HB558: call Hammen and every Delegate on the House Health & Govt.Ops Committee

UPDATE, 3/12: HB558 has unfortunately been voted down in committee.
See above.

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The “Maryland Liberty Preservation Act of 2013” (HB 558) would prohibit “an agency of the State, a county of the State, an employee of the State or a county acting in an official capacity, or a member of the Maryland National Guard or the Maryland Defense Force, on official State duty, to knowingly aid an agency of the United States in the detention of a person in accordance with” the indefinite detention provisions of the NDAA.

The bill is currently before the House Health and Government Operations Committee, where Chairman Peter Hammen decides whether it will be voted on by the full committee. And unless you can speak to him directly, the best way to convince him to do that is to join us in placing lots of phone calls to him and the rest of the committee — particularly Democrats, who are in the majority and may otherwise prefer not to advance a bill sponsored by Republican Delegate Don Dwyer.

Here are the phone numbers for each of the committee members of the Maryland House Health and Government Operations Committee, starting with the chairman.  (The final four digits are also the extensions to specify if you call using the Maryland legislative 800 number 1-800-492-7122.)

Democratic members:

• Peter A. Hammen, Chair: (410) 841-3772, (301) 858-3772
• Shane E. Pendergrass, Vice-Chair: (410) 841-3139, (301) 858-3139
• Eric M. Bromwell: (410) 841-3766, (301) 858-3766
• Bonnie L. Cullison: (410) 841-3883, (301) 858-3883 (Mo Co delegate)
  
• John P. Donoghue: (410) 841-3125, (301) 858-3125
• James W. Hubbard: (410) 841-3103, (301) 858-3103
• Ariana B. Kelly: (410) 841-3642, (301) 858-3642 (Mo Co delegate)
  
• Dan K. Morhaim: (410) 841-3054, (301) 858-3054
• Peter F. Murphy: (410) 841-3247, (301) 858-3247
• Shirley Nathan-Pulliam: (410) 841-3358, (301) 858-3358
• Nathaniel T. Oaks: (410) 841-3283, (301) 858-3283
• Joseline A. Pena-Melnyk: (410) 841-3502, (301) 858-3502
• Kirill Reznik: (410) 841-3039, (301) 858-3039 (Mo Co delegate)
  
• Shawn Z. Tarrant: (410) 841-3545, (301) 858-3545
• Veronica L. Turner: (410) 841-3212, (301) 858-3212

Republican members:

• Robert A. Costa: (410) 841-3551, (301) 858-3551
• Donald B. Elliott: (410) 841-3118, (301) 858-3118
• William J. Frank: (410) 841-3793, (301) 858-3793
• A. Wade Kach: (410) 841-3359, (301) 858-3359
• Nicholaus R. Kipke: (410) 841-3421, (301) 858-3421
• Susan W. Krebs: (410) 841-3200, (301) 858-3200
• Patrick L. McDonough: (410) 841-3334, (301) 858-3334
• Justin D. Ready: (410) 841-3070, (301) 858-3070

Say (or rephrase in the way that you would say it) at least the first three sentences of the message below.  The rest may be helpful talking points if you engage the staff person in a discussion.

Given the bill’s sponsorship by Republican Delegate Dwyer,  it may well be helpful when calling Democrats to emphasize that you are a Democratic / liberal / progressive voter if that is the case.

As a Maryland citizen [when calling a Democratic delegate's office, and if true: and a Democrat / liberal /  progressive voter], I’m very concerned by the indefinite detention provisions of the NDAA. 

So I’m calling to urge Delegate _____ to support scheduling a vote in the Health and Government Operations Committee on HB558, the Maryland Liberty Preservation Act of 2013.

I also urge ___ to vote in support of the bill — thank you!

[Why opposed to NDAA]: The indefinite detention provisions of the NDAA allow the military to arrest, indefinitely detain, and deny a trial or day in court to anyone—even US citizens—accused of a “belligerent act,” or any terror-related offense. The NDAA subjects these individuals to arbitrary detention without trial, denying the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee of due process and Sixth Amendment rights to challenge evidence and confront one’s accusers. The NDAA also endangers First and Fourth Amendment protections, because the PATRIOT Act expanded the definition of “material support for terrorism” to include crimes of speech and association even by defendants who neither committed nor ever intended to support violence.

