The following scorecard is based on records of Senators’ actions on major pieces of torture-related legislation in the 109th and 110th Congresses (2005 – 2008).
If you would like to see the full scorecard click here
Please get out there and VOTE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Friday, October 31, 2008
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Join us at the Pledge to Vote Event Sunday Nov. 2nd
Join us at the Pledge to Vote Event on Sunday November 2nd!
Time: 12-7
Place: Legacy Plaza in Liberty Station- 2801 Rosecrans
Let's make sure we demand our next President bans torture from Day 1!
Check out this article:
Time: 12-7
Place: Legacy Plaza in Liberty Station- 2801 Rosecrans
Let's make sure we demand our next President bans torture from Day 1!
Check out this article:
Ex-Liberian president's son convicted of torture
(CNN) -- Federal jurors convicted the son of former Liberian president Charles Taylor Sr. of torture and conspiracy charges Thursday, said a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office in the southern district of Florida.
Former Liberian President Charles Taylor's son, Charles McArthur Emmanuel, is shown during his trial.
Charles "Chuckie" Taylor Jr., also known as Charles McArthur Emmanuel, was found guilty on one count of torture, one count of conspiracy to commit torture and one count of possession of a firearm during the commission of a violent crime, said Alicia Valle, special counsel to the U.S. attorney.
Taylor's case, tried in Miami, Florida, was the first brought under a 1994 United States law saying those accused of committing torturous acts overseas can be tried in a U.S. federal court.
Read whole article hereMonday, October 27, 2008
LAST CHANCE TO SIGN UP FOR VOLUNTEER ORIENTATION ON WEDNESDAY!
LAST CHANCE TO SIGN UP FOR VOLUNTEER ORIENTATION ON WEDNESDAY!
Please email svaz@notorture.org if you are interested in attending the Volunteer Orientation on Wednesday October 29th. We only have a few more seats available so please RSVP as soon as possible! You will learn all the ways you can help get involved with SURVIVORS during this orientation.
Check out this article:
"UN torture sleuth awaits new US government on Iraq"
By Patrick Worsnip UNITED NATIONS, Oct 24 (Reuters) - The U.N.
The U.N. investigator on torture said on Friday he was waiting to see whether a new U.S. administration would change Washington's policy of not allowing him into its prisons in Iraq.The United States has turned down two requests by Manfred Nowak to visit facilities where it holds thousands of Iraqis suspected of involvement in attacks against its troops."They were very clear in saying at the moment we won't change. Might change under a new administration," Nowak, the U.N. special rapporteur on torture, told reporters.Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama face off in a Nov. 4 U.S. presidential election. The winner takes office on Jan. 20.
Read whole article here
Please email svaz@notorture.org if you are interested in attending the Volunteer Orientation on Wednesday October 29th. We only have a few more seats available so please RSVP as soon as possible! You will learn all the ways you can help get involved with SURVIVORS during this orientation.
Check out this article:
"UN torture sleuth awaits new US government on Iraq"
By Patrick Worsnip UNITED NATIONS, Oct 24 (Reuters) - The U.N.
The U.N. investigator on torture said on Friday he was waiting to see whether a new U.S. administration would change Washington's policy of not allowing him into its prisons in Iraq.The United States has turned down two requests by Manfred Nowak to visit facilities where it holds thousands of Iraqis suspected of involvement in attacks against its troops."They were very clear in saying at the moment we won't change. Might change under a new administration," Nowak, the U.N. special rapporteur on torture, told reporters.Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama face off in a Nov. 4 U.S. presidential election. The winner takes office on Jan. 20.
Read whole article here
Monday, October 20, 2008
2nd Volunteer Orientation Added on October 29th at 6:00pm
We have added a 2nd Volunteer Orientation because of the overwhelming response to the 1st one. The Orientation will be held on Wednesday, October 29th, at 6:00pm. Please email svaz@notorture.org for more information.
This is a very interesting article and something to really consider:
John Feffer
Posted October 20, 2008 09:20 AM (EST)
The Art of Torture
Reposted from Foreign Policy In Focus
The pictures from Abu Ghraib have achieved iconic status. The hooded man on the box, his arms outstretched, has superceded the image of the toppling of Saddam Hussein's statue. The Bush administration will forever be remembered as "the administration that tortured."
