Posted on 11/13/2008 1:31:28 AM PST by CE2949BB
Thirteen East Bay priests, rabbis and ministers asked Congressional leaders from California on Wednesday to urge President-elect Barack Obama to ban the use of torture by U.S. agencies as one of his first acts in office.
Meeting with the top staff of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Dianne Feinstein in San Francisco, the group of pastors also asked them to form a Select Committee of Congress to investigate the use of torture by the U.S. government during the past seven years. "It's with that sense of new possibility with the new administration coming in," said the Rev. Karen Stokes of Montclair Presbyterian Church in Oakland, that religious leaders decided now is the time to ask for a ban on torture. The local effort was part of a "National Day of Witness" in which clergy nationwide called for a presidential executive order to ban torture.
Obama spoke during his presidential campaign against the use of torture on U.S. war prisoners and, since the election, has indicated he is considering closing down Guantanamo Bay prison where torture is suspected to have occurred.
"From the religious perspective, it is all about the image of God in each human being. Every time we torture someone, we are defacing God," said Rabbi Roberto Graetz of Temple Isaiah in Lafayette.
"It doesn't matter where you are on the religious spectrum, from progressive to fundamental evangelical, we are all agreed that torture is a moral issue," he said. Graetz presented a declaration of principles from the group.
The Bay Area clergy joined hundreds of others from many faiths who engaged in similar lobbying Wednesday for what was dubbed a "National Day of Witness for a Presidential Executive Order to Ban Torture" declared by the two-year-old National Religious Campaign Against Torture, an interfaith lobbying group. Five rabbis, four protestant ministers, two Roman Catholic priests, a nun and a Diocese of Oakland staff member, and several members of the Islamic Society of Northern California traveled to San Francisco for the lobbying along with some 35 people who belong to the represented congregations. Father David Farrugia of St. Mary Magdalen, a Catholic Church in Berkeley, which has displayed a banner reading "Torture is a Moral Issue," said the global influence of the United States compels us to "treat people right."
Louise Specht, a member of the First Congregational Church of Berkeley, co-founder of the Bay Area arm of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture and the senior minister of her church, Pat de Jong, was in the delegation. Specht said the national and local group started organizing right after the Abu Ghraib photographs came out in 2006. It spent its first year trying to raise consciousness about the issue and then recently began lobbying.
But as Rabbi Graetz said, the group may have been "preaching to the choir" in talking to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, and U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein staff members. Both legislators have been actively trying to stop the use of torture by the U.S. government by supporting legislation that would put an end to it. Pelosi tried to defeat a bill that stripped federal courts of the permission to try habeas corpus cases. n Wednesday, Pelosi said in a letter handed to each of the clergy: "Thank you for your continued support as we work to address the important moral issue of fulfilling our commitment to basic human rights.
"Failing to declare unlawful the use of waterboarding and other harsh torture techniques undermines our nation's moral authority, puts American military and diplomatic personnel at risk and degrades the quality of our intelligence. Please know that I will continue to fight to reaffirm our country's commitment to human rights while protecting America."
Feinstein's representative issued a statement: "Ending abusive CIA interrogations and stopping torture should be a top agenda item in the new administration, and revoking the Bush executive orders on interrogations would be a good first step. Senator Feinstein intends to reintroduce legislation in the next Congress to establish a single, clear government standard for interrogation and put an end to torture."
Even so, neither Pelosi nor Feinstein committed to form a committee to investigate past torture nor did they say unequivocally that they would ask the president-elect to issue an executive order banning torture. In Feinstein's office, the clergy were told that it might still be difficult to get the 60 votes that would be needed to launch a select committee investigation. The National Religious Campaign Against Torture began its work shortly after the prison abuse scandal at the Abu Ghraib prison was revealed when photographs of prisoners in painful and humiliating situations were shown around the world.
As Fred Barnes once pointed out, the coercive techniques in question amount to a grand total of FIVE MINUTES.
These grandstanders don't have the cojones to come out against the scum who tortured, beheaded, hung AMERICANS in Iraq and elsewhere. SO much easier to go after someone for jaywalking instead of chasing down those who are causing hit and runs. You might get HURT doing that!
So, Father, did you vote for Obama, and do you consider starving babies to death torture?
Notice ‘waterboarding and other tortures’ are cited. If one is going to make so bold and damaging a statement should not one have some evidence and state the extent of these tortures?
I suppose my question is, “how can we be sure that the intel gathered from any of these ‘tortures’ was not valuable in saving many other innocent lives?”
If you know that torture occurred then it follows that you would also know whether or not valuable intel was gathered that saved lives. Does the Rabbi’s ability to see and know all end at torture? If the intel served to save lives, then were not those who were spared by the intel gathered made in the same Image?
The Rabbi has the luxury of second guessing and utilizing facts that at the time were not in evidence. I wonder if it was the rabbi’s choice to make which he would have chosen? Waterboard a terrorist, or save untold lives? Which is it?
Ten times more media reporters and journalist have been waterboarded than terrorist scumbags. So are you overreacting, possibly knee-jerking a bit, Rabbi? You make the choice and then I will decide what credibility you warrant.
BIG, BIG DITTO.
lol!
Dear MS's Feinstein and Pelosi,
There's a far easier way to answer this group and to get these people off your tail. Tell them, rather than form yet another "yakky group" to stand before the cameras in order to promote their organizations, they should go into the most dangerous parts of say, Oakland, Hunter's Point and the Tenderloin in San Francisco -- and show exactly how one should "not torture" people who murder, mame, and harm others.
It really is that simple.
Glad to help,
...Alia
next they will discus the increased sunspot activity and determine why the spots are black and not green or purple
Ban abortion...that’s torture for sure.
Thirteen East Bay priests, rabbis and ministers asked Congressional leaders from California on Wednesday to urge President-elect Barack Obama to ban the use of torture by U.S. agencies
They can start with the IRS and get them off the backs of the poor taxpayers.
We need to execute those held in Guantanimo RIGHT NOW as spies so that they don’t need to do to trial on US soil...
Doesn’t torture constitute assault and battery, a crime in all fifty states?
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