[Where similar bills have passed]: Resolutions opposing the NDAA have been passed by city councils from Fairfax, California to Takoma Park, Maryland, and state legislatures from Montana to Virginia.

[What HB558 will do]: Maryland state and county law enforcement and National Guard personnel should not be a party to unconstitutional violations of due process, and by passing the Maryland Liberty Preservation Act, the state of Maryland makes clear that they will not.

Call as many delegates as you can — particularly Democratic delegates, and very particularly Chairman Hammen. Please feel free to let us know what you learn in these conversations, either as a comment to this post or in an email to mococivilrights@gmail.com. Thanks!

Defending Dissent: A Public Forum — Wheaton, April 18

Let us know you’re coming and invite friends at our Facebook event page; you can also mark your Google calendar here.

Political Repression & Civil Liberties post 9/11

What effect has the “The War on Terror” had on free expression and grassroots political organizing in Maryland and across the United States since 9/11?  Come to a public forum sponsored by Montgomery County Civil Rights Coalition and hear from citizen organizers working to advance their causes and protect their rights.

Wheaton Regional Library
11701 Georgia Ave, Silver Spring, MD (map)
Thursday, April 18, 7pm

Speakers include:

• Kit Bonson (MCCRC) – Overview of civil liberties issues on a national scale and introduction of other speakers
• Saqib Ali (CAIR-MD) – police profiling and pre-emptive prosecution/entrapment of Arab/Muslim communities as well as other targeted communities/groups
• Megan Jenny (Chesapeake Climate Action Network) – on harassment/prosecutions of environmental activists
• Max Obuszewski (Baltimore Nonviolence Center) – Maryland State Police infiltration of MD activists and similar events since then.
• Sue Udry (Defending Dissent) – drawing the connections between movement experiences; future directions and coalition goals, especially regarding MCCRC’s “Rapid Response Network” in case local activists or others are targeted by local, state or federal agents

The speakers’ remarks will be followed by a Q&A period.

Saqib Ali

Saqib Ali is Government Affairs director for CAIR Maryland (Council on American Islamic Relations) and has lived in Montgomery County for the past 20 years during which time he earned a Bachelors and Master’s Degree in Computer Science from the University of Maryland. Saqib is a practicing Software Engineer. He is married and has two young daughters. In 2006, after a long history of community activism, Saqib Ali ran for public office. He defeated an 8-year incumbent in a Democratic Primary election to claim a seat in the Maryland House of Delegates. He is the first Muslim ever elected to public office in Maryland.

Megan Jenny

Megan Jenny is the Maryland Field Coordinator for the Chesapeake Climate Action Network. Megan was born and raised in northern NJ and graduated from Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA with a degree in English. Before joining the CCAN team, she organized in Connecticut and Massachusetts with Toxics Action Center, where she worked on local campaigns to fight polluting facilities, proposals for pesticide spraying and to clean up and prevent contamination in drinking water sources. She moved to D.C. to organize with The DC Project (now Groundswell) and recruit homeowners to invest in energy efficiency measures. As Field Coordinator, Megan oversees the grassroots organizing around CCAN’s legislative campaigns in Maryland to reduce climate pollution and bring clean energy to the state.

Max Obuszewski

Max Obuszewski’s educational background includes a BSEE and an MBA. His rap sheet totals some 70 arrests and a few jail sentences, including one for six months for protesting Persian Gulf War I. His lifestyle is simple, and his political beliefs include pacifism, anarchism and vegetarianism. As a nonviolent activist who engages in direct action, he has attracted the attention of FBI agents, members of various police forces and NSA operatives. He has served time twice after arrests at the Central Intelligence Agency. Some of the groups he works with are the Pledge of Resistance-Baltimore, the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance, and Chesapeake Physicians for Social Responsibility.

Sue Udry

Sue Udry is the executive director of the Defending Dissent Foundation, a national organization dedicated to protecting the right to protest, organize, and speak out. Over a quarter of a century working for peace and social justice has taught Sue that the right to dissent is crucial to expanding democracy, promoting justice, and enlarging the global human rights perspective. Sue is on the board of the National Coalition to Protect Civil Freedoms and the National Coalition to Protect Student Privacy. She is treasurer of the DC chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, and an advisor to the Charity and Security Network.

Let us know you’re coming and invite friends at our Facebook event page.  You can also mark your Google calendar here.  We look forward to seeing you!

