Dear Senator Graham,

Sometime tomorrow, Thursday, likely before noon, the Senate will probably vote on the Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2010 and on your proposed amendment to that act that would block Guantanamo detainees from having trials in US federal courts.

I urge you to drop your amendment. And I’ve called my Senators, Gillibrand and Schumer, and urged them to oppose it, using the script below. I’ve encouraged others to call their Senators too.

Why? Because I live in New York City. I’m watching the Yanks as I write this.

And I could see the Twin Towers from my living room. I saw the second Tower fall with my own eyes, from the corner of West Broadway and Canal. I want the people responsible brought to justice.

Instead we got 8 years of indefinite detention and military commissions at Guantanamo; 8 years of illegal detention at CIA “black sites”, Bagram and other US prisons in Afghanistan and Iraq; 8 years of murdered civilians; 8 years of the American torture program, and 8 years of impunity for these crimes.

And yet no one responsible for 9/11 has been brought to justice. No one.

Enough is enough. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other Guantanamo detainees accused of planning 9/11 should be brought to a fair federal trial in New York City, where those of us who lost friends and family and parts of our city can watch and finally after more than 8 years have some sense that justice is being served.

You, Cheney and Bush had your chance to ensure justice for 9/11. You failed. Miserably. Now, step aside and let us try a tried and true approach: fair trials.

Thanks,
Zeke Johnson
NYC

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Please call your Senators as soon as possible!

We need you to call your Senators right now — before mid-morning tomorrow (Thursday, November 5th) — and tell them to oppose Senator Graham’s amendment! Essentially, Senator Graham’s amendment would tie President Obama’s hands in closing Guantanamo. We need real justice for acts of terrorism. And real justice requires a real court–a US federal court. Don’t let Senator Graham’s amendment block fair trials and keep Guantanamo open. We can win this fight–but we need you.

Please call right away. Some Senators will have a comment line to leave your message–others won’t and you’ll need to call back in the morning when they’re open. Please be persistent.

You can use our script below and look up the names and Washington DC phone numbers of your two Senators here:

http://www.amnestyusa.org/elected_officials

Dear Senator ___________,

My name is _________ and I live in _______________ (City/State).

I am calling to strongly urge you to oppose Senate Amendment 2669 (known as the Graham amendment) to the Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2010 . I believe that each Guantanamo detainee should either be charged and fairly tried in US federal court, or be released.

Thank you,

_____________.

Please let us know you called: email ctwj@aiusa.org.

Thank you for taking action for human rights!

Earlier today an Italian court convicted in absentia twenty-two CIA officers and a colonel in the US Air Force of charges relating to the February 2003 kidnapping of Muslim cleric Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr aka Abu Omar.

Abu Omar was a victim of the extraordinary rendition program established by the Clinton administration and greatly expanded under President George W. Bush in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.

He was snatched off the street in Milan and flown secretly to Cairo where he was handed off to Egyptian security officials. Abu Omar was tortured extensively in Egyptian custody. He was finally released without charge in 2007.

The Italian decision is a graphic illustration of just how damaging practices such as kidnapping and torture are to America’s national security.

Armando Spataro, the deputy Milan public prosecutor, told reporters:

“This decision sends a clear message to all governments that even in the fight against terrorism you can’t forsake the basic rights of our democracies.”

Yet, the Obama administration has given no commitment to end the practice of extraordinary rendition. Indeed, the administration has asserted that this is an option that it plans to retain as part of its counterterrorism strategy.

This is a terrible mistake. Continuing these practices will inevitably have a chilling effect on other countries’ willingness to work with the United States until they can be sure that America will no longer operate as a rogue nation outside the law.

Two Italian intelligence officers were also convicted for their roles in the Abu Omar abduction and it is hard to imagine that this lesson has been lost on counterterrorism officials in other western countries.

These policies are toxic. We gain nothing but shame from them. There is no upside. Extraordinary rendition famously produced the false intelligence that linked Iraq to Al Qaeda and helped precipitate the rush to war in Iraq perhaps the biggest counterterrorism blunder of this, or any, decade.

The United States shouldn’t need a foreign court to distinguish right from wrong. The Obama administration must repudiate the unlawful practice of extraordinary rendition – and hold accountable those responsible for having put this system in place — or his administration will end up as tarnished as his predecessor’s.

