OpEdNews - Diary: Urgent Action Alert! Call Senators to demand end to secret prisons!

This Tuesday the Senate is expected to vote upon Amendment Number 5369 to the Defense Authorization Bill that would mandate that the International Committee of the Red Cross [ICRC] have access to all US detainees, including those held in secret prisons by the CIA or other intelligence agencies.

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Documents released or leaked in recent years have shown the administration has been systematically hiding certain detainees from the ICRC. Documents released by the Senate Armed Services Committee last June strongly suggest that these detainees were hid to cover up the use of harsh interrogation techniques often amounting to torture. [See the minutes of the October 2, 2002 meeting.]

Please call your Senators ASAP and express your support for this amendment. Just call the Capitol Hill switchboard -- 202-224-3121 or 202-225-3121 -- and ask for your two Senators by name or by your state.

For more background see the Human Rights First press release describing a letter by 38 retired Generals and Admirals supporting the amendment. Read the full text of the letter here.