Mark Phillips: The American Question

5/4/04: Greetings Senator Kerry.

From: mark@trouble-tickets.org
Sent: May 04, 2004 10:51 AM
To: Senator John Kerry
Subject: My vote and the Geneva Conventions.

Greetings Senator Kerry:

I'm an undecided voter currently leaning toward Nader. Along with all decent Americans I'm shocked by the photos of abuse of Iraqi prisoners recently published throughout the international media. I'm skeptical in the extreme of the damage-control claim that these were isolated incidents. Indeed the whole climate of detention of prisoners in the so-called "War on Terror" seems calculated to result in abuses of this or similar sort.

Leonard Rubenstein, executive director of Physicians for Human Rights, has a very fine opinion piece in today's Washington Post. I strongly endorse the concerns he expresses about the climate of unlawful and arbitrary detention fostered by the Bush administration and the tendency toward abuse which it inevitably engenders.

My vote in this year's election will depend in large measure on the position which candidates take on this issue. I strongly encourage you to take a public position pledging that if elected you will immediately implement these measures advocated by Dr. Rubenstein:

"The president, the director of the CIA and the secretary of defense must now do what should have been done 18 months ago. The message has to be clear that interrogators must be subject to rules, and if the rules are to be obeyed, the door to the interrogation room must never be shut. They should publicly pledge that the United States is bound by the Geneva Conventions and will be bound by them with respect to every single military detainee, whether or not it considers them official prisoners of war. They should immediately account for the whereabouts and condition of all in detention and offer the International Committee of the Red Cross, as well as independent human rights monitors and medical experts, full access to all prisoners and all medical records that can reveal abuse. The president should provide to the American public a full accounting of interrogation practices, including all records and documents relating to the most recent violations and past allegations of abuse in Afghanistan, Iraq, Guantanamo, the United States and other countries where individuals have been sent."

Sincerely,

--Mark Phillips
Pacifica, CA

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