MCCRC and Electric Maid: the beginning of a beautiful friendship

As readers have seen, Montgomery County Civil Rights Coalition has begun to hold events and meetings at Electric Maid Community Exchange, and is planning more — like the free screening of the excellent “Better This World” documentary on March 26 at 7pm.

Electric Maid is located on 268 Carroll St. NW in DC, just across the Maryland border; its volunteers describe it as a “community living room or third-space in the heart of Takoma: a community arts space, performance venue, and resource center for all ages.  Our name is inspired by the Electrik Maid, a local coffee shop that was a staple of Takoma Park for many years.” 

We’ll provide a link (in the right hand column of this blog and in emailings) to Electric Maid’s web site so you can have a look at upcoming events like “open mike” music nights and other live acts.  We’re grateful for the warm response we’ve had from everyone at Electric Maid.  You can contact them at outreach@electricmaid.org to learn how you can schedule events there, too.

Free showing of “Better This World” March 26 at Electric Maid

The Montgomery County Civil Rights Coalition and the Electric Maid Community Exchange continue their collaboration with another free showing of an excellent civil liberties documentary, this time the award-winning “Better This World.”

Winner, Best Documentary, Gotham Independent Film Awards; Winner, Creative Recognition Award, IDA Intl. Documentary Assoc.; Best Documentary Feature, SF Intl Film Festival 2011; Winner, Writers Guild Award, Best Documentary Screenplay; Winner, Best Documentary Feature, 2011 Sarasota Film Festival; Official Selection, AFI/Discovery SILVERDOCS Documentary Festival 2011.

268 Carroll St. NW, Washington DC

How did two boyhood friends from Midland, Texas wind up arrested on terrorism charges at the 2008 Republican National Convention? Better This World follows the journey of David McKay (22) and Bradley Crowder (23) from political neophytes to accused domestic terrorists with a particular focus on the relationship they develop with a radical activist mentor in the six months leading up to their arrests.

Their mentor turned out to be an informant for the FBI, who manipulated and entrapped them in order to discredit the protesters and justify a massive, militarized police crackdown at the convention.

A dramatic story of idealism, loyalty, crime and betrayal, Better This World goes to the heart of the War on Terror and its impact on civil liberties and political dissent in post-9/11 America.

Let us know you’re coming at our Facebook event page for this screening or in comments here — and join the conversation about the difference between law enforcement and crime production, and between warranted, probable cause based surveillance and unwarranted harassment and entrapment.

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Thank you to Electric Maid Community Exchange!
To learn about other events at this great community resource, click the image below.

268 Carroll St. NW, at the DC/Maryland border and across from the Takoma Metro station. electricmaid.org

Contact Delegate Hammen: bring the Maryland Liberty Preservation Act to a vote!

The “Maryland Liberty Preservation Act of 2013” (HB 558) would prohibit “an agency of the State, a county of the State, an employee of the State or a county acting in an official capacity, or a member of the Maryland National Guard or the Maryland Defense Force, on official State duty, to knowingly aid an agency of the United States in the detention of a person in accordance with” the indefinite detention provisions of the NDAA.

The bill is currently before the House Health and Government Operations Committee, where Chairman Peter Hammen decides whether it will be voted on by the full committee.  Please join our efforts to persuade him to do so:

1. Send an email to Delegate Hammen (click the link or copy and edit the message below)
2. Call Delegate Hammen’s office at 1-800-492-7122, ext. 3772 (toll free), using at least the first paragraph of the message below.
3. Add your name to our petition
4. Forward this message to your friends - use the “Share This” button at the end of this post
5. Join our email list for further updates

Our message to Delegate Hammen:

TO: peter.hammen@house.state.md.us
SUBJECT: Please schedule the Maryland Liberty Preservation Act of 2013 (HB558) for a vote

Dear Delegate Hammen,

As a Maryland citizen who is deeply concerned by the indefinite detention provisions of the NDAA, I urge you to schedule a vote in the Health and Government Operations Committee on HB558, the Maryland Liberty Preservation Act of 2013. In addition, I urge you to vote in support of the bill.

I am deeply concerned by the indefinite detention provisions of the NDAA, which allow the military to arrest, indefinitely detain, and deny a trial or day in court to anyone—even US citizens—accused of a “belligerent act,” or any terror-related offense. The NDAA subjects these individuals to arbitrary detention without trial, denying the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee of due process and Sixth Amendment rights to challenge evidence and confront one’s accusers. The NDAA also endangers First and Fourth Amendment protections, because the PATRIOT Act expanded the definition of “material support for terrorism” to include crimes of speech and association even by defendants who neither committed nor ever intended to support violence.

