[Antiracism] PRESS RELEASE: TORTURE, EXTRAORDINARY RENDITION & INDEFINITE DETENTION

[Marty Nathan]

                                                         PRESS RELEASE             

 

Contact:  Marty Nathan - PVCAST (413) 584-1849 

Date: April 16, 2007

 

TORTURE, EXTRAORDINARY RENDITION & INDEFINITE DETENTION: 

WHAT WILL AMERICA STAND FOR?

 

This colloquium is open to the public and will be held on Wednesday, April 25, 2007 at 7 PM at Helen Hills Chapel, Smith College, 123-125 Elm Street, Northampton, Massachusetts.  It is co-sponsored by the Smith College Department of Government, the Smith College Lecture Committee and the Pioneer Valley Coalition Against Secrecy and Torture.

 

It features the following speaker/panelists: Frida Berrigan of the World Policy Institute, Attorney Buz Eisenberg, and Law Professor, Attorney Bruce Miller.

 

Frida Berrigan is a Human Rights Activist and Senior Research Associate at the Arms Trade Resource Center of the World Policy Institute in Washington, D. C.  Ms. Berrigan was a leader of a group of concerned citizens, family members and leaders who marched to the site of Guantanamo Prison in 2005.  She heads "Witness against Torture", a non-profit that organized international demonstrations to close Guantanamo and stop torture January 11, 2007, the fifth Anniversary of the first detainees being brought to Guantanamo. Buz Eisenberg, renowned Greenfield ACLU Cooperating Attorney is a defender of Guantanamo Detainees.  He helped secure the repatriation of a young Saudi detainees in 2004 and currently serves on a legal team seeking Habeas Corpus rights for many other detainees.  Bruce Miller is a Constitutional Law Professor at Western New England College.  Attorney Miller is an expert in Constitutional Law and has spoken widely about the Constitutional issues of the Bush Administration's War on Terror.

 

The panelists will address the social, legal and moral consequences of U.S. policies of labeling (as "enemy combatants"), indefinite detainment, torture and extraordinary rendition of person of Middle Eastern Origin.  Over 400 men are still imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay, Cuban detention facility, and unknown numbers have been sent to numerous prisons around the world, having not been charged with a crime.  At this juncture due to the Military Commissions Act, detainees have no right to a fair hearing of their grievances, or Habeas Corpus.  Some are held in CIA "Black Sites" inaccessible to the public, some in prisons in countries that routinely practice torture.

 

A question and answer period will provide members of the audience an opportunity to more fully explore concerns raised by the panelists.  Light refreshments will be served in the basement community room following the program.  Donations will be gratefully accepted.

 

Additional co-sponsors to date include: Amnesty International-Amherst and Northampton Groups, Amherst Episcopal Peace Fellowship, Arise for Social Justice, Bill of rights Defense Committee, Collective Copies, Five College Peace and World  Security Studies, Grace Church, Hampshire Peace and Social Science, Justice for Woody, Men's Resource Center for change, Middle East Peace Coalition of Western Massachusetts, Mount Toby Friends Peace and Social Concerns Committee, Northampton Chapter of Progressive Democrats of Massachusetts, Northampton Committee to Stop the War Against Iraq, Northampton Friends Meeting, Northampton Human Rights Commission, Out Now, Inc., Pioneer Valley Buddhist Peace Fellowship, Pioneer Valley Interfaith coalition, Pride and Joy Books, Rosenberg Fund for Children ,  Traprock Peace Center, Western Mass. International Action Center/Troops Out Now Coalition, and Western Mass. American Friends Service Committee, Wally Nelson Chapter of Veterans for Peace, Western Mass. Code Pink, Western Mass. Darfur Coalition,  and others tba.
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