September 17, 2010

WASHINGTON – Twenty religious organizations, led by the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT), are calling on Congress and President Obama to ensure a thorough investigation into allegations that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) engaged in illegal and unethical human subject research and experimentation on detainees after 9/11 and to make the findings public. The allegations were contained in a report released last month by the Physicians for Human Rights (PHR).

This action follows a recent decision by the Office of Human Research Protection (OHRP) in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to decline to investigate the original complaint filed by PHR, NRCAT, twenty religious organizations and various human rights organizations. Instead it referred the complaint to the CIA.

The complaint to OHRP was filed two days after PHR released its report detailing health professionals' involvement in the CIA's "enhanced interrogation program." Howard Koh, Assistant Secretary for Health, informed the complainants that the CIA's "alleged research activities ... appear to be subject to the oversight of the CIA" and that the complaint had thus been forwarded to the CIA "for review."

"The CIA has already publicly denied these allegations and declined to investigate, so it makes no sense to refer the complaint to them alone," said Rev. Richard L. Killmer, Executive Director of NRCAT. "The faith community will continue to ask the government to investigate these newest allegations of forced human experimentation and to create a Commission of Inquiry to investigate all acts of torture committed by the U.S. government since 9/11. Both our national security and the soul of our nation depend on it."

Since the CIA is the agency to be investigated, the religious organizations are calling on President Obama to ensure an independent, thorough, and open investigation and calling on the House and Senate Intelligence Committees to do the same. Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Diane Feinstein has already committed to include the allegations of human experimentation in her investigation into the use of torture by the CIA; the religious organizations are calling on Senator Feinstein to make sure the committee's findings and recommendations are made public.

The allegations that the CIA used forced human experimentation to legally justify and hone its torture techniques raise serious questions of potential additional legal liability for the CIA and Bush-era officials.

The new effort will focus on mobilizing faith leaders in key congressional districts to advocate directly to members of the relevant congressional committees and to raise awareness within the faith community about the imperative for a public inquiry into these allegations of illegal experimentation on prisoners.

The 20 national religious organizations that joined NRCAT, PHR and other human rights organizations in filing the complaint spans the broad spectrum of the religious communities in this country, including Muslims, Jews, Hindus and numerous denominations of Christians. A full list of the religious organizations that joined the complaint follows this release. In addition, more than 3000 individuals also became complainants, the largest number of people ever to sign a single complaint to the OHRP. NRCAT and PHR will deliver the list of complainants to the White House to urge the administration to ensure a thorough investigation of the alleged torture experiments.

"All people of faith understand there is such a thing as the spiritual health of a nation. If America is, as Alexis de Tocqueville once said, ‘a nation with the soul of a church,' then it is absolutely essential that we exorcise torture and other experimental abuse from our souls and make amends by pursuing the steps required to ensure that U.S.-sponsored torture will never, ever, again be sanctioned or practiced," said Rev. Richard Cizik, president of The New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good, a complainant organization.

The PHR report uncovered evidence that the CIA's alleged experimentation and research appear to have been performed to provide legal cover for torture, as well as to help justify and shape future procedures and policies governing the use of the "enhanced" interrogation techniques.

"The evidence is absolutely shocking and repulsive," said Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches, which also signed on to the complaint. "Torture is an affront to God and the denial of the bedrock convictions of all people of faith."

"The CIA's human experimentation, conducted for the purpose of further developing torture techniques, is a violation of accepted standards of medical ethics and of domestic and international law, including the Nuremberg Code, adopted in response to Nazi atrocities," said Rabbi David Saperstein, the director and counsel of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, one of the complainant organizations. " Just as the world committed to creating new boundaries after World War II, so we must now commit to ending U.S. use of interrogation methods that amount to torture and to act in a way that reflects the ideals on which our country was founded."

"The essence of America is our commitment to the rule of law," added Dr. Ingrid Mattson, President of the Islamic Society of North America, another complainant organization. "And as the Koran says, ‘do not let the hatred of others swerve you from justice.' We must fight to protect our laws and treaties by calling those who breach them to account. The spiritual health of our nation will continue to suffer until the full truth opens a path to the justice and healing that our nation so desperately needs."

Complainants to the Office of Human Research Protections (OHRP)

National Organizations

• American Friends Service Committee, Philadelphia, PA

• Church of the Brethren, Elgin, IL

• Conference of Major Superiors of Men, Silver Spring, MD

• Disciples Justice Action Network, Washington, DC

• Friends Committee on National Legislation, Washington, DC

• Hindu American Foundation, Kensington, MD

• Islamic Society of North America, Washington, DC

• Leadership Conference of Women Religious, Silver Spring, MD

• Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, Washington, DC

• National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA, New York, NY

• New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good, Washington, DC

• North American Old Catholic Church, Washington, DC

• The Provincial Council of the Clerics of St. Viator (Viatorians), Arlington Heights, IL

• Rabbis for Human Rights – North America, New York, NY

• Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, Washington, DC

• Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations, Boston, MA

• Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, Cambridge, MA

• United Church of Christ, Justice and Witness Ministries, Washington, DC

• United Methodist Church, General Board of Church & Society, Washington, DC

• Quaker Initiative to End Torture (QUIT), Pittsburgh, PA

National Religious Campaign Against Torture