Resolutions opposing the NDAA have been passed by city councils from Fairfax, California to Takoma Park, Maryland, and state legislatures from Montana to Virginia.

Maryland state and county law enforcement and National Guard personnel should not be a party to unconstitutional violations of due process, and by passing the Maryland Liberty Preservation Act, the state of Maryland makes clear that they will not.

Thank you!

NRCAT movie, president show facts, not fiction about torture at Electric Maid event

“If you see Zero Dark Thirty, take twenty minutes and see this movie too.”  That was one of the messages the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) president Linda Gustitus shared at Tuesday’s screening of “Ending U.S.-sponsored Torture Forever” at Takoma Park DC’s “Electric Maid.”

The video (shown above) is part of NRCAT’s “Fact not Fiction” campaign prompted by the release of “Zero Dark Thirty,” a movie that many feel presented torture as justifiable and effective when it was neither. Over a dozen people gathered at the Electric Maid to watch the NRCAT video on Tuesday evening, and then joined in an excellent discussion led by Ms. Gustitus.

Linda Gustitus (NRCAT), Zainab Chaudry (CAIR-MD).

Ms. Gustitus is a former chief of Staff to Armed Services Committee Chairman Senator Carl Levin (MI).  She teaches at American and Georgetown Universities and has been the president of NRCAT since 2007. In her opening remarks, she explained that NRCAT’s number one priority is to get a commission of inquiry about detainee treatment after 9/11, and to hold wrongdoers accountable.  She continued,

“The best option we have for that right now is the Senate Intelligence Committee, which has done a three year investigation into the torture program, and come out with a bipartisan 6,000 page document that apparently, according to those people who have seen it, is very thorough and very compelling.  [...]  We’re trying to get that released to the public.  There’s a big push on the CIA’s side to keep it confidential and classified.”

Readers can add their names to the NRCAT “A Call For the Facts” petition urging the release of this report.   NRCAT also opposes prolonged solitary confinement as amounting to “Torture in U.S. prisons.” Ms. Gustitus noted “there’s no other country that uses prolonged solitary confinement like the United States,” with an estimated 36,000 prisoners in prolonged solitary confinement at any given moment.   Finally, identifying Islamophobia as a contributing factor to the U.S. practice of torture in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, NRCAT participates in a “Shoulder to Shoulder” coalition to foster relationships between Muslims and non-Muslims.

After Ms. Gustitus’s remarks, the subsequent discussion was excellent and touched on a number of important points and references, such as…

• the recent Open Society report “Globalizing Torture: CIA Secret Detention and Extraordinary Rendition,” which documents the complicity of many other governments with U.S.-sponsored torture since 9/11.
• the fact that U.S. torture practices were copied from North Korea via the KUBARK program — yet North Korean practices were designed to elicit false confessions for propaganda purposes, not useful intelligence.
• the smaller percentage of young people who absolutely reject torture compared to older people; on the other hand, wavering and sometimes disappointing post-9/11 US opinions on torture may be influenced by “false consensus” — the belief that many more people support torture than actually do.
• opposition within the military and ex-military to torture, highlighting Human Rights First work with ex-military in this regard
• …and more

The NRCAT video “Ending U.S.-Sponsored Torture Forever” video, Ms. Gustitus’s opening remarks, and the ensuing discussion can be viewed in a single playlist on our YouTube channel “Montgomery County Civil Rights.”

Coalition letter: Bring “Maryland Liberty Preservation Act” to a vote!

As readers of this blog know, a bill titled “Maryland Liberty Preservation Act of 2013” (HB558) has been introduced in the Maryland General Assembly; if enacted, it would prohibit Maryland officials from cooperating with the indefinite detention provisions of the NDAA. [Read more about the issue here.]

This is an important bill, but it has an uncertain future, so help is needed in getting it over the first hurdle — favorably voting it out of the House Health and Government Operations Committee.

Accordingly, MCCRC activists are now circulating a letter –  addressed to the chairman of the Maryland House Health and Government Affairs Committee — to Maryland peace, justice, civil rights, and civil liberties organizations for endorsement, urging just that.

