This week’s update shines a bright spotlight on torture, one of the darkest chapters in our U.S. history. Plus we ask for your views on two important VCS advocacy efforts.

December 29, 2009 (VCS) - Starting with our participation in the landmark lawsuit to exposure the pro-torture policies during the Bush Era, Veterans for Common Sense has been fighting against torture and for our freedom.  This week's update also asks you to send in your views about what we should tell reporters and Congress about the issues we care about.

VCS Solicits Your Views
 
Before we get to our update about torture, VCS asks for your views on two key subjects.

First, VCS speaks with reporters nearly every day.  In January, VCS will be meeting with dozens of reporters to promote coverage of the needs and concerns of our service members, veterans, and families.  If you had the chance to tell a room full of national and local TV, radio, and newspaper reporters about VA (both the good and the bad), then what would you say?  And if you could tell them what they are missing, then what would you share?

Second, in February, VCS is scheduled to testify twice before Congress about VA’s budget and about Gulf War illness.  What do you think VCS should tell Congress about these important issues?

Setting History Straight: Bush Ordered Torture

After 9/11, former President George W. Bush ordered torture. In January 2009, Bush confirmed this to FOX news.  The headline at Think Progress is very clear: “Bush: I Personally Authorized Torture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.” In 2002, when reports of torture in Afghanistan were first surfacing, VCS recognized that Bush’s pro-torture policy endangered our troops by placing them at higher risk when they are captured.  VCS then joined forces with the ACLU to force the release of torture documents. Read the archive of outrageous Bush-era torture documents can be found at the ACLU’s web site.
 
VCS Efforts to Learn Torture Facts Attacked
 
In June 2009, VCS called upon the new Obama Administration to release all of the photographs and other information about Bush’s brutal torture policies.  The pictures are needed to determine the facts: were serious war crimes ordered by the Bush Administration? In response to our efforts with other veterans groups and the ACLU, a group that viciously attacked Senator John Kerry’s exemplary Vietnam War service also called our efforts to learn the truth “treasonous” because we oppose torture and we believe in the rule of law.

VCS Supports Our Constitution and Rule of Law

Reasonable people agree that when former President George W. Bush began the Iraq War under false pretenses and when he ordered torture, Bush recklessly endangered our troops and our national security.  We are now fighting two major wars, with more than 5,000 U.S. troops killed, and 480,000 new Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran patients treated at VA hospitals and clinics, with a financial cost in the trillions of dollars.  In Iraq and Afghanistan, up to one million are dead, and millions more are refugees within their borders or in other nations, and both nations lay mostly in ruins.
 
Upholding our Constitution and international law supports our troops and our national security by following Thomas Paine’s plea, in “Common Sense,” that “Law is King,” and that our nation shall not degenerate into the violent chaos depicted in William Golding’s book, The Lord of the Flies.  Denouncing torture also upholds true American values about human rights and human dignity enshrined in our Bill of Rights, expecially the Eighth Amendment prohibiting cruel and unusual punishments.

Problem Remains: Obama Continues Two Bush Policies
 
While VCS strongly supports President Obama decision to end torture ordered by former President Bush, we remain concerned that Obama has not fixed all of the torture-related problems caused by Bush.  Twice this year, the Obama Administration went to court to hide the facts about Bush's torture policies.
 
First, the Center for Constitutional Rights blasted the Obama Administration’s actions to conceal this very serious problem by rejecting access to the courts for torture survivors.  And, second, the Obama Administration opposes releasing the rest of the pictures taken during the former Bush Administration depicting brutal crimes against humans, including beatings, rape, and murders.

We remain disappointed that President Obama would conceal Bush-era documents and deny access to our courts for torture survivors.  Like an untreated and decaying tooth cavity, the torture pictures will eventually leak and cause more serious damage later. The best common sense solution, for our nation and the torture survivors, is to release the pictures to the courts and survivors so all may see and judge the Bush Administration.
 
Reminder: VCS on "60 Minutes" on Sunday, January 3
 
VCS was interviewed recently by Byron Pitts for the CBS News program "60 Minutes."  CBS reporters are investigating the unreasonable and unconscionable delays nearly one million veterans now face obtaining disability benefits from VA.   CBS has scheduled the broadcast for Sunday, January 3, 2010.  We encourage you and your friends to watch this important news broadcast.
 
VCS Asks for Your Support
 
VCS remains a few thousand dollars short of our $10,000 December 2009 fundraising goal.  Your tax-deductible gift of $50 means VCS can continue our advocacy publicizing issues you care about and fighting for progressive and pragmatic solutions in 2010 and beyond.