 11 am
http://www.mynorthwest.com/?nid=112&cmsid=90&t=search&k=mcgovern

Interview KEXP 90.3 FM Radio Seattle Sat. 11/14/09 "Mind Over Matters" with Mike McCormick
http://kexp.org/streamarchive/streamarchive.asp
enter date and time, 11/14/09, 7:30 am
All Mind Over Matters programming is archived on KEXPs website for two weeks following broadcast.

OpEd in Tacoma News Tribune, 11/15/09
Torture is a result of accumulated evil – but few seem to care
by Ray McGovern
http://www.thenewstribune.com/opinion/othervoices/story/955379.html

STILL TO COME:

TACOMA EVENT
Washington State Religious Campaign Against Torture,
UW Tacoma's Politics, Philosophy, and Economics Concentration,
and United for Peace of Pierce County present
Ray McGovern on Does Torture Work? 'Let's Have Both Sides of the Story'
Sunday November 15, 2009, 7:00 p.m.,
at UW-Tacoma, Carwein Auditoriumin in Keystone Building, 1900 Commerce St,
Tacoma http://www.tacoma.washington.edu/campus_map/
Free, public welcome. Free parking in C-St. lot next to UWT.

OLYMPIA EVENT
Monday, Nov 16 Ray McGovern: "Why Accountability for Torture is Crucial for
Human Right, Our Security and Our Souls"
The Evergreen State College(Olympia), Lecture Hall, room 2, 12 noon

Torture Opponent Ray McGovern speaks Nov 16, Olympia

2009-11-12T01:03:00.000-08:00

Washington State Religious Campaign Against Torture presentsRay McGovern on "Why Accountability for Torture Is Crucial for Human Rights, Our Security and Our Souls"
Monday November 16, 2009, noon, The Evergreen State College (TESC), Lecture Hall, room 2 (in the round building on left central campus at Evergreen), 2700 Evergreen Pkwy NW,Olympia

Free, All Are Welcome
Ray McGovern was a CIA analyst for 27 years. He is active in Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) and has been an outspoken critic of the flawed intelligence used to justify the Iraq war and of the use of torture.

An Amazing Anti-Torture Week in the Puget Sound Area

2009-10-25T19:45:00.000-07:00

An Amazing Anti-Torture Week in the Puget Sound Area
See posts below for these events:

Mon Nov 9, Seattle, Nan Aron on Bringing Justice to Torturers event canceled, to be rescheduled
Weds Nov 11, Seattle, Mark Danner on "Stripping Bare the Body: Politics Violence War"
Thurs Nov 12, Seattle; Ray McGovern on "Why Accountability for Torture Is Crucial for Human Rights, Our Security and Our Souls."
Sat Nov 14, in Seattle, Jeff Robinson on his experience representing detainees in Guantanamo Bay (at ACLU dinner)
Sun Nov 15, in Tacoma; Ray McGovern on Does Torture Work? 'Let's Have Both Sides of the Story'
Mon Nov 16, in Olympia; Ray McGovern on "Why Accountability for Torture Is Crucial for Human Rights, Our Security and Our Souls."

Torture Opponent Ray McGovern, Sun. Nov. 15 in Tacoma

2009-10-23T23:02:00.000-07:00

Washington State Religious Campaign Against Torture,
UW Tacoma's Politics, Philosophy, and Economics Concentration, and United for Peace of Pierce County present

Ray McGovern on
Does Torture Work? 'Let's Have Both Sides of the Story'

Sunday November 15, 2009, 7:00 p.m., at UW-T, Carwein Auditorium, 1900 Commerce St, TacomaFree, public welcome. Free parking in C-St. lot next to UWT.

Ray McGovern is active in Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) and has been an outspoken critic of the flawed intelligence used to justify the Iraq war and of the use of torture.

Ray McGovern http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_McGovern won the Intelligence Commendation Medal, and prepared the president's daily intel briefing in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations. A Roman Catholic, McGovern recently published a stinging commentary on a 2009 poll result according to which most regular churchgoers (54 percent) believe torture can be "justified."

Co-sponsors include ACLU-Washington; American Friends Service Committee - Pacific NW; Amnesty International Puget Sound; Sound Nonviolent Opponents of War (SNOW); Washington Association of Churches; Veterans For Peace Chapter 134 Tacoma; and Western Washington Fellowship of Reconciliation.

