Your government is openly torturing
people... and justifying it.
Will the election of a new president
stop this?
YOUR GOVERNMENT ADMITS TORTURING
PEOPLE:
On February 5, 2008 CIA Director
Michael Hayden stood before Congress and admitted CIA officers aterboarded
three detainees. Two days after Hayden's admission, U.N. High Commissioner For
Human Rights Louise Arbour classified waterboarding as torture.
On April 9, 2008 ABC News reported
that Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleeza Rice, John shcroft, Colin Powell,
and George Tenet met regularly in the White House to discuss and approve arious
forms of torture-including waterboarding-for use on detainees. On April 11,
President eorge W. Bush himself admitted approving these meetings, saying: "And
yes, I'm aware our national security team met on this issue. And I approved."
As of December 2007, according to
Amnesty International, the U.S. was known to be holding 275 etainees in
Guantanamo Bay, ("Gitmo") Cuba. All but a handful of these detainees have never
been charged, and have never received a trial. The vast majority of these
detainees were turned over to the U.S. by warlords; they were not captured on the battlefield. Even the
U.S. military only haracterizes only 8% of these detainees as Al-Qaeda
fighters.
BOTH THE
DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS KNOW AND ADMIT THAT THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT IS
TORTURING PEOPLE.
During the
first Presidential debate on September 26, John McCain said: "We have to
make sure we have people who are trained interrogators so that we don't ever
torture a prisoner again."
Will the
Election of Another President Stop this?
In saying,
"never again," McCain is acknowledging that your government has been torturing
prisoners!
During
that same debate, Barack Obama said: "I give Senator McCain great credit on the
torture issue, for aving identified that as something that undermines our
long-term security." Again, in saying that torture "undermines our
long-term security," Obama is acknowledging that the U.S. has been torturing
people!
An excerpt
of the 2008 Democratic Party Platform reads, "We reject torture." A few
sentences later, the platform states: We will not ship away prisoners in
the dead of night to be tortured in far-off countries, or detain without trial
r charge prisoners who can and should be brought to justice for their crimes,
or maintain a network of secret prisons to jail people beyond the reach of
law.We will respect the time-honored principles of habeas corpus, the
seven-century-old right of individuals to challenge the terms of their own
detention that was recently reaffirmed by our Supreme Court. We will close the
detention camp in Guantanamo Bay, the location of so many of the worst
constitutional abuses in recent years."
This means: the Democratic Party acknowledges that the government has been and
is currently torturing, rendering, and illegally detaining prisoners!
WHICH RAISES
THE QUESTION"WHAT ACTIONS ARE THE CANDIDATES TAKING NOW TO STOP TORTURE?
Why aren't
Joe Biden, John McCain, and Barack Obama using their Senate positions now to
introduce legislation unequivocally banning torture and demanding Guantanamo
Bay be shut down immediately? When Bush signed McCain's 2005 Anti-Torture
Amendment he attached a signing statement declaring that he would ignore the
Act he just signed. McCain said and did nothing about this.
John
McCain vows to ensure that "we never torture another prisoner ever again." So
why did he vote for the 2006 Military Commissions Act, the infamous law that
not only reversed habeas corpus, but also allowed the President to define what
does and does not consitute torture-thereby legalizing torture?
The
platform of Barack Obama's party says "We reject torture." Obama or Biden could
have filibustered-i.e. prevented the passage of-the above-mentioned Military
Commissions Act? Why didn't they?
Why did
neither candidate mention torture, Guantanamo, or habeas corpus at all during
the second debate on Oct 7? And why did neither vice-presidential candidate-Joe
Biden or Sarah Palin-mention torture, Guantanamo, or habeas corpus at all
during their debate on Oct 2?
Most of
all, since the Bush Regime and both candidates admit that your government is torturing
people, why was not only McCain but Obama repeatedly and emphatically refused
to call for the impeachment and investigation of the Bush Regime for war
crimes?
WE WILL NOT
LIVE IN A TORTURE STATE
If
Obama/Biden and McCain/Palin really wanted to stop our government from
torturing, they have had numerous opportunities to do so. Instead, despite
acknowledging that our government is torturing, they have either advanced or
been complicit in torture again and again.
The message
is clear:
We must not rely on electoral politics to stop crimes against humanity. Only a
mass independent political movement DEMANDING an end to these crimes can bring
these crimes to a halt!
(866) 973-4463 worldcantwait.org
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