Writ of Habeas Corpus
A writ of habeas corpus is a court order addressed to a prison official (or other custodian) ordering that a detainee be brought to the court so it can be determined whether or not that person is imprisoned lawfully or should be released. It is a means by which detainees can seek release from unlawful imprisonment. According to Article One, section nine of the United States Constitution, “The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.”

Arizona Senator John McCain (R) has spoken strongly against the use of torture as an interrogation technique, citing his experience of being tortured as a POW in Vietnam in the reasons for clarifying US Law against torture. His main 3 points are as follows:

First, subjecting prisoners to abuse leads to bad intelligence, because under torture a detainee will tell his interrogator anything to make the pain stop.

Second, mistreatment of our prisoners endangers U.S. troops who might be captured by the enemy - if not in this war, then in the next.

Our research group was assigned the task of talking about the actual policies by the Bush Administration and the US Congress that allowed such conditions to be created. We will begin with a discussion of the many memos produced by the Bush Administration justifying America’s ability to use torture, and my colleagues will discuss the actions of Congress and the Courts, among other things. It should be clear to you from this discussion that the permissive environment for torture was intentionally created by the Bush Administration, including the President himself, and subsequently re-affirmed by the Congress, meaning that they are specifically responsible, although it appears that many, including Rumsfeld, were not aware of what the techniques they authorized were actually like.

Following the terrorist attacks of September 11th and the subsequent global “War on Terror,” multiple allegations and images have appeared surrounding the use of torture by the US in the interrogation of terror suspects. Extraordinary rendition has been going on for over a decade, whereas abuses in Guantanamo Bay Cuba and the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad are more recent phenomena. The United States effectively sponsored torture for over fifty years through the School of the Americas. Each of these cases represents huge human rights abuses and violation of both US and international law.

INTERNATIONAL LAWS CONCERNING TORTURE

United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UNCAT)

The United Nations Convention Against Torture (UNCAT) was initiated by the United Nations in 1987 as an international effort to ban torture. Consequently, the UN Committee Against Torture was created as part of the convention to help implement the goals of UNCAT. Unlike other organizations, UNCAT is one of the few international efforts against torture that actually defines this act.

In the academic world of psychology, it is widely accepted that the inhumane acts perpetrated by torturers are primarily the result of powerful external influences on the individual psyche- in other words, the individual is not innately inhumane, but specific circumstances inevitably educe inhumane behavior. Many of these powerful external influences, however, are fundamental elements for the solidity and success of government institutions. Thus, it becomes somewhat clearer why horrific acts of torture can occur within strongly established institutions.

"The Abu Ghraib Files," Salon.com
March 14, 2006

The human rights scandal now known as "Abu Ghraib" began its journey toward exposure on Jan. 13, 2004, when Spc. Joseph Darby handed over horrific images of detainee abuse to the Army's Criminal Investigation Command (CID). Today Salon presents an archive of 279 photos and 19 videos of Abu Ghraib abuse first gathered by the CID, along with information drawn from the CID's own timeline of the events depicted. Although the world is now sadly familiar with images of naked, hooded prisoners in scenes of horrifying humiliation and abuse, this is the first time that the full dossier of the Army's own photographic evidence of the scandal has been made public.

Continue to Salon.com's "The Abu Ghraib Files"

A judicial panel ruled today that hundreds of foreign nationals detained in Guantanamo Bay do not have the right to challenge their indefinite imprisonment in the U.S. court system. Expect to see this issue in the Supreme Court soon.

"The Ghosts of Abu Ghraib" is the first documentary to feature both Iraqi victims and guards directly involved in torture at the prison. It was created by critically-acclaimed filmmaker Rory Kennedy and premiers tomorrow, Thursday, at 9:30PM on HBO. If you miss it, check HBO's re-broadcast schedule.

Read the New York Times review here.

America's use of torture is wrong. The America I believe in doesn’t torture people or use cruel, inhuman treatment; doesn’t hold people without charge, without fair trials, without hope, and without end; doesn’t kidnap people off the street and ship them to nations known for their brutality; doesn’t condone prisoner abuse and excuse high-ranking government officials from responsibility for that abuse; doesn’t justify the use of secret prisons; and does not rob people of their basic dignity.

I’m joining with the Stanford chapter of Amnesty International to restore the America I believe in.

The America I believe in leads the world on human rights.

More Things You Can Do To Take Action

(1) E-mail this petition to your friends or share this link on Facebook

(2) Inform yourself about America's use of torture with our research and resources

(3) Come to our Events

(4) E-mail Senators Feinstein and Boxer, or find your own representatives

(5) Join the Stanford Against Torture group on Facebook

(6) Sign up to receive e-mail announcements from Stanford Amnesty

(7) Come to Amnesty meetings on Tuesdays at 8PM in the Womens' Center (Firetruck House)

Professor Phil Zimbardo will bid farewell to Stanford on Wednesday, after 50 years of teaching, with a lecture to Psychology 1 students on the psychology of evil. The lecture is entitled "The Lucifer Effect" after his latest book, and draws from social psychology, including his own Stanford Prison Experiment, to show how horrible abuses such as those witnessed at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay are humanly possible. It is a riveting lecture that you don't want to miss.

Seems like a moment ago when I was nervously preparing my first lecture at Yale College back in 1957, as the first graduate student in psychology to be allowed to teach his own introductory psychology course to the "Yale Men."

Somehow, fifty years has gone by teaching that course from small seminars to large lectures with 1,000 students, and it has always been a joy and a challenge to make it work better for each new generation of students. I have been able to keep up my scholarship in this ever-changing discipline by writing the textbook for the course, Psychology and Life, now in its 18th edition.

I shall miss my daily contacts with my students and the many dedicated teaching assistants, but will work at staying young at heart by challenging injustice and inequity wherever it exists, notably now through my new book, which will be the topic of this farewell lecture, The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil.

PHIL ZIMBARDO

The Psychology 1 lecture is open to visitors and takes place on Wednesday, March 7th from 11:00AM to 12:15PM in the basement of the Psychology building, room 40 (basement entrance is behind the building).

See the movie the New York Times calls "A film of staggering force."

Our first major event for the Stanford Amnesty campaign to raise awareness of America's use of torture is a screening of the critically acclaimed film, The Road to Guantanamo.

When: Tuesday, March 6th at 7:30 PM
Where: Language Corner (Building 260), Room 113

Watch the trailer:

You can also read the NYTimes review. Contact us with any questions at stanfordagainsttorture at gmail dot com.

This week in Miami, federal Judge Marcia Cooke is trying to determine
whether alleged terror conspirator Jose Padilla is mentally fit to stand trial. Having been repeatedly denied a writ of habeas corpus, Padilla was held for 1,307 days in a 9' by 7' cell in a Navy brig in South Carolina, where he was deprived of sleep, light, sight, sound, and isolated for extended periods of time. Among other things, Padilla claims he was also shackled in stress positions and administered drugs.

Padilla's story is very sad, but it's important to keep an eye on his trial. Here's a passage from Dahlia Lithwick's piece in Slate magazine, where she argues that Padilla's case demonstrates the futility of torture...