Browsed by
Tag: national security

No right to torture

No right to torture

Comments 2 comments

Torture is a contradiction of our historical national values. In addition, we undermine our national security and are in violation of our own laws when we allow it. Informants will not come forward if they cannot trust us not to treat them fairly under international law. We do not get accurate information with torture – ample historical precedent teaches us that those who are tortured will say anything to make it stop. After a couple of years of imprisonment, what useful information could they still have in any case? We rely on torture now because this administration does not value on-the-ground intelligence. They have not bothered to understand the language and context and history, to make the appropriate contacts that would enable them to infiltrate and get intelligence. The case of Plame shows that they are also less concerned with actual intelligence operations than with political ambitions. What appears to matter to them is the profit margin – Guantanamo, instead of being closed or moved onshore where it would have to abide by US laws, will soon have a shiny new prison – a torture profit center. If you think that the administration has to be told that we do not approve of this, please sign the form below.

There is a strong bipartisan move afoot in Congress to limit the power of the president to torture detainees in our name, specifically to bar the U.S. Military from engaging in “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment”. Does it surprise anyone that this out of control administration is threatening to veto the whole defense bill if can’t continue to commit war crimes? If we do not speak out they are our crimes as well.

This is especially meaningful in the context of the hearings Friday where seasoned intelligence operatives stepped forward to testify that good intelligence comes from building relationships over decades with foreign sources on a trust basis, not by pulling off the people’s fingernails.

Please tell Congress to demand that the torture must STOP.

http://www.usalone.com/guantanamo.htm

Global Warming Virtual March

Global Warming Virtual March

Comments 0 Comment

Join the Stop Global Warming Virtual March and make your voice heard!

This one is big enough that it might make some waves.

Some of the other participants are:
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Senator John McCain
John H. Adams, President, NRDC
Laurie David, Founder
Senator Joe Lieberman
R. James Woolsey, former Director of Central Intelligence Agency
Senator Maria Cantwell
Rabbi David Saperstein, Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism
General Wesley Clark
Andy Stern, President, SEIU
Richard Klausner, MD, Executive Director, Global Health, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Father Paul Mayer, Co-Founder of the Climate Crisis Coalition
Ross Gelbspan, Author
Gus Speth, Dean, Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
Al Franken, Author, Air America Radio
Leonardo DiCaprio, Actor, Environmental Activist
Martha Marks, Pres., REP America
Susan Joy Hassol, Independent Scholar
Dr. Michael Oppenheimer, Geosciences and Intern’l Affairs, Princeton University

An excerpt from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s call to action:

…we have the technology to avert catastrophic global warming. We only need to muster the political will. We must require our leadership in Washington to once again mobilize our country’s scientific and technological capacity – the way America did to win World War II against the Nazis in 1945, to put a man on the moon in 1969, and to fix the ozone crisis in 1988. Today, we need a Apollo project to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions, we need our leadership to muster America’s capacity for invention and innovation, our entrepreneurial energies and our willingness to sacrifice –and deploy our invigorated nation to rescue human civilization.

Second, all the actions we must take to avert this global warming, are things America ought to be doing anyhow to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, our entanglement with petty dictators, our vulnerability to price shocks on the international oil markets, and to improve our national security, modify our trade deficits, reduce our national debt, stimulate our economy, create new jobs, and give our children clean air and water, robust health and safer, more wholesome communities. Immediate dramatic action on global warming will restore America’s global leadership and our moral authority among the nations of earth.

We are asking you to help us express your own commitment to stop global warming through a single act of community – a giant petition drive that we call the “Stop Global Warming Virtual March on Washington.” Over the next year, we will mobilize millions of Americans to join our march and make their personal commitment known by joining together to urge Washington to begin taking the steps necessary to derail global warming.

Our mandate to stop global warming transcends politics. It is a moral imperative. The battle to save the planet is the ultimate human rights struggle and, as with America’s civil rights movement, the first steps must be to mobilize citizens to remind our elected leaders of their moral obligation. Global warming is a theft of our children’s future. It is criminal and sinful.

It would mean a lot to me if you would join under my personal impact page.