PRESS RELEASE
Opposition Mounts Against Rizzo Nomination as CIA General Counsel

(Washington, DC, July 11, 2007) - The National Religious Campaign Against Torture today announced its opposition to the nomination of acting CIA General Counsel John Rizzo for confirmation to a permanent position as CIA General Counsel. "A government official in a position of power who could have thwarted or spoken out against torture but who failed to do so, and who refuses to repudiate his actions today, should not be rewarded by confirmation to an even more prominent administration post," said Linda Gustitus, president of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture.

Mr. Rizzo was acting CIA General Counsel at the time the now-repudiated "torture memo" dated August 1, 2002, a memorandum for Alberto Gonzales written by Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee, was presented to the CIA for review. At his confirmation hearing before the Senate Select Intelligence Committee on June 19, 2007, Mr. Rizzo testified that he received and read the Bybee memo, that he "did not object" to the memorandum or "any specific part" of it. Instead, he said that he found it "reasonable."

These are deeply troubling statements given that the memorandum claims that "physical pain amounting to torture must be equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death." The memo also contains an extraordinarily narrow definition of psychological torture. Further, it asserts that the President, as Commander-in-Chief, can ignore laws that have been enacted by Congress and can authorize U.S officials to engage in torture. But Mr. Rizzo says that he found the memorandum "persuasive" and does not feel - even now - that he should have raised objections to it.

"Confirmation of Mr. Rizzo would send a message to the world that Congress approves of the administration's policy of condoning U.S.-sponsored torture," said Gustitus. The National Religious Campaign Against Torture urged the committee to vote against reporting Mr. Rizzo's nomination favorably to the full Senate.

The National Religious Campaign Against Torture - a growing membership organization of more than 115 religious groups - is committed to ending U.S.-sponsored torture, and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment without exception. Since its inception in January 2006, the National Religious Campaign Against Torture has:

• Gathered over 17,500 individual endorsements for NRCAT's Statement of Conscience, "Torture is a Moral Issue" and placed the statement, signed by 28 national leaders - including Elie Weisel, Pastor Rick Warren, Sayyid Syeed, Theodore Cardinal McCarrick, and Jimmy Carter - on the op-ed page of the New York Times.
• Initiated a project to screen the HBO documentary Ghosts of Abu Ghraib in 1,000 congregations during the week of October 21-28, 2007.
• Supported Evangelicals for Human Rights, the source of "An Evangelical Declaration Against Torture," which was adopted by the National Association of Evangelicals in March 2007.

http://www.tortureisamoralissue.org/

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CONTACT: Rev. Richard Killmer, 207-846-1614 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it