Guest Voices

End U.S.-sponsored torture forever

By Rev. Richard L. Killmer
National Religious Campaign Against Torture

Just two days after taking the Oath of Office, President Barack Obama signed an Executive Order halting torture. Americans from all walks of life, including members of the religious community and retired military leaders, celebrated this significant step toward closing a sad chapter in America's history.

But the January Executive Order was only the first step. Despite President Obama's significant start, there is much more to be done to make sure that future generations of Americans grow up in a country that does not torture. Torture is immoral because it violates the basic dignity of the human person that all religions, in their highest ideals, hold dear. It threatens the spiritual well-being of a nation.

The task for the U.S. government is to put in place safeguards to make sure that torture never happens again. In order to know what laws or other changes are needed, the American people need to better understand U.S. torture policies and practices since 9/11. We need to know who was tortured, why they were tortured, who ordered the torture, what the effects of the torture were and who the torturers were.

The National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT), formed in 2006 and made up of representatives of more than 260 denominations and religious groups, has called for the creation of an independent, nonpartisan Commission of Inquiry to investigate, report on its findings and make recommendations to the Congress and the President about what further safeguards are needed. It should be composed of individuals recognized for their fairness, integrity, and commitment to the truth. Some members of Congress have discussed creating a select committee to perform a similar function.

Another needed step to heal the nation is the closing of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The torture that occurred at Guantanamo stains the image of the U.S. and diminishes our influence around the world. Closing the detention center quickly will help restore the U.S. as a respected member of the global community.

The President created a Special Task Force on Interrogations and Transfer Policies as part of his executive order, and on Aug. 24 Atty. Gen. Eric Holder announced that the President agreed to the recommendations it made - including one single, public, humane standard for all interrogations by all government agencies and new restrictions against sending detainees to other countries that are known to torture (rendition for torture).

NRCAT commends the Special Task Force and the President and will work to ensure that the task force's recommendations are implemented in such a way as to completely prevent torture. Our efforts will include advocating for the removal of Appendix M (which allows for the use of prolonged isolation and sleep deprivation) from the Army Field Manual on Interrogations and strengthening the legal prohibitions against rendition for torture.

President Obama's Executive Order is not the final word on torture, however. A new President could revoke it. In order to permanently end torture, Congress must legislate several permanent protections.

The necessary protections include a "Golden Rule" standard that would require the President (or another high level administration official) to publicly affirm that each and every interrogation technique authorized for use by American interrogators is based on the idea that we will not do unto others what we would not want done unto our own soldiers. In addition, the requirement in the Executive Order that the International Committee of the Red Cross be granted access to all U.S.-held detainees should be codified into law.

Recent polls tell us that many Americans, including some people of faith, believe that torture is sometimes justified. But the "Golden Rule" standard, apart from its Biblical underpinnings, is based on common sense: we, as a country, should treat other people, even our enemies, the way we would like to be treated.

As we approach the anniversary of the change of U.S. administrations and move beyond these first steps to reverse our government's embrace of torture, we in the religious community will need to continue our efforts to end U.S-sponsored torture forever including educating those within our churches, mosques, temples and synagogues. NRCAT has produced discussion materials about the consequences of torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of detainees.

President Obama has taken the first steps, but there is still much more work to be done.

Rev. Richard L. Killmer is the Executive Director for the National Religious Campaign Against Torture.

By Richard L. Killmer |  October 30, 2009; 11:28 AM ET
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Sleep deprivation, water boarding and shame are mild forms of psychological torture commonly used in US Armed Services training exercises (also used by some fraternities during initiation/hazing) i.e. said methods are not the extreme torture methods that the guest commentator makes them out to be.

Some examples of torture methods we could have used to extract information from Islamic goons trying to fulfill the koranic directive of killing all infidels:

Abacination
Beatings and physical violence
Blinding with light
Boiling
Bone breaking
Branding
Castration
Choking/Strangling
Crushing
Cutting
Denailing
Disfigurement
Electric shock torture
Tooth extraction
Flagellation
Flaying
Foot roasting
Foot whipping
Force-feeding
Fish-Gnawing
Garrotting
Genital mutilation/forced circumcision
Glasgow smile
Hamstringing
Kneecapping
Keelhauling
Mutilation
Oxygen deprivation
Picquet
Pitchcapping
Pressure points
Rat torture
Riding the Rail
Sexual assault
Scalping
Scaphism
Starvation
Strappado/squassation (also known as "reverse hanging" and "Palestinian hanging")

Posted by: ccnl1 | November 4, 2009 6:16 PM
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And the strange and sad "gibberisher" aka INDENIAL, JJ, Blog-lady, The Revelator et al returns yet again.

