NORTH CAROLINA
STOP TORTURE
NOW

PO Box 50345
Raleigh, NC 27650
e-mail via:
contact AT ncstoptorturenow.net

(919) 834-4478
(evenings, or messages during business hours)

FOR THE PRESS

COMING EVENTS:

MOTHER'S DAY PROTEST OF MICHAEL MUKASEY SPEECH AT UNC - LAW SCHOOL'S GRADUATION CEREMONY

Transparency, Accountability, and Restitution: Our View

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BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

NORTH CAROLINA STOP TORTURE NOW (NCSTN) is a grassroots coalition of individuals committed to ending torture by first working against U.S. sponsorship and perpetration, and most specifically, investigating and ending the practice of extraordinary rendition.

Extraordinary rendition is a sanitized phrase that disguises the kidnap, detention and torture of individuals alleged to be enemies of the United States, including those guilty of nothing other than being misidentified.

Some of these captives were or are being transferred to the custody of third nations, such as Libya, Morocco, Syria and Egypt -- based on empty promises they would not be tortured.

Others were or are being interrogated directly by the CIA, using cruel, inhumane, torturous and counter-productive techniques at black site prisons in Eastern Europe, or in U.S.-run detention centers in Afghanistan and Iraq, shielded from monitoring by human rights organizations such as the International Red Cross.

Captives have included British, Canadian and German citizens, as well as refugees and asylum seekers.

One of the private companies linked to the extraordinary rendition program is Aero Contractors, Ltd., which is headquartered at a large hangar the Johnston County Airport near Smithfield, NC.

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Mothers Against Torture

On May 10, NC STN activists and allies gathered to encourage our neighbors to demand accountability, even as torture advocate and former Attorney General Michael Mukasey spoke at the UNC Law School Graduation. Graduates' families were offered a Mother's Day Card (available here in ready-to-fold format) with an explanation of extraordinary rendition and specific actions they could take to demand a exposure and end of the program.

The event was covered by local television news, and was introduced by an excellent opinion piece from UNC-Law faculty member, Joseph E.Kennedy.

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Johnston County Board of Commissioners Won't Scrutinize Aero Contractors

Silence filled the room when Chairman Wade Stewart asked if any commissioner wanted to offer a motion in support of asking for an investigation of Aero Contractors' involvement with the kidnap, disappearance and torture of hundreds.

The rare moment of quiet followed a spirited debate and will be a silence that echoes across generations and national boundaries.

Allyson Caison, of Selma, introduced guest speaker Floyd McGurk, by reminding the Board of their moral responsibility to to action.

McGurk, a decorated veteran with two sons and two other kin actively serving in Iraq, gave the Board a brief history lesson and read from the personal observations of service men and women who are covinced that torture is not only wrong, but jeopardizes their safety.

McGurk focused, though, on reminding the commissioners that history would be the ultimate judge of their actions. Someday, he noted, pehaps years from now there will be a reporter or a graduate student who read the transcript of this meeting and judge each commissioner by the Board's action.

Walt Caison, of Selma, and Chuck Fager, of Quaker House in Fayetteville, underscored McGurk's appeal to the commissioners' duty to their legacy and to their community.

Caison wondered if the days of shielding the tenants in a big blue hangar become as notorious as the days when the county was known as a haven for terrorist syndicates such as the Ku Klux Klan.

Fager noted that momentum was building in the nation to hold accountable those responsible for the U.S. torture policy. He said NCSTN and allies were offering the Board an opportunity to show leadership and get on the right side of this issue.

The dialogue -- including testimony from four Johnston County residents -- was marked by Chairman Stewart's observation that waterboarding is not torture and that -- in his opinion -- torture must sometimes be effective.

Among the Johnston County residents who testified was Katherine Parker, of Clayton, who disagreed with Stewart that torture works, but explained that it doesn't matter whether torture works, because Americans have a duty to each other and the founding principles of our nation to rise above it.

Ultimately, though the Board followed advice from County Attorney Mark Payne who characterized appeals to the Board's sense of conscience and posterity as misguided and declined to act.

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Updated 17 May 2009, JMcI

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