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There is a huge contradiction in society. On campuses especially, many have taken a stand by campaigning or protesting against Bush, but have then returned to life as usual and resigned themselves to the idea that they have done all they can. We get a good response every where we go, but still far too few are taking the reigns and acting in a way that can actually prevent Bush's program from being bolted into place permanently and around the world. The truth of the sentence, “That which you will not resist and mobilize to stop, you will learn - or be forced - to accept,” is being born out. Despite their better intentions, people all around us are learning to accept the unconscionable, learning to turn the page on the photos of torture, learning to count down the days to the end of Roe V. Wade, learning to open their backpacks up to hysteria-driven police searches, learning to “watch what they say” in class rooms, learning to protest only in police pens, if at all. The logic of “not offending” anyone, and of “not making waves” is a guarantee that we will land in the full fascist nightmare of Bush's new Rome. People need to be snapped out of their paralysis, woken the fuck up, and given a way to really affect the enormity of what we are confronting. To this end, we have made this instructional video to show how we can do this. The point is to challenge students with the reality of what it means that “Your Government is openly torturing people and justifying it.” And that unless you are throwing in everything you've got to drive out this criminal regime, you are learning to accept this. An interesting note, as you will see, even for those of us producing this video, the experience of being confronted with the responsibility we all have for this country becoming a nation of torturers was very sobering and made us uncomfortable. This is the point. People don't want to be responsible for these heinous cruelties, but they need to know that just wanting it to stop is not enough, every time you look away, or walk away, or turn the page, or refuse to challenge others, or get “too busy” with schoolwork to organize, you are holding the leash. The fact that “everyone else is” going about their daily lives too only makes it worse! The idea is to destroy people's ability to separate themselve from what is being done in their names, to break them out of their “normal routine,” and hook them up with the only way out - taking on and driving out the criminal regime forcing this on the world. This will take struggle, sacrifice, bravery, and disruption of our own and other's routines - but when torture becomes routine, this is the only moral and sane way to live. All out for November 2nd! Some important instructions: 1) The “torture victim” must stay in character the whole time. This includes staying “in costume”; you can't take the hood on and off. And importantly, this means you need to act and talk like a “torture victim”- don't start giving political speeches, and don't turn into an organizer. You can compare the answers that people say to you against the weight of your experience. There should be others in the crowd and at a table nearby getting the crowd organized after they have been shocked by the reality of what their government is doing. 2) The “torture victim” has to really engage people in a very personal and challenging way. This has to not just be a rant, but a way to reach inside people's souls. You know people are agonizing over this, and you want to reach that part of them. You need to get a lot of back and forth going between yourself and the crowd, as well as creating a whole scene around you, where students are gathering to see what's going on and debating it out amongst each other. It is important to tell people to “take the leash” and respond to their response. First, you may need to challenge people to take the leash- “it's okay, your government does it all the time. You won't get in trouble. Doesn't it make you feel safe? Aren't you patriotic?” Then, if they refuse the leash, say things like- “I know, you like to think you're not holding it - its set up that way. But you are, every time you turn the page from the pictures of me, every day you walk around and I am here - you're holding it. Go ahead, see how it feels in your hand. You might like it, part of you seems to, every day you get more use to being part of a nation of torturers - I bet some days you don't even think about it at all, do you?” You have to take control of the conversation, think on your feet, and keep challenging people with the horrible reality they are accepting. 3) The element of surprise is really important for this. The whole point is to jolt people out of their daily routine and show them the daily routine forced on the Iraqi people. You need to do this once and do this well on campus. And run with it- get students to take you into their classes. This should be what everyone is talking about that night, with some becoming organizers, some arguing “that was going to far”, etc., but no one sitting on the sidelines anymore.
I’d rather die than have someone tortured to save my life." --Craig Murray
The Bush Administration Torture Policy-Come Hear the Evidence: Harvard Law School Wednesday, April 26, 7:00 pm Langdell South
Speakers: Craig Murray, Janis Karpinsky, C.Clark Kissenger and a critique by a Harvard law student of the infamous “Bybee torture memo” that sought to provide a legal cover for the Bush torture policy.
The Bush Administration’s War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity: Come hear the EvidenceThursday, April 27,
More info on speakers and sponsoring groups below.
Witness: Craig Murray--former British ambassador to Uzbekistan who resigned over the use of intelligence from prisoners rendered to Uzbekistan for torture.
"I went to meetings with colleagues of mine, people I had known for over 20 years, ordinary, nice people who were setting down on paper strategies by which what we were doing could be said not to circumvent the U.N. Convention against Torture. . . . At that moment I understood how some civil servant ended up writing out the orders for cattle trucks to go to Auschwitz and felt they were only doing their job."
Witness: Janis Karpinski (U.S. army ret.)--former commander of Abu Ghraib and all prisons in Iraq.
"General Miller and General Sanchez would not have implemented a new set of [harsher] techniques without the approval of … Secretary of Defense [Rumsfeld]. The Secretary of Defense would not have authorized without the approval of the Vice President."
C. Clark Kissinger, convener of the Commission of Inquiry on Crimes Against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration (www.bushcommission.org). Larry Everest--author of Oil, Power, and Empire:
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