RESOLUTION CALLING FOR SUPPORT OF HR5460 INCLUDING WATERBOARDING IN
THE DEFINITION OF TORTURE, HCDCC 3-12-08

 
WHEREAS, the Bush Administration has used the events of September
11, 2001 to initiate a "war on terror" which has led to a series of
erosions of civil and human rights for both U.S. citizens and foreign
prisoners in U.S. custody; and

WHEREAS, International law and the Geneva Conventions of which the
U.S. is a signatory forbid torture of prisoners of war; and

WHEREAS, the practice of waterboarding which simulates drowning has
been implemented in interrogating foreign prisoners on foreign soil
by U.S. government functionaries and by the Central Intelligence
Agency personnel on U.S. soil; and

WHEREAS, officials of the Bush Administration have refused to forbid
the practice of waterboarding as an interrogation technique because
they refuse to consider it torture;
and

WHEREAS, allowing this practice by the U.S. government is repugnant
to its citizens and is against every standard of civilized behavior
that the U.S. presumes to stand for and exposes our own servicemen
and women to similar treatment if captured as prisoners of war; and 

WHEREAS, U.S. Congressman Mike Thompson and U.S. Congresswoman Anna
Eshoo have introduced HR 5460 to amend the Detainee Treatment Act of
2005 and Title 18, United States Code, to include waterboarding in
the definition of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or
punishment and in the definition of torture.
 
 
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Humboldt County Democratic
Central Committee endorses this legislation, supports and applauds
Congressman Thompson and Congresswoman Eshoo, and urges the U.S.
House and Senate to expeditiously pass this legislation with a two-
thirds majority so that it may be enacted into law. 

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