Take action: Tell your Senators to vote against torture

It's bad enough that the U.S. is torturing people, even as they keep telling us that it's not really torture.

Now, in Gitmo's kangaroo court system, they will likely be using information obtained under torture as "evidence" against the prisoners who will soon face trial. (Never mind the fact that the experts agree that information obtained under torture is unreliable.)

Now, as the Bush administration moves forward with these torture-tainted military tribunals, the Senate may vote as early as tomorrow (Thursday) on a provision that would restrict every agency and U.S. agent -- including the CIA -- to the interrogation techniques permitted by the Army Field Manual. And the Army Field Manual does not condone waterboarding.

Please contact your Senators and tell them to support section 327 of the Conference Report on the Intelligence Authorization Act (H.R. 2082).

Below is call to action from Amnesty International USA, with links to online action as well as background info.

Torture can never lead to justice. That's the powerful message we need to send to the Bush administration and the U.S. Senate right now.

Even as the Senate prepares for a crucial vote restricting the CIA and other U.S. agents from using waterboarding and other unlawful techniques, the Pentagon is moving forward with torture-tainted show trials for six detainees at Guantánamo Bay suspected of conspiring in the September 11 attacks.

The Senate vote could come as soon as Thursday. Tell the Senate that torture is intolerable and that it undermines justice at every turn.

The heinous attacks on September 11, 2001 were crimes against humanity. Anyone involved must be brought to justice. But, the truth is, the U.S. government has -- at every turn --undermined the opportunity for justice for the victims of those attacks.

They did it by first disappearing the suspects into secret CIA prisons, torturing "high value" suspects for information and then passing off that information as "evidence." Unconscionably, they have shifted the spotlight from justice for the victims of the September 11 attacks to the illegal behavior of the United States.

Tell the Senate that torture is intolerable and that it undermines justice at every turn.

As one former Navy admiral and judge advocate general put it, "Once you torture someone, it's hard to untorture him." If enough Senators have the courage to act, we can take a huge step forward in ending U.S. torture.

Please take action today and if you have time, make a follow-up phone call to your Senator. You can find the number to call and talking points here.

Thank you for standing up for true justice over fear mongering and showboating.

>> While you're at it, read Amnesty International's just-released report on torture and secret detention.