Take Action Against Torture

Though I have never had an interest in films like Hostel or TV shows such as 24, I have to admit that I did enjoy the movie Taken—though mostly because it helped to raise awareness about human trafficking. Even so, we are completely blasé to such torture in the media from seeing it so often.

We hear about water boarding or other forms of torture and we remark at best, “Oh, like in V for Vendetta,” or maybe a half-hearted mumble of “How horrible,” before we change the channel to watch the next episode of Lost. The thing is, torture isn’t just some random theatrical trick to get guys to attend more movies of half-naked girls; it’s a real practice used every day on people, innocent or not, that goes against every form of “cruel and unusual punishment” in our vocabulary.

Our own Department of Justice authorized such actions in the name of “national security.” Despite the fact that coercing information from people through torture methods has been found to be ineffective—and that under such treatment anyone would give whatever answer wanted to have it stopped—the Legal Council of the Department of Justice found it to be a pretty good idea, as was revealed in a series of memos from the council.

Tortured Law, a new ten-minute documentary film from Alliance for Justice, examines these decisions closely and attempts to answer the question, “Were these lawyers simply giving the President their best legal advice? Or was their work part of a larger criminal conspiracy to distort the law and authorize torture?”

Great questions. And though an investigation has been launched to answer them, none of the council have been held accountable for authorizing torture yet. Tortured Law is a plea for Attorney General Holder to investigate these actions further—to find out just what happened between the CIA operatives, torture memo writers and everyone involved in these atrocities.

If you’re interested in getting to the bottom of these torture memos and the people who thought they writers for a Hollywood torture film, you can sign up to get a copy of Tortured Law. With it, you can hold a screening—at home, on campus, wherever—and a discussion to get people talking and inspired to act. Alliance for Justice is going to help with screenings in campuses all across the country by giving organizers talking points and a toolkit to use for their events.

To sign up to host your own event, click here.

To write Attorney General Holder and ask him to fully investigate these memos, click here.