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Legalizing torture!?
The Department of Homeland Security and some House Republicans are trying to slip through a bill that would make it legal to deport people to countries where the US government knows they will be tortured. A spokesman for Dennis Hastert--the Speaker of the House, which is a powerful and explicitly political post [1]--says that the Justice Department is strongly in favor of this law. Based on Ashcroft's record to date, he's probably telling the truth this time.
The pro-torture language was included in the bill intended to implement the 9/11 Commission report on a straight party-line vote: all the Republicans voted for, all the Democrats against.
Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) is sponsoring a competing bill, HR 4764, to specifically outlaw sending people out of the United States to be tortured. In a sane world, this would be like voting for motherhood and apple pie: in ours, it's unclear whether the House Republicans will let it come up for a vote. His staff says the key votes will be in the next few days.
For more information, and a suggested letter to your representative, see Obsidian Wings. This is especially important if your legislator is a Republican.
If you're not a US citizen or resident, publicizing this is still important. (The supporters of this atrocity call it "extraordinary rendition", because even they know that "outsourcing torture" sounds bad.)
[1] Explanation provided because the last time I mentioned that job on LJ, the person I was addressing turned out to know nothing about how the US Congress works.
The pro-torture language was included in the bill intended to implement the 9/11 Commission report on a straight party-line vote: all the Republicans voted for, all the Democrats against.
Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) is sponsoring a competing bill, HR 4764, to specifically outlaw sending people out of the United States to be tortured. In a sane world, this would be like voting for motherhood and apple pie: in ours, it's unclear whether the House Republicans will let it come up for a vote. His staff says the key votes will be in the next few days.
For more information, and a suggested letter to your representative, see Obsidian Wings. This is especially important if your legislator is a Republican.
If you're not a US citizen or resident, publicizing this is still important. (The supporters of this atrocity call it "extraordinary rendition", because even they know that "outsourcing torture" sounds bad.)
[1] Explanation provided because the last time I mentioned that job on LJ, the person I was addressing turned out to know nothing about how the US Congress works.
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Possibly that person was British? The Speaker of the House of Commons, whatever his (or her - there's been a woman in the post) political affiliation, is supposed to drop all that entirely when appointed the neutral chairing officer, nor does the ex-Speaker return to partisanship after leaving the post. Doesn't even use a party label when running for re-election as an M.P.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives has a very odd combination of duties in being both a neutral chairing officer and the leader of his party in the House. It really doesn't make a lot of sense, and starting with Speaker Newt there's been a return to the late 19C practice of partisan exploitation of the office's powers, such as appointments to committees.
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