Today's Washington Post contains a disturbing front-page report on the CIA's
"black sites," prisons outside United States territory at which persons
suspected of association with terrorism are being held for indefinite
terms outside the protections of United States law.  Some of the CIA's
established interrogation techniques violate the UN Convention against
Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment -
a convention nevertheless agreed by the United States and by the states
hosting these prisons.  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 such 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.
Unless the black sites are opened to scrutiny by the public and by Congress,
we may never know how many innocent people are being imprisoned for life
without trial.  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.