wfn.org | Chemberlin, Kinnamon featured on anti-torture video

["Philip Jenks" <pjenks@ncccusa.org>]

>Religious leaders add their voices to a video
>supporting Physicians' report on torture 

  - Denounce Health Professionals' Involvement in Experiments on  Detainees  

>See www.ncccusa.org/news/100609nrcatact.html

Washington, June 9, 2010 -- The National Religious Campaign Against  Torture 
(NRCAT) has released a new video, Accounting for Torture,  featuring the voices 
of religious leaders who supporting the message of  the Physicians for Human 
Rights report, Experiments in Torture: Human  Subject Research and Evidence in 
the 'Enhanced' Interrogation  Program. 

The video features the voices of National Council of Churches President  Peg 
Chemberlin, General Secretary Michael Kinnamon, Jim Winkler,  director of the 
United Methodist General Board of Church and Society,  Rabbi Gerry Serotta, 
Clergy Beyond Borders, the Rev. Richard Cizik, New  Evangelical Partnership for 
the Common Good, and Dr. Scott A. Allen,  Physicians for Human Rights. 

>View the video at www.nrcat.org/act 

"As religious leaders we commend Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) for  their 
groundbreaking work uncovering and documenting evidence of the  involvement of 
United States military and intelligence health  professionals in performing 
experiments, without consent, on detainees  in the custody of the U.S. 
following September 2001," said the Rev.  Richard Rev. Richard L. Killmer, 
Executive Director of NRCAT. 

>Killmer released the following statement:  

"Such experimentation would violate the legal and ethical protections  afforded 
by the Nuremberg Code, the Geneva Conventions, federal  regulations governing 
human subject research - known as 'The Common  Rule' - and the federal War 
Crimes Act.  

"We have adamantly opposed and consistently spoken out against  U.S.-sponsored 
torture. Torture is immoral and abhorrent, violating the  teachings of all our 
religious traditions.  

"Just as adamantly, we now condemn these alleged acts of illegal and  immoral 
experimentation. Separate and distinct from the torture, such  medical 
experiments could themselves constitute war crimes and possibly  crimes against 
humanity.  

"With painstaking care, the PHR report details how the experiments and  the 
participation of health professionals in the interrogations of  detainees were 
critical components for the fabrication of a legal  framework construed to 
protect interrogators from prosecution for  committing acts of torture. The 
experiments also served to refine the  illegal torture practices used by the 
U.S. government.  

"These revelations are profoundly disturbing and raise for us the  question of 
what more remains hidden. The spiritual health of our nation  will continue to 
suffer until the full truth opens a path to the justice  and healing that our 
nation so desperately needs.  

"With heavy hearts and a keen sense of urgency, we call upon the  President and 
the Congress to establish a Commission of Inquiry to  undertake a comprehensive 
investigation into the use of torture -  including its use in medical 
experiments on detainees - and to pursue  the steps required to ensure that 
U.S.-sponsored torture will never,  ever, again be sanctioned and practiced." 
 
For further comment, you can contact Rev. Richard Killmer directly: Rev.  
Richard Killmer, Executive Director, National Religious Campaign Against  
Torture
Office: 202-547-1920; Cell: 207-450-7242; Email rkillmer@nrcat.org
----- The National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) is a growing  
membership organization committed to ending U.S.-sponsored torture, and  cruel, 
inhuman and degrading treatment. Since its formation in January  2006, more 
than 280 religious groups have joined NRCAT, including  representatives from 
the Catholic, evangelical Christian, mainline  Protestant, Unitarian 
Universalist, Quaker, Orthodox Christian, Jewish,  Muslim, Hindu, Baha'i, 
Buddhist, and Sikh communities. Members include  national denominations and 
faith groups, regional organizations and  local congregations.  

Contact: Alanna Sobel, NRCAT, asobel@fenton.com, (202) 789-7751
Ben Greenberg, Physicians for Human Rights, bgreenberg@phrusa.org, (617)  
301-4237                             
----- 
Since its founding in 1950, the National Council of the Churches of  Christ in 
the USA has been the leading force for ecumenical cooperation  among Christians 
in the United States. The NCC's member faith groups -  from a wide spectrum of 
Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox, Evangelical,  historic African American and 
Living Peace churches - include 45 million  persons in more than 100,000 local 
congregations in communities across  the nation. 

NCC News contact:  Philip E. Jenks, 212-870-2228 (office),  646-853-4212 
(cell), pjenks@ncccusa.org