Denounce Torture

For all you social networking organizers out there. The good folks in AIUSA's New Media department just developed a new ap for your facebook profile. Take a peek! http://apps.facebook.com/tearitdown/

Please add it to your facebook profile to help spread the word about the new tearitdown.org site.

http://www.slate.com/id/2172345/nav/tap3/

In Meghan O'Rourke's article, "Shall I Compare Thee to an Evil Tyrant?" she discusses the new book recently published by the University of Iowa entitled Poems From Guantanamo: The Detainees Speak.  It was edited by Marc Falkoff who is a law professor who has done pro bono work for several detainees.  The book is a collection of 22 poems written by 17 detainees, some of whom are still being held  in Guantanamo.  "It serves," writes O'Rourke, "as testimony in an ongoing debate over the rights of foreign citizens who have been labeled dangers to the United States."  The poems in the book really "short-circuit the entrenched scripts of 'American' vs. "Muslim' and 'us' vs. 'them' and replace them, briefly, with the considerations of one individual trying to speak to another." 

For a taste of some of the poetry, see the poem below, entitled "To My Father," written by Abdullah Thani Faris Al Anazi.  

O Father, this is a prison of injustice

Its iniquity makes th emountains weep. 

I have committed no crime and am guilty of no offense. 

Curved claws have I,

But I have been sold like a fattened sheep.

If you like and were touched by this poem I highly recommend purchasing a copy of the book where you will really feel a voice being given to the stories you've read about detainees being tortured at Guantanamo Bay.  O'Rourke explains that this book is "not about innocence or guilt, or merely an instrumental artifact in a political debate.  Instead, it performs a valuable service in humanizing the individuals incarcerated there, reminding us that even those charged with crimes are people, not faceless automatons--even as it also leaves us wiht a potent sense of how much we don't know about them."   

http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast/podcast_detail.php?siteId=5495237

To listen to Diane Rehm and others discuss what has been going on at Guantanmo, please click on the link above.  She will be speaking with Ambassador Pierre-Richard Prosper, ambassador-at-large in the Office of War Crimes Issues at the U.S. Department of State from 2001 to 2005, with Sandra Hodgkinson, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Affairs, with Emi MacLean, a legal fellow at teh Guantanamo Global Justice Initiative at the Center for Constitutional Rights, and with Clive Stafford Smith, a defense attorney for Guantanamo detainees. 

If what you hear on the show angers you... then go visit the new Amnesty International website devoted entirely to issues about the Torture of detainees at Guantanamo Bay! 

 http://www.tearitdown.org

You can become a part of the movement to tear down Guantanamo Bay and Stop the Torture! 

Do you feel passionate about stopping Torture?  Do you want to see Guantanamo Bay shut down?  Then visit the awesome new website, www.tearitdown.org to sign the America I Believe In pledge and to send it to all your friends!  Get some great tearitdown gear to wear around town and take ownership of the issue by tearing down one pixel in the photograph! 

 Be sure to have your speakers on though since the music is amazing.  Go TEAR IT DOWN!

(Original Link)

In a rebuke of President Bush, the American Psychological Association has resolved to condemn brutal CIA and military interrogations.

By Mark Benjamin

Aug. 15, 2007 | The American Psychological Association, the world's largest professional organization of psychologists, is poised to issue a formal condemnation of a raft of notorious interrogation tactics employed by U.S. authorities against detainees during the so-called war on terror, from simulated drowning to sensory deprivation. The move is expected during the APA's annual convention in San Francisco this weekend.

The APA's anti-torture resolution follows a string of revelations in recent months of the key role played by psychologists in the development of brutal interrogation regimes for the CIA and the military. And it comes just weeks after news that the White House may be calling on psychologists once again: On July 20, President Bush signed an executive order restarting a coercive CIA interrogation program at the agency's "black sites." Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell has indicated that psychological techniques will be part of the revamped program, but that the interrogations would be subject to careful medical oversight. That oversight is likely to be performed by psychologists.