Information http://www.wsrcat.org or http://www.ufppc.org/local-news-mainmenu-34/9071/

Torture Opponent Ray McGovern speaks Nov 12 Seattle

2009-10-17T14:51:00.000-07:00

Washington State Religious Campaign Against Torture presents
Ray McGovern on "Why Accountability for Torture Is Crucial for Human Rights, Our Security and Our Souls"

Thursday November 12, 2009, 7:00 p.m., at Kane Hall, Room 220, University of Washington Campus, Seattle

Ray McGovern was a CIA analyst for 27 years. He is active in Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) and has been an outspoken critic of the flawed intelligence used to justify the Iraq war and of the use of torture. He has written:

On April 16, President Barack Obama released ... documents [which] reveal that top CIA officials solicited and obtained from handpicked Department of Justice lawyers legal opinions based on an extraordinary premise; namely, that so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques" did not amount to torture unless they caused "pain equivalent to organ failure or death." With that very high threshold, the CIA was given free rein to use harsh techniques like waterboarding and sleep deprivation, to name just two of the torture techniques that find antecedents in the Spanish Inquisition. Several detainees died in CIA custody; the murders appear to qualify as capital offenses under 18 U.S.C. 2441, the War Crimes Act passed into law in 1996 by a Republican-controlled Congress.

Co-sponsors include ACLU-Washington; American Friends Service Committee - Pacific NW; Amnesty International Group 4, Seattle; Amnesty International Puget Sound; Backbone Campaign; Sound Nonviolent Opponents of War (SNOW); UW Amnesty International; UW Center for Global Studies; UW Center for Human Rights; UW Jackson School of International Studies; UW Latin American Studies Program; UW Law, Societies & Justice program; UW Southeast Asia Center; United Nations Association Greater Seattle Chapter; Washington Association of Churches; and Western Washington Fellowship of Reconciliation.

Information http://www.wsrcat.org

Guantanamo Bay defense attorney Jeff Robinson speaks at ACLU dinner

2009-10-17T14:44:00.001-07:00

Sat Nov 14, reception 6 pm, dinner 7 pm, program 8 pm, at Seattle Marriott Waterfront Hotel; ACLU Bill of Rights Celebration Dinner. Hear premier defense attorney Jeff Robinson speak about his experience representing detainees in Guantanamo Bay - overcoming extraordinary obstacles and conditions in pursuit of justice and due process - and honor this year's William O. Douglas and Youth Activist Award recipients. Register at http://www.aclu-wa.org/billofrightsdinner or 206-624-2184

Torture Opponent Mark Danner speaks Nov 11 Seattle

2009-10-17T14:40:00.000-07:00

Weds Nov 11, 7:30 pm, at Town Hall Seattle, 1119 8th Avenue at Seneca Street, downstairs; enter on Seneca Street, Seattle

Town Hall presents Mark Danner Reports from the World’s Hot Spots.

For the past two decades, author and award-winning journalist Mark Danner has reported from Latin America, Haiti, the Balkans, and the Middle East, exploring not only the real consequences of American engagement with the world, but also the relationship between political violence and power. From the fall of the Duvalier dictatorship in Haiti to the tumultuous rise of Aristide; from the onset of the Balkan Wars to the painful fragmentation of Yugoslavia; and to the invasion of Iraq and the legacy of the Bush administration, Danner, former staff writer at The New Yorker and author of "Stripping Bare the Body: Politics Violence War", has visited some of the world’s most troubled regions, bringing back lessons on politics, violence, and war. Danner is also the author of "Torture and Truth: America, Abu Ghraib and the War on Terror."

Danner was recently in the news for his New York Review piece 'US Torture: Voices from the Black Sites,' which offered the first view of American torture inside secret prisons, based on a previously secret report by the International Committee of the Red Cross. Danner's pieces on torture in Stripping Bare the Body should be of particular interest.

Presented by Town Hall’s Center for Civic Life, with Elliott Bay Book Company. Series supported by RealNetworks Foundation, the Brown Foundation, and the Otto Haas Charitable Trust. Tickets $5 at http://www.brownpapertickets.com or 800-838-3006, or at the door beginning at 6:30 pm. Town Hall members receive priority seating.

info http://www.townhallseattle.org or http://www.markdanner.com

cancelled: Nan Aron speaks out against torture Nov 9 in Seattle

2009-10-09T16:07:00.000-07:00

event has been cancelled; Town Hall hopes to re-schedule
Monday November 9, 7:30 pm, at Town Hall Seattle, 1119 8th Avenue at Seneca Street, downstairs, enter on Seneca Street, Seattle

Town Hall presents Nan Aron: Bringing Justice to Torturers.

Attorney General Eric Holder, writes Alliance for Justice president and founder Nan Aron, is a man on a hot seat that's getting hotter. Holder reportedly is authorizing a criminal investigation into the mistreatment of detainees by CIA interrogators, but President Obama has said he does not support a special commission. And some big names would be sure to come up in any kind of investigation: Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Alberto Gonzales, George Tenet, John Ashcroft, and Condoleezza Rice. But Aron thinks Holder needs to go even further: While a full-scale investigation of the use of torture by the United States government will stir up passions on both sides, she writes, "it is our only hope for reaching some national consensus on the torture issue." Aron has been a leading voice in public-interest law for more than 30 years, and helped defeat Robert Bork's nomination to the Supreme Court in 1987.

Presented by Alliance for Justice and the Town Hall Center for Civic Life.

