Act Against Torture - Repeal the Military Commissions Act of 2006

ten things you can do to stop torture and indefinite detention
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Repeal the Military Commissions Act of 2006

What You Can Do: Ask Candidates The Question Links: Who Asked "The Question" So Far... About the MCA MCA-06 Reform in the 110th Congress	Ask Candidates The Question on

What you can do

Ask Candidates The Question

"The Military Commissions Act takes away the most basic legal protections. It permits our government to commit torture. It allows prosecutors to use secret evidence and confessions obtained by torture. It allows presidents to declare anyone they want an 'enemy combatant' with no right of appeal. It's a serious threat to democracy.

Will you pledge to work for full repeal of the MCA? If not, why not?"

Let's put torture and indefinite detention front & center in the 2008 Presidential Campaign: Act Against Torture is asking people throughout the United States to attend campaign events - virtually or in-the-flesh - and ask a simple, direct, and comprehensive question of candidates for President. We want to know where they stand on the issues of torture and indefinite detention, especially in relation to the recent legalization of these practices via the Military Commissions Act of 2006. We think this question ought to be central to the 2008 campaign. Download and print our Repeal MCA YouTube flyer (a 2-up PDF) to encourage others to ask The Question at any campaign events you attend.

If you have a chance to ask a presidential candidate The Question (or something similar) directly, we really want to hear from you! Please write to us, telling who you are, what question you asked, which candidate(s) you questioned, and how each one answered. If there is a record or news report of your question and answer(s) on-line, please send us the link (URL).

Ask Candidates The Question on

Not planning to attend any campaign events? You can still participate: with a cellphone or digital camera, make a video of yourself asking The Question. Upload it to YouTube. Then send us an e-mail with the link to your on-line video. We'll post your link on this page with all the rest, and compel the candidates to answer our question by demonstrating the number of people who demand a response. (Encourage others to make their own videos - download and print our Repeal MCA YouTube flyer.)

To make it easier to ask The Question, you can print out a PDF to use as a cue-card.

Here's a quick how-to guide for making and posting a YouTube video:

Print out The Question to use as a cue-card. The question takes about 30 seconds to read at a moderate speed. Thirty seconds is the time limit of videos made for the CNN*YouTube Debates.
Make a video using your cellphone, digital camera, or webcam. Here's simple YouTube help and there's also a more detailed YouTube guide.
Sign up with YouTube if you don't already have an account. (instructions)
Upload your video to YouTube (instructions)
Tag your video with the words: "Repeal MCA" to add your voice to all the others demanding that presidential candidates answer The Question (about Tags)
Send us your YouTube "Embed" link so we can add it to our page!! (about Embed links) You can e-mail it to us at ActAgainstTorture@riseup.net

With your help, we'll keep a public record on the candidates' positions on the terrible injustices embodied in the MCA 2006. By holding the candidates responsible, we can help to end torture committed by the United States government, and begin to restore the rule of law.

Links: Who Asked "The Question" So Far...

See who has posted videos to YouTube by searching for Repeal MCA tags. (Google's indexing delay means newly posted videos take about 8 hours to appear in the search results).

The videos linked below are a sample of those that have been posted (we're trying to keep up...). The video links must be loaded from YouTube and may take a little while to appear in your browser page. You may need to enable display of these embedded YouTube videos in your browser, depending on security settings.

Please join us by adding your voice to ours! See our step-by-step guide above.

About the MCA 2006

The Military Commissions Act of 2006, signed into law on October 17, 2006:

suspends the right of Habeas Corpus;
allows the President to declare anyone an "unlawful enemy combatant" with no review by federal courts;
permits U.S. officials to engage in practices recognized as torture under international laws and conventions;
grants immunity to officials who abused or authorized abuse of detainees; and,
allows evidence obtained by torture to be introduced in proceedings before military tribunals.

Act Against Torture calls for a full repeal of this shameful and corrosive law. The Center for Constitutional Rights has posed a one-page fact sheet about the MCA-2006 on their website, as well as a summary and analysis of the law itself. The ACLU's MCA page is also an excellent source of information about this issue.

CCR factsheet on the Military Commissions Act of 2006

MCA-06 Reform in the 110th Congress

Act Against Torture calls for full repeal of the Military Commissions Act of 2006, even though some members of Congress have introduced legislation that could curb some of the government's worst abuses. We believe that campaigning for reform legislation is one tactic that can help educate the public and build the movement we need. To explain bills pending in the 110th Congress, AAT has prepared an analysis that will help readers to understand the various flavors of MCA reform, and also the reasons why reform legislation is an insufficient response to this draconian law.