NORTH CAROLINA
STOP TORTURE NOW

PO Box 50345
Raleigh, NC 27650
e-mail via:
contact AT ncstoptorturenow.net

(919) 834-4478
(evenings, or messages during business hours)

PRICE CALLS FOR CONGRESSIONAL INVESTIGATION

STATE DEMOCRATIC PARTY CALLS FOR END TO U.S. TORTURE PROGRAM

HB 2417 "CRIMES OF TORTURE AND ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCE" RECOMMENDED BY NC HOUSE JUDICIARY I COMMITTEE

PRICE & 55 COLLEAGUES URGE APPOINTMENT OF SPECIAL PROSECUTOR

FBI WAITING SINCE OCTOBER 2006 FOR DEPT. OF JUSTICE GUIDANCE ON AERO INVESTIGATION

IRISH FOREIGN MINISTER DISPUTES AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL REPORT

BUSH ADMITS USE OF WATERBOARDING

NEWS ARCHIVES

A CHRONOLOGY OF NCSTN ACTIVITIES

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Congressman Price Asks Intel Committees to Investigate Aero Contractors

July 17 – Thanks to persistent encouragement from his constituents, Congressman David Price (Dem. – 4th District) joined his colleague Congressman Mel Watt (Dem. – 12th District) in demanding an investigation of Aero Contractors, Ltd. support for the ongoing torture program.

Indeed, Price has upped the ante and called for a Congressional inquiry. Price has long been a leader in checking this administration's abuse of power, and today insisted that North Carolina 's support of CIA snatch and torture squads be investigated.

As Rep. Price is a senior member of the North Carolina Congressional delegation and a power broker within the state Democratic party, there is every reason to expect other Congressional Representatives and statewide elected officials and candidates will follow his initiative.

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State Democrats Pass Resolution Calling for End to
U.S.-sponsored Torture

During the state convention June 20-22 in New Bern, NC -- hanks to the perserverance of numerous grassroots activists, but espeically Stephanie Eriksen and Peggy Misch --the state Democratic Party passed a resolution outlining steps towards "Ending United States Use and Sponsorship of Torture."

Here is an exceprt from text of the resolution:

"...WHEREAS, sub-contactors of the United States Government including Aero Contractors Ltd., situated in Johnston and Lenoir counties of North Carolina among others, acting on behalf of the United States, have been implicated beyond reasonable doubt in the practice of facilitating torture by providing “extraordinary rendition” services (illegal kidnapping and transport of suspects to countries where torture is routine);" [emphasis added]

"THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the North Carolina Democratic Party calls on the national leadership to eradicate current torture practices by the United States in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo as well as in United States controlled prison facilities elsewhere; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the North Carolina Democratic Party calls on United States Senators Elizabeth Dole and Richard Burr and the North Carolina delegation in Congress to ban the United States policies and practices of torture through appropriate and immediate legislative restraints, including specifically the prohibition of CIA detainee transport by Aero Contractors Ltd and others; ..."

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Anti-Torture Bill Endorsed by
NC House Judiciary Committee

Our hard work paid off! The House Judiciary I Committee of the NC General Assembly voted in favor of HB 2417 Crimes of Torture and Enforced Disappearance the morning of June 19.

View a video of the committee hearing. (An external link).

Sadly, the legislation didn't advance from there. Our allies in the General Assembly made every effort, but Jones Street couldn't be bothered to evict torturers from the state this year.

What would HB 2417 have accomplished?

Based on the recognition that "the people of North Carolina do not condone torture and that it is contrary to who they are as Americans ..." this bill:

Creates a separate crime called “torture” in the North Carolina statutes. Torture is already a crime under the common law of the state, but the bill creates a statutory definition and makes all related offenses, such as conspiracy to commit torture, crimes as well.

And, it provides the state Attorney General's office with the power and direction to investigate conspiracy to commit torture as long as any part of the conspiracy was formed in North Carolina.

The bill was recommended by House Judiciary I thanks to leadership from the ACLU of North Carolina and especially the work of Sarah Preston, ACLU-NC Legislative Counsel, we marshalled support from members of the Bill of Rights Defense Committees, Unitarian Universalist Fellowships, Veterans for Peace, and others to make phone calls, send e-mails, and personally visit legislators to earn a 4-3 vote in the committee.

Also, the alert action of NCSTN's John Booth helped put an editorial from the Fayetteville Observer in the hands of committe members in advance of the vote.

The bill -- authored by Reps. Paul Luebke (Durham); Pricey Harrison (Greensboro); Linda Coleman (Wake); and Earl Jones (Guilford County) -- and co-sponsorsed by 24 members of the state house, incorporates recommendations from a March 7 report by the North Carolina Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission, a broadly, bipartisan group including judges, law enforcement officers, and prosecutors.

