The vice President and other leaders are doing all they can to prevent the McCain ammendment from becoming law. Please take this opportunity to do what is just and right by calling or writing your representatives and urging them to express their opposition to torture publicly and to support retaining the language of the McCain ammendment. You can take action by clicking the link below.

Our representatives are listening, we need to remind them to do what is just and right.

May the Jewish people and all peoples be advocates for justice and righteousness,

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Brian Walt

What's At Stake:

Background:

On Rosh Hashana, in an unprecedented uprising, the Senate voted 90-9 to support John McCain's amendment to the Defense Appropriations Bill, which would bring all treatment of detainees under the rubric of the Army Field Manual on Interrogations and to abolish "cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment" of detainees. RHR-NA joins Amnesty International USA, Human Rights First, Human Rights Watch and many other human rights advocacy groups in strongly supporting this amendment. The House version of the Defense Appropriations Bill doesn't have language like the McCain amendment. Right now the bill is in a reconciliation process with a joint Senate/House Conference Committee. There is tremendous pressure on the committee to soften or eliminate the strong language of Senator McCain's amendment. President Bush has threatened to veto the entire Defense Appropriations Bill if the anti-torture language stays in, and Vice-President Cheney and CIA Director Porter Goss made an unprecedented appeal to committee members to exempt the CIA from the anti-torture rules. We want to put our own pressure on them to keep the McCain anti-torture language.

If the version of the bill that comes out of the Conference Committee does not retain that language, Rep. John Murtha (of Johnstown PA) has promised to introduce a "Motion to Recommit" -- (hopefully "With Instructions") which means the bill goes back to the full House and Senate with urging to put the anti-torture language back in. This takes a majority vote from both the House and Senate. BACKGROUND:

For additional reading about these issues, please see :


Frequently Asked Questions and Answers, www.uusc/stoptorture.org
“Senate Approves Limiting Rights of US Detainees”, by Eric Schnmitt, New York Times, Nov. 11, 2005.
“Rumsfeld Can Authorize Torture Under New Directive”, Agency France Presse, Nov. 9, 2005.
“Torture’s Terrible Toll”, by John McCain, Newsweek, Nov. 21, 2005. www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10019179/site/newsweek/
“Why Torture Should Never Be an Option”, by Larry Johnson, Los Angeles Times, Nov. 11, 2005, www.truthout.org/docs_2005/111205E.shtml
Center for Constitutional Rights, “The Guantánamo Prisoner Hunger Strikes and Protests.”