PRESS RELEASE
National Inter-Religious Organization Speaks Out Against the Agreement on Torture

(Washington, DC, September 25, 2006) - The National Religious Campaign Against Torture, an organization of 54 national, regional, and local religious organizations, is deeply disturbed by today's revelations about the agreement between the White House and Senators Warner, McCain, and Graham on the controversial military commissions bill. This agreement would permit torture and inhumane treatment. We urge the U.S. government to prohibit all torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of detainees in all circumstances. Any policies that permit torture and inhumane treatment are morally intolerable.

Both the War Crimes Act and the U.S. Army Field Manual on Intelligence Interrogations use the Geneva Conventions as their guiding principle. They do so because Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions brings clarity to rules for the conduct of U.S. personnel in the field.

The agreement before the Congress would allow non-military government personnel (like the CIA or civilian contractors) to engage in interrogation techniques that fall outside of the conduct permitted by the Geneva Conventions. The agreement would also allow the continued use of secret prisons; exonerate the perpetrators of torture; and retroactively eliminate habeas corpus for detainees held in centers like Guantanamo.

NRCAT believes that torture, by any name, is always wrong.

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