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kuangning"The Department of Homeland Security and some House Republicans are trying to slip through a bill that would make it legal to deport people to countries where the US government knows they will be tortured. A spokesman for Dennis Hastert--the Speaker of the House, which is a powerful and explicitly political post [1]--says that the Justice Department is strongly in favor of this law. Based on Ashcroft's record to date, he's probably telling the truth this time.
The pro-torture language was included in the bill intended to implement the 9/11 Commission report on a straight party-line vote: all the Republicans voted for, all the Democrats against.
Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) is sponsoring a competing bill, HR 4764, to specifically outlaw sending people out of the United States to be tortured. In a sane world, this would be like voting for motherhood and apple pie: in ours, it's unclear whether the House Republicans will let it come up for a vote. His staff says the key votes will be in the next few days.
For more information, and a suggested letter to your representative, see Obsidian Wings. This is especially important if your legislator is a Republican.
If you're not a US citizen or resident, publicizing this is still important. (The supporters of this atrocity call it "extraordinary rendition", because even they know that "outsourcing torture" sounds bad.)
[1] Explanation provided because the last time I mentioned that job on LJ, the person I was addressing turned out to know nothing about how the US Congress works."
... I have nothing to add to this that isn't covered adequately by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
redbird's post and the site linked. If this doesn't inspire sadness and outrage in you, then I'm not sure we can find any common ground at all. Closing our eyes and washing our hands as we ship people into the control of known torturers is indefensible.
The pro-torture language was included in the bill intended to implement the 9/11 Commission report on a straight party-line vote: all the Republicans voted for, all the Democrats against.
Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) is sponsoring a competing bill, HR 4764, to specifically outlaw sending people out of the United States to be tortured. In a sane world, this would be like voting for motherhood and apple pie: in ours, it's unclear whether the House Republicans will let it come up for a vote. His staff says the key votes will be in the next few days.
For more information, and a suggested letter to your representative, see Obsidian Wings. This is especially important if your legislator is a Republican.
If you're not a US citizen or resident, publicizing this is still important. (The supporters of this atrocity call it "extraordinary rendition", because even they know that "outsourcing torture" sounds bad.)
[1] Explanation provided because the last time I mentioned that job on LJ, the person I was addressing turned out to know nothing about how the US Congress works."
... I have nothing to add to this that isn't covered adequately by
redbird's post and the site linked. If this doesn't inspire sadness and outrage in you, then I'm not sure we can find any common ground at all. Closing our eyes and washing our hands as we ship people into the control of known torturers is indefensible.
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no subject
Date: 2004-10-03 05:59 pm (UTC)