Denounce Torture

"If you need any more evidence that the American public has gotten blasé about torture, consider the hit Fox action drama '24.' The show featured 67 torture scenes during its first five seasons, and most of those depicted torture being used by 'heroic' U.S. counter-terror agents."

From the Connecticut Post:

WASHINGTON — Sen. Chris Dodd introduced legislation Tuesday to provide suspected terrorists with basic rights to a fair and speedy trial granted to American citizens under the U.S. Constitution.

The legislation would replace a military tribunal law Congress approved last September at the behest of the Bush administration. The law imposed restrictions on a terrorist suspect's ability to challenge his detention, examine evidence against him and bar testimony obtained through coercion.

"I take a backseat to no one when it comes to protecting this country from terrorists," the Connecticut Democrat said. "But there is a right way to do this and a wrong way to do this."

Under Dodd's proposal, the "writ of habeas corpus" would apply to all individuals held in U.S. custody — restoring their rights to challenge their detention and see the evidence against them.

Terrorist suspects would also be able to retain qualified civilian attorneys to represent them at trial, prevent evidence obtained through torture or coercion from being used against them and allow military judges to exclude hearsay evidence they deem to be unreliable.
The bill would also limit the president's authority to interpret the application and meaning of the Geneva Conventions.

Dodd's bill is co-sponsored by Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.; Russ Feingold, D-Wis.; and Robert Menendez, D-N.J. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and other human rights advocates have endorsed the bill.

Dodd, however, acknowledged that it could be difficult to muster the 60 votes needed to block opponents from filibustering the bill — let alone the two-thirds majority that would be needed to overcome a presidential veto. The bill passed the Senate 65-34 in September mostly with the backing of Republicans.

Despite the odds against the bill's passage, Dodd said it "is the right thing to do" and suggested that some supporters of the current law may eventually agree it needs to be reformed as terrorist cases languish on appeal.

According to MSNBC:

WASHINGTON - Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., said Thursday that he may seek to close the Guantanamo facility in Cuba - which is holding more than 300 al Qaida suspects - perhaps by including a requirement in the $100 billion supplemental spending bill for Iraq the Congress will vote on next month.

Murtha wields extraordinary power in the House as chairman of the military appropriations subcommittee and as a longtime ally of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

Murtha told reporters Thursday that he had not made a final decision on trying to order the closure, but that he had dispatched a member of the House to Guantanamo last month to investigate.

(Photo credits:JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images)

The US army recently announced that they had found no evidence of abuse in the investigation into alleged mistreatment of detainees at the US detention centre at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The investigation included 20 interviews with "suspects and witnesses." yet not one detainee was interview during the process.

According to the AP:

Brent Mickum, an attorney for two British prisoners at Guantanamo, said the lack of interviews with detainees suggested a "whitewash" by the military.

In a press release today, Amnesty International responded to the recent news:

“The secrecy surrounding the US detention centre at Guantánamo Bay, allows human rights abuses to go unpunished. Past inquiries have lacked independence and scope and this appears similarly flawed, given that no detainees were interviewed.”

“The US administration investigating itself is not enough. Instead, the US authorities should allow independent bodies, including Amnesty International, to visit the detention centre and interview all prisoners in order to ensure that their complaints are not going unheard.”

Check out the full press release here and sign the pledge to stop the abuses at Guantánamo.

Larry Cox, Amnesty International USA's Executive Director, issued the following statement in response to news reports that a German court issued indictments for CIA agents involved with the kidnapping of German national Khaled el Masri:

"Today's announcement is one more example that the Bush administration's cowboy-like approach to international justice will not be tolerated.”

Today's actions follow the indictments of 25 CIA agents in Italy for the transfer of a man to Egypt and the findings of Canadian Commission of Inquiry that a Canadian citizen rendered by the United States to Syria was not connected to terrorism.

Read the full press release here.

(Photo copyright: AFP/Getty Images) 

(Washington, DC) – Larry Cox, Amnesty International USA’s executive director, issued the following statement in response to today’s verdict in the case of Muhammad Salah:

“Despite the jury’s generally favorable verdict, Amnesty International is deeply concerned that evidence likely obtained by the use of torture even entered the courtroom. The U.S. government’s case against Salah was mainly based on statements he made while in Israeli custody 14 years ago when interrogation techniques that amount to torture were considered legal by the authorities. Salah alleged that he was coerced into signing false confessions as a result of torture by Israeli officials.

“The jury’s rejection of the confessions in this case will hopefully deter government prosecutors from trying to obtain convictions based on questionable evidence. From the cages of Guantanamo to a Chicago courtroom, the use of torture to persecute and prosecute is intolerable.”

From the AP:

This past Friday, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized to Maher Arar, the Syrian-born Canadian who was deported by U.S. officials to Damascus where he was tortured and imprisoned on terrorist allegations for nearly a year.

"On behalf of the government of Canada, I want to extend a full apology to you and Monia as well as your family for the role played by Canadian officials in the terrible ordeal that you experienced in 2002 and 2003," Harper told reporters in Ottawa, referring to Arar's wife, Monia Mazigh, and their two children, who now live in British Columbia.

Harper also called upon the U.S. to remove Arar from its no-fly and terrorist watchlists.

Likewise Rep. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., condemned the Bush administration and vowed to bring an end to the use of rendition by the U.S.

 "I will continue to press the Bush administration to come clean on their policies to outsource torture and to finally bring an end to this horrific and indefensible practice," Markey said.  

You can read the full story here.