We have an opportunity to apply pressure to stop a horrendous practice - the continued normalization of torture through the practice of "extraordinary rendition" (or use of off-shore torturers).
Here's Bob Herbert in today's NYT:
As a nation, does the United States have a conscience? Or is anything and everything O.K. in post-9/11 America? If torture and the denial of due process are O.K., why not murder? When the government can just make people vanish - which it can, and which it does - where is the line that we, as a nation, dare not cross?
When I interviewed Maher Arar in Ottawa last week, it seemed clear that however thoughtful his comments, I was talking with the frightened, shaky successor of a once robust and fully functioning human being. Torture does that to a person. It's an unspeakable crime, an affront to one's humanity that can rob you of a portion of your being as surely as acid can destroy your flesh.
More below the fold on what you can do to help push this issue to the forefront...
Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) introduced a bill on February 17 entitled "The Torture Outsourcing Prevention Act".
Here's what he has to say in his introduction to the bill:
The practice of extraordinary rendition, the extra-judicial transfer of people in U.S. custody either in this country or abroad to nations known to practice torture, has until recently received little attention due to the secrecy surrounding such transfers. Attention was first drawn to the practice after the case of Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen, first came to light. Mr. Arar was seized in 2002 while in transit to Canada through JFK airport in New York, and was sent to Jordan and later Syria by the U.S. Government. While in Syria, Arar reportedly was tortured and held in a dark, 3-by-6-foot cell for nearly a year. He was ultimately released and detailed his story to the media upon his return to Canada. Since that time, other press reports have identified renditions elsewhere around the world, such as the transfer of an Australian citizen, Mamdouh Habib, from Pakistan to Egypt, where he was reportedly tortured.
More from Markey:
Although the total numbers of those "rendered" by the Bush Administration are
unknown, then-CIA director George Tenet testified to the 9/11 Commission in October 2002 that over 70 people had been subjected to renditions prior September 11. Human rights organizations including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Center for Constitutional Rights and the ACLU have detailed numerous other cases that may also involve rendition to countries that practice torture. Last year, the Canadian government launched an investigation into Arar's case, but the U.S. State Department has refused to cooperate with the Canadian investigation.
The bill I am introducing today directs the State Department to compile a list of countries that commonly practice torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment during detention and interrogation, and prohibit rendition to any nation on this list. The bill explicitly permits legal, treaty-based extradition, in which suspects have the right to appeal in a U.S. court to block the proposed transfer based on the likelihood that they would be subjected to torture or other inhumane treatment.
Torture is morally repugnant whether we do it or whether we ask another country to do it for us. It is morally wrong whether it captured on film or whether it goes on behind closed doors unannounced to the American people. President Bush has asserted that `the values of this country are such that torture is not a part of our soul and our being.'I agree.
The legislation I am introducing today is designed to ensure that we not only outlaw torture conducted directly by U.S. government personnel, but that we also stop any practice which involves outsourcing or contracting out torture to other nations.
I urge Members to join in cosponsoring this legislation.
The text of this bill (currently unnumbered) is here (PDF).
Although the bill is currently unnumbered, please call and write your Representatives ASAP citing the short title of the bill ("The Torture Outsourcing Prevention Act"), the sponsor (Rep. Ed Markey, D-MA), and the date of introduction (Feb 17, 2005), and urging them to co-sponsor. You can find more info about the issue and the bill on Rep. Markey's website (http://www.house.gov/markey).
Also, please get your keypads busy with letters to the editor. This is another issue we should be taking leadership on to prevent the slide of our country into a brutal fascist state. Let the Bushists defend torture as they will, but we need to prevail on this issue.
Thanks for your help. And thanks to Rep. Ed Markey for taking leadership again on a very important issue.