A Call to Action
In 2009, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) announced a review of the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) detention and interrogation program as part of U.S. counterterrorism efforts. This would presumably include at least some description of the role (or lack thereof) coercive interrogation techniques played in locating Usama Bin Laden.
The report was completed last December, but there is a strong possibility that it will never be released or at the very least heavily redacted, due to political pressure from pro-torture politicians and pundits. The public and survivors of torture have a right to know the truth about the U.S. government’s involvement in torture and its cruel treatment of detainees.
A public release of the CIA torture report is a critical step toward accountability, and a much-needed check against similar abuses occurring now or in the future. Urge your Senators to support the release of the Senate report on CIA torture now.
Sample Letter:
Dear Senator,
As your constituent, I am writing to urge you to support the public release, with as few redactions as possible, of the forthcoming report by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) detention and interrogation program.
I support the Committee’s ongoing effort to investigate and establish the facts surrounding the CIA interrogation, rendition, and detention programs. These issues have been the subject of intense speculation and debate, and the absence of a comprehensive examination of the facts based on the actual historical record has been extremely corrosive and divisive.
Under the UN Convention Against Torture and other human rights treaties, survivors of human rights violations, as well as the public, have a right to the truth about the U.S. government’s involvement in torture and cruel treatment of detainees following the September 11, 2001, terror attacks. A public release of the CIA torture report is a critical and responsible step toward accountability for human rights violations, and a much-needed check against similar abuses occurring now or in the future.
There can be no justification for continuing to deny survivors and the public the facts. As you know, the bipartisan Senate Armed Services Committee Report on the role of the Department of Defense in detainee abuses has already been made public.
Thank you for your consideration of this important matter.