Iconic images have a concentrated power. The Abu Ghraib pictures convey, in visual shorthand, a range of messages - the sufferings of all Iraqis under U.S. occupation, the double standards of U.S. human rights policy, the failures of "democracy promotion." They are pictures that are worth a thousand protests. The enduring images from the Vietnam War - the young girl running naked down the street to escape her napalmed village, the bullet-to-the-head execution of a Vietcong officer - acquired the same power of concentration.
But iconic images have their disadvantages, too. Victims of violent crimes frequently talk of feeling victimized all over again when they recount their traumas. Even as we use the images to decry U.S. policy in Iraq, do we continue to torture the detainees from Abu Ghraib when we reproduce the images of their prison abuses?
Read whole article here
This is a very interesting article and something to really consider:
John Feffer
Posted October 20, 2008 09:20 AM (EST)
The Art of Torture
Reposted from Foreign Policy In Focus
The pictures from Abu Ghraib have achieved iconic status. The hooded man on the box, his arms outstretched, has superceded the image of the toppling of Saddam Hussein's statue. The Bush administration will forever be remembered as "the administration that tortured."
Iconic images have a concentrated power. The Abu Ghraib pictures convey, in visual shorthand, a range of messages - the sufferings of all Iraqis under U.S. occupation, the double standards of U.S. human rights policy, the failures of "democracy promotion." They are pictures that are worth a thousand protests. The enduring images from the Vietnam War - the young girl running naked down the street to escape her napalmed village, the bullet-to-the-head execution of a Vietcong officer - acquired the same power of concentration.
But iconic images have their disadvantages, too. Victims of violent crimes frequently talk of feeling victimized all over again when they recount their traumas. Even as we use the images to decry U.S. policy in Iraq, do we continue to torture the detainees from Abu Ghraib when we reproduce the images of their prison abuses?
Read whole article here
Friday, October 17, 2008
Join us at the Social Ministry Fair at St. Andrew's Lutheran Church
Join us at the Social Ministry Fair at St. Andrew's Lutheran Church
8350 Lake Murray Blvd
San Diego, Ca 92119
Saturday October 18th after the 5:30pm service
Sunday Octiber 18th after the 8:00am 9:30am and 10:45am services
Interesting Editorial from the Orlando Sentinel:
We think: The next president needs to restore U.S. moral authority
October 17, 2008
Republican John McCain fired off the most memorable line of this week's presidential debate when he told Democrat Barack Obama, "I am not President Bush. If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago."Whichever one of them moves into the White House in January, there's a simple but critical step they could take right away to make a clean break from Mr. Bush: Outlaw, once and for all, the use of torture against prisoners in U.S. custody.Torture isn't just un-American; it's counterproductive. Veteran U.S. interrogators have testified that it doesn't yield reliable intelligence. It encourages enemies to keep fighting rather than surrender and submit to interrogation. It puts captured U.S. troops in greater peril.
Read whole article here
8350 Lake Murray Blvd
San Diego, Ca 92119
Saturday October 18th after the 5:30pm service
Sunday Octiber 18th after the 8:00am 9:30am and 10:45am services
Interesting Editorial from the Orlando Sentinel:
We think: The next president needs to restore U.S. moral authority
October 17, 2008
Republican John McCain fired off the most memorable line of this week's presidential debate when he told Democrat Barack Obama, "I am not President Bush. If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago."Whichever one of them moves into the White House in January, there's a simple but critical step they could take right away to make a clean break from Mr. Bush: Outlaw, once and for all, the use of torture against prisoners in U.S. custody.Torture isn't just un-American; it's counterproductive. Veteran U.S. interrogators have testified that it doesn't yield reliable intelligence. It encourages enemies to keep fighting rather than surrender and submit to interrogation. It puts captured U.S. troops in greater peril.
Read whole article here
Thursday, October 16, 2008
VOLUNTEER ORIENTATION
Volunteer Orientation
Wednesday, October 22, 2008 at 6:00 p.m.
Please email svaz@notorture.org for details!
Check out this article:
WashPost: Dick Cheney briefed on torture; secret memos detail CIA tactics
There's a healthy Internet buzz today on a Washington Post story saying the CIA endorsed such harsh interrogation techniques as waterboarding against Al Qaeda suspects in 2003 and 2004 -- and eventually got a written endorsement from Bush administration higher-ups.
