Some months ago, bloggers, editorialists and reporters connected the dots on the Bush administration’s policy of “extraordinary rendition.†Extraordinary rendition is the practice by which people are nabbed by the U.S. government, often on U.S. soil, and shipped off to foreign countries where they can be interrogated using means that would be against the law on U.S. soil. Let’s be blunt: those means are methods of torture.
There’s a bill before Congress right now that would remedy this situation. H.R. 952 is written simply, exactly and solely to end the Bush administration’s practice of “extraordinary rendition,” in which people are sent abroad to be tortured. As of today, only 64 members of the House of Representatives support H.R. 952. That’s a shameful 14.7% of House members who are willing to go on record against torture. It’s not only a shame; it’s a scandal! Doesn’t America stand for something better than this? Why is it that 371 members of Congress can’t be bothered to stand up to torture? I really want to know.
I would like to be able to say that the support of 64 members of Congress reflects some momentum. But since May 25, when Rep. Martin Meehan (D-MA) signed his name on as a cosponsor, only one other individual, Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL) has contributed his support to the cause by formally supporting the bill. The anti-torture bill is slipping off the radar screens of our nation’s legislators, replaced by bridges to nowhere in Alaska. The papers aren’t talking about this bill anymore either. Even on the blogosphere, discussion of extraordinary rendition has dwindled. We are letting America stand for torture, and we aren’t even getting upset about it. Think about what this says about us.
At a time when it is becoming more and more apparent that America under the Republicans is soft on torture, Americans of conscience cannot let this bill die here. Chances are, your member of Congress isn’t on board with this anti-terror (for that is what the central element of torture is, my friends) measure. Click here to check and be sure. If your member of Congress is soft on torture, don’t let it slide. Contact that slacker and tell them in no uncertain terms that you expect them to do what would have once been the obvious thing, that you expect them to oppose torture in deed as well as in word, that you expect them to sign on to H.R. 952.
Of course, not a single Republican has stood up to oppose torture by supporting this bill. I don’t expect Republican politicians to exercise a working ethical compass; we all know their “moral values” talk is empty. I’m not even surprised when “moderate” (read: bought-off) Democrats turn their eyes away from their responsibility as leaders. But I am downright galled to find out that members of Congress with an otherwise exemplary progressive record have failed to sign on as cosponsors to H.R. 952.
The following members of Congress have a quality liberal record. They should know better. Their names should be on this bill. They should be easily convinced. And so I’m asking you to call at least one of them today and ask them why they have not cosponsored H.R. 952. Ask them to do so, not just to keep people from being tortured, but to help begin to restore the moral reputation of the United States of America. Please, if you have a moment to spare, call:
Rep. Corrine Brown (D-FL) phone: 202-225-0123
Rep. Lois Capps (D-CA) phone: 202-225-3601
Rep. Ed Case (D-HI) phone: 202-225-4906
Rep. William Lacy Clay (D-MO) phone: 202-225-2406
Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) phone: 202-225-6416
Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) phone: 202-225-4061
Rep. Harold Ford (D-TN) phone: 202-225-3265
Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) phone: 202-225-8885
Rep. Dale Kildee (D-MI) phone: 202-225-3611
Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) phone: 202-225-3072
Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY) phone: 202-225-6506
Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) phone: 202-225-5516
Rep. Dennis Moore (D-KS) phone: 202-225-2865
Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) phone: 202-225-4365
Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-CA) phone: 202-225-6676
Rep. Tom Udall (D-NM) phone: 202-225-6190
Ask these people not only to cosponsor H.R. 952, but also to raise a stink about the issue of extraordinary rendition. We cannot allow this thoroughly barbaric practice to continue.
Combine this with the Senate’s passage of an anti-torture bill, which has not been acted upon by the House, and you see that the House of Representatives has become a haven for defenders of torture by the American government.
When I tried to write to Geraldo and Shepard Smith to thank them for their concern for the people who were dying locked in the Superdome and the ones who were locked out also had not been given the water or MREs that had been delivered earlier in the day, FOX website had Shep’s address, found a site for Geraldo but the email wouldn’t go through but on http://www.Congress.org/ there is a section where you can write to a report by name under MEDIA or you can send to 5 or 6 news media outlets at a time.
The letters to media are not published online but your letter to any Congressperson (most on their official sites will not let those who are not constiuents use their email form) and the letter will be published on the main page and under the Congressperson’s section if you click yes to the second question on their email form allowing them to publish, until it is pushed down by other letters.
I have found that emails to Congress.org get a much better rate of replies than to the government websites.I keep thinking of the title of the book THIS CAN’T BE HAPPENING about the concentration camps including Gitmo that Cheney negotiated with Halliburton Brown and Root beginning in 2000 before 911 and the horrific torture going on paid with US taxpayer dollars and the slaughter of the genocide in Iraq and now Syria and Iran and the fact that all the public attention has not caused them even to give armor to our troops or stop the atrocities at Gitmo, Belmarsh in the UK and elsewhere.
A lawyer for one of the 4 British citizens who were released from Gitmo said on Democracy Now that she though it was a test to see how the world would respond since the CIA has been disappearing people for decades and it looked like the world was going to let the Bush Regime get away with it.
Please support John McCain’s bill against torture and go to:
http://www.CagePrisoner.com/
The information contained in KEEP THE CIA COVERED BY THE MCCAIN TORTURE BAN
Having already threatened to veto the entire defense bill if restrained in any way from continuing its policy of international torture crimes, administration operatives will try to gut the McCain amendment in conference committee. Although passed 90-9 by the senate, three of the senators who voted for MORE torture, Ted Stevens (AK), Thad Cochran (MS) and Kit Bond (MO) with be on the committee to reconcile the Senate and
House versions of the defense bill.
And Stevens has already declared he will try to EXEMPT the CIA, the primary offender in acts of illegal torture, from being covered by the provision.
STOP TORTURE NOW AT
http://www.actspeak.com/no_torture.htm