Posted by: ccnl1 | November 1, 2009 4:52 PM
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That last post looked as empty as your brain~! ROFL

Posted by: yasseryousufi | November 1, 2009 1:12 PM
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Obviously Yasseryousufi has no concept of the basic learning method of reiteration.
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Posted by: ccnl1 | November 1, 2009 12:36 PM
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This is the zillionth time you posted this same post. Do you even have a brain? Im seriously doubting it. If you're being paid to do this, its a lot of pennies being wasted~!

Posted by: yasseryousufi | November 1, 2009 8:41 AM
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Yasseryousufi,

Obviously, you suffer from the Three B Syndrome, i.e. you were Bred, Born and Brainwashed in Islam. Fear not though, we are here to save you with the free Five Step Method for Deflawing/Deprograming Islam.

Are you ready?

Using "The 77 Branches of Islamic "faith" a collection compiled by Imam Bayhaqi as a starting point. In it, he explains the essential virtues that reflect true "faith" (iman) through related Qur’anic verses and Prophetic sayings." i.e. a nice summary of the Koran and Islamic beliefs.

"1. Belief in Allah"

aka as God, Yahweh, Zeus, Jehovah, Mother Nature, etc." should be added to your cleansing neurons.

"2. To believe that everything other than Allah was non-existent. Thereafter, Allah Most High created these things and subsequently they came into existence."
Evolution and the Big Bang or the "Gib Gnab" (when the universe starts to recycle) are more plausible and the "akas" for Allah should be included if you continue to be a "creationist".

"3. To believe in the existence of angels."
A major item for neuron cleansing. Angels/devils are the mythical creations of ancient civilizations, e.g. Hittites, to explain/define natural events, contacts with their gods, big birds, sudden winds, protectors during the dark nights, etc. No "pretty/ugly wingy thingies" ever visited or talked to Mohammed, Jesus, Mary or Joseph or Joe Smith. Today we would classify angels as fairies and "tinker bells". Modern devils are classified as the demons of the demented.

"4. To believe that all the heavenly books that were sent to the different prophets are true. However, apart from the Quran, all other books are not valid anymore."
Another major item to delete. There are no books written in the spirit state of Heaven (if there is one) just as there are no angels/"pwtfft"s to write/publish/distribute them. The Koran, OT, NT etc. are simply books written by humans for humans.

Prophets were invented by ancient scribes typically to keep the uneducated masses in line. Today we call them fortune tellers.
Prophecies are also invalidated by the natural/God/Allah gifts of Free Will and Future.

"5. To believe that all the prophets are true. However, we are commanded to follow the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) alone."

Mohammed spent thirty days fasting in a hot cave before his first contact with Allah aka God etc. via a "pretty wingy thingy". Common sense demands a neuron deletion of #5. #5 is also the major source of Islamic violence i.e. turning Mohammed's "fast, hunger-driven" hallucinations into horrible reality for unbelievers.

Accept these five "cleansers" and we guarantee a complete recovery from your Islamic ways!!!!

Posted by: ccnl1 | November 1, 2009 8:29 AM
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I love your style CCNL, thats your last refuge~! Copy paste gutter info

Posted by: yasseryousufi | October 31, 2009 3:55 PM
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Our War on Terror and Aggression:

An update (or how we are spending or how we have spent the USA taxpayers’ money to eliminate global terror and aggression)

The terror and aggression via a Partial and Recent Body Count

1a) 179 killed in Mumbai/Bombay, 290 injured

1b) Assassination of Benazir Bhutto and Theo Van Gogh

2) 9/11, 3000 mostly US citizens, 1000’s injured

3) The 24/7 Sunni-Shiite centuries-old blood feud currently being carried out in Iraq, US Troops, 3,469 killed action and 871 non-combat and 93,040 – 101,537 Iraqi civilians killed, http://www.iraqbodycount.org/ and
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/casualty.pdf

4) Kenya- In Nairobi, about 212 people were killed and an estimated 4000 injured; in Dar es Salaam, the attack killed at least 11 and wounded 85.[2]

5) Bali-in 2002-killing 202 people, 164 of whom were foreign nationals, and 38 Indonesian citizens. A further 209 people were injured.

6) Bali in 2005- Twenty people were killed, and 129 people were injured by three bombers who killed themselves in the attacks.

7) Spain in 2004- killing 191 people and wounding 2,050.

8) UK in 2005- The bombings killed 52 commuters and the four radical Islamic suicide bombers, injured 700.

9) The execution of an eloping couple in Afghanistan on 04/15/2009 by the Taliban.

10) Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan: US troops killed in action 562, 176 killed in non-combat situations as of 9/02/09

continued below:

Posted by: ccnl1 | October 31, 2009 2:15 PM
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Other elements of our War on Terror and Aggression:

- Saddam, his sons and major henchmen have been deleted. Saddam's bravado about WMD was one of his major mistakes.

- Iran is being been contained. (beside containing the Sunni-Shiite civil war in Baghdad, that is the main reason we are in Iraq. And yes, essential oil continues to flow from the region.)

