Rev. Justin Osterman, minister of the Mainline Unitarian Church in Devon, Pa., lost a parishioner in the tragic attacks of September 11, 2001. His fate took an unexpected turn when he served as a translator at the Guantanamo Bay detention center, using Arabic language skills he'd learned in the military. A member of Osterman's church who was representing two detainees at Guantanamo Bay asked him to interpret for him. Today, Rev. Osterman is a huge critic of the detention center and a huge supporter of its closure. You can read or listen to his sermon, "Our Cuban Nightmare," and learn more about his experiences.

On January 22, 2009, UUSC and its partners National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) and Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition (TASSC) celebrated the President Obama's executive orders to ban torture and close down the detention center in Guantanamo Bay.

Still, the executive orders are only the beginning of a long process to achieve justice for the prisoners at Guantanamo and restoring our values and our standing in the world.

UUSC has joined NRCAT and TASSC to push for a commission of inquiry that would investigate whether members of the Bush administration violated U.S. laws against torture. As the process of closing Guantanamo unfolds, UUSC will be vigilant and continue to work with its partners and allies to press the new president and the administration for accountability in Afghanistan, Iraq, and wherever illegal detention, torture, and other inhumane treatment of prisoners by the United States continue.

Baseball is our national pastime, evoking long summer nights, the crack of bat meeting ball, shrewd attention to strategy over a long season, and an abiding sense of fair play. Here in Cambridge, Fenway Park’s diffuse glow in the sky can often be seen from UUSC's offices on long summer nights. Playgrounds and diamonds all across the country are lit with the joys and sorrows of players matching wits and abilities in competitions guided by rules and roles which have evolved over many decades.

Last week, we learned that players from every major league team, players whose achievements have inspired and thrilled fans for years, have been using performance-enhancing drugs for decades. Those very achievements, even of paragons like “Rocket” Roger Clemens and home-run champ Barry Bonds, are now questioned, the sport tarnished. Demands for ever more rigorous – and intrusive – drug testing are inevitable.

By coincidence, as the Mitchell Report on baseball was issued, we learned that evidence of the torture of prisoners in American custody was destroyed in what can only be described as a cover-up. The institution of baseball willfully turned its eyes away from obvious signs of abuse; the Central Intelligence Agency knowingly destroyed evidence that interrogators violated federal and international law prohibiting torture.

Baseball’s appalling “era of steroids” seems to parallel our country’s disgraceful “era of Guantánamo.” While producing the appearance of short-term gains – artificial home run records, a seemingly-secure homeland – these self-defeating actions seem to me to be deeply destructive in the long term, masking failure with the illusion of success.

Steroids produce artificial boosts to performance, but we know that the long-term effects of these drugs are devastating to the health and spirit of those who abuse them. Shamefully, abusing prisoners in Abu Ghraib, engaging in illegal surveillance, sending people into an endless gulag of clandestine prisons, and invisible and unaccountable accusations also produce the appearance of short-term results.

But what will the long-term effects of these disgraceful acts be to the health and spirit of our country, to our moral standing in the world, to our culture and society? Are we truly securing our country by enraging and radicalizing millions of people who previously viewed America as the symbol of freedom, fairness, and the rule of law? How will future generations view the achievements of Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds? How will the attitudes of tomorrow’s generation of major-league stars, today’s little leaguers, be forever changed?

The parallels only go so far, of course, because baseball and the security of our country are not really comparable: America was attacked, and the threat of terrorist attack is real. There is no doubt that resolving the crisis in baseball will be far easier than securing our homeland.

But just as true success in baseball cannot be won while violating its basic premises, true success in defeating terrorism cannot, and need not, come at the price of abandoning our nation’s core values of freedom, fairness, and the rule of law.

UUSC has no baseball program, though many of us are Red Sox fans. But we are doing everything we can to stand for civil liberties and to fight illegal and immoral practices like torture because, just as baseball must put its “era of steroids” behind it, so must our nation turn the page on our “era of Guantanámo.” We invite you to be a part of this movement.

The Bush administration has wasted no time in taking advantage of new legislation regarding detainees in U.S. custody at Guantanamo. Now the president is seeking to have the lawsuits brought by the detainees dismissed to challenge their detention and their conditions. But Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), one of the sponsors of the amendment to the legislation that limits detainees' legal rights, said very strongly in an NPR interview and on his website that the law was never intended to apply to pending detainee cases, only future ones.

The president also seemingly plans to disregard the prohibition against cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment that was a hard-fought part of the legislation. Three key Republican senators take serious issue with Bush's assertion that he is within his rights to do so. With all this and the revelations of illegal wiretapping, the president and his administration continue to use the "war on terror" as an excuse for a war on this country's values.

