Auxilio Ab Alto

Did you know that the White House and the CIA admitted that they broke the law by directing CIA agents to torture detainees? They admitted to waterboarding, denying pain medication, mock-burying and many other cruel and abusive interrogation tactics that the rest of the international community considers inhumane and a violation of the UN Declaration of Human Rights (which the United States is the only country in the UN not to sign, by the way). You might think it's a good thing that they admitted it. It would be....if that meant they acknowledged a wrongdoing and weren't going to do it again, but that's not the case. Government officials have said that they reserve the right to authorize CIA agents to commit these types of war crimes (yes, they're war crimes) in the future, in the name of national security.

The problem lies with the applicability of the US Army Field Manual on Interrogation (FM 34-52), a manual dictating how military interrogators can conduct effective interrogations while conforming with US and international law. The manual is (arguably) very good, but it only applies to the Army: CIA agents are currently free to practice whatever interrogation tactics they want. There are hundreds of detainees in Guantanamo Bay and Iraq to whom the CIA has admittedly refused to extend the protections of the Geneva Convention. Basically, because the manual was written specifically to the military and not the CIA, the CIA can simply circumvent it.

Michael Posner, the director of Human Rights First, put it best: “Until the President makes it absolutely clear that no U.S. personnel, CIA or otherwise, can hold prisoners in secret and cannot engage in practices that reach the level of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, the U.S. can simply hold prisoners in non-Army facilities outside of the Red Cross’ reach and without proper legal protection . . . .[t]he President must make an unequivocal statement rescinding all policies authorizing any and all interrogation techniques that offend human dignity and constitute violations of the law.”

The House of Representatives recently voted to extend the provisions of the Army Field Manual on Interrogation to cover all detainees in US custody. Now it's the Senate's turn.

The Senate votes tomorrow on whether to agree with the House and establish a clear standard of human treatment for all detainees in US custody. It's rumored that the vote could be close. Because of that, it's important that we let our Senators know tonight and tomorrow morning that the United States should not continue to operate outside the realm of law that the international community considers a right inherent to every human being.

Human Rights First has an online campaign where you can just imput your name and address, and it will generate a letter to send to your personal Senator. It's super easy, and takes about a minute to do, so send one and let Diane Feinstein know that we don't agree with the human rights abuses of US detainees! You can send the letter here:

http://action.humanrightsfirst.org/campaign/etn_cia2?rk=M7es%2dAd12GUvE