- Libya has become almost civil. Recently Libya agreed to pay $1.5 billion to the victims of their terrorist activities Apparently this new reality from an Islamic country has upset OBL and his “crazies” as they have threatened Libya. OBL sure is a disgrace to the world especially the Moslem world!!! Or is he???

- North Korea is still uncivil but is contained. With the opening up of rail traffic between North and South Korea after 50 years and with the assistance of the US Navy in retrieving NK ships and personnel hopefully a fresh sense of civility is afoot.

- North Korea was taken off the terrorist country list recently.

- Northern Ireland is finally at peace.

- The Jews and Palestinians are being separated by walls. Hopefully the walls will follow the 1948 UN accords. Unfortunately the Annapolis Peace Conference was not successful. Unfortunately the recent events in Gaza has put this situation back to “square one”. And this significant stupidity is driven by the mythical foundations of both religions!!!

- Bin Laden has been cornered under a rock in Western Pakistan since 9/11.

- Fanatical Islam has basically been contained to the Middle East but a wall between India and Pakistan would be a plus for world peace. Ditto for a wall between Afghanhistan and Pakistan.

- Timothy McVeigh was executed. Terry Nichols will follow soon.

- Eric Rudolph is spending three life terms in prison with no parole.

- Jim Jones, David Koresh, Kaczynski, the "nuns" from Rwanda, and the KKK were all dealt with and either eliminated themselves or are being punished.

- Islamic Sudan, Darfur and Somalia are still terror hot spots.

- The terror and torture of Muslims in Bosnia, Kosovo and Kuwait were ended by the proper application of the military forces of the USA and her freedom-loving friends. Radovan Karadzic was finally captured on 7/23/08 and is charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and violations of the law of war -- charges related to the 1992-1995 civil war that followed Bosnia-Herzegovina's secession from Yugoslavia.

- And of course the bloody terror brought about the Japanese, Nazis and Communists was with great difficulty eliminated by the good guys.

Posted by: ccnl1 | October 31, 2009 2:12 PM
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That begs the question, why are you fighting the Taliban and Al-Qaida in the first place? You dont seem to be much different from them. Both blinded by hatred of each other. And FYI there are atleast a dozen cases of people dieing of torture in American custody. Plus we do not know how many prisoners americans killed in Iraq and Afghanistan and just threw them on the road. How come HRW, Red Cross and other organization never get to talk to the prisoners at guantanamo?? What have you got to hide in that gulag?

Posted by: yasseryousufi | October 31, 2009 1:43 PM
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Sleep deprivation, water boarding and shame are mild forms of psychological torture commonly used in US Armed Services training exercises (also used by some fraternities during initiation/hazing) i.e. said methods are not the extreme torture methods that the guest commentator makes them out to be.

Some examples of torture methods we could have used to extract information from Islamic goons trying to fulfill the koranic directive of killing all infidels:

Abacination
Beatings and physical violence
Blinding with light
Boiling
Bone breaking
Branding
Castration
Choking/Strangling
Crushing
Cutting
Denailing
Disfigurement
Electric shock torture
Tooth extraction
Flagellation
Flaying
Foot roasting
Foot whipping
Force-feeding
Fish-Gnawing
Garrotting
Genital mutilation/forced circumcision
Glasgow smile
Hamstringing
Kneecapping
Keelhauling
Mutilation
Oxygen deprivation
Picquet
Pitchcapping
Pressure points
Rat torture
Riding the Rail
Sexual assault
Scalping
Scaphism
Starvation
Strappado/squassation (also known as "reverse hanging" and "Palestinian hanging")

Posted by: ccnl1 | October 31, 2009 9:18 AM
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Whats your point CCNL?

Posted by: yasseryousufi | October 31, 2009 12:47 AM
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Obviously, BO and said commentator were never in the US Armed Services where they would have had live exercises in escape and evasion. If you were caught during one of these exercises, you would have been "tortured" with water boarding, sleep deprivation, and/or shame until you cracked. I saw many young lieutenants crack just from going without sleep for 24 hours and being chased through the Alabama woods during the night.

Posted by: ccnl1 | October 30, 2009 11:33 PM
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Obviously, BO and said commentator was never in the US Armed Services where he would have had live exercises in escape and evasion. If you were caught during one of these exercises, you would have been "tortured" with water boarding, sleep deprivation, and/or shame until you cracked. I saw many young lieutenants crack just from going without sleep for 24 hours and being chased through the Alabama woods during the night.

Posted by: ccnl1 | October 30, 2009 5:28 PM
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Nice Article~! Hope America can win back some of its prestige that they squandered in the disastrous 8 years under Bush. But the biggest blot on America's face remains the Guantanamo bay. As long as that Gulag stays no one can take America seriosuly when it talks about Human Rights. Its funny I no longer hear those reports USA used to publish regarding the countries with objectionable HR record. Are the too embarrased to publish those reports now?

Posted by: yasseryousufi | October 30, 2009 2:46 PM
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