Torture Conference

Michael and several other members of the Coalition to Protect People's Rights organized a conference on torture that happened on Saturday. CPPR developed as a reaction to the trial against Muhammad Salah, a Palestinian American who was arrested by Israel during an aid trip to Palestine. He was tortured for 80 days, and then imprisoned for five years in an Israeli prison based on confessions he made after this torture. He returned to the United States, and 11 years later, the US needed to make some terrorist arrests so they dug up his case and charged him with aiding Hamas. Which he did. Before they were put on the terrorist watch list. It's the same as if I funded PETA, and then at a later time they started bombing, and then even later I was charged with funding terrorism. The whole thing stunk. Salah was cleared of all terrorism-related charges. Because he's not a terrorist.

CPPR, with Salah's case, focused almost exclusively on trying to raise awareness that our courts were accepting confessions made to other governments after torture. Our government claims that under no circumstances will our justice system allow confessions made after torture, but this has not been the case. Look at the Burge case. If you haven't heard of this, google it. Jesus, but it's sick. They have 185 confirmed accounts of Jon Burge and his police subordinates torturing confessions out of black men. This is in Chicago. Mayor Daley is being deposed because he was aware of it during the many years this took place.

On Saturday at the conference, there were speakers about Salah and other terrorism-related trials. About Gitmo. About Burge. There was a former death row inmate who was cleared by DNA who spoke of various uses of torture within our prison system. He said when he saw the pictures from Abu Ghraib, he thought it was North Carolina. Tony Lagouranis spoke. He was a torturer in Iraq who is speaking out now about what it was like there, how they threw the Geneva Convention out the window, how he resisted... what it was that happens there. I met Tony in Ireland last fall. He'd given me his contact info and I'm so glad that he came to the conference. I see him speaking and I think of my brother and I hate this war, I hate all violence, I hate the use of torture and I hate what all of this does to people-- both the victims and the aggressors.

There were lawyers there. Lynne Steward who was basically charged with terrorism because she defended an alleged terrorist. There was Michael Deutch of the Muhammad Salah case and Standish Willis of the Jon Burge case. Willis has been on this case for two decades, and it's only just become public. One of the mediators was Bernadine Dorhn, whom I didn't recognize right away. But when I did, I felt giddy. I told her later that I felt like I was in the presence of rock stars. They are the leaders of the activist movement. They have thrown their lives to these causes, given decades to their belief in justice.

I shook Bernadine Dorhn's hand.

The thing about it is, we do live in a really fucked up world. And it's fucked up because we humans are capable of horrific acts. And it's not just that we're capable, we're willing. We do them. And it's true, the "we" that do these things are not the total we. But the "we" that work to stop these things are not the total we either. I pray that I can be strong enough and good enough and consistent enough and willing enough and powerful enough to do my part, my long term part, toward changing humanity for the better. I hope I can be as stong as these people that stood before me this weekend.

So, for now, what I want you to do is this:
(And yes, I'm talking to you.)

1) Write your congressperson and senators and tell them it is a priority to you that we end torture within and without the United States. Tell them to close Guantanamo Bay. Tell them to close the SOA. These letters will take twenty minutes, tops. You have twenty minutes.

2) Stop buying napkins, paper towels, and toilet paper made from trees. It doesn't make any sense that we'd use new paper for these things. Buy 100% recycled napkins, paper towels, and toilet paper. Even if it costs more. You can afford that few extra bucks. This doesn't have anything to do with torture, but you know it's a good idea.