( – promoted by buhdydharma )
Happy Monday and welcome the Dog’s ongoing letter writing campaign. For those of you joining for the first time the idea is every Monday the Dog writes a to decision makers about accountability for the Bush Administration State Sponsored Torture program. This letter can be cut and by any reader or used as the jumping off point for your own letter. The point is to keep the pressure up on the decision makers to make those who apparently committed one of the worst possible crimes accountable for their actions. Today’s letter is to Sen. Patrick Leahy and the Democrats on the Judiciary Committee.
“Originally posted at Squarestate.net“
Dear Senator,
I write you today in your capacity as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Shortly you will be holding confirmation hearings on Judge Sotomayor in her bid to become a Supreme Court Justice. As part of the hearings I urge you to ask after the Judges opinion on the issue of need to fulfill our treaty obligations as a nation.
Specifically I urge you to find out where Judge Sotomayor is on the issue of the International Conventions Against Torture. While this treaty does not have provisions for forcing any nation to adhere to its obligations under the Conventions, as what is known as a High Signatory to the Conventions the Untied States has a higher level of responsibility to live up to.
Thus far we are failing to criminally investigate a clear and substantiated allegation of State Sponsored Torture by the previous administration. Their public testimony and the documents that have been made available thus far seem more than enough to initiate a criminal investigation. I can only assume the hold up is one of a political nature. It is very likely to be a divisive issue given the nations current state of mind on the issues of terrorism and the fact the current Administration is of another political party than the last one.
This makes it likely there will be challenges that will go all the way to the High Court. As a member of the Judiciary committee you have the opportunity to find where Judge Sotomayor stands on the issue of treaty obligations and the enforcement of the rule of law as all levels. This is not just an issue of torture, but one critical to the health of any democracy. Without the sure and certain knowledge the rule of law will be applied as evenly and fairly as our system can provide there is no basis for the public to trust in any institution of our government.
Senator, please, I ask as a citizen of this nation who believes in our system, make the system work for us all.
Sincerely,
So, there is the letter now for the fun part. Below the Dog has provides links to all the Democratic Senators on the Committee. Where they insist on only people from their home State contacting them, the Dog has provided an address and zip code that will get by the filters. These addresses are all either on the same street as their home State offices or in the same building. It is truly sad that some Senators take their job as being only involved with the needs of their State when they have responsibilities to all of the citizens of the United States.
Sen. Herb Kohl
(Use – 402 Graham Ave., Eau Claire WI 54701)
Sen. Benjamin Cardin
(Use 100 S. Charles Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21201)
Sen. Ron Wyden
(Use 405 East 8th Avenue, Eugene, OR 97401)
Now it is up to you citizens. Will you please take a few minutes to contact the Democrats on the Judiciary Committee and urge them towards accountability for torture?
The floor is yours.
7 comments
Skip to comment form
Author
It is a small but important thing to do.
I applaud your efforts.
But your letter is a bit turgid.
Put adverbs after verbs, except when awkward.
Good luck.
As always, a good job!
David Swanson picked this up, too. Here it is!
Thanks for doing this. A good letter campaign.
I’ll try to add it to our website.
If you were to email the weekly url to me I could update it.
John
Email: [email protected]
SIGN THE PETITION
to Prosecute them for Torturing in our Name
http://ANGRYVOTERS.ORG
.