Saturday, October 7, 2017

Links to recordings of anti-torture events held Sept. 2017

Washington State Religious Campaign Against Torture (WSRCAT), along with other justice organizations, organized 3 special events, coordinated with the expected ACLU lawsuit against  “torture psychologists” Mitchell and Jessen.   Although the defendants, torture victims and family of a torture victim who died due to his torture, settled the case out of court, the case drew attention to CIA torture of prisoners, and was a step toward accountability for torture. 

As Rob Crawford, facilitator of WSRCAT said, “These events contributed to our principal goals of continuing to confront the violence of torture, the violent rhetoric of torture along with the language and acts of violence coming from the president, his administration, and populist-militarist right-wing movements and media.”

HERE ARE SOME LINKS to what occurred at the 3 WSRCAT events, plus a radio panel about opposing torture.

Sept. 5, 2017, Roundtable Discussion on THE ILLEGAL AND IMMORAL IMPLICATIONS OF TORTURE on KYRS Thin Air Community Radio (Spokane) with speakers Liz Moore and Audrey Burr of Peace and Justice Action League of Spokane (PJALS), Rob Crawford of WSRCAT, and Karen Dorn Steele, retired investigative reporter with the Spokesman Review.  Audio file at
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1eAsaissWQ0OGNpS3JsTWE0R0U/view

“THE MORAL AND POLITICAL OBLIGATION TO RESIST TORTURE” – at UW Seattle - September 26, 2017, featured WSRCAT coordinator Rob Crawford, CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou, Professor Lisa Hajjar, Ron Stief of National Religious Campaign Against Torture, former Rep. Jim McDermott, and Liezl Rebugio of the ACLU.

Video of the event is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDdRGea3Akw (thanks to videographer Mike McCormick)

An hour’s portion of this event will air on Mike’s Mind Over Matters radio show Sunday October 8, 2017, 7-8 am, on KEXP 90.3 FM Seattle & http://www.kexp.org.  This will be available at the website 2 weeks thereafter.

Text of the talk by Rob Crawford is  at http://www.wsrcat.org/resistancecrawford.doc

“WHY TORTURE IS WRONG” – in Spokane WA September 9, 2017, featured Keynote Speaker: Curt Goering, Center For Victims Of Torture, and Commentator: Reverend Rich Lang. 

Text of their talks can be read at https://www.cvt.org/blog/healing-and-human-rights/why-torture-wrong-0 and  http://www.wsrcat.org/richlang.html

"THE LEGAL OBLIGATION TO PREVENT AND PROSECUTE TORTURE" in Spokane WA took place on Sept. 6, 2017, featured Keynote Speaker JUAN E. MENDEZ, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture (2010-2016);  Commentators: LISA HAJJAR, Professor of Sociology, University of California, Santa Barbara, on “The politics of accountability for torture.” and UPENDRA ACHARYA, Associate Professor, Gonzaga University Law School on “The geographic scope of the Convention against Torture as a legal matter.”
Video of this event is at: http://kaltura.com/tiny/dtojb

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