Faith leaders urge Obama to ban torture on Inauguration Day (Associated Baptist Press)

[struggle4progress]

By Bob Allen
Wednesday, 14 January 2009

WASHINGTON (ABP) -- A broad coalition of faith leaders has written a letter asking President-elect Barack Obama to make banning torture one of his first acts in office.

Thirty-three leaders from Christian, Jewish and Muslim traditions asked Obama to "restore our nation's moral standing in the world" by signing an executive order rejecting the practice of torture by the United States. The National Religious Campaign Against Torture issued the letter to Obama's presidential transition team Jan. 9.

NRCAT recently launched a campaign titled Countdown to End Torture: 10 Days of Prayer aimed at unifying the religious community in a final push urging the president-elect to make ending torture one of his first priorities.

A clock on the NRCAT website started on Jan. 11, the seventh anniversary of the opening of the U.S. detention center for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. It will tick backward until Jan. 20, in hopes that the new president will sign an executive order before it reaches 00:00:00 ...

http://www.abpnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3774&Itemid=53