Press Release                                                             

REP. McKINNEY TO HOST CAPITOL HILL BRIEFING BY TORTURE EXPERTS, LEGAL SCHOLARS, RIGHTS ACTIVISTS AND VICTIMS

(Washington, DC) On Wednesday, September 27, from 2:00 - 5:30 pm at Capitol Building room H-6, Rep. Cynthia McKinney will host a briefing for staff and members into the history, experimentation, techniques, training, exporting and use of torture by U.S. government in past covert operations abroad and in current operations during the war on terrorism, as well as attempts to make torture, cruel and degrading treatment of prisoners legal and to grant immunity to those who use it.

Panel 1 - 2:00 - 3:45

Prof. Alfred McCoy, Ph.D., author of A Question of Torture

Tara McKelvey, American Prospect magazine editor, ACLU plaintiff in NSA suit

Jennifer Harbury, Atty., Torture Abolition Survivor & Support Coalition

Hina Shamsi, Human Rights First, Law & Security Program

Elizabeth Alexander, National Prisoner Project, ACLU

Panel II - 3:45 - 5:30

Dr. Juan Romagoza, Central American torture victim

Michael Ratner, Atty., Center for Constitutional Rights

Joey Mogul, Atty., Chicago attorney, police torture of African Americans

Col. Ann Wright, Military whistleblower and diplomat

Our speakers will cover a range of topics we want that have arisen since 9/11 as well as current legislative efforts to legitimize its use, including:

• Historical development of specific techniques by both Army and CIA operations, which were visible at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and throughout covert operations in Central America.
• History of US experimentation with, use, training, exporting, funding and direct supervision of torture since the end of WWII.
• The flawed logic of those who support the use of torture, even in "ticking time-bomb" scenarios, including recent legislation on these issues as well as attempts to secretly revise the Army Field Manual rules on interrogations.
• Abandonment of Geneva Convention and international standards in relation to covert operations and the war on terror, the creation of a dual legal system that allows abuses, and the effective legal immunity for torture in US courts, despite the existence of laws that ban and punish it.
• US-run secret renditions and secret prisons documented by the Council of
• Europe, and the treatment of "enemy combatants" in detention at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and elsewhere, including the role of military medical personnel in these procedures.
• The use of torture in US prisons, jails and military brigs, and the transfer of these practices to and from military combat situations, including the findings of the UN Commission on Human Rights about US activities.
• The role of the new military commissions and interrogation detention encouraging these abuses, including the legal and Constitutional issues currently being debated and decided in the courts.
• We will also have survivors of US-supervised torture and illegal activities participate.

Press is encouraged to make arrangements in advance with Capitol Building security.

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