Dear Representative McHugh,

Representative John M. McHugh
2333 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515-3223
PHONE (202) 225-4611
FAX (202) 226-0621

June 17, 2005

Dear Representative McHugh,

Please do everything you can to support H. R. 952, the “Torture Outsourcing Prevention Act.” More broadly, I plead with you to do everything you can to crack down on the use of torture by US agents. Torture conducted in the name of US policy is destroying our reputation as a nation that fights for freedom; it is undermining the war on terror by confirming the worst beliefs of those who distrust us; and most importantly, it is corroding our souls. The least you can do is end the hypocritical practice of employing the worst imaginable tactics, and then pretending our hands our clean, because they have taken place on foreign soil.

The media has been full of irrelevant discussions of whether this or that practice constitutes torture, or what to do in ticking bomb scenarios that never happen. Given the number of people who have simply died from our interrogation techniques, people like Abed Hamed Mowhoush, or Manadel al-Jamadi, or Dilawar; given the number of people who have been detained who are now known to be innocent, people like Omar Deghayes or Khaled el-Masri or Dilawar again; given that no effort is being made to determine if we are even torturing the right people; given all these things, it is clear that the United States is committing the worst of crimes.

Please help us be a better nation.



Sincerely,



Rob Loftis