Press Conference followed by March to Office of the Dean
West Terrace of Boalt Hall, UC Berkeley
The U.S. torture camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba has been open 13 years. More than 100 men are still held, the majority of whom are cleared for release. They suffer the Obama administration's practice of indefinite detention. An unknown number of hunger strikers continue to be force-fed in violation of the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
World Can't Wait joins the Witness Against Torture community to protest an era of ruthless brutality. Demonstrations at the CIA, White House and State Department and a symbolic fast in solidarity with Guantanamo prisoners will continue over a week. The special Bay Area action on January 13 demands long-overdue investigation of professional misconduct by "Torture Professor" John Yoo, author of Department of Justice opinions that enabled the so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques" employed at Guantanamo and revealed in the horrific photos from Abu Ghraib.
The Prohibition of Torture is Absolute.
The debate over whether torture "worked" presupposes an outmoded belief in American Exceptionalism, an assumption of moral superiority that belies the hard reality of U.S. exploitation of people and resources across the globe. International law and basic human decency deplores the cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment employed to maintain control over victims of capitalist democracy.
The President is obliged to hold war criminals and their agents accountable; refusal to do so invokes application of the U.S. federal conspiracy statute, which supplies independent authority to prosecute those who evade oversight. ACLU/Human Rights Watch letter to Attorney General Eric Holder calls for investigation by a Special Prosecutor.
The nation cannot move forward in any meaningful way without coming to terms, legally and morally, with the abhorrent acts that were authorized, given a false patina of legality, and committed by American men and women from the highest levels of government on down.-- New York Times joins call for Prosecution of Torturers and Their Bosses
Prosecutions are the very best way to ensure that officials don't torture again. The freedom afforded Bush administration officials today threatens to normalize criminal behavior by "do it again" Cheney and company. The Center for Constitutional Rights' Michael Ratner applauds investigation by a German human rights group, but as Curt Goering at The Center for Victims of Torture reminds us, "It is about us. And it is up to all of us to act."
From Ferguson to Guantanamo, masses of people are challenging the legitimacy of policies that contribute to state sanctioned terror.
