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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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