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Sample Letter to Write Your Representatives in Regard to TORTURE
You may never have written your Senators or Congressmen before. If so, now would be a GREAT time to start!!!
Date: 12/7/2006 10:51:26 AM ( 17 y ) ... viewed 1717 times Dear [insert Senator or Congressman's name]:
The Military Commissions Act overturns a number of legal protections previously provided by the Constitution, not just to foreigners but also to average American citizens.
Unfortunately the Act also enables torture. It cancels rights assigned by the Geneva Conventions and protocols despite their protection of our own troops.
The Act, which contravenes U.S. military justice laws, also nullifies sections of the War Crimes Act by not expressly criminalizing behaviors that constitute "outrages upon personal dignity, particularly humiliating and degrading treatment" banned under the Geneva Conventions.
It makes no practical sense to enable torture in this way because torture does not work. As described in U.S. military manuals, torture victims will say anything to end their pain. Non-abusive techniques actually gather better intelligence.
From a moral point of view, since the Massachusetts Bay colony, the United States has styled itself as a "City on the Hill," a light of hope and civility for others.
Despite the fact that other countries also have suffered from terrorism, our country now is the greatest explicit proponent of torture in the world. This law makes a regrettable blight on our record like Abu Graib more legal, not less.
If we respond to terrorism by justifying torture, we surrender what America stands for to the terrorists. If we return torture with torture, we harm our own patriotic self-respect.
It is imperative that this law be repealed!
Very truly,
[Your name]
[your address]
Note: Be sure to also include your home address with your letter so that the representative knows that you are in his/her voter base region.
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