Tickets $5 at http://www.brownpapertickets.com or 800-838-3006, or at the door beginning at 6:30 pm.

info http://www.townhallseattle.org/

Note: this is not a WSRCAT event but we are in total agreement with Nan Aron's opinion that Holder needs to go further! We want accountability for the decision makers who authorized torture.

Ray McGovern in Seattle Nov 12, 2009, save the date!

2009-10-04T17:44:00.000-07:00

Thursday November 12, 7 p.m., at Kane Hall, Room 220, University of Washington, Seattle

Former CIA employee Ray McGovern will speak in a talk entitled "Why Accountability for Torture Is Crucial for Human Rights, Our Security and Our Souls."

Sponsored by Washington State Religious Campaign Against Torture; the Law, Societies & Justice program at the UW; Western Washington Fellowship of Reconciliation; and UW Southeast Asia Center.

More info coming soon.

Letter to U.S. Senators and Reps Regarding Guantanamo Bay

2009-10-03T19:18:00.000-07:00

October 2, 2009

To: Senator Patty Murray
Senator Maria Cantwell
Congressman Jay Inslee
Congressman Rick Larsen
Congressman Jim McDermott

The Washington State Religious Campaign Against Torture was founded on a commitment to the equal dignity of all human beings, a principle enshrined in the United States Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We write to protest the grave and continuing violation of human rights in Guantanamo Bay, Bagram, and other prisons run by the U.S. government.

Over two hundred persons remain imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay. Many have been held for over seven years. Many have been subjected to harrowing ill-treatment, including torture. Only a small handful have ever been charged with a crime. Human rights organizations believe that many, and perhaps most, are innocent of any involvement with terrorism. Some remain imprisoned even though both the Bush and Obama administrations ceased to classify them as enemy combatants.

Now there are signs that the "Guantanamo model" is being exported elsewhere. The Obama administration is seeking to deny the right of habeas corpus review to individuals sent to Afghanistan from overseas locations. The administration is also crafting policies that would subject some individuals to indefinite detention without charge or trial and would authorize prosecution of others before military commissions lacking the procedural protections of civilian trials or military courts martial. The avowed purpose of the military commissions is to facilitate guilty convictions by revoking long-honored rights of the accused.

We deplore the attack on fundamental rights that as far back as the Magna Carta have been recognized as essential to a civilized legal order. The attack is as unnecessary as it is wrong. Our civilian court system has repeatedly shown itself capable of convicting genuine terrorists and placing them behind bars. Our government’s policies must be constrained by justice and not dictated by an unreasoning and indiscriminate fear.

We must also be mindful of the precedent we set by our actions. If the United States subjects foreign citizens to rigged trials and indefinite detention without trial, it will be unable to complain when foreign governments apply equivalent measures to U.S. citizens. But more fundamentally, our stance is based on moral principles, the principles of basic human rights due every human person.

We urge you to speak out and take action in support of the following principles:

1. Reputable human rights organizations must be granted access to prisoners in the custody of the United States, in order to monitor their conditions of confinement.

2. The United States must guarantee humane treatment to all prisoners, as required by domestic and international laws. No prisoners may be subjected to forced feeding.

3. The United States must release all prisoners not classified as enemy combatants. If the prisoners face a serious threat of persecution in their home countries, and if safe haven is not provided in third countries, they must be granted free asylum in the United States, without delay.

4. The United States must provide any prisoners accused of a criminal offense with a speedy trial affording due process protections equivalent to those of our regular civilian and military courts. No prisoner may be convicted unless he has been granted the opportunity of a full defense and his guilt is proved beyond a reasonable doubt.

5. The United States must release all Guantanamo Bay prisoners, and prisoners sent to Afghanistan from other countries, who are not charged with a genuine criminal offense, or who are acquitted following trial. (See point 4 for the minimum elements of a fair trial.) If such individuals face a serious threat of persecution in their home countries, and if safe haven is not provided in third countries, they must be granted free asylum in the United States, without delay.

6. Prisoners in Guantanamo Bay and those sent to Afghanistan from other countries must enjoy the right to effective legal representation.

7. All prisoners held by the United States in Afghanistan after being sent from other countries must be granted the right to habeas corpus review in U.S. federal court.

8. Individuals captured in Afghanistan and held there as combatants have the right to challenge their imprisonment on a periodic basis before a fair and impartial tribunal.

9. Victims of human rights abuses including torture, ill-treatment, and illegal imprisonment must have the right to sue those responsible. Civil remedies must not be blocked by sweeping appeals to state secrecy.

These actions constitute elementary requirements of human rights. They are required by our constitutional values and our international legal commitments. They are necessary for ensuring that U.S. citizens will be treated fairly and humanely in the future. They do not compromise, but on the contrary enhance, our national safety.

We would like to hear from you what you think should be done to restore due process and transparency, and to protect the rights of prisoners in U.S. custody. We would welcome an opportunity to discuss how we can work together to accomplish these goals. Please let us know how we can arrange a meeting to further this discussion.

