08472
July 1, 2008
Presbyterians among bipartisan group urging president to ban torture
200 petitioners want an end to inhuman interrogation practices
LOUISVILLE — The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has joined a bipartisan group of some 200 religious leaders, former top government officials and retired generals in calling on President George W. Bush to sign an executive order outlawing torture and cruel and inhuman treatment of detainees held in connection with the global war on terror.
A presidential order to ban torture is essential, they say, to improve national security, recommit to American values and shore up alliances in the war on terror.
The anti-torture initiative consists of a declaration of principles that include asking the president to adopt a Golden Rule: “We will not authorize or use any methods of interrogation that we would not find acceptable if used against Americans, be they civilians or soldiers,” asserts the declaration.
The one-page statement was issued last month by three nonprofit groups, the Presbyterian-founded National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT), Evangelicals for Human Rights and The Center for Victims of Torture.
The declaration endorses one national standard for the treatment of prisoners across all agencies, and for congressional and judicial oversight of detention and interrogation. It also emphasizes the rule of law — no secret prisons or disappearances, and an opportunity for prisoners to prove their innocence — and calls for an end to rendition or sending detainees to countries believed to use torture.
Delegates to the PC(USA)’s recently concluded 218th General Assembly in San Jose, CA, affirmed the declaration of principles through a commissioners’ resolution approved June 27.
The GA-approved resolution directs the PC(USA)’s stated clerk to communicate the Assembly action and other torture-related positions of the denomination to the president of the United States, major presidential candidates and those in the federal government who oversee interrogation policies and practices.
The resolution also seeks to encourage individuals, congregations and middle governing bodies to lift up their commitment to human rights, the elimination of torture and to ethical standards for interrogation.
The General Assembly’s action reflects Presbyterians “longstanding commitment to human dignity and justice,” according to a statement released by No2Torture, another Presbyterian-related anti-torture group.
The Rev. Carol Wickersham, No2Torture’s coordinator and a NRCAT board member, said the declaration of principles “represents a moral bottom-line held by people across the theological and political spectrum, not only condemning torture for the evil that it is, but insisting that we will not let fear cause us to forget who we are as a nation and in the eyes of God.”
The GA resolution also directs the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program to identify or create devotional, study, worship and homiletic resources, and make them available on the Web so that individuals, congregations and middle governing bodies can lift up their opposition to torture and their commitment to human rights and ethical standards for interrogation.
The anti-torture campaign comes amid numerous recent disclosures regarding the personal involvement of top Bush administration officials in authorizing the use of what they have called “enhanced interrogation techniques,” including waterboarding, but which virtually all international human rights groups have denounced as torture.
The Bush administration’s long-held position is that the United States does not torture people.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said in a recent published report that the administration already has enacted some protections. She cited the Detainee Treatment Act, the Military Commissions Act, and a Bush executive order interpreting Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions. Common Article 3 prohibits “cruel treatments and torture” as well as “outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment.”
The anti-torture declaration, which members of the public are also invited to sign, has been endorsed by the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, former stated clerk of the PC(USA) General Assembly, and more than 100 other religious leaders including those from the evangelical, Catholic, Christian Orthodox, Jewish and Muslim faiths.
The declaration states, “Though we come from a variety of backgrounds and walks of life, we agree that the use of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment against prisoners is immoral, unwise, and un-American,” and stresses that such practices are also deeply counterproductive.
“In our effort to secure ourselves, we have resorted to tactics that do not work, which endanger U.S. personnel abroad, which discourage political, military, and intelligence cooperation from our allies, and which ultimately do not enhance our security.”
Three former secretaries of state have endorsed the statement: Madeleine K. Albright and Warren Christopher, both of whom served under President Bill Clinton, and George Shultz, who served under President Ronald Reagan as secretaries of state, labor and the treasury.
Richard Armitage, deputy secretary of state in Bush’s first term, also signed as has Lorne Craner, who was Bush’s assistant secretary of state for democracy and human rights, and a long-time aide to GOP presidential candidate John McCain.
Other signers include 35 retired generals and admirals, as well as several retired senior counter-terrorist officers of the Central Intelligence Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation.
NRCAT says it plans to seek broad public endorsement of the declaration in coming weeks and then present it to President Bush.
To view and endorse the declaration, click here.
For a complete list of signatories, click here.
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