UPDATED: MOTHER'S AGAINST TORTURE: ACTION TODAY!

UPDATE on the Action: On May 10, NC STN activists and allies gathered to encourage our neighbors to demand accountability, even as torture advocate and former Attorney General Michael Mukasey spoke at the UNC Law School Graduation.

The event was covered by local television news, and was introduced by an excellent opinion piece from UNC-Law faculty member, Joseph E.Kennedy.

I highly recommend looking up both! CLICK here

AFTER NOTING THIS ACTION PLEASE READ THE MOTHER'S DAY PROCLAMATION OF PEACE IN THE POST BELOW!

I am re-posting this with more information - urging that MANY will show up for this URGENT event todady! (except that my husband's mother died very recently - I too would be there!) Please go if you can - or if not, call another who may be able to be there. One Heart Blogger
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MOTHERS AGAINST TORTURE

JOIN US to Speak Out Against Torture and Demand Accountability as Torture Advocate and Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey speaks at the UNC Law School Graduation

3-5 p.m. - Mother's Day, May 10, 2009
Dean Smith Center, 300 Skipper Bowles Drive, Chapel Hill.

NC Stop Torture Now especially invites moms and their children of all ages.

MOM:

Imagine if your son or daughter was:

Detained by police while traveling abroad or kidnapped on his way to worship; then,

Stripped, drugged, hooded, muzzled, photographed, and shackled to the floor of a private, aircraft; that,

“Disappeared” to a foreign prison, denied contact with you, let alone a lawyer or a judge, and equally invisible to from humanitarian watch dogs, such as the Red Cross;

Interrogated and tortured daily. Electrocuted, beaten, burned, and mutilated.

Denied sleep or daylight and bombarded -- around the clock; -- with ear-splitting rock music; and, at long last,

Released with neither charge, apology nor meaningful access to redress and treatment for the harm done.

Do you want justice? Will you insist on accountability? Of course you will! Whose Mom would do any less?

Torture is illegal, immoral and ineffective.

It doesn't make us safe, it puts us in peril.

Please wear orange or pink in solidarity.

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Bill Aims to Create Select Committee to Investigate Torture Program, Cover-Up

Rep. Barbara Lee (Calif. - 9th District) leads an effort joined by colleagues Rep. Robert Wexler(Fla. - 19th District) and House Judiciary Chair Rep. John Conyers to empanel a select committee to investigate warrantless wiretapping, torture and interrogation, and the destruction of evidence related to CIA counter-terror operations.

If adopted, House Resolution 383 would give the bi-partisan panel subpoena power necessary to produce witnesses and documents that further an investigation aimed to learn and reveal:

" ... the extent, if any, to which unlawful, improper or unauthorized activities were engaged in by or on behalf of any Federal, State, or local government official, including--

... the development and implementation of policies or practices regarding the capture, detention, transfer, extra-judicial rendition, and treatment of individuals by United States Armed Forces, law enforcement and the United States intelligence community, including policies intended to conceal the fact that a person has been detained by, or at the direct request of, the United States; ... (and)

the adequacy of past and present congressional oversight mechanisms and impediments to access to information necessary to conduct proper oversight ..."

The bill steps has been referred to the House Rules Committee, chaired by Rep. Louise Slaughter (NY - 28th District), who has been an advocate for government accountability across a range of issues. Rep. Virginia Foxx (NC - 5th District) is a minority member of the committee.

The bill follows the April 17 release of memoranda authorizing the use of torture by CIA operatives, concurrent which President Obama noted that:

"While I believe strongly in transparency and accountability, I also believe that in a dangerous world, the United States must sometimes carry out intelligence operations and protect information that is classified for purposes of national security. I have already fought for that principle in court and will do so again in the future."

Yet, the president continued:

"In releasing these memos, it is our intention to assure those who carried out their duties relying in good faith upon legal advice from the Department of Justice that they will not be subject to prosecution."

And, he concluded:

"The United States is a nation of laws. My Administration will always act in accordance with those laws, and with an unshakeable commitment to our ideals. That is why we have released these memos, and that is why we have taken steps to ensure that the actions described within them never take place again."

