Featured Speakers were<\/b>:\u00a0Rev. George Reed<\/a>, Executive Director, North Carolina Council of Churches — Raleigh; Prof. Deborah Weissman<\/a>, Reef Ivey II Distinguished Professor, UNC School of Law — Chapel Hill;\u00a0Matthew Hoh<\/a>,\u00a0Senior Fellow at the Center for International Policy; veteran of the Marine Corps and the Department of State; former Director of the Afghanistan Study Group — Raleigh; Chuck Fager<\/a>, North Carolina Stop Torture Now, retired Executive Director of Quaker House in Fayetteville\u00a0— Durham.<\/p>\n The press conference echoed Bob Geary’s reporting<\/a> in The Independent Weekly <\/i><\/b>on our efforts.<\/span><\/p>\n Senate Torture Report Names At Least 17 CIA Detainees Transported by Aero Contractors for Torture<\/strong><\/p>\n The recently released summary of the Senate torture report<\/a> validates what North Carolina Stop Torture Now (NCSTN) and other Tar Heels have been saying since 2005:\u00a0 North Carolina has long been deeply involved in clandestine CIA torture and rendition.\u00a0 At least 17 of the CIA detainees named in the Senate report were secretly transported by Aero Contractors aircraft based in Smithfield or Kinston, NC<\/strong>.<\/p>\n However, 17 more named survivors and victims transported to torture by the CIA using Aero Contractors planes and pilots do not appear in the released portion of the Senate report.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cIn fact, the words \u2018North Carolina\u2019 appear nowhere in what was released on Tuesday,\u201d said Christina Cowger, NCSTN\u2019s coordinator.\u00a0 \u201cMuch survivor information remains secret.\u00a0 But flight logs and other data show that many torture flights originated here, and we call for release of the full report to see if more information about survivors and flights is in it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe also call on federal and North Carolina authorities to immediately launch vigorous investigations into the illegal torture-related activities and conspiracies now established as taking place in North Carolina,\u201d Cowger said.<\/p>\n The CIA and perhaps other government entities\u00a0maintained vital rendition infrastructure<\/a>\u00a0in our state for many years.\u00a0\u00a0Two North Carolina public airports functioned home base for planes that brought detainees to secret prisons where they were held indefinitely and interrogated under often-brutal torture.<\/p>\n Further, the firm Blackwater was headquartered in Moyock, NC, during the height of extraordinary rendition.\u00a0 The New York Times quotes a former top CIA officer<\/a> as saying, \u201cIt became a very brotherly relationship.\u00a0 There was a feeling that Blackwater eventually became an extension of the agency.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0Blackwater changed its name to Xe Services in 2009 and then to Academi in 2011.<\/p>\n The names of 119 CIA detainees appear in Appendix 2 (on p. 458) of the Senate\u2019s\u00a0summary<\/a>, and we learned some of those names for the first time on Tuesday.\u00a0\u00a0Yet other well-known survivors of CIA extraordinary rendition are not on the published list, including:<\/p>\n As the international human rights organization Reprieve\u00a0commented<\/a>, \u201cThis is a good start, but it is far from the whole picture.\u00a0\u00a0The names of many victims of rendition and torture are absent.\u201d<\/p>\n Can we expect that incoming Senate Intelligence Chair Richard Burr (R-NC) will act for torture transparency?\u00a0\u00a0When asked if he saw any kind of follow-up to the report, Sen. Burr\u00a0told McClatchy<\/a>, \u201cNo.\u00a0Put this report down as a footnote in history.\u201d<\/p>\n Sen. Burr also called the report \u201ca blatant attempt to smear the Bush administration\u201d and \u201cflawed, biased, and political in nature.\u201d<\/p>\n Senate Intelligence Releases Portions of Landmark Torture Report; Will North Carolina\u2019s Role in Torture Be Addressed?<\/p>\n North Carolina Stop Torture Now welcomes today\u2019s release of the historic report<\/a> on CIA torture by the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee.\u00a0 The report validates what human rights investigators and journalists have demonstrated for a decade:\u00a0 the CIA conducted a years-long, illegal, and immoral program of torture that has cost our nation terribly in lost credibility, the enmity of millions around the world, and the undermining of our democracy.<\/p>\n The report has special significance in the Tar Heel state for two reasons.\u00a0 First, Senator Richard Burr is poised to become Chair of the committee in January.\u00a0 Sen. Burr voted to release the report, but at the same time signaled his intention<\/a> to attack its conclusions.