The Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) has released its report detailing how senior leadership at the Pentagon authorized psychologists to violate their ethics and break the law. The new revelations further confirm what the evidence in last week's "torture memos," and in earlier revelations, has shown: psychologists have justified, designed and implemented torture for the Central Intelligence Agency and Department of Defense.
Please call President Obama at 202 456 1414 and ask him to investigate the US torture program. (Talking points are below the jump.)
Yesterday the President said he is open to some kind of investigation, but that he'd prefer to look forward and not back. We must tell President Obama that the only way to look forward is to establish a nonpartisan commission that fully investigates the US torture program. We need to know how our nation abandoned its historic commitment to human rights.
Call President Obama Today—202 456 1414.You can use this simple script to tell Obama that:
- America deserves to know the truth about torture; those who broke the law must be held accountable.
- This is not a matter or looking backward instead of forwards. This is a matter of justice and of ensuring this kind of horror never happens again.
- I want accountability for the war crimes perpetrated in my name. This requires a commission—a full investigation, and full accounting, for criminal misdeeds.
As health professionals and human rights advocates, you have a special role to play. Medicine was weaponized to break bodies and minds: tell President Obama to ensure that the commission includes an investigation into medical complicity in torture. Tell Obama we are a nation of laws and that when crimes are committed, the perpetrators must be held to account. Only then can we truly move forward.
If you haven't already, please also sign our petition in support of this commission—and ask 6 friends to do the same.