Today was my first day lobbying. If you read
my diary last night, you know that today I lobbied my Senators to co-sponsor SR 654 today. I neglected to say that I'm from Missouri and today is National Torture Awareness Day.
My first meeting was with a staffer from Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond. I was a little nervous going in since I knew that he was one of the nine who voted against the McCain Amendment (plus Fox News was on in the office). The staffer I meet was very pleasant and was familiar with rendition, but not so much about extraordinary rendition. She went on to say that this practice (rendition) is legal and has been going on for several years. I told her this was true. It was established under the Reagan administration to apprehend alleged terrorists who had been indict in US courts to stand trial in the US. However, under the Bush administration, this process has spiraled out of control. We essentially kidnap suspects and send them to other countries. There is no judicial oversight.
I continued that this resolution will open this practice to congressional and public scrutiny since, officially, the administration doesn't confirm or deny this practice. She said that this would be an issue that will be important to Sen. Bond since his son is currently serving in Iraq. I thanked her for her time and left materials from Amnesty International USA, Physicians for Human Rights, the ACLU and Human Rights Watch as well as a DVD on extraordinary rendition.
I'll be following up in two weeks to personally see what stance Sen. Bond has taken.
Needless to say, my confidence rose considerably. I felt like I was able to defeat my talking points and answer questions they might have. I left for Sen. Talent's office. I had higher hopes with him since he's running for re-election and he supported the McCain Amendment.
His legislative staffer was also quite pleasant but more concerned with the politics of the resolution than the substance (which I think is understandable since he was voted into office in a special election 3 years ago). She appeared to be quite concerned with this legislation and I felt I educated her on the matter. She was quite insistent on Sen. Talent's role and support on the war on terror, for instance doing everything he could to keep GITMO open. She also touched on the legality of renditions in general.
I explained, as I had with Sen. Bond's staffer, the evolution of renditions and how judicial oversight has vanished. I also explained to her about the "diplomatic assurances" that we receive from other countries as she seemed to be insistent on the legality. This is my dialogue as best as I could remember it:
"Extraordinary rendition is the forcible transfer of a person from country A to country B, usually a country that has no connection to the person at all. The courts have lost oversight on this issue. In the past if a person was being deported or transfered and believed he would be tortured, he would have the right to present his case in court. Also, with the court system, the suspect would be charged and allowed to present evidence. The mere fact that we receive diplomatic assurances means that the country is suspected of practicing torture. Why are we sending people we capture in Pakistan to Syria who has a record of torture, classified as a terrorist state by the State Department and who are sending terrorists to Iraq? Why aren't we sending these people to a country with a better record? Like, say, Sweden?"
She said she would draft a memo to Sen. Talent for her meeting with him later this week. She also told me that Sen. Specter would have to be on board with this since he's "a force to be reckoned with." I left her with the same materials as I did with Sen. Bond's staffer and promised to call her in two weeks to follow up with this resolution.
I feel so much better that I've done something to prevent this practice. I had no reason to be worried at all. It's their job to listen to constituent concerns. The fact that I visited them in person spoke volumes. I highly recommend that if you're in the DC area make an appointment to talk to a staffer about a concern. It's really easy and nothing to be worried about.
A few things I've learned:
-The meetings going to be short. Both of mine were 10 minutes or less.
-Don't be thrown off with the location of the meeting. One of the meetings was in the reception area and the other one was in a large conference room.
-Be yourself. It's not a "gotcha game" where you're trying to dupe them into agreeing something. They're going to listen to you, you're a constituent.
-Be focused and specific. Come up with two talking points: 1) why you're here and why you're concerned. 2)What actions you want the congressmen to take.
-Be courteous. If you threaten them (ex I'm not going to vote for you because...") you lose your creditability and it gives them a reason to dismiss everything you've said.
-Be persistent. You're not done when you walk out the door. Whatever you just said probably isn't going to change their minds; it's an opening for a dialogue. Make sure you tell them that you're going to follow up.
-As you leave, repeat what action you want them to take, thank them for their time and reiterate that you're going to following up with them.
There's nothing to be worried about. It feels good that you're one of the 5-7% of a congressmen's constituent who does something.
A side note: tonight there's going to be a candle light vigil at the White House for National Torture Awareness Day. Many of the people that are going to be there are torture survivors. I'll be there. Hopefully you can be there too.
www.airtorture.com