SAMPLE LETTER TO YOUR CONGRESS MEMBERS:

Dear Representative _______ and Senators ________ and ________:

I call upon you, my elected representatives, to appoint a special prosecutor to conduct a thorough, independent, and public investigation into the role of high-ranking U.S. officials in the abuse and torture of detainees in Guantánamo, Iraq, Afghanistan, and in secret detention facilities throughout the world.

I am deeply disturbed by evidence of the systematic use of torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment against detained persons in the name of the United States, including the outsourcing of torture to other countries. This pattern of abuse “resulted from decisions made by the Bush administration to bend, ignore and cast rules aside.” [1]

Involvement in war crimes must not remain unpunished, no matter what the perpetrator’s rank. Current and former top U.S. officials such as Donald Rumsfeld (former Sec. of Defense), Alberto Gonzalez (former U.S. Attorney General), George Tenet (former Director of the CIA), Porter Goss (former Director of the CIA), Michael Hayden (current Director of the CIA), and Steven Bradbury (acting head of the Office of Legal Counsel, Dep. of Justice), have remained unaccountable for their roles in these crimes. I demand accountability for all public officials, not only for those who actively participate in torture, but also for those who condone, instigate, order, or acquiesce to abuses of detainees.

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[1] Human Rights Watch, The Road to Abu Ghraib (2004).