URGENT: stop the legalization of torture outsourcing

[ckdexter]

Please contact your representatives about this: http://obsidianwings.blogs.com/obsidian_wings/2004/09/legalizing_tort.html.

The short version: Republicans are trying to pass legislation that would exempt suspected terrorists from protection from torture, allowing deportation to countries that practice torture. The detainee would have to prove that she'd be tortured in order to avoid deportation.

[ckdexter]

1. I can't believe this hasn't gotten attention on DU

Here's a Washington Post article on it: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A60779-2004Sep29?language=printer

"The Bush administration is supporting a provision in the House leadership's intelligence reform bill that would allow U.S. authorities to deport certain foreigners to countries where they are likely to be tortured or abused, an action prohibited by the international laws against torture the United States signed 20 years ago.

The provision, part of the massive bill introduced Friday by House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), would apply to non-U.S. citizens who are suspected of having links to terrorist organizations but have not been tried on or convicted of any charges. Democrats tried to strike the provision in a daylong House Judiciary Committee meeting, but it survived on a party-line vote."

This is serious, and it's coming up SOON. Please contact your reps, and get this out to everyone you can.

[sadiesworld]

2. .

[0rganism]

3. Fafblog once again has the definitive take on this...

"...how can any red-blooded pro-torture Congressman justify outsourcing our nation's torture work when American torturers are losing their jobs every day?...Americans should be proud that the state is willing to electrocute our genitals and pull out our nails in order to protect us. But it looks like our lawmakers aren't very proud of this rich new American tradition, approving it in the closet while pushing the labor force out to cheap foreign torturers in Pakistan!"

more at fafblog.blogspot.com