Italy convicts Americans for C.I.A. renditions. BRENNAN LINSLEY/AFP/Getty Images

American courts and politicians have been reluctant to take a stand against the use of kidnapping and torture by American officials in the war on terror, but critics of those policies today received a stunning vote of support from an unexpected source – the Italian courts.

An Italian judge convicted a CIA station chief and 22 other Americans in the kidnapping of the 2003 Egyptian cleric from the streets of Milan.  The cleric, Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, known as Abu Omar, was seized and rendered to Egypt where he was allegedly tortured and held in detention without trial before his release nearly four years later. Abu Omar said he was tortured while held in secret detention in Egypt and that methods included alternating extremes of temperature and electric shocks to the genitals. There was no indication that the allegations were the subject of any investigation by the Egyptian authorities.

Supporters of American renditions insist that the policy is limited to actions against the most dangerous of the dangerous, but in fact the American kidnapping thwarted an Italian investigation into the cleric that might have resulted in criminal charges and a fair trial.  The fact that the Egyptians released the cleric after four years, despite that countries record of long-term administrative detention, simply underscores just how much of a loser the American policy is.

So now former CIA station chief Robert Seldon Lady and 22 Americans, all of whom were tried in absentia, are fugitives from Italian law.  The practical consequences of the Italian ruling are minimal, but the ruling sets a standard of truth and justice that American courts and politicians have yet to make.  For all the talk about moving forward, the extent of the illegal American practices, particularly involving rendition and torture, has still not been publicly disclosed.  If the Obama Administration doesn’t heed the call of the Italian courts and act, it may be that other nations are willing to do the job for us.

This posting is part of our Write-a-Thon Cases Series. For more information visit www.amnestyusa.org/writeathon/

Aung San Suu Kyi, © Chris Robinson

Democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi has called for political change in Myanmar and has spent 14 of the last 20 years being punished for it. The military junta that has run the country since a 1962 coup has cracked down on political dissent, jailing thousands of reformists and activists. Aung San Suu Kyi, the primary face of the movement for democracy, has been kept under house arrest, unofficially detained, and subjected to other restrictions since the National League for Democracy (NLD), which she co-founded, won a 1990 general election. The NLD was immediately denied power by the ruling State Peace and Development Council.

Aung San Suu Kyi is one of Amnesty International’s 10 priority cases who you can help free by participating in our Global Write-a-thon running from December 5-13. She has most recently been placed under 18 months’ house arrest in August, a move that the international community has censured as a government pretext to prohibit her from participating in state elections scheduled for 2010.

Placing pressure on the Myanmar authorities to release Aung San Suu Kyi and allow the peaceful exercise of freedom of expression could be especially effective now.  Addressing Asian state leaders on Saturday, General Thein Sein, Myanmar’s prime minister, announced that the government would be open to including Aung San Suu Kyi in reconciliation processes before the elections. In addition, it may ease some restrictions on her movement if she “maintains a good attitude.” While initially encouraging, the ambiguity of Thein Sein’s words do not guarantee Aung San Suu Kyi’s freedom or involvement in the elections, and with your help, Amnesty International will campaign for her immediate release in our Global Write-a-thon.

By Michele Hong, AIUSA Campaign for Individuals at Risk

Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya and de facto Honduran leader Roberto Micheletti reached an agreement on Thursday that involves sharing power for the remaining of Zelaya’s term. More from Democracy Now!:

…Roberto Micheletti, said the agreement would create a power-sharing government and require both sides to recognise the result of the November 29th presidential elections. It would also create a truth commission to investigate the events of the past few months.

Micheletti and Zelaya held talks separately on Thursday with Tom Shannon, the US assistant secretary of state, and Dan Restrepo, Washington’s special assistant for Western Hemisphere affairs. As the negotiations were underway Thursday, a rally by hundreds of pro-Zelaya protesters in Tegucigalpa was broken up by police who fired tear gas.

A few questions still remain about the agreement — Congress has to approve the agreement and some experts are worried about continued bitterness from Zelaya supporters who do not want a power sharing government.

I think the most important part of the deal is that it establishes a Truth Commission to look into abuses (on both sides) committed during the civil unrest during the days of the coup. Though details of the commission are not laid out yet, it is a very important first step to ending this crisis appropriately.

What do you think of the deal?