For Immediate Release
December 7, 2005

Contacts:
Daniella Gibbs Léger/Jay Heidbrink            Will Coghlan
American Progress Action Fund                 IAVA
202-682-1611                                            212-982-9699

American Progress Action Fund and IAVA Launch
“Torture is Not US” TV Ad Campaign

Washington, DC – The American Progress Action Fund and IAVA announced today that they will be airing TV ads in select congressional districts as part of the TortureIsNotUS.org campaign. The campaign ads urge Congress to enact the McCain anti-torture amendment into law for the well-being of our troops and the nation’s efforts against terrorism.

The amendment seeks to outlaw torture of detainees in military custody and establish the Army Field Manual as the uniform standard for the interrogation of Department of Defense detainees. Ninety Senators of both parties and numerous former military leaders and government officials support this language. Yet the White House has been maneuvering to defeat the amendment or weaken it by seeking exemptions for the CIA and other clandestine services. The President has vowed to veto any legislation that contains the McCain anti-torture amendment.

Members of the Defense Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee will soon decide on this amendment in conference committee. The American Progress Action Fund and IAVA have made an initial commitment of $10,000 to air TV ads in the districts of Subcommittee Chairman C.W. Bill Young (R-FL) and Subcommittee Vice Chair Rodney P. Frelinghuysen (R-NJ) starting tomorrow, Thursday, December 8. The ad campaign is expected to expand in size and scope thereafter.

“Not only is outlawing torture important for moral reasons, but condoning torture has a very real and negative impact on our troops’ safety in this and future wars,” said Paul Rieckhoff, a veteran of the Iraq war and Executive Director and Founder of IAVA. “American troops must gain the trust and support of people in foreign lands in order to curb attacks and diffuse any insurgency like we’re seeing in Iraq. It makes it difficult to gain that trust when we are seen as torturers.”

Added American Progress Action Fund President and CEO John D. Podesta, “It is time we learned the lessons of Abu Ghraib and the other shocking reports of abuses of persons in American custody. Colin Powell and John McCain are right: Torturing prisoners is inconsistent with American values, puts our troops at risk, undermines our relationships with our allies, and simply doesn't work.”

For more information about the TortureIsNotUS.org campaign to end the cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment of persons in U.S. custody and to see the TV ad, please visit www.TortureIsNotUS.org. Through TortureIsNotUS.org, thousands of Americans across the country have already added their voices to this crucial debate and sent messages to Congress.

The American Progress Action Fund (www.americanprogressaction.org) is the sister advocacy organization of the Center for American Progress. The Action Fund transforms progressive ideas into policy through rapid response communications, legislative action, grassroots organizing and advocacy, and partnerships with other progressive leaders throughout the country and the world. The Action Fund is also the home of the Progress Report and ThinkProgress.org.

IAVA(www.iava.org) is America’s first and largest nonprofit, non-partisan organization representing those who have served in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. IAVA represents Veterans in all fifty states, Puerto Rico and Guam.

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