We are in the second week of our small but daily vigil in front of the White House. One of our supporters stands silently, garbed in orange overalls, and fasts for the day. The other one passes out pamphlets and talks with the people passing by.

Our request is simple enough. We are asking that the Guantanamo hunger strikers’ demand for humane treatment be respected, as required by our own laws and treaties. Many of the detainees are now in critical condition, and there have been reports of brutal forced feedings.

Needless to say, this situation strikes all to close to home for me. Ten years ago, I testified to the Senate Intelligence Committee about my husband Everardo’s torture and murder at the hands of paid CIA informants. I was told by our senators then that it was outrageous that any human being should have to go on a hunger strike against torture, and that it would never happen again. Yet, here we are . . .

It seems that the question of U.S.-sponsored torture is finally reaching a flashpoint. Vice President Cheney is pressing hard to force the House to water down the McCain bill and actually allow cruel and degrading treatment. Should he succeed in this effort, it would be the first time in the history of our nation that such abuses were legalized. Meanwhile, Senators Graham and Levin have passed a measure sharply restricting habeas corpus for the detainees. Both measures must now pass their respective House/Senate conference committees. Your support is very urgently needed. Watch for our action alerts.

As we pass out pamphlets each day in Lafayette Park, it is interesting to watch the public reaction. Parents pushing baby carriages usually take our pamphlets and promise to make calls, as do most students and persons of color. This comes as no surprise. However, there are many real surprises amongst the suit-and-dark-glasses crowd. Some give us the predictable brush off or tell me to go back to Iraq. Others take the pamphlet with a sneer, and start carefully reading my name and address on the back. But quite a large number have stopped to talk and expressed real concern.

Most interesting are the military people, who are extremely upset about the issue, understandably enough. They are concerned with security, but generally agree that torture is wrong and can only cause greater problems. They are also upset that MPs like Lynndie England are the only ones who went on trial, while the intellectual authors have suffered no consequences at all.

Most are friendly and courteous, even when rejecting the pamphlet. Many European tourists have taken copies just because they are interested in what we are doing about the matter over here. They want to know if we Americans really care about this, and why the heck we are not doing more. This is a bit demoralizing, but they urge us on and promise to write the embassy all the same. The one truly frightening person was a sweet-faced, middle-aged woman, who looked at me coldly. I told her I was concerned about torture. She responded glacially, “ I do not care at all”.

I would say “wish you were here” but I am glad, in fact, that you are out there. We must speak out from all corners of this country, and in many different ways, to be effective. Again, we thank you for your hard work and your concern for human rights.

Prisoners on hunger strikes at Guantánamo are being force-fed through tubes being shoved up their noses into their stomachs. This is yet another form of torture for these unfortunate men, who are on hunger strikes to protest the inhumane conditions and degrading, dangerous treatment at this U.S. detention facility -- although U.S. officials deny any maltreatment of detainees.

Abuse of prisoners by U.S. personnel is still coming to light elsewhere as well. Autopsies and death reports of detainees at U.S. facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan show that many have died during interrogation.

If you watched Frontline the other night, you saw documentation that the responsibility for authorizing torture lies at the top. The Bush administration, which came to power with promises about “values,” has degraded American values almost beyond recognition with its support of torture and disregard for the humanity of “the enemy.”

Influential people are beginning to speak out. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) proposed an anti-torture amendment to the national Defense Appropriations bill, which passed the Senate by a vote of 90-9. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor addressed the issue in a speech at West Point, where she talked of our nation’s “belief in protecting the basic humanity of all people, including our adversaries. We will not stoop to the atrocities of some of our adversaries,” she said.

You can speak out, too! Respond to our Action Alert about the situation at Guantánamo. Respond to another Action Alert about the anti-torture amendment. Check out our STOP Campaign section. Join others in raising your voice against this abhorrent practice! Learn what’s going on, and do something about it!

I do not work at UUSC because I can fulfill the obligations of my job description. I work at UUSC because I am passionate about human rights. I decided to attend the Call for Justice Weekend, not as a staff member, but as a person who believes that the killing, the torture, and the cruelty against human life must end.

I convinced my parents to fly from Florida and meet my husband and me in D.C. My father is a Vietnam veteran, strongly opposed to the war in Iraq, and a supporter of the troops. My mom is a school guidance counselor who works with the kids who have been forgotten on Bush’s “No Child Left Behind Act.”

My relationship to war stems from growing up with a dad who volunteered to go to Vietnam and who taught me to be aware of the lies of government. His gift to me in D.C. was a copy of the U.S. Declaration of Independence and Constitution. The parallels between the conditions that led to the Declaration of Independence and the actions of our government today are frightening. My mom is a child advocate and our home was a safe harbor for many children who found that life itself was a battlefront.