\u00a0 Second, North Carolina is deeply involved in the human rights abuses described in the report (details below).<\/p>\n \u201cIt is not only the obligation of the federal government to commit to transparency and accountability for torture, but our state and its political subdivisions \u00a0are also required to provide facts and details about torture and to accept responsibility for human rights violations,\u201d said Prof. Deborah Weissman, UNC School of Law.\u00a0 \u201cThe Convention Against Torture and other treaties oblige us to uncover and take responsibility for our state\u2019s role in the systematic torture of human beings, now confirmed by the Senate report.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition to grassroots activists, prominent North Carolinians have been calling for torture transparency. \u00a0More than 190 faith leaders wrote<\/a> to Sen. Richard Burr in 2013, calling on him to support release of the Senate torture report.\u00a0 In addition, over 1,200 North Carolinians<\/a>have called for an inquiry on North Carolina\u2019s role in torture.<\/p>\n North Carolina and CIA-Directed Torture<\/p>\n Although the report\u2019s executive summary is coming out, North Carolina\u2019s connections to torture may be buried in the body of the report itself.\u00a0 A large volume of evidence has been compiled by journalists and human rights investigators:<\/p>\n North Carolina has been extensively involved in torture in contravention to state, federal, and international law, particularly by sustaining key aviation infrastructure for extraordinary rendition at our public airports.\u00a0 The Johnston County Airport has hosted Aero Contractors since 1979<\/a>, and Aero remains the airport\u2019s largest tenant.\u00a0 In 2005, the New York Times\u00a0exposed Aero<\/a> as \u201ca major domestic hub of the Central Intelligence Agency\u2019s secret air service.\u201d\u00a0 Aero-operated craft secretly flew detainees to torture chambers in Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Afghanistan, Morocco, and Libya.\u00a0 They also repeatedly visited the CIA black sites in Poland and Romania where torture was performed directly by U.S. officials. \u00a0Documentation was supplied to public officials and the media in this 2012 report<\/a>.<\/p>\n NC-based planes and crews played key roles in the CIA rendition program.\u00a0 One of the planes operated by Aero (N379P<\/a>) was a Gulfstream V jet nicknamed the \u201cGuantanamo Express.\u201d\u00a0 For a critical period during the height of the rendition program, Aero also operated a Boeing business jet (N313P<\/a>) from a hangar it built<\/a> at the Global TransPark in Kinston.\u00a0 Together, these two aircraft conducted dozens of missions in which incapacitated detainees were taken secretly to prisons where they were held indefinitely and without access to lawyers, family, or the Red Cross.\u00a0 There, they were interrogated using torture.\u00a0 Highly skilled pilots and crews operated and maintained these aircraft, likely with full knowledge<\/a> they were working for the CIA.\u00a0 The names of several of the pilots have been in the public record<\/a> for many years.<\/p>\n Many of the detainees transported to torture by Aero were clearly innocent, were never given due process, and were profoundly damaged.\u00a0 Those who survived still suffer deeply.\u00a0 This includes Khaled el-Masri<\/a>, a German citizen of Lebanese descent; Abou ElKassim Britel<\/a>, an Italian citizen of Moroccan descent; Binyam Mohamed<\/a>, a UK legal resident of Ethiopian descent; Khaled al-Maqtari<\/a>, a Saudi national detained in Iraq; and many more.\u00a0 These men were subjected to brutal treatment.\u00a0 They were strung up in painful stress positions for long periods and endured vicious beatings including to their genitals and torso. \u00a0They suffered prolonged detention in complete darkness, or were bombarded with blasting sounds.\u00a0 So far, human rights investigators have documented that over 135 persons<\/a> were subjected to extraordinary rendition.\u00a0 Over 30 of these people \u2013 and probably many more \u2013 were rendered on flights originating at Smithfield or Kinston, NC, as documented by flight logs and other data here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Since 2005, concerned citizens have repeatedly contacted North Carolina\u2019s elected officials with information about the state\u2019s role in torture.\u00a0 With the release of the Senate Intelligence report on torture, there can be no excuse for public officials to refuse to address responsibility and accountability for North Carolina\u2019s role in such serious human rights violations.