We are convening a coalition of human rights, activist, legal and professional groups to coordinate a push for accountability for extraordinary rendition at the state and regional level.

Extraordinary rendition is the policy, expanded dramatically under the Bush Administration, of secretly seizing prisoners and “disappearing” them for incommunicado, indefinite detention and interrogation using torture. The torture has been conducted either at CIA black sites or in the prisons of regimes notorious for human rights abuses, such as those in Syria, Lebanon, Morocco, and Egypt. (See partial list of detainees rendered to torture using North Carolina facilities.)

Unfortunately, the current Administration has decided that extraordinary rendition should continue, and has actively blocked efforts by survivors of rendition to seek redress in the courts. See this new analysis from the Center for Constitutional Rights.

“Weaving a Net of Accountability” addresses the fact that North Carolina has provided taxpayer-funded facilities, in particular our airports, as key infrastructure in the extraordinary rendition program since 2001. Despite concerted grassroots efforts* , most North Carolina public officials have repeatedly turned a blind eye. Our governors and law-enforcement officials have refused to investigate the well-publicized involvement of North Carolina pilots, planes and crews in the barbaric treatment of detainees such as those in the attached partial list.

Our goals are to:

1. create a detailed and broadly available public record of North Carolina’s state and local involvement in extraordinary rendition;
2. build alliances at the state, national and international level to push for accountability; and
3. prevent the continued use of state and local infrastructure for programs such as torture and extraordinary rendition through recommendations and new laws implemented at the local and state level.

To begin to achieve these goals, we are organizing a conference at Duke University on April 8-10, 2010, that will bring together key international, national, and local activists, experts and journalists. Participating will be representatives from religious, legal, psychological, state, ethical, human rights, academic, and advocacy groups. The conference explores how to achieve accountability for extraordinary rendition at the state and local level. Our focus is on North Carolina, but residents of other states may find information and approaches that are applicable.

A key goal of the conference is to lay the groundwork for creation of a Commission of Inquiry for North Carolina, composed of state, national and international public figures and experts. The Commission will carry out such tasks as holding open hearings to create a formal public record of North Carolina’s role in the extraordinary rendition program, and developing recommendations to local, county and state officials on how to create and/or enforce bans on use of tax dollars and public facilities for torture and extraordinary rendition.

This video provides additional information about our the conference and its purpose.

* A chronology of efforts by North Carolinians to address our state’s involvement in rendition and torture.

For more information or to R.S.V.P, please contact NC Stop Torture Now at contact@ncstoptorturenow.org, or Duke Human Rights Center at rights@duke.edu or (919) 668-6511.