Sincerely,

Robert Crawford, Facilitator

Washington State Religious Campaign Against Torture

cc: President Barack Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder, Jr.

Robert Crawford, Facilitator, 17904 Westside Hwy, SW, Vashon, WA 98070

letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, Aug. 17, 2009

2009-09-20T23:51:00.000-07:00

August 17, 2009

Attorney General Eric Holder, Jr.
US Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Ave.
Washington, DC 20530-001

Dear Mr. Attorney General:

This letter is a follow-up to a letter sent to you on July 11 (attached) on behalf of the Washington State Religious Campaign Against Torture, an affiliate of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture. In that letter we urgently asked that you establish "a Special Counsel in order to initiate a criminal investigation into all violations of federal law since 2001 related to torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of prisoners in the 'war on terror,' including the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq."

From news reports, we understand that you are considering a criminal investigation but that the scope of the inquiry will be limited only to those individuals who committed criminal acts by exceeding the authorizations and guidelines provided to them. According to these reports, the authorizations and guidelines themselves will be excluded from such an investigation.

We would be greatly disappointed if these reports are correct.

We believe there is more than ample evidence that national and international laws against torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment have been broken, that torture has been committed as a matter of policy, and that it was committed with the knowledge, support, and indeed the authorization of the highest levels of our government.

We respectfully submit that your primary obligation is to investigate whether unlawful acts of torture were facilitated, authorized and implemented at the highest levels of the government of the United States.

The War Crimes Act, 18 U.S.C., 2441, provides for jurisdiction in the courts for acts or conspiracy to commit acts of torture and cruel or inhuman treatment. The federal anti-torture statute, 18 U.S.C., 2341A, also creates jurisdiction in U.S. courts.

Moreover, both the Geneva Conventions and the Convention Against Torture
OBLIGATE such an investigation, and if evidence warrants, prosecution.

Thus, we write again to ask that you appoint a Special Counsel to investigate the FULL extent of the unlawful torture program that was established by officials of the United States government.

The health of the republic rests upon holding accountable ALL government officials who intentionally violate the law. The laws against torture are among the most important laws we have. They are essential to our identity as a democratic nation. The Founders considered the issue to be so crucial that they enshrined the prohibition in the 8th Amendment.

We expect the Justice Department to fulfill its statutory obligations to investigate violations of law. We fear that if these obligations are not met a culture of impunity among the nation's political leaders and other public servants will be the inevitable result. We believe that it is your solemn responsibility to see that the crime of torture, surely one of the most egregious crimes against humanity, is resolutely investigated and prosecuted, however far-reaching the commission of the crime.

No one is above the law.

Sincerely,

Robert Crawford, facilitator
Washington State Religious Campaign Against Torture

cc: Senator Harry Reid, Representatives Nancy Pelosi, John Conyers, Senator Patty Murray, Senator Maria Cantwell

Robert Crawford, Facilitator, 17904 Westside Hwy, SW, Vashon, WA 98070

letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, July 11, 2009

2009-09-20T23:45:00.000-07:00

July 11, 2009

Attorney General Eric Holder
United States Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20530

Dear Mr. Attorney General:

The Washington State Religious Campaign Against Torture, affiliated with the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, urges you appoint a Special Counsel in order to initiate a criminal investigation into all violations of federal law since 2001 related to torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of prisoners in the "war on terror," including the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

In March of 2009, excerpts of an International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) report were released that concluded that detainees had been subjected to torture – a crime under both domestic and international law. Evidence contained within the DOJ memos released in April, the Senate Armed Services Report, as well as several other credible sources, strongly suggests that felonies have been committed and were authorized at high levels of the previous administration. This is not a matter, as has been alleged, of criminalizing policy differences. The anti-torture laws are clear. Their enforcement is not a discretionary matter.

Both the Geneva Conventions and the Convention Against Torture obligate such an investigation, and if evidence warrants, prosecution. The War Crimes Act, 18 U.S.C., 2441, provides for jurisdiction in the courts for acts or conspiracy to commit acts of torture and cruel or inhuman treatment, both identified as punishable war crimes. The federal anti-torture statute, 18 U.S.C., 2341A, also creates jurisdiction in U.S. courts.

There are compelling political reasons for the appointment of a special counsel, not least of which bear upon the good name and moral and legal standing of the United States in the world. By far the most important reason, however, is that when the government itself
flaunts the law, the rule of law is put in grave danger. The cornerstone of any viable legal order is that no one should be above the law. No office should protect individuals from the willful violation of law. No bureaucracy’s legal interpretation designed to evade the law should be allowed to have the practical standing of law, indemnifying government officials from accountability under the law.

If the Department of Justice does not act, if those responsible for violating the law are not held accountable, we fear that a culture of impunity will take hold and that nothing will prevent future leaders in times of fear or threat to act once again outside the law.

We join the National Religious Campaign (NRCAT), the Presbyterian Church USA; the American Civil Liberties Union, Representatives Jerrold Nadler and John Conyers, and others in asking you to appoint a Special Counsel.

