{"id":117,"date":"2009-01-13T16:09:52","date_gmt":"2009-01-13T21:09:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/stoptorture\/?p=117"},"modified":"2009-01-13T16:09:52","modified_gmt":"2009-01-13T21:09:52","slug":"call-the-senate-today-ensure-new-attorney-general-knows-what-torture-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/stoptorture\/2009\/01\/13\/call-the-senate-today-ensure-new-attorney-general-knows-what-torture-is\/","title":{"rendered":"Call the Senate today! Ensure new Attorney General knows what torture is!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Our Nation&#8217;s Chief Lawyer Must Make A Clear Statement Against Torture<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">This Thursday<\/span>, January 15<sup>th<\/sup>, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing to decide whether nominee Eric Holder should be confirmed as the new Attorney General.<\/strong>\u00a0 Over the last 8 years, the Bush administration has systematically dismantled some of the most important rights and protections in the U.S. Constitution. While Holder&#8217;s public statements suggest he would\u00a0 be a marked improvement over Alberto Gonzales and Michael Mukasey, <strong>it is critical that the American public be certain that our nation&#8217;s chief lawyer has an unwavering commitment to upholding the rule of law.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Senate Judiciary Committee members have a serious responsibility to put an end to subverting law to politics \u2013 and to ensure that President-Elect Obama appoints an Attorney General who will help him restore, protect and expand our human rights.\u00a0 <strong>And it is our responsibility to make our voices heard and stand against torture and other violations of human rights.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Please call the <strong>Senate Judiciary Committee members<\/strong> today and tell them that we need Eric Holder to make a clear statement against torture.\u00a0 It will only take a few minutes to urge them to ask <span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><strong>these critical questions<\/strong><\/span>:<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Are you, unlike your predecessor, willing to acknowledge under oath what U.S. military and civilian courts have recognized for over 100 years: <\/span><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">that waterboarding is torture and therefore criminal?<\/span><\/strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">\u00a0 If so, will you fulfill your duty to ensure that justice and the rule of law apply to all <\/span><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">by appointing a Special Prosecutor<\/span><\/strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"> to investigate and prosecute those who have used, ordered, and authorized the use of waterboarding and other forms of torture?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">If you are not represented by a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, then <strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">call the committee staff directly at (202) 224-7703.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">If you are a constituent of any of the following senators, please <strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">call the senators&#8217; staffers at the numbers provided<\/span>:<\/strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><em><span style=\"font-style: normal\">Patrick Leahy (D-VT) \u2013 (202) 224-7703 (SJC)<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Edward Kennedy (D-MA) \u2013 (202) 224-7878 (SJC)<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Herb Kohl (D-WI) \u2013 (202) 224-3406 (SJC)<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) \u2013 (202) 228-3841<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Russell Feingold (D-WI) \u2013 (202) 224-5573 (SJC)<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Charles Schumer (D-NY) \u2013 (202) 224-6542<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Richard Durbin (D-IL) \u2013 (202) 224-2152 (SJC)<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Benjamin Cardin (D-MD) \u2013 (202) 224-4524<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) \u2013 (202) 224-2921<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Arlen Specter (R-PA) \u2013 (202) 224-5225 (SJC)<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Orrin Hatch (R-UT) \u2013 (202) 224-5251<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Charles Grassley (R-IA) \u2013 (202) 224-3744<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Jon Kyl (R-AZ) \u2013 (202) 224-4521<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Jeff Sessions (R-AL) \u2013 (202) 224-4124 (ask to speak with Matt Miner)<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Lindsey Graham (R-SC) \u2013 (202) 224-5972<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">John Cornyn (R-TX) \u2013 (202) 224-2934<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Sam Brownback (R-KS) \u2013 (202) 224-6521<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Tom Coburn (R-OK) \u2013 (202) 224-5754\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Our Nation&#8217;s Chief Lawyer Must Make A Clear Statement Against Torture This Thursday, January 15th, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing to decide whether nominee Eric Holder should be confirmed as the new Attorney General.\u00a0 Over the last 8 years, the Bush administration has systematically dismantled some of the most important rights and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":733,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1130,263,650,1131,1141,2155],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-events","category-human-rights","category-international-law","category-torture","category-us-law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/stoptorture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/stoptorture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/stoptorture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/stoptorture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/733"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/stoptorture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/stoptorture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":120,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/stoptorture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117\/revisions\/120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/stoptorture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/stoptorture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/stoptorture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}