FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 16, 2013

Contact: Samantha Friedman, West End Strategy Team
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Religious Leaders in all 50 States Urge Release of Senate Intelligence Committee Report on CIA Torture
Clergy across the country publish op-eds in every state asking for the truth

Washington, D.C. – With the Kansas City Star’s publication today of an op-ed by the Rev. Dr. Kendyll Gibbons urging the Senate Intelligence Committee to release to the public its 6,000-page report on the CIA’s use of torture, religious leaders across the country have written opinion pieces for publications in all 50 states calling for release of the report. Tomorrow, the National Religious Campaign Against Torture will distribute a compilation of all published op-eds (listed online at NRCAT’s website) to the members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, to demonstrate the diverse religious community’s united support for release of the report.

Rev. Richard Killmer, Executive Director of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, said the following about the importance of religious leaders in every state joining a shared call for the public release of the Intelligence Committee report:

“The release of the Senate Intelligence Committee report would provide important information that would help ensure that U.S.-sponsored torture never happens again. We hope that op-eds written by local religious leaders in publications in all 50 states will demonstrate to the Senate Intelligence Committee the depth of the opposition to torture within the religious community and our community’s support for sharing the truth about torture by releasing the report to the public. It is particularly significant to me that support for release of this report comes from diverse segments of the religious community – including Christians, Jews, Muslims, Sikhs and other people of faith.”

The Senate Intelligence Committee report was approved with a bipartisan vote on December 13, 2012. It contains the most comprehensive set of facts about the CIA’s use of torture in interrogations yet to be assembled – including how and why torture came to be approved, what forms of torture were used, and what the overall outcomes were for our national security. More than a year after it was approved, the report is still classified. 

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 325 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
Follow NRCAT on Twitter at @NRCATtweets and on Facebook at facebook.com/nrcat

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