Read more here

Great news - Viva la Guantanamera/Amnesty International/Hip Hop Hoodios segment aired nationally today. They also linked online to the Amnesty "Denounce Torture" site.

The new Hip Hop Hoodios album hit #11 last week on iTunes Latino's Top 100 albums chart and #15 on eMusic's Latin chart!

LISTEN TO SEGMENT HERE: http://www.theworld.org/audio/08132007.mp3

STORY LINK: http://www.theworld.org/?q=taxonomy_by_date/2/20070813

http://youtube.com/watch?v=3mCNof7Z-2I

The National Religious Council Against Torture hosted a vigil in front of the CIA headquarters to protest the use of torture and and interrogation methods on detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay.  If you click on the link above you can see a short documentary-style film with footage from the event.  Keep up the good work and continue spreading the message that we will not stand for torture!  Remember to sign the America I Believe In pledge saying that "The America I Believe In doesn't torture people or use cruel, inhuman treatment..." Torture is NOT an American value and we should not let our federal agencies use it.  We will not stand for this!  

In an article dated August 5th, 2007 by Josh White, Julie Tate and Joby Warrick for the Washington Post, they write that "Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, was subjected to the CIA's harshest interrogation methods while held in secret prisons around the world for more than three years, part of an interrogation regimen that the International Committee of the Red Cross has called 'tantamount to torture,' according to a New Yorker article to be published on the magazine's website."

Reporter Jane Mayer took an in-depth look at the secret interrogation techniques used by the CIA.  Washington sources told her that Mohammed claimed he was "held naked in his cell, questioned by female interrogators to humiliate him, attached to a dog leash and made to run into walls, and put in painful positions while chained to the floor" along with other inhumane methods of torture including being held in suffocating heat and in painfully cold conditions.

Mohammed was made aware by his captors that they had no intention to kill him but that they wanted very much to bring him as close to death as possible and to put him through a significant amount of pain, discomfort and humiliation. 

Recently many human rights groups, including Amnesty International, have brought the CIA techniques into question.  They are abusive and torturous especially when used in combination and over long periods of time.  Just last month President Bush signed an executive order that will require the CIA to treat detainees in a humane manner but as of yet no classified list of acceptable techniques has been made public so it is difficult to say whether or not anything has changed. 

A CIA spokesman was asked about these interrogation methods and he said that "the program is about more than specific methods of questioning.  It's about the use of the CIA's collected knowledge of Al-Qaida and its affiliates to elicit additional information from detainees, and to do so in accord with U.S. law." 

To see the article and others, please use the links below.  You can also visit our website at http://www.aiusa.org/ and click on "Torture" under "Our Issues" to take action.  Sign the "America I Believe In Pledge" stating the following:

"The America I Believe In doesn't torture people or use cruel, inhuman treatment... doesn't hold people without charge, without fair trials, without hope, and without end... doesn't kidnap people off the street and ship them to nations known for their brutality... doesn't condone prisoner abuse and excuse high-ranking government officials from responsibility for that abuse... doesn't justify the use of secret prisons... and does not rob people of their basic dignity. 

I'm joining with Amnesty International USA to restore The America I Believe In.  The America I Believe In leads the world on human rights. 

 I'm committing to tell friends and family about the campaign.  I'm also committing to contacting my members of Congress and my local media to tell them that the America I Believe In defends human rights and justice for all."   

In the next few weeks look for more actions that you can take to help us in the Denounce Torture Initiative.  Educate your friends and family members about this issue and let's get Guantanamo Bay Shut Down!  We want to Shut It Down! and Stop The Torture!

http://www.startribune.com/484/story/1345516.html

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/08/05/eveningnews/main3135427.shtml

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/04/AR2007080401497.html

http://www.tpmcafe.com/blog/coffeehouse/2007/aug/05/jane_mayer_builds_a_case_that_could_be_used_against_cheney_and_addington