Amnesty International USA offers a simple response to include in your letters to the President, Attorney General Holder, and members of the North Carolina Congressional delegation:

"Laws have been broken and fundamental human rights have been abused. The Attorney General said that the Obama administration does not condone torture, but by refusing to investigate the coercive interrogation program used by the CIA, that is precisely what he and the president are doing.

The American people deserve an independent commission to shed light on abuses committed in their name."

Not only do the American people deserve an honest examination of these abuses, the course of our future depends on it, as msnbc.com journalist Keith Olbermann clearly explains.

Moreover, the families of the men and children who are victims and survivors of torture and extraordinary rendition -- Khaled El-Masri, Binyam Mohamed, Moazzam Begg, Maher Arar, Bisher el-Rawi, Ahmed Agiza, to name a few -- deserve meaningful access to restorative justice.

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JOIN US at our next Meeting
2-4 pm, Sunday, May 24

Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Raleigh (UUFR)
3313 Wade Avenue

Meetings scheduled 2-4 pm, on the fourth Sunday of every month, at the UUFR

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Spanish Attorney General Intervenes, Urges End to Effort at Prosecution of Bush Administration Officials

Buckling to political pressure to improve U.S.-Spanish relations, the Spanish attorney general Cándido Conde-Pumpido, told journalists in Madrid, April 17, that he would oppose any legal action in Spain because the proper forum would be an American court and that any investigation should focus on those who actually mistreated detainees.

The New York Times characterized the attorney general's intervention in the case as unusual, since his position overruled prosecutors at the Madrid court dealing with a complaint which alleges six high officials in the Bush administration share responsibility for the torture of five former Guantánamo inmates, three Spanish citizens and two Spanish residents.

Named in the complaint are: Alberto Gonzalez, John C. Yoo, Douglas J. Feith, William J. Haynes II, Jay S. Bybee, and David S. Addington.

But, the Spanish attorney general argues that any investigation should focus on those who actually mistreated detainees.

Too, the attorney general's action is not decisive, as an investigating judge decides whether a case will proceed. The judge handling the complaint against the Americans is Baltasar Garzón, the crusading magistrate who ordered the arrest of the former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.

The attorney general's reluctance contradicts earlier guidance from prosecutors who advised the investigating judge that Spain could claim jurisdiction in the case because it was a party to the United Nations' Convention Against Torture.

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Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Hears Appeal for Accountability

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights heard testimony, March 20, from Colleen Costello, Human Rights USA, Michael Ratner, Center for Constitutional Rights, and other allies in the struggle to end the U.S. torture policy and seek meaningful accountability for the most recent authors and perpetrators of these policies during a battle described by the Bush Administration as a War on Terror.

In addition to testimony from allies, the video archive of the hearing provides disappointing, but instructive insight on the current administration's resistance to meaningful steps towards accountability and willingness to shift blame for corrective and restorative justice to allies with whom the U.S. has either conspired in or deceived into .

North Carolina Stop Torture Now filed a letter in support of the petition for this hearing by the World Organization for Human Rights USA and the Center for Constitutional Rights.

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Leaders in the NC General Assembly Urge Select Members of North Carolina's Congressional Delegation to Press Obama Department of Justice for Overdue Investigation

On March 10, Representatives Paul Luebke, Earl Jones and Pricey Harrison sent Congressmen Miller, Price, Watt and Butterfield a letter urging each to follow-up on Attorney General Cooper's and Congressman Watt's request for an FBI investigation of Aero Contractors.

The persuasive effect of this letter would only be amplified if it were included as an attachment to a letter or e-mail to each member of the NC Congressional delegation along with a brief note identifying yourself, your organizational connections (be it a church, a political party, the neighborhood association, etc.) and even *more* briefly but emphatically explaining your commitment to this issue.

(NOTE: find many links and more at North Carolina Stop Torture Now! )
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AFTER NOTING THIS ACTION, PLEASE READ THE MOTHER'S DAY PROCLAMATION OF PEACE IN THE POST JUST BELOW!

So glad you tuned in! On this Mother's Day, shall we all go about planting the seeds of peace.