National Week of Action to Restore Habeas Corpus!

The national week of action to restore Habeas Corpus is here! Activists across the country are meeting with their House and Senator offices to urge them to support legislation restoring the right to habeas corpus and correcting other provisions of the Military Commissions Act that undermine the rights guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution. On Tuesday, Amnesty will help bring activists down to Washington, DC for a demonstration and day of lobbying!

These efforts will be even more successful, of course, if activists such as you call Congess and ask them to support HR 1416 (The Restoring Habeas Corpus Act) and HR 1415 (The Restoring the Constitution Act). You can find out the name and contact information of your House member by entering your zip code at www.house.gov.

Congressmen Rush Holt and Steve Rothman are the only two New Jersey House members who have already signed on. We especially need calls from Congressman Robert Andrews’s constituents!

You can refer to the recent Associated Press Article, “Army Officer Says Gitmo Panels Flawed,” which gives Lt. Colonel Stephen Abraham’s inside account of the need to reestablish the judicial oversight built into our nation’s system of checks and balances.

Please also remind your congressional office that Tuesday is the International Torture Victims and Survivors Day. Without the right to habeas corpus, prisoners are unable to challenge the conditions of their detention, even if they amount to torture. The Military Commissions Act also allows the use of unreliable information gathered through techniques that amount to torture.