According to the Post, the existence of two specific memos endorsing the practice had not been disclosed. It said Vice President Dick Cheney and then-national security advisor Condoleezza Rice were briefed by the CIA director, who wanted White House "policy approval."
Read whole article here
Wednesday, October 22, 2008 at 6:00 p.m.
Please email svaz@notorture.org for details!
Check out this article:
WashPost: Dick Cheney briefed on torture; secret memos detail CIA tactics
There's a healthy Internet buzz today on a Washington Post story saying the CIA endorsed such harsh interrogation techniques as waterboarding against Al Qaeda suspects in 2003 and 2004 -- and eventually got a written endorsement from Bush administration higher-ups.
According to the Post, the existence of two specific memos endorsing the practice had not been disclosed. It said Vice President Dick Cheney and then-national security advisor Condoleezza Rice were briefed by the CIA director, who wanted White House "policy approval."
Read whole article here
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Amnesty International Walk
Amnesty International North County Chapter’s 20th Anniversary & Candlelight Walk for Human Rights
Sunday, October 19, 2008 at 5:30pmAt the Oceanside Amphitheater - Next to the Pier(I-5 Exit in Oceanside @ Mission Ave. - West to the end)
Featuring speakers
• REBIYA KADEER: An "adopted" Prisoner of Conscience
• BRIDGET SUHR: International Criminal Court
• PETER SCHEY: Reconciliation Process in South Africa
• Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice will receive the Digna Ochoa Human Rights Defender Award 2008 Find details at the Amnesty International web site
Check out this article:
CIA Tactics Endorsed In Secret Memos
Waterboarding Got White House Nod
By Joby WarrickWashington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, October 15, 2008; Page A01
The Bush administration issued a pair of secret memos to the CIA in 2003 and 2004 that explicitly endorsed the agency's use of interrogation techniques such as waterboarding against al-Qaeda suspects -- documents prompted by worries among intelligence officials about a possible backlash if details of the program became public.
The classified memos, which have not been previously disclosed, were requested by then-CIA Director George J. Tenet more than a year after the start of the secret interrogations, according to four administration and intelligence officials familiar with the documents. Although Justice Department lawyers, beginning in 2002, had signed off on the agency's interrogation methods, senior CIA officials were troubled that White House policymakers had never endorsed the program in writing.
Read whole article here
Sunday, October 19, 2008 at 5:30pmAt the Oceanside Amphitheater - Next to the Pier(I-5 Exit in Oceanside @ Mission Ave. - West to the end)
Featuring speakers
• REBIYA KADEER: An "adopted" Prisoner of Conscience
• BRIDGET SUHR: International Criminal Court
• PETER SCHEY: Reconciliation Process in South Africa
• Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice will receive the Digna Ochoa Human Rights Defender Award 2008 Find details at the Amnesty International web site
Check out this article:
CIA Tactics Endorsed In Secret Memos
Waterboarding Got White House Nod
By Joby WarrickWashington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, October 15, 2008; Page A01
The Bush administration issued a pair of secret memos to the CIA in 2003 and 2004 that explicitly endorsed the agency's use of interrogation techniques such as waterboarding against al-Qaeda suspects -- documents prompted by worries among intelligence officials about a possible backlash if details of the program became public.
The classified memos, which have not been previously disclosed, were requested by then-CIA Director George J. Tenet more than a year after the start of the secret interrogations, according to four administration and intelligence officials familiar with the documents. Although Justice Department lawyers, beginning in 2002, had signed off on the agency's interrogation methods, senior CIA officials were troubled that White House policymakers had never endorsed the program in writing.
Read whole article here
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
"My Guantanamo Diary" event with author Mahvish Rukhsana Khan
Tuesday, October 21, 2008 at 7:00 p.m.
Location: Multipurpose Room in the student services center, UCSD.Address: 9500 Gilman Dr, La Jolla, CA, 92093
Cost: Free
Mahvish Rukhsana Khan's 'My Guantánamo Diary'
My Guantánamo Diary The Detainees and the Stories They Told Me. By Mahvish Rukhsana Khan. Illustrated. 302 pages. $25.95. PublicAffairs.
