Weekly Torture Action Letter 25 - Deputy AG Ogden

Bill Egnor — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 10:47:37 -0500

Happy Monday and welcome to the Weekly Torture Action Letter series! This is the Dog’s on-going letter writing campaign for accountability under the law for the Bush Administrations apparent state sponsored torture program. For those joining us for the first time the basic premise of this series is to write those who will make the decisions about full investigations of torture every Monday and urge them to follow their obligations under Federal law and International treaty obligations in regards to torture. The Dog writes a letter which you can cut and paste with your own signature, or use as a guide for your own letter. The Dog also provides the links to e-mail the decision makers, all you have to provide is a little time and effort.

"Originally posted at Squarestate.net"

We usually write AG Holder and send copies to the President, Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Reid, Judiciary Chairs Conyers and Leahy and Rep. Jerry Nadler of the House Judiciary. This week we are going to broaden that by writing to the Deputy Attorney General of the United States Mr. David Ogden. We will also be adding a CC to the Associate Attorney General, Mr. Thomas Perrelli. Both of these gentlemen have policy making responsibilities within the DoJ so they are another place we can put pressure on to do the right thing on torture.

Here is this week’s letter:

Dear Deputy Attorney General Ogden;

Sir, I am writing you today to urge you to action on the issue of accountability under the law for the apparent crimes of torture and conspiracy to commit torture of the Bush Administration. It is clear there is prima fascia evidence of both of these crimes just from the public statements of members of that administration.

I am sure I do not need to remind you, but I will in any case, Federal Statute Title 18, Party I, Chapter 113C, Section 2340 deals with torture. It defines torture as:

(1) “torture” means an act committed by a person acting under the color of law specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering (other than pain or suffering incidental to lawful sanctions) upon another person within his custody or physical control;
(2) “severe mental pain or suffering” means the prolonged mental harm caused by or resulting from—
(A) the intentional infliction or threatened infliction of severe physical pain or suffering;
(B) the administration or application, or threatened administration or application, of mind-altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or the personality;
(C) the threat of imminent death; or
(D) the threat that another person will imminently be subjected to death, severe physical pain or suffering, or the administration or application of mind-altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or personality

As you can see from the above definition, many of the so called “Enhanced Interrogation Techniques” plainly violate this statute. It is know that we have kept prisoners in extended isolation, as well as deprived them of sleep and put them in hypothermic situations. We have waterbaorded prisoners which has been considered torture for decades and has been prosecuted by the DoJ in the last 50 years. We have made threats of continued physical harm and pain to many of our prisoners. Under any reading of the law this should be considered torture.

As for the conspiracy to commit torture, the very fact the Bush Administration asked for an received legal guidance under the spurious Yoo and Bybee memos shows there was an intent to break the laws against torture by using the DoJ as a shield.

Deputy Ogden, you are an attorney, you have a long and distinguished career with the Department of Justice, you know what must be done if the rule of law is to mean anything. I know this is not an easy thing to ask, for a new Administration to investigate and probably prosecute the one directly prior to it, but the law does not make exceptions for this state of affairs. Nothing could be more damaging to our nation than to allow the tacit approval of these heinous acts because it will be difficult.

I urge you to urge the Attorney General to do what must be done, appoint a Special Prosecutor who will be fully empowered to investigate all aspects of the conspiracy to commit torture and the actual torture of prisoners held by the United States. It is the only way this stain will be removed from our nation, and it is what is required by our laws. As someone who has been an officer of the Court and a servant of the law all your adult life, this must weigh on you daily. There is a way to lay this burden down. That is to do the right thing and follow the law.

Regards,

CC
President Barack Obama
Attorney General Eric Holder
Speaker Pelosi
Majority Leader Reid
Judiciary Chair Leahy
Judiciary Chair Conyers
Rep. Jerry Nadler
Associate AG Perrelli

So there is the letter, now for some links!

AG Holder, Deputy AG Ogden and Associate AG Perrelli can all be reached at AskDOJ@usdoj.gov. Be sure to put Attention then their name in the subject line.

The White House, Attention President Obama
Speaker Nancy Pelosi
Majority Leader Harry Reid
Rep John Conyers - Judiciary Committee Chair
Chairman Leahy
Representative Jerry Nadler
(to get past Rep. Nadler's filter use Zip Code 11224-4561 and the address of 445 Neptune Ave, Brooklyn, NY)

Now it is all up to you. Please take the time to keep the pressure on for full accountability for the crimes of the Bush Administration. If you leave it to someone else it may never get done.

The floor is yours.