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The Unitarian Church of All Souls • 1157 Lexington Avenue • New York, NY 10021 email: peacetaskforcenyc@yahoo.com
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Peace and Justice Task Force Teach-in on Torture
September 14, 2008 This teach-in on torture was presented by the Peace Task Force of All Souls and conducted by Susan Cushman and Linda Rousseau of PTF, Mark Hallinan, S.J., of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, and Dr. Allen Keller, director of the Bellevue/NYU Torture Survivors Program. At the start of the program, a packet on torture was given out to all the audience members, and Susan Cushman opened by explaining it and noting that All Souls is one of over 200 religious organizations across the nation involved in the campaign against torture. We are involved in this effort to restore our country’s moral voice in accordance with the sixth Unitarian-Universalist principle: the goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all. Intertwined with torture is extraordinary rendition. Linda Rousseau explained how rendition started in the 1990s under the CIA: people in Islamic groups in the Middle East were picked up in the expectation that they would have useful information. Extraordinary rendition started in 2002, with people being picked up and removed, often in a private company’s airplane, to a country that allows torture in order to get information. The Bush administration justified this practice by claiming that the people picked up were “unlawful combatants” and thus not protected by the Geneva Conventions. Dr. Keller said that torture is “a moral issue we need to see stop.” Among the survivors he’s worked with at Bellevue and elsewhere, it’s never about getting information but sending a message of fear and terror; it makes people afraid. Moreover, torture – such as standing for long periods, sleep deprivation, and sexual humiliation -- has horrific health consequences. “Enhanced interrogation,” which includes waterboarding, can cause pneumonia; it is “a stress test from hell.” There is no such thing as a little bit of torture, said Dr. Keller. Furthermore, it doesn’t happen in isolation. Complicit are health professionals, physicians and psychologists. And many interrogators are not part of the U.S. armed services but come from private organizations: such outsourcing is chilling, he feels. Torture, Dr. Keller concluded, has made the world a much more dangerous place. This opinion was affirmed by a member of the audience, Bruce Knotts, a former director of the UU-UNO office and a retired foreign service officer. Mr. Knotts cited Thomas E. Ricks’s recent Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq, and said that, far from winning hearts and minds, it’s quite the reverse. Muslims are honor-bound to take revenge. We’re creating terrorism. As for the question whether torture works, Mr. Knotts spoke from his experience as a foreign service officer with access to secret reports, and said that torture does not work. Anyone tortured will tell you what he thinks you want to hear, will tell anything to stop the hurting. Mr. Knotts is not aware of any piece of intelligence gotten by torture that has saved anyone’s life. Father Hallinan noted that the Army Field Manual rejects the use of torture, and they’re trying to make that uniform throughout the other services. Also, Dr. Keller reminded us that George Washington was opposed to torture, and advocated instead the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. To help in this campaign against torture, we can take the following measures:
Torture is terrifying, and a violation of human dignity of both the tortured and the torturer. By employing it, our country is paying a terrible, terrible price in terms of its moral values and its health and security. It will take us a long time to mend our reputation, and we must do all we can to assist that reclamation. |