Religious Leaders Urge Congress to Extend Military Commissions Regulations Deadline Pending Public Comment
Thursday, January 11, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 11, 2006
(Washington, DC) – The National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) and the Center for Victims of Torture (CVT) have sent a letter to every member of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees urging them to insist that the Pentagon allow for a public notice and comment period before adopting regulations implementing the Military Commisions Act. The Act, which legitimizes the use of brutal and inhumane treatment, calls for the Pentagon to adopt regulations implementing the Act by January 15; but that deadline, can be extended. The NRCAT/CVT letter urged Congress to approve such an extension pending public comment.
“Pentagon officials are coming perilously close to repeating errors that led to the Supreme Court’s rebuke of the administration in the Hamdan case,” said Jeanne Herrick-Stare, Chair of NRCAT. “In Hamdan, the Court struck down the administration's design for military commissions – a design constructed without public comment or congressional hearings and debate. Once again, the Pentagon, going it alone, appears poised to adopt a set of regulations that it has not published for a public comment period, nor opened to public congressional hearings.”
Human rights organizations and military justice specialists have urged Pentagon officials, including Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, to delay adoption of the regulations until after the regulations have been exposed to the evaluation of experts outside the narrow circle of the administration's military commission design team. No announcement of Pentagon delay in issuing the regulations has been forthcoming.
“The world is watching how the United States handles these military commissions and the subsequent trials of terrorist detainees. Nothing will be lost by a short delay, but we all have a lot to lose if hastily and secretly drafted regulations fail to implement American values and legal traditions,” Herrick-Stare added.
The National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) empowers members of America’s faith community to join one another in religious witness to advocate for an end to U.S. policies permitting torture and inhumane treatment– without exception. With more than 90 religious member organizations, NRCAT’s “Torture Is a Moral Issue” statement has been endorsed by such high profile leaders and groups as Rick Warren, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Jimmy Carter and Eli Weisel. Full membership and more information about NRCAT is available on the NRCAT website at www.nrcat.org.
The Center for Victims of Torture (CVT) is an independent nonprofit based whose mission is to heal the wounds of torture on individuals, their families and their communities and to stop torture worldwide. Established in 1985, CVT was the first comprehensive torture treatment center in the U.S., the third in the world. CVT is headquartered in Minneapolis with offices in St. Paul, MN, Washington D.C., Sierra Leone, Liberia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. More information about CVT is available at http://www.cvt.org/main.php.
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Faith in Public Life is a nonprofit, nonpartisan communications and organizing resource center for faith leaders and groups sharing a call to pursue justice and the common good.
CONTACT: Jeanne Herrick-Stare at (202) 547-6000 x 2513, jeanne@fcnl.org Katie Barge, Faith in Public Life, 202-481-8147 / 202-243-8289 or kbarge@faithinpubliclife.org