Sincerely,

Robert Crawford, facilitator,
Washington State Religious Campaign Against Torture

cc: Senator Harry Reid, Representatives Nancy Pelosi, John Conyers, and Jerrold Nadler; and the Washington State Congressional Delegation.

A Reflection on Where We Are Now

2009-06-08T16:48:00.000-07:00

A Reflection on Where We Are Now
by Rob Crawford

We are entering June, which is Torture Awareness Month. I have always felt uncomfortable with condensing such important matters into a time frame, as if awareness--and, hopefully, the principled actions that accompany awareness-- can be safely put aside for the rest of the year. On the other hand, we live in a world of competing atrocities and urgent concerns, as well as the joys of summer, so anything we can do to remind ourselves and those with whom we converse that the urgency of confronting U.S. torture is a good thing--and that it is a continuing challenge. The shame and remorse that we feel that these terrible deeds were committed in our name do not disappear with the winter rains--nor with a new administration.

Why is this June unlike previous June's? Because, I believe, the anti-torture movement is at a critical stage, a moment of crisis, where the significant achievements we have won with President Obama's executive order ending all abusive treatment will either be solidified and extended so that our nation will never again return to the brutal and inhumane treatment of those it captures; or, that the political, cultural and ideological settlement will be such as to keep torture as an option, an item on the menu of state actions that can be employed in the name of national security, brought out as a response to the next emergency or "impending emergency". There is the appearance of our having put the "dark side" behind us--the Bush-Cheney administration is out of power; Obama is taking a different course--and thus we can safely "move forward". There is a widespread perception that America has returned to the rule of law and has restored its "moral authority". I believe, however, that the battle for public opinion about the legitimacy of torture has never been greater. Nor am I confident, given some recent decisions, that the Obama administration will do the right thing.

The events of the spring of 2009 have amply demonstrated that the struggle for a torture-free America is far from over. In the entire time of my involvement in this sordid issue, I have seen nothing like this spring's attention to torture. Not even the Abu Ghraib photos stirred the kind of debate we are seeing now. The release of the memos created a firestorm of commentary about what was done, why it was done, and what were the likely consequences for our country. In the history of the United States, there have been few parallels where the government's policies have come under such close moral and political scrutiny.

Obama's decision to release the secret torture memos on April 16 rightly called forth demands for investigation and accountability, including, of course, from our own National Religious Campaign Against Torture. Commentators from across the political spectrum, shocked by the brutality of the methods authorized in the memos and the accounts that appeared in the leaked report of the International Committee of the Red Cross, were moved to voice their dismay. The pressure for a Commission of Inquiry and/or criminal investigations grew dramatically.

These calls for accountability were met with an onslaught of commentary from the political right and the national security apparatus, led by Dick Cheney. We heard about how "enhanced interrogation" saved the United States from another terrorist attack, how it is an essential tool in the war on terrorism, and how Obama's ending that program has put the country in jeopardy. Throughout it all, there was a continuing denial that the U.S. had engaged in or authorized torture and that what Americans saw in the Abu-Ghraib photos had nothing to do with policy. And what was policy was not about unlawful or immoral acts but just a matter of "policy differences," "hard-choices" by well-intentioned leaders doing their best under strained circumstances to protect the nation. In May, Republicans jumped on the possibility of implicating the Democrats, essentially warning that any investigation into the Bush-Cheney era would be accompanied by a partisan counter-attack, giving preemptive substance to worries that any investigation would be too partisan and too divisive for the country. Further, we were repeatedly told not only from the right but from mainstream commentators that it would somehow be better for the country if we followed the president's advice to not look backward. In short, the counter-attack has been fierce and has been given voice in every single major media outlet.

Although difficult to assess, my guess is that this counter-attack by the advocates of "aggressive interrogation" was largely effective. The result? The anti-torture movement's call for accountability either through a commission of inquiry or criminal investigations appears to have been stymied--at least temporarily. The President himself has discouraged such efforts and the Congressional Democratic leadership seems to concur.

If this assessment is correct, think about the implications: with the release of the memos, there can no longer be doubt that crimes of the highest order were authorized by the president and vice president, the national security council, the Secretary of Defense and others in the chain of command, and the Director of the CIA. Certainly, many people will continue to deny that crimes have been committed but this denial increasingly strains credulity. The critical question is how we can claim that we are a nation of laws if there is no effort to hold accountable those who have broken the law? How can the grave immorality of torture become a part of our national consciousness if amnesia is the prescribed solution, especially when so much of what passes for informed public opinion still is attempting to justify these immoral and unlawful policies?

Depending on the outcome of the ongoing "debate" about torture or "enhanced interrogation," the "exception" of the Bush-Cheney torture regime may easily turn into a "torture culture"--a culture that, even though divided about torture, is still largely willing to consider torture as a legitimate tool of government if the country's national security is claimed to be at stake. From my perspective, given that the danger of another terrorist attack may be with us for a long time, this attitude translates, practically, into support for torture among broad sectors of the public. Polls continue to suggest this to be the case.

