Contact: Rev. Richard Killmer, 202-547-1920 or 207-450-7242, or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Vice-President Cheney Admits to Role in CIA Waterboarding Scandal;
Religious Community Expresses Dismay at the State of the Nation's Soul

(Washington)  In an ABC News interview earlier this week, Vice President Dick Cheney not only defended the use of waterboarding as an interrogation technique, but also for the first time admitted to having helped obtain official approval for the use of waterboarding.  Members of the nation's religious communities reacted with dismay to these revelations – sharing the sentiment that the use of torture poses a direct threat to our nation's soul, and that Vice President Cheney's comments illustrate a callous disregard for the dignity of human life.

"The use of torture is inconsistent with everything that is good about America," said Reverend Richard Killmer, the Executive Director of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (a coalition of over 240 religious organizations that have banded together to oppose the use of torture).  "Vice President Cheney's support for the use of waterboarding, a technique that is widely agreed to be torture, is evidence that our nation's top leadership has lost touch with our core values."

Killmer also expressed hope for a better future, pointing out that "President-elect Obama will have the opportunity to return our nation to a moral path by issuing an Executive Order ending torture immediately after he takes office."  Such an Executive Order could be based on the Declaration of Principles for a Presidential Executive Order on Prisoner Treatment, Torture and Cruelty which can be found on the National Religious Campaign Against Torture website (www.tortureisamoralissue.org).