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June 05, 2006

Torture Awareness Month

You might wish America weren't a country that needed a Torture Awareness Month. But we are, and as Nell of A Lovely Promise points out, June is it:

June 26th is the date that the United Nations has marked as the International Day in Support of Survivors and Victims of Torture. This year a coalition of human rights, civil liberties and faith organizations have joined TASSC International, a leading survivors organization, in declaring June “Torture Awareness Month." This awareness raising month is an effort to respond to the growing evidence that the United States government is engaging systematically in the use of torture and inhuman treatment as part of the “war on terror.”

Follow the link to TortureAwareness.org for lots more information, upcoming events and suggested action. People with blarfs may also wish to visit Blarffers Against Torture and join up. Even the blarf-less will find it has a fantastic round-up of blarfosphere anti-torture writing.

Posted at June 5, 2006 07:56 AM | TrackBack
Comments

We all know Torture Awareness Month will only catch on in America if it has ribbon stickers they can slap on their SUVs.

Posted by: BRG at June 5, 2006 08:55 AM

Impeach and/or indict, try and imprison Abu Gonzales, Dr. Death (Chertoff) and that silly John Yoo over at Berkeley Law, all of whom had a hand in drafting the torture memos.

Posted by: Jesus B. Ochoa at June 5, 2006 09:37 AM

Gee, hasn't the present American government done more to help Americans remember the existence of torture that any previous administration? I mean, after all, how can you support survivors and victims of torture if there are no survivors and victims of torture?

America: helping keep the number of those to be pitied in good supply.

Posted by: Alexis S at June 5, 2006 10:18 AM

We all know Torture Awareness Month will only catch on in America if it has ribbon stickers they can slap on their SUVs.

tto be appropriate, they should be made out of real live intestines of the people in sweatshops... i mean worker-friendly factory units in china and taiwan.

Posted by: almostinfamous at June 5, 2006 11:13 AM

Thanks for supporting us :-)

Posted by: elendil at June 5, 2006 05:34 PM

Hmm...what's a Blarff?

No matter, I am a proud member of Blarffers Against Torture.

I wonder if the White House website will sign up too.

Posted by: Mash at June 5, 2006 07:00 PM

(sigh) Just my luck that blogrolling.com would be down right now. I'll add you just as soon as it's up again.

Posted by: elendil at June 5, 2006 09:02 PM

We have ways of making you sign.

Posted by: Mike Meyer at June 5, 2006 10:32 PM

The pentagon is preparing to celebrate the torture awareness month in its own unique way.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/06/05/MNGSVJ8H171.DTL


Washington -- The Pentagon has decided to omit from new detainee policies a key tenet of the Geneva Convention that bans "humiliating and degrading treatment," according to military officials, a step that would mark a potentially permanent shift away from strict adherence to international human rights standards.

Posted by: rob payne at June 6, 2006 01:33 AM

Rob, you're overreacting. I'm sure they're just planning on giving the detainees wedgies or taunting them by saying, "Virgin! Virgin! We have a virgin detainee over here!"

Posted by: BRG at June 6, 2006 08:13 AM

BRG,

Many apologies for my over reacting, it is a bad habit and one I find hard to break. For example every time I hear or read a Bush speech I bang my head against a wall for many repetitions. I have had to add several new doors and did much remodeling because of this. I hope George goes away soon because the universe is not big enough for both of us and besides, you can only add so many new doors.

Posted by: rob payne at June 6, 2006 06:56 PM

As I have posted elsewhere, George is loaded on dope and killing people. To some people under, his thumb, every month is torture awareness month. The fact that we only celebrate one month a year I find distasteful, I'm sure George would say the same, were he here. TRUELY, WE'VE COME A LONG WAY, BABY.

Posted by: Mike Meyer at June 6, 2006 08:15 PM