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FBI Tells Congressman Watt They're Waiting For Guidance: Corruption, Conspiracy and Crimes Against Humanity Continue

On May 1, the FBI's Assistant Director for Congressional Affairs, Robert Powers, wrote Congressman Watt in response to his April 23 demand that FBI Director Robert Mueller update the House Judiciary Committee on the investigation into Aero Contractors' support of the extaordinary rendition program hearing, April 23.

According to the FBI, that agency has been waiting on guidance from the Department of Justice since October 2006, when North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation Director Robin Pendergraft referred the matter to them.

Watt also noted during questioning of Mueller that North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper had repeated Director Pendergraft's referral in 2007 as follow-up to an inquiry from 22 state legislators. Watt also noted that three Aero employees had been indicted in Germany.

What is the Department of Justice doing? Why aren't other members of the North Carolina Congressional delegation demandiing to know when crimes being committed in this state will be investigated?

Please take a moment to write your Congressional Representative and ask him or her to urge Attorney General Mukasey to direct the FBI to investigate Aero Contractors. If you can, schedule a meeting in your Congressional District during the upcoming Independence Day recess.

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Irish Foreign Minister Denies Prisoners Flown Through Shannon; NCSTN Allies Abroad Remain Vigilant

March 15 - Dermot Ahern, Irish Foreign Minister, rejected concerns raised by human rights group, Amnesty International, that United States security forces brought a tortured prisoner through Shannon Airport.

RTÉ news reports as well as coverage in the Irish Examiner quote Executive director of Amnesty’s Irish section Colm O’Gorman on the group's investigation into the arrest, detention and torture of Khaled al-Maqtari.

The investigation revealed that a plane used to transfer him between two of the prisons where he was kept during his 30-month ordeal refuelled at Shannon the day before he was transported.

Mr. al-Maqtari, a 31-year-old Saudi-born resident of Yemen, was arrested in the Iraqi city of Fallujah in January 2004 and was held for over a week in the notorious Abu Ghraib prison.

It was during his subsequent transfer to another prison in Afghanistan that the plane stopped at Shannon. Al-Maqtari was eventually released without charge late in 2006.

“We think there is a compelling case that he was on (the plane)” when it landed at Shannon in January 2004, the Irish Examinar reported O’Gorman said.

And, even if Mr. al Maqtari was not aboard, the fact that Shannon was used by an aircraft involved in the practice of extraordinary rendition defies international humanitarian law.

“What that [the investigation] specifically tells us is that Shannon Airport is at the very least being used as a staging post for these kind of missions by CIA-fronted operations and that Shannon in this case was used as a fuelling stop,” he said.

NCSTN continues to work with cooperators in Ireland, and especially the Irish Peace and Neutrality Alliance to monitor rendition-linked aircraft as they pass through Shannon.

Indeed, during the first two weeks of March, Irish allies greeted, rendition-linked aircraft: N478GS, N54PA, and N475LC as they arrived at Shannon, and even photographed a pilot as he monitored refueling.

Read more in these Independent Media dispatches:

TWO UNWELCOME RETURN VISITORS TO SHANNON

CIA TORTURE PLANE BACK AT SHANNON

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Bush Insists Torrture Stay in U.S. Toolkit,
Next Regime is Silent -- or, worse -- Supportive

March 8 - President Bush, today, announced his veto of a bill that would have limited the CIA to 19 interrogation techniques that are used by the military and spelled out in the Army Field Manual.

Bush said he vetoed the measure because it is important for the CIA to have a separate and classified interrogation program for suspected terrorists who possess critical information about possible plots against the United States.

Senator Jay Rockefeller, (D-W. Va.) chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he had heard nothing to suggest that the CIA, through enhanced interrogation methods, had obtained information to thwart a terrorist attack. "On the other hand, I do know that coercive interrogations can lead detainees to provide false information in order to make the interrogation stop."

The leading Democratic presidential candidates did not vote on the bill, signaling their agreement with Bush's reluctance to deny "future presidents, from authorizing the CIA to conduct" interrogations using cruel and inhumane techniques.

Senator McCain earlier admitted his belief that the CIA needs wider latitude than the U.S. military is allowed and voted against the restrictive language added to the intelligence appropriations bill.According to some observers, Bush's stance directly jeopardizes U.S. troops and civilians.

"The president's refusal to sign this crucial legislation into law will undermine counterterrorism efforts globally and delay efforts to rebuild U.S. credibility on human rights," said Elisa Massimino, Washington director for Human Rights First.In the North Carolina Congressional delegation, every Democrat AND Walter Jones, (R-3rd District) voted to ban torture. Both US Senators endorsed torture as an interrogation technique.

There are not enough votes to override the veto. Whether opponents of torture have the courage to choke off intelligence funds entirely remains to be seen.

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FIND OUT WHERE WE'VE BEEN SO FAR

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updated 21 September 2008, JMcI