TORTURE IS A MORAL ISSUE

Dear Friends:

Please join NRCAT in encouraging the Obama Administration to fulfill its pledge to move toward greater transparency and accountability.

An important legal case being argued in a United States Court of Appeals concerns allegations of torture by five victims of the Bush Administration's extraordinary rendition program. Unfortunately, last week, the Department of Justice affirmed the "state secrets" argument used by the previous Administration to bar crucial evidence from the courtroom.

You can read more about the case in this Andrew Sullivan piece and this commentary by legal scholar Scott Horton, who will be a panelist at a NRCAT event on March 14 in Arlington, VA.

A major focus of our work this coming year will be securing an independent Commission of Inquiry to uncover all the facts surrounding the use of torture by the United States. The success of such an investigation will rest on the willingness of our government to quit hiding evidence of abusive practices behind a cloak of secrecy.

Please join NRCAT in expressing our concerns by contacting President Obama and Attorney General Holder.

Please click here to access a form e-mail that you can use.

Thank you for your help!

Sincerely,

Linda Gustitus, President, NRCAT
Rev. Richard Killmer, Executive Director, NRCAT

Information is coming out to day that meetings in the White House in 2002-03 that included Vice President Cheney, Secretary of State Powell, National Security Advisory Condoleeza Rice, CIA Director George Tenet and the Attorney General John Ashcroft. The meetings approved enhance interrogation techniques in other words torture. They did so on a case by case basis. There were lawyers at the justice department that were found to sign off I suppose as some sort of legal protection.

These are war crimes!

Will anyone care? Will the Congress get a backbone? The Congress should at the very least censure each one of the participants for this. What ought to happen is impeachment hearings against those officials still in office and criminal proceedings against those involved.

Of course, we're also led to believe that Bush was not in any of these meetings. It seems odd that the commander in chief would not be in meetings in which he seemed to be discussing in public with so much bravado.

Surprisingly, Ashcroft comes up off a bit better saying, "Why are we talking about this at the White House. History will not judge us kindly." How right he is.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080410/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/interrogation_tactics

==========
Dead:
4,000 Americans;
Only God knows
how many Iraqis
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The Shalom Center encourages you to take two actions:

(1) Whatever your religious or spiritual community, to use this prayer for life and peace in the face of death and violence (based on the Jewish Mourners Kaddish) in concert with all who mourn this senseless bloodshed;

(2) To write the three candidates for President, demanding they themselves take swift action in the Senate to end this war. To do this, click to –-

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/602/t/4180/campaign.jsp?campaign_KE...

MOURNERS' KADDISH
IN TIME OF WAR & VIOLENCE

May Your Great Name, bearing all the names of all the beings in the universe, through our deeper awareness and our fuller action, lift Your Own Self to become still higher and more holy --

--- Throughout the world that You have offered us, a world of majestic peaceful order that gives life through time and through eternity ---- And let's say, Amein

So may the Great Name be blessed, through every Mystery and Mastery of every universe.

May Your Name be blessed and celebrated, Its beauty honored and raised high, may It be lifted and carried, may Its radiance be praised in all Its Holiness –-- Blessed be!

TORTURE IS A MORAL ISSUE

To Supporters of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture

TORTURE IS A MORAL ISSUE

Dear Friends,
 
Because of your good work, our joint efforts to end U.S.-sponsored torture grew dramatically in 2007. Almost 20,000 people of faith have endorsed our "Torture is a Moral Issue" Statement of Conscience.  Thousands of individuals have taken action -- voicing support for legislation in Congress to ban torture and raising awareness among communities of faith in all 50 states,
 
But U.S.-sponsored torture persists. We need to increase the number of people of faith working to end torture. We are asking for your help.

Newsletter
Jan 19, 2008

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

We invite you, your family, church and neighbors to come to Washington, D.C. March 6-10 or to create a CPWI Peace Witness in your own community.

Join us to fill houses of worship, pray for peace and hear anew God's call to us. Grounded in Christian worship, those in Washington will process to the Capital and be joined by brothers and sisters of other faiths for an Interfaith Peace Witness. Our website www.ChristianPeaceWitness.org is constantly being updated.

Last month, you signed a petition demanding that Congress stop President Bush from signing the "Endless War" Agreement to tie us down in Iraq.

The campaign is gaining momentum: did you see the New York Times editorial today? Here's how it starts:

President Bush is discussing a new agreement with Baghdad that would govern the deployment of American troops in Iraq. With so many Americans adamant about bringing our forces home as soon as possible, a sentiment we strongly share, Mr. Bush must not be allowed to tie the hands of his successor and ensure the country's continued involvement in an open-ended war.¹

Since we sounded the alarm last month, Representative Rosa DeLauro and Senator Hillary Clinton have introduced legislation to stop the President. This morning's editorial in the Times will build momentum for action—now we need to push it over the top. If we can reach 250,000 signatures this week, the petitions will go straight to Congress on Monday.

Can you email 5 friends and ask them to sign? Here's the link they can use:

TORTURE IS A MORAL ISSUE

Dear Friends: