[Active-l] (ACTION ITEM) Stop the torture legalisation revisions to the War Crimes Act

[Dara (R'ykandar Korra'ti)]

This is an ACTION ITEM against President Bush's torture legalisation 
bill. If you want any response to matter at all, you must take action 
_immediately_ Last I heard, the bill modifying the War Crimes Act was 
still in committee. You can see my discussion of the summary of changes 
here ( http://solarbird.livejournal.com/459041.html ). The youtube link 
near the bottom is a link to some short bits of the testimony against 
it.

I think Andrew Sullivan ( http://time.blogs.com/daily_dish/ ) puts it 
well here ( 
http://time.blogs.com/daily_dish/2006/09/legalizing_tyra.html ):

	All I know is that al Qaeda is winning battles every week now. And 
they are winning them because their aim of gutting Western liberty is 
shared by the president of the United States. The fact that we are 
finding this latest, chilling stuff out now - while this horrifying 
bill is being rushed into law to help rescue some midterms - is beyond 
belief. It must be stopped, filibustered, prevented. And anyone who 
cares about basic constitutional freedom - conservatives above all - 
should be in the forefront of stopping it.

Also, here ( 
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2092-2371815,00.html ) is a 
good article on the redefinition of "torture" not to include things we 
certainly called torture when the Soviets and the North Koreans were 
doing it.

Don't think this just applies for foreigners, either. If that's your 
excuse for not bothering, throw out that excuse. It doesn't; the Bush 
administration has already detained Americans and I have no reason to 
believe they wouldn't do it again, or successor administrations 
wouldn't do it even more freely. If you ever have done or are ever 
going to do anything political, do this. Stop. This. Bill. Email or 
phone your Senator and Representative saying they _must_ vote against 
that any bill which includes:

* Any deviation from Geneva Convention Common Article 3 that will lead 
to the cruel and degrading treatment of detainees in prisons
* Any trials that utilize coerced or secret evidence
* Interrogation techniques that allow torture or inhumane punishment
* The President to interpret “the meaning and application” of the 
Geneva Convention

Or you can just refer to the "Torture bill" or the "McCain compromise" 
or the modifications to the War Crimes Act and I imagine they'll know 
what you're talking about.

The Congressional switchboard number: 202-224-3121. You can call and 
ask to be transferred to your Representative and Senator(s).

Washington State contact information:
	Maria Cantwell: http://cantwell.senate.gov/contact/
	Patty Murray: http://murray.senate.gov/email/index.cfm
	Jay Inslee (if you're in the first district): 
http://www.house.gov/inslee/contact/email.html

					- Dara

----- from andrewsullivan.com -----
Stop This Bill
26 September 2006, 4:12pm Eastern Daylight Time
andrewsullivan.com

http://time.blogs.com/daily_dish/2006/09/stop_this_bill.html

A series of impassioned pleas on Capitol Hill - from the military, 
Catholic bishops, intelligence experts and others - not to pass a bill 
allowing the president the right to seize anyone in this country, 
detain him or her without charges indefinitely and torture them in 
secret. Please do not look away. Fight back - for your freedom.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXI-MiQdL0U&eurl=