The Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition International (TASSC) is the only organization founded by and for torture survivors. The mission of TASSC is to end the practice of torture wherever it occurs and to support and empower survivors, their families and communities wherever they are.
WHO WE ARE/CORE VALUES:
TASSC is a coalition of torture survivors, representing countries and ethnic groups throughout all parts of the world.
WHAT WE DO / GOALS:
Create a world-wide network of International Communities of Healing for torture survivors and their families
Influence domestic and international policy through advocacy, social action, public testimony, and targeted media campaigns
Monitor human rights violations in nations where TASSC members may be at risk
Operate Helping Hands, a direct assistance program for survivors
Coordinate the annual United Nations International Day in Support of Torture Victims and Survivors (June 26th)
Speak out personally to the public through the Truth Speakers program.
TASSC is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization and operates independently of any ideology, government or economic interest.
TASSC International PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Harold Nelson Office: 202.529.2991 Cell: 202.431.9881
TORTURE SURVIVORS CALL FOR INVESTIGATION OF BUSH, OTHERS
Washington, DC December 4, 2008--An international group of torture survivors has called upon the incoming Obama administration to investigate President Bush and others of his administration to determine if they have violated U.S. laws against torture and, therefore, should be prosecuted.
The survivors, members of the Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition International (TASSC), an organization founded by and for torture survivors, condemned proposals for bipartisan commissions as "nothing more than toothless tigers intended to paper over probable criminal conduct."
TASSC advocacy coordinator Harold Nelson denounced those opposing the investigation as "apologists for human rights violations, war crimes and the idea that the powerful are above the law." Nelson went on, "How could the Obama administration denounce human rights violations elsewhere if it refused to investigate those which may have been ordered by the leaders of our own government."
TASSC is part of a coalition including Human Rights USA, legal experts and others who are drawing up a criminal complaint to be presented to the new Attorney General calling for such an investigation.
Film Shines Light on Torture Through the Voices of Survivors
"Breaking the Silence: Torture Survivors Speak Out" is based on more than 40 interviews conducted by Terry Coonan and Valliere Richard Auzenne with members of TASSC -- survivors of torture from around the world. Throughout the film, the survivors recount both their torture and the emotional healing begun through TASSC.
TASSC International's Film "Breaking the Silence: Torture Survivors Speak Out" has been viewed in over 30 different locations around the United States including the Catholic University of America-Columbus Law School, American University, North Carolina Coptic Church groups, Los Angeles Catholic Church for Peace, Pakistan friends of peace in Pakistan, Rwanda Torture and Trauma groups, and many others!
Breaking the Silence will be showing at Chicago University, Howard University, and others, so check on our website for these updates!
While we have many scheduled showings of our documentary, we need your help to continue to get the word out.
Please consider ordering the DVD Documentary, arranging a house party, showing it in your workplace or school, religious center, etc.
With your help, we can spread the message that torture is wrong and to help us reach the goal of ridding our world of torture.
DVDs of "Breaking the Silence: Torture Survivors Speak Out" A donation of $25 would be appreciated. If you would like a documentary, please send an email to alice-z@tassc.org
From the Advocacy frontlines
The first step toward the possible investigation of George Bush and others for violating U.S. law by ordering torture has now been taken. We assumed that a Republican victory in the recent elections would render such an investigation extremely unlikely.
However, the Democratic victory does not assure that the Obama administration will support the investigation TASSC is seeking but it does make this action considerably more likely. In the comingmonths, it will be extremely important to let President-Elect Obama know that justice demands the appointment of an independent counsel. Please do whatever you can to generate support for TASSC's campaign.
And now, an update. A number of organizations are focusing on closing Guantanamo (and other prisons). It seems likely that the new administration will do so, at least as far as Guantanamo is concerned. We expect that after that prison is closed, the attention of these human rights groups will turn to the investigation we are calling for now.
BURLINGTON, Vt. - Lots of political candidates make campaign promises. But not like Charlotte Dennett's.
Dennett, 61, the Progressive Party's candidate for Vermont Attorney General, said Thursday she will prosecute President Bush for murder if she's elected Nov. 4.
Dennett, an attorney and investigative journalist, says Bush must be held accountable for the deaths of thousands of people in Iraq — U.S. soldiers and Iraqi civilians. She believes the Vermont attorney general would have jurisdiction to do so.
“No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” —The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 5 (1948)
Torture Team By Phillipe Sands
Phillipe Sands book brings together a lot that was already known with some new information provided by interviews. This book was valuable in that it places the information in a coherent narrative.
Sands lets his Interviewees speak for themselves and succeeds in not judging them personally, nor questioning their motives, but only points out where the International and US law may be used to judge them and their possible guilt. He interviews Jim Haynes, General Hill, Doug Feith, Diane Beaver, General Myers and others, devoting a chapter to each interview. The overall effect of these interviews is at times startling.
Sands focuses his main argument on the fact that lawyers were not guided by law in their memos and advice to the President, VP, Secretary of Defense, and others, but were subservient to the policy choices of our leaders. To use a phrase of Vice President Cheney, the Pentagon and Justice Department lawyers tried to write the law from the "dark side." We the readers are the jury who will decide if they stayed within the bounds of the rule of law.
I think Sands does show, in disagreement with Alberto Gonzalez, General Myers, and Jim Haynes that the mistreatment of prisoners in Guantanamo was not in response to a request for guidance from below but was the premeditated, concerted effort of the lead Principals and Lawyers in the Bush Administration to bypass Army FM 34-52. The timeframe of the discussions, memos and interrogation policies of Guantanamo all support that conclusion. There can be no question of coincidental connections.
Phillipe Sands convincingly connects the dots in my opinion. President Bush and his advisors made two momentous decisions. First, they set aside the Geneva Conventions and second, they augmented FM 34-52 with 18 interrogation techniques used separately and in concert. These interrogations left Al-Qahanti, the first target of this new policy, in the words of one Army interrogator, with "eyes, black as coals."
In his interview with Dr Abigail Seltzer, psychiatrist, and medical expert who has had extensive experience with torture survivors, we learn that deciding whether techniques are torture, a lot can be gleaned from the reaction of the victim. The interview, based on the actual interrogation logs of Mohammed Al-Qahtani, Detainee 063, is chilling, to say the least.
Torture Survivors Call for the Investigation of Bush and others Please see
