A group including Evangelical, Baptist, Catholic, and Other Religious Leaders, six former Secretaries of State for Defence, and top officials from every US administration since the Vietnam war, are today calling on the US President to issue an executive order banning torture.
The broad bipartisan coalition have issued a statement, saying that such a ban would improve national security and recommit America to its values.
Their call coincides with ongoing debate over the treatment of prisoners and comes on the heels of a Supreme Court decision upholding the right of habeas corpus for detainees at the Guantánamo Bay detention facility.
It also comes after Amnesty International accused European governments of complicity and inaction over US-led rendition and secret detention, and the day before the UN's International Day in Support of Torture Victims.
The statement calls for the President to adopt an executive order affirming principles including the rule of law, an end to rendition, Congressional and judicial oversight of detention and interrogation, uniform national standards for all prisoner treatment, and an end to any practice the US would not like to see used on Americans, such as water boarding, through adherence to the "golden rule" - which states that no methods of interrogation will be authorised that would be unacceptable if used against Americans.
"Though we come from a variety of backgrounds and walks of life, we agree that the use of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment against prisoners is immoral, unwise, and un-American" the statement says.