<\/p>\n Nationally Noted Theologian, Dean of Duke Chapel, and Local Human Rights Advocate Speak on Torture Accountability<\/p>\n About 50 people gathered at Pullen Memorial Baptist Church, Tuesday, June 24 2014, to hear noted theologian Dr. David P. Gushee<\/a> offered a talk on “Coming to Terms with Torture: Truth, Accountability, and Reconciliation<\/b><\/i>.”<\/p>\n Gushee is the Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics and the Director of the Center for Theology and Public Life at Mercer University and previewed themes from his talk during an interview on the WUNC 91.5 FM program The State of Things<\/a><\/i><\/b>. Gushee’s position on the need for the U.S. to apologize to victims and survivors of the post-9\/11 torture program was also featured in a story published June 26 by the News & Observer<\/i><\/b> and also carried by the Stars & Stripes<\/i><\/b><\/a>, a news publication targeting an U.S. military audience.<\/p>\n During his talk, Gushee summarized some of the key findings of a bipartisan, blue-ribbon Task Force on Detainee Treatment<\/a> convened by the Constitution Project on which he served.<\/p>\n It troubles Gushee, he said, that the issue of U.S. torture has “fallen off the national radar.”<\/p>\n He emphasized his belief that it is “unworthy of a great democracy like the United States not to tell the truth about such issues.”<\/p>\n To ” … acknowledge such shortcomings strengthens rather than weakens the United States,” Gushee said.<\/p>\n Gushee particularly emphasized his belief that it is time for truth, accountability and renunciation.<\/p>\n As Gushee told the News & Observer: “Individuals right now can ask the White House to get the Intelligence Committee report released as soon as possible … “<\/p>\n The Constitution Project’s Task Force on Detainee treatment issued a 600-page report<\/a> in April 2013, which called upon Americans of all political ideologies to recognize that the U.S. has engaged in systematic torture, that its use was ordered by our highest elected officials, and that as Gushee noted, this “half-hidden liturgy of torture … and ritualized destruction of minds and bodies … ” produced no actionable intelligence.<\/p>\n And, Gushee said, even if the goal was to gather intelligence, ” … good intentions do not relieve our leaders of the obligation to respect the rule of law.”<\/p>\n In anticipation of the United Nations’ International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, June 26, North Carolina Stop Torture Now Coordinator Christina Cowger spoke primarily about our group’s campaign<\/a> to urge the highest officials in 4 nations to apologize and offer meaningful restitution to one victim of the extraordinary rendition, secret detention and torture.<\/p>\n Cowger also echoed Gushee’s concern for the most prompt and fullest release of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report on detainee treatment, which reliable sources say will contain extensive and damning details of the U.S. torture program and considerable detail on North Carolina’s support of the extraordinary rendtion program.<\/p>\n The Rev. Luke Powery, Dean of the Duke Chapel, opened with a powerful, acapella performance of a spiritual song that raised a few voices from the audience and moved others to sway gently. Afterwards, he offered reflections on the links between the post-9\/11 torture program and the long history of the torture of slaves in the United States. Powery concluded by emphasizing the immorality of disregarding the sanctity and value of human life and particularly the human body, drawing powerful imagery from the story of Jesus’ crucifixion.<\/p>\n The event was hosted by Pullen Memorial Baptist Church<\/a> and co-sponsored by the North Carolina Council of Churches<\/a>, The Constitution Project<\/a>, National Religious Campaign Against Torture<\/a>, KARAMAH: Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights<\/a>, and NC Stop Torture Now.<\/p>\n Two Dozen Activists Renew Call on President Obama to Close Guant\u00e1namo!<\/p>\n The vigil, covered by ABC-11 television<\/a> and the Raleigh News & Observer, marked the one-year anniversary of President Obama’s most recent promise to close the prison camp at Guant\u00e1namo. His pledge came in response to the mass hunger strike by men protesting their indefinite detention and to the renewed, global condemnation of the prison.<\/p>\n Recently, District of Columbia Federal District Court Judge Gladys Kessler suspended her order that the military to stop force-feeding a hunger-striking detainee at Guant\u00e1namo Bay, Cuba, noting<\/a> that ” … because of the Pentagon\u2019s ‘intransigence,’ or refusal to compromise, ‘Mr. Dhiab may well suffer unnecessary pain from certain enteral feeding practices and forcible cell extractions. However, the Court simply cannot let Mr. Dhiab die.”