June 6 Emergency Forum

Torture Facts, Fiction and the Need for Justice Saturday, June 6th at 3PM Grace Place 637 S. Dearborn St., Chicago An Emergency Forum coinciding with the Printers Row Lit Fest The torture memos released last month, written for and with the approval of the Bush White House, show that the U.S. has tortured as a matter of policy. State torture is a systematic attempt to violently degrade people and rob them of their very humanity - its chief purpose to strike terror in the hearts of whole populations. Such measures are, without question, crimes against humanity. While refusing to investigate what is already revealed, the Obama administration and the Democratic Congress are suppressing further photographic evidence. What is worse, Obama made clear in his May 21 'national security' speech that his administration is continuing and legitimating the essence of the Bush doctrine, including indefinite detention without charge or trial, military commissions that eviscerate habeas corpus, along with previously endorsed rendition and warrantless surveillance. What makes this even more dangerous is that Obama cloaks it all in the rhetoric of law and principle. Not only is his administration refusing to prosecute what are universally recognized war crimes, he is setting out to codify and further legalize these polices. And all of this will be legitimated if people in this country passively allow it to happen. These issues will be dug into with substance at a forum on June 6. The political and moral responsibility to act will be discussed. And an opportunity will be afforded to stand up in accord with justice and concern for all the people of the world. Forum Panelists: Leonard Goodman is a Chicago criminal defense attorney and adjunct professor at DePaul University Law School. He has the distinction of having won major criminal cases on behalf of clients at courts at every level of both the federal and state judicial systems, including victories in the United States Supreme Court, the Illinois Supreme Court, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. He has received public service awards from the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University for his representation of the defense of the wrongly accused and convicted (2000) and from the Constitutional Rights Foundation of Chicago for his representation of a detainee at Guantanamo Bay Naval Station (2008). Li Onesto is the author of Dispatches From the People's War in Nepal (Pluto Press/Insight Press, 2005) and a writer for Revolution newspaper, which published her series, "Torture Techniques at Guantanamo: 'Communist Inspired,' or ...Developed, Refined and Exported by the USA?" in 2008. Frank Summers, Ph.D., ABPP is a supervising and training analyst at the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis and an Associate Professor of Psychiatry in the Behavioral Sciences at Northwestern University Medical School. A faculty member of the Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis and four other psychoanalytic institutes, he is the author of three books: Object relations theories and psychopathology: A comprehensive text (1994), Transcending the self (1999), and Self creation: Psychoanalytic therapy and the art of the possible (2005). A member of the Editorial Board of Psychoanalytic Psychology, he maintains a private practice of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic therapy in Chicago, Illinois. Currently, Dr. Summers is president of Psychoanalysts for Social Responsibility and has worked for the past five years to prohibit psychologists from participating in detention centers. Presented by: Revolution Books World Can't Wait, Chicago Chapter: 773-227-2453 chicago@worldcantwait.org, chicagoworldcantwait.org

The June 6 Emergency Forum - Torture: Facts, Fiction, And The Need For Justice - will be held during and in the vicinity of the June 6-7 Printers Row Lit Fest. Revolution Books will have a booth at this huge book fair. This is an extraordinary opportunity to reach tens of thousands of people at a critical moment in time. Volunteer to help us get out in this book fest - publicize the torture forum, introduce people to revolution and communism, join exciting debate and engage over burning questions.