Prisoners in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba
President Bush has said, "We do not torture."
Yet CIA Director Michael Hayden told a congressional committee on February 5 that the United States has used water torture against 3 detainees.
Waterboarding, which makes prisoners believe they are going to drown, was first used during the Spanish Inquisition. In the past, the United States has condemned and prosecuted as war criminals people who use this technique.
Ask members of Congress and candidates for public office what they will do to keep the United States from engaging in torture.
Does Your Representative Want to Ban Torture?
On March 8, President Bush vetoed a bill that would have banned the CIA and other U.S. interrogators from using inhumane techniques, including waterboarding. The bill uses the Army Field Manual as the standard for what is allowed and prohibited. The president said it would tie the CIA’s hands and give terrorists a public glimpse of interrogation procedures.
The House failed to override the veto. The 225-188 vote was well short of the two-thirds majority needed to pass the Intelligence Authorization Act (H.R. 2082), which approved the funds for all U.S. intelligence gathering.
Supreme Court Upholds Habeas Corpus Rights
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on June 12 that prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, have a constitutional right to challenge their captivity in federal courts by filing a writ of habeas corpus. FCNL celebrates this decision, which restores a fundamental protection that has been part of Anglo-Saxon legal tradition for nearly 800 years.
Find out why habeas corpus rights are important.
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