This workshop will connect post-9/11 torture with domestic torture from the 1960's and '70's, and illustrate that the practice is not a recent aberration, but an age-old governmental tactic to sow fear within and suppress the justice movements of communities of color in the U.S. and elsewhere.

Featuring the documentary, “Legacy of Torture,” the first segment of the workshop will focus on the San Francisco 8, eight former Black Panthers who were arrested this past January on charges related to the 1971 killing of a San Francisco police officer. Similar charges were thrown out after it was revealed that the police used torture to extract confessions, when some of these same men were arrested in New Orleans in 1973. The judge found that the three defendants who made statements did so after police in New Orleans tortured them for several days-using electric shock, cattle prods, beatings, sensory deprivation, plastic bags, and hot, wet blankets for asphyxiation.

While the SF8 are charged with murder and conspiracy, no police officers have ever faced accountability for their crimes of torture, which were clear violations of domestic criminal and international law.

The second segment of the workshop will focus on the CIA practice of kidnap and torture. To put a human face on the practice of “extraordinary rendition,” we will be showing a film produced by Witness, “Extraordinary Rendition, Torture, and Disappearances in the ‘War on Terror,’” which tells the stories of Khaled El-Masri and Binyam Mohamed, two survivors of torture and kidnapping by and at the behest of the CIA.

After the showing of the film, we will speak about the burgeoning anti-torture movement in North Carolina meant to expose and ultimately drive out an active participant in the CIA torture program, namely Aero Contractors, a contract air carrier headquartered in NC. Aero is alleged to have been involved in the transfer of Khaled El-Masri from Macedonia to a CIA-run detention facility in Afghanistan where he was held incommunicado before being released on a hilltop in Albania five months after his abduction.

A grassroots campaign has been underway in North Carolina since November 2005 to persuade state and county officials to investigate Aero Contractors’ participation in CIA-sponsored kidnap and torture. The group NC Stop Torture Now and their allies have engaged in a variety of strategies to achieve these goals, such as lobbying the governor, the attorney general, the county board of commissioners, as well as state legislators. They have succeeded in getting a bill introduced in the state assembly that would hold torturers accountable, whether the torture took place inside or outside of NC. They have also engaged in coalition and movement-building, as demonstrated by a recent letter signed by 75 NC-based non-profits as well as a petition bearing the signatures of thousands of North Carolina residents addressed to the governor and other state officials, asking for an investigation. NC Stop Torture Now members have also organized vigils and protests, frequently at Aero headquarters, to put Aero in the spotlight. Most recently, a group of NC residents delivered citizen arrest warrants to Aero Headquarters, asking the three Aero employees who have been indicted by Germany due to their involvement in the Khaled El-Masri case to peacefully surrender.

The workshop is designed to provide the participants with an opportunity to share concrete ideas on how to connect and publicize the historical and current uses of torture, as well as to organize to end torture in all forms. We will ask the group for suggestions on how to build a more effective anti-torture campaign in the US, to strategize to repeal the recently passed Military Commissions Act which in effect legalizes CIA-employed torture, and to expose and hold accountable those responsible for such acts. We will also challenge the audience to think about ways in which they could build or energize movements in their own states and local communities, focusing on specific targets, such as immigrant detention facilities, CIA front companies, or various mercenary corporations, such as Blackwater USA.

The event connects to several USSF crosscutting themes, including, most importantly, nurturing a historical understanding of torture and its utilization by the US government. In addition, since almost all victims of the CIA torture program have been citizens of other countries, this event and especially the film will help foster an international perspective and an understanding of what others have faced at the hands of our government. It will also relate to the theme of building a movement and focus on a component of the vastly expanding intelligence-industrial complex, namely private contractors.

The presenters for this workshop will be: King Downing, National Coordinator of the ACLU Campaign Against Racial Profiling, and Azadeh Shahshahani, Muslim/Middle Eastern Community Outreach Coordinator of the ACLU of North Carolina Legal Foundation.

The session will be conducted in English. We will unfortunately not be able to provide interpretation.

We will provide handouts in English.