<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n In an earlier order, Judge Kessler directed the military not to destroy videotapes showing previous force-feeding of the detainee, Jihad Ahmed Mujstafa Diyab, a Syrian held at Guant\u00e1namo for 11 years and nine months at the time of her order.<\/p>\n President Obama \u201c … could put my … client on a plane today if he had the will to do it.”<\/p>\n Of the 780 people who have been detained at the United States military prison at Guant\u00e1namo Bay, 639 have been transferred and 132 remain according to analysis by The New York Times<\/a><\/i><\/b>. Nine detainees died while in custody.<\/p>\n \u201cLook at the current situation, where we are force-feeding detainees who are being held on a hunger strike . . . Is this who we are?\u201d<\/p>\n \u2013President Barack Obama, May 2013<\/p>\n It is unknown how many prisoners continue to hunger-strike, but reports indicate as many as 46 may be refusing food, and many are being subjected to forced feeding\u2014a practice condemned by international human rights organizations, medical associations, and members of the U.S. Congress. New lawsuits in U.S. courts lay bare the extreme cruelty of the forced feeding at Guant\u00e1namo. To quell the public outcry against the prison, the U.S. military in December 2013 stopped reporting the numbers of hunger strikers. More recently, it has classified their protest, in Orwellian fashion, as \u201clong term non-religious fasting.\u201d<\/p>\n Sadly, as we pass the anniversary of yet another broken promise, this is what the United States remains\u2014a country that continues to indefinitely detain and brutalize the men at Guant\u00e1namo. Grassroots activists, human rights organizations, and advocates for the detained men call on people throughout the United States and the world to hold President Obama accountable to his promise.<\/p>\n The action was coordinated by Witness Against Torture<\/a>in collaboration with Amnesty International<\/a>, the National Religious Campaign Against Torture<\/a>, Veterans for Peace<\/a>, World Can\u2019t Wait<\/a>, and the Torture Abolition and Survivor Support Coalition<\/a>.<\/p>\n Report and Declarations Delivered to Top State and County Law Enforcement Officials<\/p>\n As reported by ABC11-WTVD<\/b><\/a>, the report documents evidence of state and local government complicity in the kidnapping, disappearance, secret detention and torture of dozens\u2014if not hundreds\u2014 of men identified as terrorists and including many later cleared of any wrongdoing.<\/span><\/p>\n According to numerous and credible reports in national and international media and from legal experts with the United Nations and the Council of Europe, the Central Intelligence Agency relies on Smithfield-based Aero Contractors Ltd. to provide planes and pilots to transport prisoners overseas for secret interrogation using torture techniques.<\/span><\/p>\n At a press conference in front of the terminal at the Johnston County Airport shown at the top of the news on ABC11-WTVD<\/b><\/a>, reported on the Web site of the CBS afiliate, WRAL-TV<\/b><\/a>, and the News & Observer<\/a>, <\/i><\/b>UNC law professor Deborah Weissman told the nearly fifty people gathered: “We would like the state to enact a public policy that recognizes that there is no place for extraordinary rendition in the state or in any of its political subdivisions.”<\/span><\/p>\n “We would like the state to take all actions to cease facilitating, in any way, shape or form, companies that are complicit in extraordinary rendition and torture,” Weissman said.<\/span><\/p>\n The press conference followed a morning vigil at the NC Dept. of Administration in advance of a two-hour meeting among representatives of the governor and attorney general and Steven Watt, senior staff attorney for the ACLU’s human rights program, and counsel for two men whose description of their torture was included in the report; Professor Weissman and her students; Christina Cowger, of NC Stop Torure Now; and David LaMotte, representing the NC Council of Churches. More than fifty people were on hand for the press conference, including close to 10 Johnston County residents.<\/span><\/p>\n Representatives of District Attorney Doyle and Aero Contractors declined to comment on the report.<\/span><\/p>\n In the days following the event, coverage also appeared in the Smithfield Herald<\/i><\/b><\/a> and on NewsRadio680 WTF<\/b><\/a>(where Christina Cowger was interviewed at ca. minute 38 on a show hosted by Rick and Donna Martinez.