[Also posted as a press release in the press room.]

All quotes are from survivors of torture, and members of the Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition International.

Nasim, a survivor of waterboarding from Ethiopia, who does not want her last name in the press, says that she is "brought back to the torture chambers every time I hear the sound of splashing water. In the shower, when water hits my face, I must remind myself that I am not strapped to a board and that my lungs will not fill up with water until I lose consciousness. Though it has been years, the fear and pain are still there. There can be no debate that waterboarding is torture." 

Anthony Ibeagha, a survivor from Nigeria, said that "this confirmation is disrespectful to me as a person and only exacerbates the pain of torture which has come to be my life."

Dianna Ortiz, a US nun and survivor of torture in Guatemala, said that "the Senate may have substituted the name Mukasey, but they voted for torture. What congress and Judge Mukasey have said loudly and clearly is that they have no concern for those of us who were tortured. First we were betrayed by our torturers; now we are betrayed by the government of the United States. Those who voted for torture will go unconcerned to their dinners and cocktail parties, while we go home to our nightmares." 

Sister Ortiz wrote of her experience watching the Senate Judiciary Committee's vote on Mukasey here: http://torturelaw.org/blog_post.php?post=41

The Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition is the only organization in the United States founded by and for survivors of torture. Interviews with survivors are available.

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Subjects: Congress | Justice Department | Survivor's Voices | TASSC International

Torture survivors stood outside the committee room for nearly two hours, waiting for the doors to open that would usher us into the presence of the Judiciary Committee.  There, committee members would cast their votes for or against torture.  They may have substituted the name Mukasey, but the subject was torture.

The doors opened.  Reporters were let in. A staff person went up and down our line inviting any senate staffer who happened to be in the vicinity to enter.  Many did, some perhaps with special guests in tow.  Finally, it was our turn—the public's turn to enter, to be witness to this public committee meeting.

The first nine in the long line were allowed to enter, including four of us who were survivors.   Then abruptly all was stopped.  More survivors were in line but they and all the rest were told the room was "absolutely filled."  No one else might enter.  Sorry.  They were invited to go to the TV room where they might watch the proceedings.  One of the survivors replied, "I didn't come here to watch TV." And so, many remained in line, remained to see twenty-three more  "special" persons admitted to the absolutely filled room.   

I was one of the lucky ones, or so, some might say.  Although others might think it strange, I brought a companion into that room.  I brought faith, a faith that finally for the first time since the Bush administration began torturing, Congress would say, "No more."  We four survivors, witnesses-to-be in a struggle over torture prayed for a miracle.  Specter, Graham, Schumer, Feinstein, surely they understood torture. Surely they would not vote for it.  But of course, they did.

No miracle happened there. Faith is a fragile thing, easily torn much like the fingernails torturers tear from a young child. All hope that for once, Congress would stand against torture ended in the ayes and nays—some barely audible, some strong and proud.  Republicans, one after another "aye."  Democrats, Leahy, "nay." Kennedy, "nay," Biden, "nay," Feinstein, "aye," Schumer, "aye."   The deed is done.   No matter how they try to mask it, torture wins, 11-8.

With each "aye," my thoughts turned to Nasim, a former law student from Ethiopia.   With each "aye," it was as if I were witness to the forcing of her head into feces-filled water—every gasping breath she took.   The final count …11-8.  Mukasey, the man who cannot say whether waterboarding is torture, who does not even know what it is, if he is to be believed, is in line to become the next U.S. attorney general.  Those who voted for torture have recommended his nomination to the full Senate. 

Did those who cast a vote for Mukasey give any thought to what their actions mean to torture survivors—to those of us who live with the remnants of our torture day after day?  We do not have the luxury of trading our torture for some political advantage.  Those who voted for torture will go unconcerned to their dinners and cocktail parties, while we go home to our nightmares. 

