My dad's (a registered Republican) letter to Congress regarding torture

[Pushed To The Left]

I wanted to share what my dad recently wrote to Congress after watching 60 Minutes last night. He is a lifelong Republican, but he dislikes the Bush Administration as much as I do! Here is his letter:


I have just watched Sixty Minutes. Their featured article was the story of Murat Kurnaz who was turned over to the U.S. by Pakistani Police for a bounty of $3000.00 as someone suspected of being a terrorist or associated with terrorists shortly after 9/11/2001. He was transported to Afghanistan on a U.S. military plane, where he was detained by and routinely tortured by our military in Kandahar. He was later transported to Gitmo and kept until the German Chancellor asked President Bush to release him. Our response was slow. It took nearly two years for his release to be effected. He was incarcerated as a suspect, but only charged after both German and U.S. authorities had proven his innocence. He was detained at nineteen years and released when he was twenty-four.

I previously wrote to you about a similar situation in which a Canadian citizen was illegally sent to Yemen and tortured by our government. How can you, serving as a congressperson, continue to sit idly by letting this administration violate both the rights of U.S. citizens (surely you saw the outrage in which airport personnel forced a woman passenger to remove her nipple ring with a pair of pliers) and foreign nationals, all in the name of security? It seems to me you have not only the right, but the obligation to curtail the excesses of the executive branch. You (congress) impeached Clinton for a far less serious act of crimes and misdemeanors. It is time you stop Bush and Cheney from violating the rights of people you represent despite Nancy Pelosi’s declaration that impeachment was off the table.

This administration has overreached its constitutional authority time and again while a complacent congress has stood by without action. Fortunately, the courts have acted to curb the excesses of the military tribunal system in Guantanamo Bay.

Won’t you finally act in the interests of the constitution and your constituents and impeach Bush, Cheney and all others involved in these horrible violations of the human rights they were sworn to uphold?

[Bullwinkle925]

1. Your dad has just joined my ranks of *heroes*.

'GOOD ON HIM". woot woot woot.