(9 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)
Welcome to the 11th in the Dog’s letter writing campaign for torture accountability. This the basic premise of this campaign is the Dog writes a letter which the user can then use as a jumping off point for their own letter or cut and paste to send under their own name. In previous weeks we have written to the President, AG Holder, the Supreme Court Justices, Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid.
This week’s letter focuses on the entire House Judiciary Committee, but is addressed to Chairman John Conyers. Below are the letter and the e-mail links for the 40 Representatives on the Committee.
Dear Chairman Conyers;
I am writing today not as one of your constituents but as a citizens appealing to his government for help. The issue I and the nation need your help on is accountability for the apparent State Sponsored Torture program of the Bush Administration.
As the Chair of the Judiciary Committee you have oversight responsibility over the Department of Justice and the FBI. It is gravely concerning to me and many other citizens that a crimes under Federal statute has been admitted to in Congressional testimony and elsewhere, yet there seems to be no criminal investigation of these crimes.
The crimes are, of course, Torture and Conspiracy to Commit Torture. These are serious Federal and International crimes. They rank up with kidnapping and extortion and any violation of the RICO statutes. Unfortunately they are being treated as some kind of political policy difference. While it is true there is a political dimension to these crimes, it should not and can not be a consideration for the DOJ and the FBI. They have had clear evidence of these crimes for years, yet they have failed to investigate.
I ask that you convene a hearing with the leaders of these organizations to ask a simple question; why have our top law enforcement agencies failed to investigate a known probable crime and what, specifically are they doing to remedy this extreme failure of their responsibilities?
We are a nation of laws, Chairman Conyers, but if we fail to investigate these crimes because of who committed them we are, perhaps, fatally weakening our system of justice and the rule of law this depends upon. You and your committee have it in your power to find out what has prevented these agencies from acting and urging them as the oversight body to fulfill the roles for which they were created.
Representative Conyers, as I citizen, I beg you to act to preserve our rule of law and our nation as a whole. This, more than any other reason, is why you were sent to Washington, to make sure the people could trust their nation’s laws and institutions.
Sincerely,
CC: All members House Judiciary Committee
That was the letter now for some links. There are a lot, but by the goal this week is to start a buzz within the Committee and to get the Representatives talking about this issue.
Rep. Conyers
Rep. Boucher
Rep Nadler
(New York Zip code to get past filter 11235)
Rep. Scott
(Rep Scott does not let just anyone E-mail him, so you can send a fax to – FAX (202) 225-8354)
Rep. Watt
Rep. Lofgren
(Rep. Lofgren will not reply to out of district but she will let you e-mail her)
Rep. Jackson Lee
Rep. Waters
Rep. Delahunt
Rep. Wexler
(Rep. Wexler will not accept e-mails from anyone not in his district, but you can fax him at fax: (202) 225-5974)
Rep. Cohen
Rep. Johnson
Rep. Quigley
Rep. Gutierrez
Rep. Sherman
(you will need a California Zip Code to get through the filter here, use 96002)
Rep. Baldwin
Rep. Baldwin
Rep. Gonzalez
Rep. Weiner
Rep. Schiff
(Again you will need a CA Zip code and city use Redding and 96002)
Rep. Sanchez
(Rep Sanchez filters her e-mail, kind of cowardly to the Dog’s way of thinking, but you can fax her at Washington 202-226-1012)
Rep. Wasserman-Shultz
(You will need a Zip plus four to contact the Representative, use 33026-6037, it is the zip for her district office.)
Rep. Maffei
(This Representative understands that someone on in his district still might need to contact him and provides a non-constituent contact form. Good for Rep Maffei! )
Rep. Smith
Rep. Sensenbrenner
(Use the Zip code of the Reps district office which is 53005 )
Rep. Coble
Rep. Gallegly – (Rep. Gallegly hides from non-constituents e-mails too, so send him a fax at FAX: (202) 225-1100)
Rep. Goodlatte
(Rep. Goodlatte filters by Zip code too, use 24504-1600)
Rep. Lungren
(Rep. Lungren hides from the people as well, use a Redding city address, like 123 main, and 90062 for the zip)
Rep. Issa
Rep. Forbes
(He also uses the filter so use Zip code 23320-5178)
Rep. King
Rep. Franks
(Rep. Franks filters, so use 85305-8555 as the zip code)
Rep. Gohmert
(Filter, use 75901-3252)
Rep. Jordan
(Filter, use 44902-1209)
Rep. Poe
(use 123 Main, Kingwood TX 77339)
Rep. Chaffetz
(the Rep from Utah hides from the people not of his district by e-mail, but you can fax him at (202) 225-5629)
Rep. Rooney
(another Rep. who hides, fax him at (202) 225-3132)
Rep. Harper
(Rep. Harper does not even give a Washington address, but you can fax him at 601.420.2223)
Okay, so now that the Dog has done the hard work, will you please take a few minutes to contact as many of these Reps as you can? It is one way we can move towards accountability, and do it today.
The floor is yours.
Cross posted at Square State, the great Colorado progressive blog!
6 comments
Skip to comment form
Author
but it will be well worth it if it gets the conversation going in the House Judiciary committee.
Really good idea. Thanks for digging up all of that contact info.
Here is how to contact the committee (or more accurately, the committee staffers) directly:
2138 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
p/202-225-3951
Unfortunately, there is no email or fax number on their website, but I think they might be surprised to get such targeted issue calls and letters about torture investigations.
And one other point: Committee chairs (and I applaud Conyers for not doing this) have no business hiding behind zip code filters. For that matter, no member should do it if the contact is about committee business. The issue of torture or any of the other functions of the Judiciary Committee are not limited to this handful of districts.
To quote our gracious host: “yell louder.”