By Dianna Ortiz

Subjects: Congress | Justice Department | Survivor's Voices

The Military Commissions Act, the Torture Law

The Military Commissions Act of 2006, what we survivors of torture have come to know as the 'Torture Law,' has frightened nearly everyone in the US who works to eradicate torture. Even groups who never before worked on the issue of torture have begun campaigning to reform the Military Commissions Act.

Numerous international organizations of human rights attorneys have made reforming the Military Commissions Act a top priority. Numerous politicians in the US Congress have made reforming the Military Commissions Act a top priority.

In all the clamor, the voices of torture survivors have not been heard. Our understanding of the debate surrounding torture and the Military Commissions Act reaches a deeper, more intimate level than all the arguments of lawyers and politicians—and one thing we know is that the Military Commissions Act must be repealed. Not reformed—repealed.

Why Repeal? Because the Framework, Not the Details, Is What Matters

As survivors of torture, many of us recall the most frightening words we ever heard—words that were more terrifying even than the rapes, the burns, the beatings, and the psychological torture that we would come to know too well. We all heard the same words—and still hear them sometimes, when we wake up in the middle of the night drenched in sweat:

"Scream as loud as you want—it won't matter. Nobody's listening."

It did not matter if we were tortured during the cold war, a civil war, or a brutal dictatorship. It did not matter if we were tortured in a clandestine prison in Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, or Guatemala. We were all told the same thing.

The reason it sent chills through our bones is simple: you are helpless when your captors act with impunity.

The Creation of the Campaign

Most of The Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition's (TASSC's) work is dedicated to helping other survivors in the painstaking lifelong process of healing and learning how to trust people again. Although we have been active in speaking out against torture, through our Truth Speaker's program, we had no experience in building a grass roots campaign to repeal a law.

We began with a petition. The original director of the Campaign, Paul Magno, organized the collection of thousands upon thousands of signatures demanding a complete repeal of the Military Commissions Act, the Torture Law. Every month a group of survivors hand-delivered the petitions to Nancy Pelosi's office and worked to set up a meeting with the recently elected leader of the House.

We worked to build coalitions with other organizations. TASSC humbly reached out to other organizations, our partners in our struggle to create a torture-free world, and asked them to endorse the campaign. Over a hundred organizations, some with tens of thousands of members, signed on.

We felt as if we were moving forward and gaining initiative.

But Too Many Were Willing to Compromise on Torture

The feelings of progress proved to be an illusion. Nancy Pelosi never met with us. Almost all of the large human rights organizations refused to sign on to the Campaign. Perhaps compromised by their relationships with members of congress, perhaps compromised by the role they played in crafting the Torture Law, they were not willing to demand the full and unconditional repeal.

The law, they pointed out, wasn't as bad as Bush wanted. The law didn't explicitly endorse torture. The law could be fixed, they claimed, but we would never get enough support to repeal it.

We were told that torture survivors didn't understand the law, and elite human rights attorneys and politicians did. We were told it is a complicated issue.

But it is a lot less complicated to survivors of torture. The Torture Law removes the survivor's hope of someday being able to prosecute torturers. The Torture Law hides torture. The Torture Law creates an air of impunity that always leads to torture. For us, there can be zero tolerance for torture.

The Website

We do not, and probably never will, have the resources of the large human rights organizations. But survivors of torture understand torture like nobody else, and we believe that survivors can be the most effective voices speaking out against torture. Our voice must be heard.

We have created a number of tools to help the public and the media understand why this Torture Law must be repealed.

• A growing section of fact sheets, thanks in part to the National Security & Human Rights Clinic at the University of Texas School of Law.
• Tools to allow people to sign the petition or contact congress online.
• A Perspectives section, where we have begun to collect articles explaining why a complete and unconditional repeal is the only honorable response.
• Information about a billboard design competition we are organizing to help the public, and Congress, realize that repeal is the only way to restore our honor and our system of justice.

Survivors need your help. With the website, and your help, we can bring the Torture Law to an end. We have built the tools. Please get involved today. Together we can create a torture-free world.

Subjects: Campaign | Survivor's Voices | TASSC International | TortureLaw.org