“Tell the Truth About Torture” Campaign

Of all the damage the Bush administration has done to our country, I think the worst is the stain of torture. Just a few years ago, representatives of the United States government could talk about human rights and condemn torture anywhere in the world. Sure, our reputation wasn’t perfect, and people might bring up the death penalty or the size of our prison population, but they weren’t snickering behind or backs, or to our faces. Today we no longer have any credibility on that subject. We have a Vice President for Torture, the president openly admits that he doesn’t intend to obey congressional prohibitions on prisoner abuse, and repeated instances of torture by members of the military are written off as unrelated incidents, with only the lowest-ranking people involved receiving any significant punishment (the latest example being an interrogator who got off with a reprimand for torturing a prisoner of war and then suffocating him). It will take a long, long time to remove the stain.

Amnesty International USA has launched a campaign called “Tell the Truth about Torture,
Mr. President”. At the site you can sign a petition, find out more about torture and what Amnesty is doing about it, and donate toward putting a billboard truck with the message in DC for five days, in time for the State of the Union.