DRAFT CURRENTLY BEING REVISED: Invitation to an emergency meeting to create a coalition against the expanding US torture program
In calling for this emergency meeting (and with the intention of forming a united front) against the developing US Torture policies, our goal is to establish strong national leadership toward informing, inspiring and instigating resistance to state torture.
The Justice Department OPR leak this month represents a radical move expanding US torture policy by the United States and increasing erosion of the law of torture in the US and beyond. We call this 'expanding' because by legally legitimizing this torture program developed by the Bush Administration, the popular beliefs and legal system of this country are radically and permanently altered in favor of policies and practices of torture. In this, much is lost beyond torture in rights, reason and human consciousness.
There is a growing acceptance of the terms of debate on torture concocted by the Bush Administration which must be resisted more effectively. The people of the United States have a voice and an impact on the direction of torture by this country. They need us to do better at informing, leading and inspiring broad social resistance.
Despite a virtual collapse of the anti-war and anti-torture movements, there remains a large number of organizations and strong individual leaders who wish to move more meaningfully against the emerging torture state.
The differences and diversity in this coalition are great. That is a strength if we are clear on our unity. The content of this 4.5 hour meeting will be collective discussion establishing a statement of unity and coalition action. Because there is a great sense of urgency with current events, preliminary presentations, individual group achievements and concerns will be presented online prior to the meeting through tools provided on a new group blog all representatives can participate in: resisttorture.us. ... so that when we get to this meeting, we are already engaged. This meeting will be open to the public and will be a press event.
We recommend focusing on the eight people at the top of decision making, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Yoo, Bybee, Addington and Gonzales (the Bush Torture Team) and the leaders and organizations, including contractors like Boeing subsidiary Jeppesen(Torture Taxi), who participated in torture, rendition, and secret prisons.
We don't want to set our goals and sights on minor reforms. We want to set our sights high. What is attainable here is the promotion of these goals: first and foremost the identification of what torture is, where it is being perpetrated and encouraged in the name of the so called “war on terror”, and the moral and ethical unanimity against torture among all humanity. That promotion will be accomplished through social media including blogs and email and all traditional forms of progressive political public relations including prominent public representatives, events, and press work.
Our goal is to engage the court of public opinion, to raise the consciousness of the people and bring discussion of morality and ethics into the public sphere, to create a leadership of resistance against torture in the US that is as uncompromising as it is accessible and joinable by the mainstream. We will seek to avoid differences over party platforms, religious proscriptions and other allegiances to focus on a founding statement of unity and purposeful collective action.
