Tuesday January 15, 2008, 8:26 am

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL USA
PRESS RELEASE

January 14, 2008


Listen to Your Senior Military and Intelligence Advisors, Mr. President--Close Guantanamo and End Torture Now--Urges Amnesty International



(Washington, DC)--Larry Cox, Amnesty International executive director, issued the following remarks in response to comments by both Admiral Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Mike McConnell, Director of National Intelligence, in regards to closing down the U.S.-controlled detention facility in Guantanamo Bay and defining waterboarding as torture.

"President Bush cannot dismiss the mounting pleas to shut down Guantanamo and end torture. The refusal of the Bush administration to admit mistakes and correct injustice will not deter the increasing clamor for the return to the rule of law.

"Admiral Mullen is not the first senior administration official to recognize the need to close the detention center in Guantanamo. Such statements have become the norm, not the exception. President Bush should listen to his military, intelligence and diplomatic advisors, not his political friends. The damage to America's reputation and leadership abilities by the disgraceful tactics within the U.S. government's the war on terror are almost irreparable and will haunt the United States for decades to come.

"Mr. McConnell said, 'If I had water draining into my nose, oh God...Whether it's torture by anybody else's definition, for me it would be torture.' His comments echo the laws as applied by the United States until this administration. He only said what everyone knows, waterboarding is torture."


Contact: AIUSA Media Office, 202-544-0200 x302

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Thursday January 17, 2008, 9:11 am
We cannot locate that document at this time.

Thursday January 17, 2008, 9:12 am
posted a petition on c2nn front page, to make presidental campaign issue, can't get link right now, thx