NRCAT Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 10, 2015

CONTACT: Benny Witkovsky, West End Strategy Team - This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ; Office: 202-776-7700; Cell: 202-765-4290

North Carolina Evangelicals Ask Burr to Shed Light on CIA's Torture Program

WASHINGTON - Today, in a petition delivered to the Washington D.C. office of Senator Richard Burr, Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, nearly 35,000 North Carolinian evangelical Christians called on Senator Burr to increase transparency about U.S. intelligence operations and stop attempting to bury the Senate Intelligence Committee's Torture Report.

Faith leaders across the country had advocated for years for the release of the Torture Report, and saw it as the first step toward confronting the truth about the CIA's use of torture and ensuring that the United States never goes down that dark path again. When Senator Burr became chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2015, he tried to reverse course. Less than two months after the Executive Summary of the Torture Report was made public, Sen. Burr wrote to the Administration to ask that it return all copies of the full Torture Report to the Committee. His goal has been to ensure that the full Torture Report is never made public. The petition, delivered by several faith leaders this morning, urged Sen. Burr to stop blocking the nation's process of healing and reconciliation.

Dr. Robert U. Ferguson, Jr., lead pastor of Emerywood Baptist Church in High Point, North Carolina, noted that Christians led this petition effort because "As followers of Christ, our lives are formed by Biblical values. We believe that the voice of the church should be heard in any and all national conversations, especially those that involve the way that we treat our enemies — a subject close to the heart of Jesus. Further, transparency in government lies at the heart of democracy. Without transparency, our elected representatives would be free to ignore the values of the church and the voice of the people."

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 9, 2015

CONTACT: Benny Witkovsky, West End Strategy Team - This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ; Office: 202-776-7700; Cell: 202-765-4290

Faith Community Calls for Swift Passage of McCain-Feinstein Torture Amendment

WASHINGTON – Today, Senators McCain, Feinstein, Reed, and Collins introduced a bipartisan amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would substantially strengthen the legal protections prohibiting the CIA from using torture. The National Religious Campaign Against Torture released the following statements calling for swift inclusion of the amendment in the NDAA:

Rev. Ron Stief, Executive Director of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, said: “Descriptions of the CIA’s torture program, made public in the Senate Intelligence Committee report released last year, include horrible passages involving convulsions, vomiting, and people being chained to ceilings, forced into boxes, and left to die of hypothermia. This report confirmed what many in the faith community have always known: Torture is always wrong, and the CIA operated in a markedly immoral fashion. With this knowledge made public, there is no excuse, Congress must act now to ensure that the CIA never tortures again.”

Media Advisory: June 2, 2015

Contact: Benny Witkovsky, West End Strategy Team: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ; (o) 202-776-7700, (c) 202-765-4290

WEDNESDAY: New Jersey Pastor to Travel to DC to Read Torture Report Outside Department of Justice
Pastor says that if DOJ officials won't read the report, he'll read it to them

WASHINGTON – Tomorrow, Wednesday, June 3, Pastor Seth Kaper-Dale of the Reformed Church of Highland Park, N.J., will travel to Washington, D.C., to read aloud the Torture Report, released publicly earlier this year by the Senate Intelligence Committee, to the Department of Justice. In response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, the DOJ has said that it hasn't even opened, let alone read, its copy of the full Torture Report.

Members of the media are invited to watch Pastor Kaper-Dale read the report outside of the DOJ on Wednesday, June 3. RSVP to Benny Witkovsky at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Pastor Kaper-Dale will be available for interviews before and after the reading.

What: Public Reading of the Torture Report outside of the Department of Justice

Who:

• Seth Kaper-Dale, Pastor of the Reformed Church of Highland Park, N.J., National Religious Campaign Against Torture Board Member
• Rev. Ron Stief, Executive Director, National Religious Campaign Against Torture

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 19, 2015
CONTACTS: Andy Worthington of Close Guantánamo at: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or Matt Hawthorne of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) at: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , 202-547-1920
For further information about the British Parliamentary delegation, please contact Katherine O'Shea of Reprieve at: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Rights Groups Send An Open Letter to President Obama and Ashton Carter
Free the 57 Guantánamo Prisoners Approved for Transfer

Together the undersigned organizations call for the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to be closed, and we ask President Obama and Defense Secretary Ashton Carter to swiftly transfer the 57 prisoners at Guantánamo who have already been cleared for transfer—the majority for over five years—and release or charge in a federal court those who have not been cleared for transfer.

May 23 marks the second anniversary of President Obama's promise to resume releasing prisoners from Guantánamo, after Congress raised legislative obstacles, which he made during remarks at the National Defense University. The President's promise was prompted in particular by a prison-wide hunger strike at Guantánamo, undertaken by men who—according to SOUTHCOM Commander General John Kelly—were "devastated" that the administration had "backed off" closing the prison.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 15, 2015

Contact: Samantha Friedman, West End Strategy Team - This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ; Cell: 202-215-9260

NDAA’s Restrictions on Guantanamo Transfers Denounced by Interfaith Human Rights Group
National Religious Campaign Against Torture responds to NDAA passed by the House

WASHINGTON – In response to the House of Representatives’ passage today of a National Defense Authorization Act that includes draconian restrictions on transferring cleared detainees out of Guantanamo Bay, Matt Hawthorne, Policy Director at the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, released the following statement:

