المجموعة السودانية لمناهضة التعذيب --بيان صحفي

المجموعة السودانية لمناهضة التعذيب
The Group Against Torture in Sudan (GATS)
4521 Baltimore Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19103 (USA)

http://www.afsc.org/midatlantic/projectvoice/gats.htm

[email protected]

[email protected] Tel: 215-387-8911
Tel. 215-387-4558
1/07/2005
For Immediate Release
Contact Person: Mr. Siddiq A.
Hadi
(215) 387-8911

How could Torture Advocate Help Torture Survivors?

Philadelphia, PA- The Group Against Torture in Sudan (GATS) is seriously troubled by the Bush Administration’s nomination of Mr. Alberto Gonzales to the post of Attorney General of the United States.

As White House Counsel Mr. Gonzales supervised the development of policies that were applied towards the handling of prisoners in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere and wrote a memo that was considered contemptuous of the Geneva Conventions. At his current confirmation hearings he stated “The decision not to apply Geneva in our conflict with Al Qaeda was absolutely the right decision for a variety of reasons,” ostensibly stating that U.S. officials need not be bound by laws prohibiting torture.

To nominate a person who has effectively facilitated and justified the use of torture by this government is outrageous and insulting, particularly for the more than 300,000 torture survivors who live in this country.

We believe that every candidate for such an important office must be carefully evaluated on the basis of his or her entire record, including whether or not he or she has demonstrated a strong commitment to the protection of civil rights and civil liberties. This is the only thing that differentiates the democracy we want here and the tyranny of fanatic regimes like that of Sudan. How can we claim that we are different from the fanatic regime of Khartoum, Sudan – a government that arrogantly made the founder of the torture system their Chief Justice? How could GATS members trust that Mr. Gonzales, as Attorney General, would advocate on their behalf to bring the torturers to justice?

We add our voice to all other survivors of torture and human rights activists in other organizations and call upon the United States Senate to reject the nomination of Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General of the United States.


The Group Against Torture in Sudan (GATS), is a human rights advocacy group of Sudanese American activists in Philadelphia. It advocates for educating people about the ongoing civil war and government organized torture in Sudan; promoting Truth and Reconciliation among warring communities in Sudan; and connecting torture survivors to centers of treatment and rehabilitation.

: The Center for Constitutional Rights

Oppose the Gonzales Nomination: Tough Questions Are Not Enough
President Bush has nominated the architect of his Administration's unlawful torture policy to be the next Attorney General. White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales's confirmation hearing begins on January 5. Please tell your representatives, Tough questions are not enough! and send a message to the Bush Administration and the world that the American people do not condone torture.

In his infamous torture memo, Alberto Gonzales called the Geneva Conventions "obsolete" and "quaint" and paved the way to the systematic abuse of detainees at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, many of whom are represented by the Center for Constitutional Rights.? At CCR, we have seen the terrible effect of his policies on human beings first hand. Gonzales and his circle discussed the use of specific torture techniques like mock burial and "water boarding," where the victim is made to feel that he is drowning, and approved the use of dogs, hooding, and extreme sensory deprivation, all forbidden by the Geneva Conventions and the International Covenant Against Torture. Experts in interrogation have long known that torture elicits false confessions and bad intelligence, while Americans can now no longer expect to be protected by the Geneva Conventions: the policies devised by Mr. Gonzales and his advisers?have endangered our own troops the world over for decades to come.

In their scathing editorial on the nomination, The Washington Post linked Mr. Gonzales directly to the torture at Abu Ghraib and called his legal positions "damaging and erroneous." Newsweek wrote that "Gonzales ultimately signed off on all of the administration's most controversial legal moves."

Yet many members of Congress have said they will not oppose Mr. Gonzales's nomination that he will only be made to answer tough questions before sailing through the confirmation process. We at the Center for Constitutional Rights object to giving an architect of torture a promotion. We reiterate, tough questions are not enough. Please ask your Senators, Representatives and the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee to stand up and oppose the nomination of Alberto Gonzales for Attorney General. We hope you will join us in declaring that this man and his policies do not represent our American values!