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/a>800 North Carolinians Apologize to Victims and Survivors of Torture and Indefinite Detention<\/p>\n In just three weeks during October 2010, North Carolina Stop Torture Now<\/a> and volunteers at the the Peace Booth<\/a> collected signatures from residents representing more than 80 communities across North Carolina.<\/p>\n Each individual pledged to work toward a day when the U.S. government will “acknowledge the crimest committed … take responsibility, and offer an apology …” to the victims and survivors.<\/p>\n November 2010 marked the fifth anniversary of the founding of North Carolina Stop Torture Now (NCSTN), the anti-torture coalition and rendition watchdog.\u00a0 NCSTN has organized protests, petition drives, and legislative campaigns seeking investigation of \u201ctorture taxis,\u201d the airplanes operated by the CIA affiliate Aero Contractors of Smithfield, NC. An overview of our activities and efforts is available here<\/a>. To date, most elected officials in county, state, and federal positions have refused to back an investigation.<\/p>\n \u201cAs citizens of North Carolina,<\/i><\/b>\u201d the letter to survivors states, \u201cwe express our deep regret for the suffering you have endured or are continuing to suffer either at the hands of our government or proxy states.<\/i><\/b>\u201d North Carolinians feel a special responsibility to reach out to torture survivors, the letter continues, because North Carolina\u2019s taxpayer-funded airports have hosted the torture taxis, and the state is home to many who have served in the armed forces or in covert operations. These North Carolinians may themselves have suffered from witnessing or participating in human rights abuses.<\/p>\n From its base at the Johnston County Airport and a hangar at the Kinston Global TransPark, Aero Contractors has operated two airplanes in particular (N379P and N313P) on so-called \u201crendition circuits.\u201d In these circuits, prisoners were handed over to the CIA by European or other foreign governments, Afhgan warlords, or Pakistani bounty hunters, and then secretly shuttled among foreign jails and secret CIA torture facilities.<\/p>\n Despite expos\u00e9s in such high-profile publications as The New York Times<\/b><\/i>, and calls from North Carolina state legislators for investigation, former Governor Easley, Governor Perdue and state Attorney General Roy Cooper have consistently refused to act.<\/p>\n The letter to survivors was sent to some of the dozens of detainees who have been released after secret detention and torture without charges or apology.<\/p>\n Among the former detainees listed below who received the letter all\u2014except Maher Arar\u2014were rendered on North Carolina-based planes. You can read more about each man by following the link associated with his name:<\/p>\n Maher Arar<\/a>, Abou El-Kassim Britel<\/a>, Mohamed Bashmilah<\/a>, Khaled el-Masri<\/a>, Binyam Mohamed<\/a>, Bisher al-Rawi<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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\n![\"STN_20140523-1\"](\"http:\/\/ncstn.org\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/STN_20140523-1-300x275.jpg\")
<\/a>Nearly two dozen activists and allies of North Carolina Stop Torture Now (NCSTN) gathered for a Global Day of Action to Close Guant\u00e1namo and End U.S. Torture on May 23, 2014 at the Terry Sanford Federal Building, 310 New Bern Ave., in Raleigh.<\/p>\n![\"STN_20140523-3\"](\"http:\/\/ncstn.org\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/STN_20140523-3-273x300.jpg\")
<\/a>Cori Crider, a defense attorney for a Syrian detainee, noted that:<\/p>\n![\"STN_20140523-2\"](\"http:\/\/ncstn.org\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/STN_20140523-2-300x224.jpg\")
<\/a>Together, we must continue to say: \u201cNot another broken promise. Not another day in Guant\u00e1namo!\u201d<\/p>\n
\n![\"20120119JNX052-s\"](\"http:\/\/ncstn.org\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/20120119JNX052-s-300x254.jpg\")
<\/a><\/span>JANUARY 19, 2012, SMITHFIELD, NC \u2013 North Carolina Stop Torture Now delivered a University of North Carolina School of Law report<\/a> Wednesday to representatives of Governor Perdue, Attorney General Roy Cooper, District Attorney Susan Doyle and Johnston County Sheriff Steve Bizzell.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n![\"NC](\"http:\/\/ncstn.org\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/NC-Apology-Arabici-191x300.jpg\")
<\/a>As a report<\/a> on torture accountability was unveiled in Europe<\/a>, an open letter to survivors<\/a> of U.S.-directed torture signed by nearly 800 North Carolinians was being delivered.<\/p>\n
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