(no subject)
May. 21st, 2004 06:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
plutherusI sent the following letter a couple of days ago to the following members Members of Congress.
Representative Peter DeFazio
2134 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Senator Gordon Smith
404 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Senator Ron Wyden
516 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
I think it's important to let them know how we feel. I write my representatives frequently, even though DeFazio is the only one who ever responds. Except for one form letter from Wyden (out of the half-dozen times I've written to him), which made no direct mention of the issue I was writing about or his stance on it.
Anyway, here's the letter, and I think this is going to be last I say about this for a while, as the whole thing simply depresses me too much to go on about.
I am writing today to urge you to take action on the widespread use of torture by the United States in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay, and god knows where else.
This is not the work of just a few soldiers. According to Red Cross reports and Amnesty International, the abuse we have recently seen in Iraq is widespread and systemic. Just because only a few soldiers were so incredibly stupid as to photograph themselves, there is no reason to believe that all the reports we've seen over the last few years are all fabricated.
I demand, as a voter, a taxpayer, and an American Citizen, a complete investigation into the use of torture by U.S. Forces. I will not be satisfied with the arrest of the six people photographed in Iraq. Please do not allow, or attempt, to make this quietly go away by claiming it's over because we've dealt with half a dozen scapegoats. We need to know who gave those orders, and they need to be held accountable as well.
Congress needs to take action to this, for nothing less than an act of Congress will stop the widespread use of torture by the United States.
I, along with thousands of other Americans, have been denouncing our use of torture, which has been euphemistically referred to as “stress and duress” for over three years now, in my online journal, in letters to the editor, and letters to you directly..
This is not a surprise. This is not a revelation. This isn't even a shock. Long before the pictures from Abu Ghraib came out, I knew it was going on. I do not get my news from the “alternative” news sites, or personal posts on the internet, or extremist news letters. I have seen and heard references, discussion, and justification of our practices on CNN, in the New York Times, in the San Francisco Chronicle, and on various AM talk radio stations.
As a member of Congress, I expect you to keep yourself better informed on what our government and its representatives are doing than I am. If you truly did not know that such things are going on, then you are not doing your job, and I will remember, and publicize this fact to the best of my ability, when next it comes time to vote.
I look forward to seeing your response as to what you plan to do about this. I look forward even more to seeing news reports that you have proposed legislation to outlaw all use of torture by the United States, at home and abroad, and opened investigations into how widespread its use currently is and who is responsible.
Representative Peter DeFazio
2134 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Senator Gordon Smith
404 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Senator Ron Wyden
516 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
I think it's important to let them know how we feel. I write my representatives frequently, even though DeFazio is the only one who ever responds. Except for one form letter from Wyden (out of the half-dozen times I've written to him), which made no direct mention of the issue I was writing about or his stance on it.
Anyway, here's the letter, and I think this is going to be last I say about this for a while, as the whole thing simply depresses me too much to go on about.
I am writing today to urge you to take action on the widespread use of torture by the United States in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay, and god knows where else.
This is not the work of just a few soldiers. According to Red Cross reports and Amnesty International, the abuse we have recently seen in Iraq is widespread and systemic. Just because only a few soldiers were so incredibly stupid as to photograph themselves, there is no reason to believe that all the reports we've seen over the last few years are all fabricated.
I demand, as a voter, a taxpayer, and an American Citizen, a complete investigation into the use of torture by U.S. Forces. I will not be satisfied with the arrest of the six people photographed in Iraq. Please do not allow, or attempt, to make this quietly go away by claiming it's over because we've dealt with half a dozen scapegoats. We need to know who gave those orders, and they need to be held accountable as well.
Congress needs to take action to this, for nothing less than an act of Congress will stop the widespread use of torture by the United States.
I, along with thousands of other Americans, have been denouncing our use of torture, which has been euphemistically referred to as “stress and duress” for over three years now, in my online journal, in letters to the editor, and letters to you directly..
This is not a surprise. This is not a revelation. This isn't even a shock. Long before the pictures from Abu Ghraib came out, I knew it was going on. I do not get my news from the “alternative” news sites, or personal posts on the internet, or extremist news letters. I have seen and heard references, discussion, and justification of our practices on CNN, in the New York Times, in the San Francisco Chronicle, and on various AM talk radio stations.
As a member of Congress, I expect you to keep yourself better informed on what our government and its representatives are doing than I am. If you truly did not know that such things are going on, then you are not doing your job, and I will remember, and publicize this fact to the best of my ability, when next it comes time to vote.
I look forward to seeing your response as to what you plan to do about this. I look forward even more to seeing news reports that you have proposed legislation to outlaw all use of torture by the United States, at home and abroad, and opened investigations into how widespread its use currently is and who is responsible.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-05-22 05:32 am (UTC)Copy and send letter?
Date: 2004-05-22 06:20 am (UTC)That goes for anyone else, too! Feel free to copy, send, modify, whatever! The more the merrier! Or, if not necessarily merrier, at least more effective!
Re: Copy and send letter?
Date: 2004-05-22 07:02 pm (UTC)View from across the pond
Date: 2004-05-22 07:43 am (UTC)This is losing America a lot of friends, has lost I should say. Maybe that doesn't matter to the numskulls that are running your country, but it should. But you know that anyway.
*sigh* You're right, it is depressing.