| Dear friends,
For the sake of God and human decency, PLEASE FORWARD AT LEAST THIS SECTION OF The Shalom Report TO YOUR FRIENDS AND FELLOW-CONGREGANTS, and share this with them at religious services this weekend and next, and on into January, until the Gonzales nomination comes to a vote.
PLEASE BE SURE TO SEE OUR ACTION CLICK AT THE END OF THIS SECTION.
We now know that the International Red Cross told the Bush Administration that torture was being used by the US military on prisoners at Guantanamo, and that the US government knew this when it tried to pooh-pooh the Abu Ghraib revelations as the result of a few bad apples. The use of torture was systemic, not merely accidental.
It continues at various secret sites where the US has sent prisoners to be tortured by other governments - probably Jordan, Egypt, and others - that have even fewer constraints than the Bush Administration.
Among the links in the "chain of command" that OK'd the use of torture was a crucial legal memo from White House counsel Alberto Gonzales to the President, telling him he had the authority to annul the Geneva Conventions (treaties that are the law of the land), to ignore domestic law against torture, and to OK its use. Mr. Bush has now rewarded Mr. Gonzales by naming him to become Attorney General, where he will represent the Department of Justice in measuring what "justice" is and what the President can legally do, and where he will command the behavior of thousands of Federal law-enforcement agents.
His appointment can be rejected by the Senate. In fact, that power was assigned by the Constitution to the Senate precisely to check and balance the tendency of Presidents to puff up their own power by appointing officials who might then assist the President to break the law
Our Founders knew perfectly well of British kings who had used torture. They intended to make that impossible.
That's the story from the standpoint of law and the Constitution. From the standpoint of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, all human beings are created in the Image of God.
Torture shatters and defiles that Image. In every shriek of those in unbearable pain, in every crazed nightmare of those who are denied sleep for days and weeks at a time, in every muffled moan of those plunged under water for minutes at a time, trying not to breathe lest they drown, in every rape, in every emptying of bowels in pain and fear, God is broken. God is defiled. God is raped.
The death penalty returns the soul to eternity or to oblivion, depending on one's thoughts about the meaning of death and life. God's Image finds rest, calm, peace.
But torture keeps the soul deliberately in torment. Keeps God in torment. We urge you to call or write the two most senior members of the Senate Judiciary Committee - Senators Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, and Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont. That committee will make the first decision about whether to confirm this Gonzales nomination.
You can call them at: Sen. Specter, 215/ 597-7200 or 202/224-4254; Sen. Leahy, 202/224-4242 or 802/229-0569. You can write them by clicking here.
For background information on the torture issue, see our Website at - www.shalomctr.org/index.cfm/action/contents/section/torture.html
PLEASE FORWARD AT LEAST THIS SECTION OF The Shalom Report TO YOUR FRIENDS AND FELLOW-CONGREGANTS, and share this with them at religious services this weekend and next, and on into January, until the nomination comes to a vote.
Please note - religious congregations and other tax-exempt organizations ARE legally permitted to raise these questions with Members of Congress. | 
Ruth Messinger
Peter Yarrow - Emcee and Singer
