Today's Washington Post contains a disturbing front-page report on the CIA's
"black sites," prisons outside United States territory at which persons are
being held for indefinite terms outside the protections of United States
law.  Last month's request from Vice President Cheney and CIA Director Goss
that the CIA be exempted from the anti-torture Senate Amendment 1977 to the
Department of Defense Appropriations Act (HR 2863) strongly suggests that the
CIA is using ethically questionable techniques against prisoners, and that it
plans to continue doing so.  Perhaps most worrisome in this context is the
Post's report that standards of suspected guilt lately have been lowered or
ignored in decisions to consign suspects to these black sites.  I urge you to
work for open hearings on CIA "black sites," and legislation to bring these
covert prisons into line with Senate Amendment 1977, the UN Convention against
Torture, and other relevant United States laws and international conventions.