In 2005, while a law student at the University of Miami, Mahvish Rukhsana Khan decided to volunteer as an interpreter for Afghan detainees at Guantánamo Bay. The American daughter of Afghan immigrants (her parents are Johns Hopkins-educated physicians), Khan thought it unfair that the detainees could not understand their lawyers, who did not speak Pashto, and although she didn't know whether they were guilty, she believed they were entitled to prove their innocence.
Read the whole Article
Tuesday, October 21, 2008 at 7:00 p.m.
Location: Multipurpose Room in the student services center, UCSD.Address: 9500 Gilman Dr, La Jolla, CA, 92093
Cost: Free
Mahvish Rukhsana Khan's 'My Guantánamo Diary'
My Guantánamo Diary The Detainees and the Stories They Told Me. By Mahvish Rukhsana Khan. Illustrated. 302 pages. $25.95. PublicAffairs.
In 2005, while a law student at the University of Miami, Mahvish Rukhsana Khan decided to volunteer as an interpreter for Afghan detainees at Guantánamo Bay. The American daughter of Afghan immigrants (her parents are Johns Hopkins-educated physicians), Khan thought it unfair that the detainees could not understand their lawyers, who did not speak Pashto, and although she didn't know whether they were guilty, she believed they were entitled to prove their innocence.
Read the whole Article
Monday, October 13, 2008
Please join us for the Academy Award Winning Documentary Screening of
"Taxi to the Dark Side"
Tuesday, October 21, 2008 at 9:30 a.m.
Location: San Diego City College, Room D121A1313 Park Blvd, San Diego, CA 92101
Cost: Free
This event is co hosted with the Amnesty International Club at City College
In 2002 taxi driver Dilawar was picked up by US forces with his passengers in the desert and taken to Bagram prison in Afghanistan. Five days later he was dead. Injuries to his legs were compared with those he would have sustained if he had been run over by a truck – had he lived it was likely that his legs would have had to have been amputated due to the damage. With this as the starting point, this documentary tells the story of the role of "torture" in the war on terror, from Abu Ghraid to Guantanamo
Check out this article on the potential release of Chinese Muslims from Guantanamo Bay:
After nearly 7 years at Guantanamo, Chinese Muslims set to be freed this week are told to wait
By HOPE YEN Associated Press Writer
8:14 AM EDT, October 9, 2008
WASHINGTON (AP) _ A group of Chinese Muslims set to be freed into the U.S. this week from Guantanamo Bay found their freedom stymied yet again after a simple government plea: What's a couple more weeks or so in jail after nearly seven years?That in essence was the Bush administration's argument to a federal appeals court in a 19-page emergency request that maintained there would be only "minimal harms" if the detainees were to stay at Guantanamo a while longer.Late Wednesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit agreed, halting the 17 men's release for at least another week to give the government more time to make arguments in the case.
Read the whole article
"Taxi to the Dark Side"
Tuesday, October 21, 2008 at 9:30 a.m.
Location: San Diego City College, Room D121A1313 Park Blvd, San Diego, CA 92101
Cost: Free
This event is co hosted with the Amnesty International Club at City College
In 2002 taxi driver Dilawar was picked up by US forces with his passengers in the desert and taken to Bagram prison in Afghanistan. Five days later he was dead. Injuries to his legs were compared with those he would have sustained if he had been run over by a truck – had he lived it was likely that his legs would have had to have been amputated due to the damage. With this as the starting point, this documentary tells the story of the role of "torture" in the war on terror, from Abu Ghraid to Guantanamo
Check out this article on the potential release of Chinese Muslims from Guantanamo Bay:
After nearly 7 years at Guantanamo, Chinese Muslims set to be freed this week are told to wait
By HOPE YEN Associated Press Writer
8:14 AM EDT, October 9, 2008
WASHINGTON (AP) _ A group of Chinese Muslims set to be freed into the U.S. this week from Guantanamo Bay found their freedom stymied yet again after a simple government plea: What's a couple more weeks or so in jail after nearly seven years?That in essence was the Bush administration's argument to a federal appeals court in a 19-page emergency request that maintained there would be only "minimal harms" if the detainees were to stay at Guantanamo a while longer.Late Wednesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit agreed, halting the 17 men's release for at least another week to give the government more time to make arguments in the case.
Read the whole article
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