The deadline for joining the letter — published below — is March 8.  If the bill passes the committee, we’ll revise this letter and send it to all members of the House asking them to vote in favor of the bill, then hopefully another revision to send it to members of the Senate. We’ll include endorsing organizations’ names on all versions of the letter.

Delegate Peter A. Hammen

241 House Office Building
6 Bladen Street
Annapolis, MD 21401

Dear Delegate Hammen,

The undersigned organizations from Maryland representing peace, faith, civil and immigrant rights, and other organizations urge you to schedule a vote in the Health and Government Operations Committee on HB558, the Maryland Liberty Preservation Act of 2013. In addition, we urge you to vote in support of the bill.

We are deeply concerned by the indefinite detention provisions of the NDAA, which allow the military to arrest, indefinitely detain, and deny a trial or day in court to anyone—even US citizens—accused of a “belligerent act,” or any terror-related offense. The NDAA subjects these individuals to arbitrary detention without trial, denying the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee of due process and Sixth Amendment rights to challenge evidence and confront one’s accusers. The NDAA also endangers First and Fourth Amendment protections, because the PATRIOT Act expanded the definition of “material support for terrorism” to include crimes of speech and association even by defendants who neither committed nor ever intended to support violence.

Resolutions opposing the NDAA have been passed by city councils from Fairfax, California to Takoma Park, Maryland, and state legislatures from Montana to Virginia.

Maryland state and county law enforcement and National Guard personnel should not be a party to unconstitutional violations of due process, and by passing the Maryland Liberty Preservation Act, the state of Maryland makes clear that they will not.

Sincerely

[Your organization]

Individuals are encouraged to send the same letter on their own behalf.

Contact us at mococivilrights@gmail.com to register your organization’s endorsement; you can also use the comment area below to begin that process.  We hope to publish, with permission, additional selected organizational statements opposing indefinite detention provisions of the NDAA, and urging the Maryland legislature to vote on HB558.

Video of Annapolis testimony on HB558; please email Mo Co delegates!

As reported last week, MCCRC activists went to Annapolis to join many others testifying in support of the “Maryland Liberty Preservation Act of 2013″ (HB 558); the bill would prohibit state and county agencies or the MD National Guard from “knowingly aid[ing] an agency of the United States in the detention of a person” under the indefinite detention provisions of the NDAA.   Below are video recordings of statements by Sue Udry (Defending Dissent), Thomas Nephew (MCCRC), and Mudusar Raza (CAIR-MD).

A playlist of all testimony can be accessed here.

We believe committee delegates were receptive to statements by so many diverse constituents, but would benefit from hearing from more of us.  To send an email to any of the Montgomery County delegates on the committee — Delegate Bonnie Cullison (Dist.19, Aspen Hill), Delegate Ariana Kelly (Dist.16, Bethesda/Glen Echo),  Delegate Kirill Reznick (Dist.39, Laytonsville), or all three — click the email link, personalize the message if you like, and send it.

Feel free to CC us at mococivilrights@gmail.com; we’ll be happy to publish selected emails, let us know if that’s OK with you.  Thanks!

Broad coalition battles NDAA at Annapolis hearing

L to R: Sue Udry (Defending Dissent), Mudusar Raza (CAIR-MD), Sara Love (ACLU-MD), , Carl Poole (PANDA-Frederick), Thomas Nephew (MCCRC)
Click the image for a slideshow of other photos.

MCCRC activists Sue Udry (Defending Dissent) and Thomas Nephew joined others including Mudusar Raza (CAIR – MD), Sara Love (ACLU – MD), Carl Poole (PANDA-Frederick), and others testifying in support of the “Maryland Liberty Preservation Act of 2013” (HB 558) on Thursday in Annapolis.

The hearing, held in the Lowe House Office Building in Annapolis, was before the House Health and Government Operations Committee.  It began early in the afternoon, but due to the many other bills requiring consideration, HB 558 advocates needed to wait patiently until the early evening to present their views to the committee.

In her comments, Sue Udry noted that “Activists across the political spectrum are concerned about provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act that strip US citizens of their right to a jury trial when an unnamed bureaucrat or politician claims that they “support” “forces” which are “associated” with Al Qaeda. None of those essential terms: support, forces or associated, are defined. The law does not require even an allegation that a detained person caused any harm or threat of harm to the United States or to any U.S. interest. Mere allegation of membership in, or support of, an alleged terrorist group could be the basis for indefinite detention. We are concerned because the law is so broad and so vague and allows the government to decide behind closed doors who can be locked up, that the potential for abuse is great.”

