Press Release
April 25, 2013

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National interfaith anti-torture group denounces Condoleezza Rice’s continued defense of torture

Washington, D.C. – In response to reports of former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice defending the use of so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques” in a video presentation at the dedication of the George W. Bush Presidential Library in Dallas today, Rev. Richard Killmer, Executive Director of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, released this statement:

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is still trying to justify the decision to use torture by claiming that what President Bush ordered wasn’t torture. Rice claims that the Justice Department said that so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques” were legal and that the CIA said they were necessary. 

But that claim doesn’t fly anymore. Both military and civilian lawyers have said that “enhanced interrogation techniques” were torture and just last week, the distinguished bipartisan Task Force on Detainee Treatment, convened by The Constitution Project, confirmed that fact unequivocally. The Task Force also found that the Bush Administration handpicked a few lawyers to manipulate the law and claim that acts of torture were legal, when of course they were not.

The National Religious Campaign Against Torture joins the Task Force in calling on Congress and President Obama to release all the information they have on the use of torture; there is no national security justification for withholding the information from the public. We too call for the Senate Intelligence Committee, which conducted the most thorough investigation into CIA interrogations that has ever been done, to release its still classified report to the public. We hope that Secretary Rice will join us in our call – we should all agree that the American people deserve the facts.

The National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) is a membership organization committed to ending U.S.-sponsored torture, and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. Since its formation in January 2006, more than 320 religious organizations have joined NRCAT, including representatives from the Catholic, evangelical Christian, mainline Protestant, Unitarian Universalist, Quaker, Orthodox Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Baha’i, Buddhist, and Sikh communities. Members include national denominations and faith groups, regional organizations and local congregations.
www.nrcat.org

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