Torture

The Des Moines Anti-Torture Collective is hosting an all-ages benefit concert for victims of torture http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=236758676348929 at the Vaudeville Mews in Des Moines. Proceeds will benefit the work of Torture Abolition and Survivor Support Coalition (TASSC) International. http://tassc.org/blog/

If you are unable to attend, you may also make an online contribution at:

Prof. M. Cherif Bassiouni, President Emeritus of the International Human Rights Law Institute, UN human rights expert in Afghanistan, & author of  "The Institutionalization of Torture by the Bush Administration" (2010), refute George Bush's claim in his memoir that the torture committed with his approval was legal because his lawyers told him so.
 H. Candace Gorman, attorney for a Guantanamo prisoner, describe the torture detainees there endure and the ongoing imprisonment of 173 men at Guantanamo, despite President Obama's pledge to close it.

This vigil is hosted and sponsored by its participants.

For the past 14 weeks, a group has gathered weekly in West Des Moines, Ia to vigil against torture.  The word vigil implies, a period of staying awake when one would ordinarily sleep. Many of us spend too much of our time sleeping.

Despite the campaign words of an Obama administration, many of the policies of the Bush Administration remain.  Just this last week prisoners at Bagram were denied habeas corpus petitions that prisoners at Guantanamo won.