Thomas Nephew remarked “As I and others in the Montgomery County Civil Rights Coalition helped find and build support for the Takoma Park NDAA resolution, what became clear to me — and what I’m sure will become clear to both Republicans and Democrats on this committee today — was the breadth of concern about the NDAA, from all corners of the political spectrum and all walks of American life: activists insistent on their right to free speech; Muslim-Americans demanding freedom from the fear of being jailed forever for nonviolent beliefs or associations; other minorities like Japanese-Americans recalling how many of their own have faced unjust and unjustifiable detentions without trial; patriotic Americans of every race and creed — whether conservative or liberal — expressing their deep distrust of metastasizing executive powers.  [...]  The NDAA is a civil liberties emergency.  Together, we would take a stand for lifting that emergency, and protecting rights as old as the Magna Carta.  I hope this committee will give the Assembly the opportunity to do so.”

Witnesses gather before the start of the House Health and Government Operations Committee hearing on February 21, 2013.

In introducing the bill, Delegate Don Dwyer took the witness stand alongside Sara Love, legislative director for the ACLU of Maryland, and smilingly remarked on how unusual that was.  Sara Love agreed, noting “it’s not often that the ACLU gets to sit on a panel at the invitation of Delegate Dwyer!”  As did many other witnesses, Ms. Love pointed out that a Federal district judge ruled last fall that the NDAA is unconstitutional.  (The ruling was immediately appealed by the Obama administration, and a higher court has stayed the decision pending the outcome of the appeal.)

Mudusar Raza, of the newly formed Maryland chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, constitutionalist blogger Scott Strzelczyk, and Carl Poole, of the People against the NDAA (PANDA) chapter in Frederick, MD, were also eloquent in their denunciations of the NDAA and in urging the committee to approve the bill’s consideration by the full Assembly.  PANDA and the Tenth Amendment Center have been particularly active in promoting HB 558 to their Maryland supporters; we plan to be as well.

Mudusar Raza (CAIR-MD), Del. Dwyer (R)

We will link to each participant’s statements as those become available:

• Sue Udry (Defending Dissent)
• Thomas Nephew (MCCRC)
• Mudusar Raza (CAIR-MD)
• Scott Strzelczyk (“A Citizens View”)
• Sara Love (ACLU-MD)

We will also post video of the hearing in the near future.  [UPDATE: video posted here.]

Please visit our information page about the NDAA to learn more about this issue.

Screening, discussion of “Ending U.S.-Sponsored Torture Forever” Feb 26 at Electric Maid

The film “Zero Dark Thirty” has reminded Americans of the fact that torture became a routine tool of U.S. policy during the 2000-2008 Bush administration.   While the movie is a contender for the 2013 “best picture” Oscar award,  MCCRC activists have leafleted theatergoers in the area to inform them of the serious misrepresentations the movie makes about the efficacy and acceptability of torture.

To continue to push back against torture and torture propaganda, MCCRC will now also screen the short documentary “Ending U.S.-Sponsored Torture Forever” on Tuesday, February 26, 7:00pm at the Electric Maid Community Exchange on the DC/Takoma Park border (map), across from the Takoma Metro station.

The movie was produced for the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) as part of its “Fact not Fiction” campaign.   In just twenty minutes, the movie presents a compelling case against torture, both as a moral outrage and as a practical failure.  As a discussion guide puts it, the documentary “describes the torture practices of the U.S. government since 9/11, portrays the lasting effects on the survivors of torture around the world, and offers perspectives from a variety of faiths.”

The screening of the documentary will be followed by a discussion of the film — and we’re honored to announce this will be led by none other than the president of NRCAT, Linda Gustitus, former chief of staff to Armed Services committee chairman Senator Carl Levin (MI) and a professor and lecturer at American and Georgetown Universities.

Beyond the film, we hope viewers will want to discuss what can and must be done to end U.S.-sponsored torture forever.  One first step may be “A Call for the Facts”: a demand that the recent Senate Intelligence Committee report on torture be declassified and released to the public.

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Thank you to Electric Maid Community Exchange!
To learn about other events at this great community resource, click the image below.

268 Carroll St. NW, at the DC/Maryland border and across from the Takoma Metro station. electricmaid.org