#nototorture

[uusc]

Starting a criminal investigation is not about payback; it is about ensuring that this never happens again and regaining the moral credibility to rebuke torture by other governments.

Interesting read: "Prosecute Torturers and Their Bosses," NY Times

[uusc]

Rev. Dr. Bill Schulz, UUSC president and CEO, responds to U.S. officials' recent understanding that the Convention Against Torture applies at home and abroad.

It is far past time that the United States acknowledged, as it did yesterday in Geneva, that our obligations under the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhumane and Degrading (CID) Treatment extend to U.S.-governed territory outside the U.S. mainland. But the fact that the U.S. continues to resist the notion that it has no treaty obligations to abstain from torture or CID in facilities it operates on foreign soil—no matter how firm the current policies against such practices may be—is not only shortsighted but continues to cast the United States as a potential human rights outlaw. We know only too well that policies can change. American officials should be held legally accountable for their behavior under international treaties no matter where those officials are stationed.

Take Action. Tell President Obama not to allow the CIA to cover up torture: uusc.org/torture

[uusc]

Earlier this week, 12 Nobel Peace Prize laureates wrote a letter to President Barack Obama asking him to bring closure to a dark period of American history and release the torture report.

Join the movement. Tell the president to make the truth about torture public: www.uusc.org/torture

[uusc]

But the damage done by inflicting torture on a fellow human being cannot be so simplified. Nor is the harm done one-sided. Yes, the victims experience extreme physical and mental trauma, in some cases even losing their lives. But those inflicting the torture, as well as those ordering it, are nearly irreparably degraded by the practice.

Nobel Peace Prize laureates to President Obama [x]