Such an outcome is unacceptable. If the moral core of our country is to survive (we are saying that it cannot survive if we opt for state torture under any circumstances), the struggle has become one for the hearts and minds of the American people. Let's not deceive ourselves; we can lose. We have much to do in educating our communities about the facts of what has happened and to converse about the moral and political implications of these sorry events.

Thus, this June and the months following deserve our continuing commitment to the anti-torture struggle. Contact WSRCAT for suggestions about what you can do.

No One is Above the Law

2009-03-15T22:41:00.000-07:00

Statement of the Washington State Religious Campaign Against Torture, March 10, 2009

The Washington State Religious Campaign against Torture strongly endorses an "impartial, non-partisan and independent Commission of Inquiry," as advocated by the National Religious Campaign against Torture and several other anti-torture organizations. American citizens need to know the full story of the grave transgressions of law and morality that have taken place under the past administration, how earlier practices may have set precedents, and how continuing practices may endanger President Obama’s commitment to end torture. We need to know the truth about how the U.S. government came to adopt torture (called by anything but its true name) as its official policy. We must resist the temptation to sweep the past under the rug in the name of "looking forward" or attending to "more urgent tasks."

Arguably, for the vitality of our democratic republic, for the task of restoring our battered reputation in the world, for restoring our own moral vision, and for understanding what safeguards are required to prevent a recurrence, there is no more urgent task. Looking forward with clarity requires that we look backward. Collectively, we need to "have a comprehensive understanding of what happened–who was tortured, why they were tortured, and who ordered the torture" (NRCAT web site). The American public should know the magnitude of harm done to the victims of U.S. torture and the victims should be able to know all the facts as well. Achieving these objectives will require obtaining information held back from the American public to this day. We need to know how these policies were kept secret and then, when they became public, how they were justified. Without such knowledge and the hopefully careful discussion that would follow upon its release, we will not be able to arm ourselves against further violations of our core humanity and national and international law. In the words of the NRCAT statement, a commission of inquiry is crucial if we are to "confront U.S.-sponsored torture and completely renounce ... its use." Amnesia will not/can not serve the purposes of moral renewal, vigilance, and political commitment necessary to end torture and restore the rule of law.

A Commission of Inquiry, however, is not enough. Believing that already-existing evidence strongly suggests that crimes have been committed, WSRCAT calls for a criminal investigation; and, if the evidence derived from this investigation warrants, we call for prosecution of those who have broken the law. Such an investigation should aim all the way up the chain of command. No one is above the law; and those who order unlawful acts should be held accountable. As Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights has stated, "Unless government officials know that consequences follow from such abuses, they will break the law again." What kind of law and what kind of democracy would we have if by our inaction we endorsed a double standard? Assessing ethical responsibility is a complex matter that requires discernment and an unflinching eye willing to gaze into the mirror. Responsibility under the law is more clear-cut.

Without the rule of law, liberal democracy becomes a sham and human rights a mere chimera. Without accountability, the rule of law cannot endure. Executive lawbreaking has not been confined to the Bush administration. Nonetheless, motivated by a radical doctrine of presidential powers in wartime, the Bush administration swept aside the "American legal tradition . . . with its long-established precedents for dealing with adversaries in wartime–even those accused of heinous crimes" (Scott Horton, July, 2007). Moreover, if the United States wants to be counted among the nations as a defender and promoter of human rights, it is obliged to fulfill its treaty obligations. The United Nations Convention Against Torture, which the United States has signed, requires that if evidence indicates that crimes under the treaty have been committed, signatory nations must prosecute. Last summer, General Antonio Taguba said that "there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account." In the year 2009, knowing what we already know about the torture of the last seven years, how can we not do what the law requires? We are not certain whether prosecutions are in order, but that is the purpose of a criminal investigation. The Commission of Inquiry may also reveal information that would lead to prosecution.

Is it possible to support both a Commission of Inquiry and a criminal investigation? The question has arisen because of the problem of immunity. In his proposal for a "truth commission, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) has made clear his intention of exchanging immunity for testimony. If this occurs, prosecutions will become extremely difficult. How, then, can we support both the Commission of Inquiry and a criminal investigation? Following the lead of NYU’s Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ), which has taken this position, WSRCAT proposes that support the Commission of Inquiry with the proviso that selective immunity be provided rather than blanket immunity. Limited or targeted immunity for testimony provided to the commission keeps one eye on future criminal investigations.