“The Guantanamo provisions in the House bill are an attempt to block nearly all transfers out of Guantanamo and to ensure that the prison there remains open forever. Our government complains that the government of Cuba violates human rights – and yet it runs a prison on the island of Cuba where it tortured prisoners and continues to hold them without charge or trial – years after they were cleared for release. Rather than giving in to partisan politics and unreasonable fears, Congress should act to speed up transfers out of Guantanamo and to close forever that tragic symbol of torture and detention without trial.”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 6, 2015
Contact: Samantha Friedman, West End Strategy Team - This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ; Cell: 202-215-9260

Interfaith Group Responds to Chicago Reparations Fund for Victims of Police Torture

In light of the Chicago City Council's decision to approve a $5.5 million reparations fund for victims of police torture, Rev. Ron Stief, executive director of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, which advocates for an end to all government-sponsored torture, released this statement:

"This case shows that U.S. torture isn't just limited to Guantanamo or CIA black sites. Torture can, and does, happen in the custody of police. The city of Chicago has set an example for the nation by prosecuting the torturer, promising an apology, and giving financial compensation – all key elements of healing the scars left by torture on its victims. Lawmakers, policymakers and prosecutors at all levels of U.S. government should take note."

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 1, 2015
Contact: Benny Witkovsky, West End Strategy Team - This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ; (o) 202-776-7700, (c) 202-765-4290

WASHINGTON – A May 1, 2015 article by James Risen on the front page of the New York Times, "American Psychological Association Bolstered C.I.A. Torture Program, Report Says," cites a new report that gives firm evidence for something human rights activists have long suspected -- that the American Psychological Association consulted with the CIA to give "legal and ethical justification" for the post 9/11 CIA torture program.

Rev. Ron Stief, executive director of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, released the following statement:

"For nearly a decade, the National Religious Campaign Against Torture has raised ethical concerns not only about the immorality of acts of torture, but about the moral culpability of those complicit in its justification and execution. The allegations reported by the New York Times on collaboration between the American Psychological Association (APA) and the CIA are just another in a long string of ethical transgressions from our nation's political, legal and medical leaders that show how deeply torture corrupts our core institutions.

Faith leaders and members of the clergy understand the responsibility of all those who provide counsel to maintain the bond of trust with those whom they serve. If, as the report suggests, the APA worked with the CIA to draft ethical guidelines to allow psychologists to participate in torture, the APA has severely jeopardized the public's faith in the profession it represents. Professional associations like the APA establish ethical guidelines on the behavior of their members every day, and in this case, the APA not only got it wrong, they undercut the moral standards of an entire field.

Media Advisory: April 14, 2015
Contact: Benny Witkovsky, West End Strategy Team - This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ; (o) 202-776-7700, (c) 202-765-4920

WASHINGTON – This weekend, the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) will install a full-size replica of a solitary confinement cell at the Ecumenical Advocacy Days, an education and advocacy conference of nearly 1,000 ecumenical Christians from across the country. This year's Ecumenical Advocacy Days is focused on mobilizing the Christian community to support an end to mass incarceration. NRCAT's solitary cell installation is designed as a tool for education and reflection to help guide these advocates in their work. Throughout the weekend, formerly-incarcerated individuals and survivors of solitary will join NRCAT in order to help further educate advocates on the issues of mass incarceration and solitary confinement.

Members of the media are invited to attend Ecumenical Advocacy Days to see the installation while conference participants interact with it. Media interested in attending should RSVP to Benny Witkovsky at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Who: National Religious Campaign Against Torture, 1,000 ecumenical Christian activists at Ecumenical Advocacy Days

What: Installation of a full-size, interactive replica of a solitary confinement cell

When: Media are invited to come Friday, April 17 at 3:30pm, or at other times over the weekend by special request.

Where: Double Tree Hotel Crystal City, 300 Army Navy Dr., Arlington, VA 22202

Members of the media are invited to see the SHU Installation at St. Stephen Episcopal Church after services on Sunday, March 22. RSVP to Benny Witkovsky at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 11, 2015
CONTACT: Benny Witkovsky, West End Strategy Team: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ; (o) 202-776-7700, (c) 202-765-4290

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- On Wednesday, March 11, at the invitation of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT), Robert Dellelo testified at the Charles Colson Task Force on Federal Corrections public meeting about his experiences having served more than 50 years behind bars. More than a decade of those years was spent in solitary confinement, recognized as a form of torture under international human rights standards. Mr. Delello's submited testimony is available here.

Accompanying Mr. Delello at the Colson Task Force meeting was Rev. Ron Stief, executive director of NRCAT. Inspired in large part by Mr. Delello's story and counsel, NRCAT has worked since 2009 to mobilize the faith community to advocate for an end to the torture of solitary confinement, advancing interfaith participation in campaigns nationwide.

In April 1964, Dellelo entered MCI-Cedar Junction in Walpole, Mass., having been sentenced to life in prison, and with a seventh grade education. In November 2003, having overturned his life sentence, he left prison with a bachelor's degree and a major in sociology. He became a certified paralegal shortly after his release. While in Walpole, he was the first president of the Prisoner's Union (National Prisoners Reform Association), and chairman of the Inmate Council that preceded the NPRA. He also founded an AIDS education program, and ran the prison library. His experiences are featured in When the Prisoners Ran Walpole, by Jamie Bissonette.