FCNL Action: Torture - End the Word Games

Can you define torture? President Bush wasn't able to when he was asked 
this week. How reassuring is his claim that "We don't torture" if he
can't say what it is that United States isn't doing?

According to the Justice Department, the U.S. is legally allowed to do 
things to prisoners that most people would consider torture. In a 2005 
secret legal opinion that still defines government practice, the 
department said that painful physical abuse -- including head-slapping, 
simulated drowning and frigid temperatures -- is not cruel, inhuman, or 
degrading treatment and isn't torture.

The U.S. needs to end the word games and secrecy. Congress needs to 
****ne a light on what the CIA is doing to U.S. detainees by restoring 
the courts' power to independently review the way our government is 
treating every single person it holds against their will.

Your senators can help to open a window on torture by sup****ting and 
championing the Habeas Corpus Restoration Act (S. 185). Habeas corpus 
is the right of all prisoners to have a court consider why they are in 
prison and how they are being treated. As of mid-October, 32 senators 
have cosponsored this legislation, and 56 senators voted for the bill 
on the Senate floor in September. But in today's partisan Senate, 
legislation needs 60 votes to come to a vote and avoid a filibuster: 
http://capwiz.com/fconl/utr/1/JWQKHTFSWD/MUAOHTFVAF/1491471691.

**Take Action**

Urge your senators to cosponsor the Habeas Corpus Restoration Act (S. 
185). For those who are already cosponsors, ask them to press for 
action on S. 185. On a crowded Senate calendar, im****tant policy bills 
like the Habeas Corpus Restoration Act can be pushed aside unless a 
significant number of senators are pu****ng for a floor vote.

Find out if both of your senators are cosponsors: 
http://capwiz.com/fconl/utr/1/JWQKHTFSWD/MNJCHTFVAG/1491471691.
Find
out how they voted in September:
http://capwiz.com/fconl/utr/1/JWQKHTFSWD/DAQOHTFVAH/1491471691.

**Background**

Detainees at Guantanamo Bay and in secret prisons around the globe have 
no way to complain about their situation. They are not U.S. citizens 
and, according to this administration, they are not prisoners of war 
who must be accorded humane treatment under the Geneva Conventions. 
They are, instead, "enemy combatants" captured on the 
battlefield of the " global war on terror."

As enemy combatants, a category defined solely by the president, these 
detainees are held in a law-free zone, without access to outside review 
of the conditions of their confinement. Their status is evaluated 
periodically by a "military commission" in a unique process 
defined by the president and approved by the Congress.

The administration has assured Congress, the public in the United 
States, and the international community that the U.S. does not torture 
detainees. Yet administration officials have acknowledged the accuracy 
of press re****ts stating the Justice Department has signed legal 
opinions http://capwiz.com/fconl/utr/1/JWQKHTFSWD/IKBIHTFVAI/1491471691
for the Central Intelligence Agency that approve the use of
widely-recognized torture techniques and devices.

Read more about FCNL's effort to ban torture and restore the writ of 
habeas corpus: www.fcnl.org/torture 

Read an interview with a lawyer representing detainees at Guantanamo 
Bay: http://capwiz.com/fconl/utr/1/JWQKHTFSWD/EPFUHTFVAJ/1491471691.

_______________________________________
Friends Committee on National Legislation
245 Second St. NE, Wa****ngton, DC 20002-5795
fcnl@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 * 
http://capwiz.com/fconl/utr/1/JWQKHTFSWD/NFMTHTFVAR/1491471691
phone: (202)547-6000 * toll-free: (800)630-1330

We seek a world free of war and the threat of war
We seek a society with equity and justice for all
We seek a community where every person's potential may be fulfilled
We seek an earth restored.
                                 *
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