Although our faith traditions call for reconciliation, they equally urge that we stand up for justice. Protecting our fellow human beings from the degradation of torture is what brought us to this work. Our commitment to protection requires both that we seek the truth and that we advocate for the enforcement of just law. Our religious voice should be clear; and we cannot afford to weaken our voice in the name of political expediency. It is possible to respond thoughtfully to legitimate concerns about aggravating partisanship, the appearance of seeking revenge, and diverting the country from more urgent matters. We are convinced that each of these reasons for not seeking criminal investigation and possible prosecution is misplaced. Accountability is not the same as revenge. Upholding the rule of law is beyond party. And as a country, we are capable of attending to more than one urgent matter at a time. Moreover, we must reject the absurd notion that holding lawbreakers accountable will prevent U.S. intelligence agents from doing their job of protecting the country. Such arguments are often opportunistic, designed to suppress the growing call for investigations.

If America is once again to become a nation of laws, we must do everything in our capacity to uphold the law. To do otherwise is to set a dangerous precedent for future government officials who can confidently assume that they can get away with violating their sacred duty to uphold the laws of the land. We will not participate in fostering a "culture of impunity." In the words of Margaret Satterthwaite of the CHRGJ, "If the United State wants to have a successful transition from an era of impunity to respect for the rule of law, it needs to embrace both truth and justice."

NRCAT says Help Obama End Torture

2009-01-03T19:45:00.000-08:00

The National Religious Campaign Against Torture urges everybody to Help Obama End Torture! Click on the image or the link below to sign on to the Declaration of Principles for a Presidential Executive OrderOn Prisoner Treatment, Torture and Cruelty
http://www.nrcat.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=183

New Video: Religious Leaders Speak Out

2009-01-03T19:39:00.000-08:00

NRCAT, National Religious Campaign gainst Torture has a powerful 6 minute video on its website with several speakers from the September torture conference in Atlanta that was sponsoredby Evangelicals for Human Rights and co-sponsored by NRCAT. These speakers from various faith traditions describe why their faith led them to oppose torture. NRCAT urges you to share it with your congregation and to use it in adult study programs. See http://www.nrcat.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=248&Itemid=182

Action Needed Now to End Torture

2008-10-15T00:26:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-05T22:10:00.000-07:00

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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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2008-08-28T12:04:00.000-07:00

Torture is a Moral Issue
Revised August 26, 2008
by Tom Ewell

The well-established, universal ethic of our common humanity, honored by all major religions, is the Golden Rule: "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you," or its negative corollary, "Do not do to others what you would not want done to you." Every child, every person, in every culture, knows and understands at some level the crucial importance of this bedrock, moral principle that honors our capacity for empathy, recognizes our mutual humanity, and establishes the most basic guide for teaching us to treat each other with respect, kindness and civility.

Torture is a violation of this Golden Rule. We know we personally do not ever want to be tortured, and we do not want our soldiers or our family members or our friends ever to be tortured. We know it is wrong whenever and on whomever it is used, and we need to stop our government from trying to convince us otherwise. We need to unequivocally condemn its use and to reclaim an America that respects international law and honors the humane treatment of others as we ourselves want to be treated.

We should not even be discussing the possible use or expediency of torture. It seems so below the America we can truly believe in. Americans are better than being torturers or complicit with torture.

A friend of mine, Charles Arbuthnot, now deceased, was an army chaplain who survived the invasion of Italy in WWII and went on to represent the World Council of Churches in the formulations of the Geneva Conventions that made torture illegal under international law. When the use of torture at Abu Ghraib by American forces was disclosed he was heartsick. He told of having to constantly fend off the temptation facing our soldiers to torture prisoners. He argued that the brutality of torture negated everything we were fighting for. "If we allow our sense of national identity to be lowered to the point that we can justify the use of torture in the name of protecting our sense of freedom and democracy," he said, "we do not have a freedom and democracy worth protecting." When our nation openly condones torture, we are morally bereft criminals who arrogantly violate the Golden Rule and international law.

The disclosure that our government produced an official policy to justify torture is not only a betrayal the values fought for by heroic veterans like Charles Arbuthnot, it is a betrayal of all Americans who fight for and believe in the American democratic ideals of respect for our common humanity.

The use of torture is wrong. It must be condemned, stopped, forbidden, and if used, the offenders must be held accountable and prosecuted. Let us work together to stop this outrageous justification and use of torture as a national policy in our name.

Tom Ewell is a Quaker who lives in Clinton, Washington. He is an active member of the Washington State Religious Campaign Against Torture that is affiliated with the National Religious Campaign Against Torture. For more information see http://www.nrcat.org or http://www.tortureisnotus.org .

Tom Ewell
tewell@whidbey.com
360-341-1457

We're on YouTube! + media coverage of Press Conf

2008-07-12T18:20:00.000-07:00

Washington State Religious Campaign Against Torture (WSRCAT) Press Conference held June 26, 2008, in Seattle

YouTube video, excerpts of Press Conference including Jorge Quiroga of St. Mary’s Catholic Church recounting his story of imprisonment and torture in Argentina (shown in photo), plus several local clergy (Protestant, Catholic, Jewish) and WSRCAT activists. http://youtube.com/watch?v=EtCjePafIRk

Article in Real Change Newspaper http://www.realchangenews.org/2008/2008_07_02/torture_v15n28.html "Churches highlight torture: U.S. practices questioned through banner campaign." By Chantal Anderson, Contributing Writer

Radio Coverage on KBCS
"Religious Groups Call for an End to U.S. Sponsored Torture"
Today is the Washington State Religious Campaign Against Torture held a press conference in the Central Area neighborhood calling for an end to U.S. government sponsored torture.
by Reporter David Griffith
http://kbcs.fm/site/PageServer?pagename=oneworldreport_20080626
(direct link to audio)
http://bellevuecollege.edu/kbcs/downloads/One_World_Report/OWR_20080626/OWR_20080626_Religon_vs_Torture_DG.mp3

Seattle Post Intelligence blog
http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/thebigblog/archives/142128.asp
"Is your church putting up an 'anti-torture banner'? Should churches be taking a position on this sort of issue?" Posted by Moises Mendoza at June 26, 2008 2:50 p.m. Plus 7 reader seven responses, all supporting churches taking an anti-torture stand.

Aaron Tovo Statement Against Torture June 26, 2008

2008-07-11T00:10:00.000-07:00

Statement by Aaron Tovo, Seattle Coordinator of Amnesty International, at June 26, 2008, Press Conference held by Washington State Religious Campaign Against Torture (WSRCAT)

Amnesty International applauds the creativity and leadership demonstrated by members of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture. When a government's leadership loses its moral compass, as ours has in its use of torture, then it is up to the citizens to lead the leaders back to the moral high ground. That is what this banner project is about. Americans want our government to Counter Terror with Justice, not with its own brand of terror.

Our government has violated not only its own laws but its very principles by denying basic human dignity and fair trials to torture victims in Guantanamo and its network of secret prisons. Last week the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision that said Guantánamo detainees have a right to challenge their detention before a legitimate court. Sadly this is the third Supreme Court ruling against our government's policies in Guantanamo and previous rulings have been met with attempts by Congress and the White House to circumvent the rulings, denying basic due process to prisoners as young as the 15-year old Canadian Omar Khadr. Meanwhile the torture and ill treatment continue away from public scrutiny as the erstwhile "free press" is denied access to the prison network. Clearly our government's leaders have lost their way.

These banners call our attention to the basic moral imperative to treat all humans with basic dignity - not doing so denies our own dignity as well as the prisoners'. They are a much needed message to our government to Counter Terror with Justice because that has clearly been forgotten.

Speaker: Aaron Tovo, Coordinator of AI Local Group 4, Seattle
Group 4 Website: www.scn.org/amnesty
AI on Torture: www.amnestyusa.org/torture

Rev. Rich Lang Statement Against Torture; June 26, 2008

2008-07-10T23:57:00.000-07:00

Statement Against Torture; June 26, 2008
at Press Conference of Washington State Religious Campaign Against Torture

Rev. Rich Lang
Trinity United Methodist (Ballard) Seattle

www.tumseattle.org

We are gathered here because as a nation we have crossed a line of evil that we had pledged we would never cross. Led by President Bush and descending throughout the military and intelligence agencies of our government, our national leadership is guilty of war crimes in the torture and abuse of prisoners and innocents. Our media is guilty of covering up these crimes through the sin of omission. Our people our guilty of supporting a government, both Democrats and Republicans, that knowingly continue policies that are internationally unlawful, and domestically treasonous.

Torture is a crime against humanity. It destroys both those who are tortured, and those who inflict the torture. Torture, the willed infliction of severe pain on helpless, vulnerable captives, leads inevitably to further and further cruelty until the ones who do the torturing become the very ones they hate. It seeps out of the torture room into the body politic and changes the character of the nation. We move from a people of optimistic idealism into the sewer of a people wallowing in fear, filth, despair, and cynicism.

As a Christian Pastor I am here to say that followers of Jesus Christ are forbidden to engage in, or support practices of torture. I am here to say that such activity is Demonic, and is a further crucifixion of Jesus himself. I am here to say that Christians are summoned by the Holy Spirit to publicly oppose the use of torture. For Christian soldiers or intelligence agents this means that in the name of Christ you must stand down and disobey your orders when called upon to break faith with God. For those involved in rendering prisoners to other nations for torture, in the name of Christ you must stand down, and disobey those orders. For Christian citizens, in the name of Christ, we must support those who are disobedient to the State but faithful to God. We must do all in our power, including our own civil disobedience, to expose the evil being down in our name.

As Christians and American citizens I appeal, as a Christian Pastor, that we renounce this activity of fascism, expose it to the light of day, and cast out those who have betrayed this nation, who have broken covenant with humanity, and who have opened up the gates of Hell on earth.

Who we are ... and our contact information

2008-04-21T12:29:00.000-07:00

We are the Washington State Religious Campaign Against Torture

We go by the acronym WSRCAT

We are affiliated with the National Religious Campaign Against Torture

Which is also known as NRCAT (see http://www.nrcat.org/)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To contact us:

Rob Crawford: crawford@u.washington.edu