As you are reading this, my brother-in-law is living in one of Saddam’s torture cells in Baghdad, Iraq. Bobby is a staff sergeant in the 10th Mountain Division, whose duty it is to process detainees in the War on Terror. A year ago, he returned from Afghanistan and met his son for the first time. Every day, his son walks up to the window, pulls back the curtain, and says “Da-Da” to an empty street. At night, my sister falls asleep on her couch because it is too hard to sleep in an empty bed in a silent house.

I am against the killing in Iraq and the dehumanization of U.S. soldiers. Although Bobby came back physically from Afghanistan, it took him six months to return mentally and be able to talk to my sister about the horrors he saw and the people he killed in Afghanistan. Now he is in Iraq, and I know he will never be the same. He knows of the work of UUSC and he supports our cause because he does not want to be tortured, and he does not want to be a witness to such brutality. He also just wants to come home, and I pray that he does, so I never have to tell my nephew that his father was a brave, honorable man.

One of the hardest aspects of being a peace activist is that people think I am against the troops or that I support terrorism. I have never understood how human beings can agree that killing is the only way to peace. It makes me sick to think that some of us believe we have the right to kill and torture others, and that we are safer in doing so. Violence does not create safety, it creates lies and bloodshed that will haunt us for the rest of our lives.

Since my mom has returned to Florida and told family, friends, and coworkers about the weekend, she has received backlash for being against the troops, un-American, and unpatriotic. I believe there are many people who were at the Call for Justice Weekend who might be having the same experience, and I hope you find strength in the numbers of people who support peace and the end of violence.

Most of what I heard this weekend were things I’ve already been aware of, things that I learned while working at UUSC, protesting at the School of the Americas, or through my own studies. But I had never listened to a torture survivor speak in their own voice about torture. At one point I thought I would cry, but what good are tears? And then I felt anger, but what good can one do with anger? And so I listened with my heart, and understood that there is work to be done and I can be part of that work.

I looked into the eyes of the survivors, and realized that at one time they were not torture survivors. At one time, they were people who worked for a cause, and now they carried with them the burden telling the horrors of their life, so I can fight to end the practice of torture. There is nothing more to be angry about, I know that there is hope to struggle for peace.

For my parents, listening to the experiences by the torture survivors was affecting and challenging. Walking away from Sunday’s trial, we were left with mixed feelings. I wanted to go storm down the White House, my dad was pensive, and my mom had a sense of disbelief. Is it really true that our government could perpetrate such acts, and yet tell the country and the world its hands were clean, and the responsibility fell on a “few bad apples”?

I understand how my mom feels, because it is difficult to come to terms with such brutality and know your government is responsible. But she has come away with inspiration and hope for change, and is no longer complacent to the decisions of our government. My dad has decided to join Veterans for Peace, and both were thankful for the opportunity to be involved in a weekend that has changed their lives.

Sunday morning, my family and I went to Arlington National Cemetery. I don’t know if the other people there are against the war, or for the war, or feel any way about it. Looking at the rows of graves, I turned to my dad and asked, “Isn’t this enough?” I believe there has already been enough bloodshed and lost lives to the cause of war. It is time to begin acting for the right of peace.

Last night, Illinois Senator Richard J. Durbin made a public apology for remarks he made last week about the mistreatment of prisoners at the U.S. prison facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. We look forward to the time when President Bush or Attorney General Gonzáles will make an equally emotional apology for the mistreatment that led to Durbin's remarks.

Durbin read from an FBI report on the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo, and said that the report brought to mind the actions of repressive regimes of the past. Perhaps the notion of moral equivalence with the Nazis or the Soviet gulag is overdrawn, but the basic point that such treatment of human beings is morally and legally unacceptable is right on. Durbin didn't apologize for reading from the report or denouncing the conduct, and he shouldn't have.

Durbin didn't use the "T" word. "Prisoner mistreatment" is much nicer in polite company than "torture."

Durbin also apologized if he cast U.S. servicepeople in "a bad light." In fact, servicepeople and intelligence operatives who have participated in the torture of prisoners, regardless of where it occurs, are morally and legally responsible for their actions. It is part of our job to cast light on those actions. You can decide for yourself whether or not that is a "bad" light.

The higher responsibility for mistreatment and torture, of course, lies with the higher officials who give the orders that make an Abu Ghraib or a Guantanamo take place. Our mock trial at the upcoming General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association will not, therefore, indict the soldiers who attached electrodes to prisoners. We choose to cast our light on Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Attorney General Alberto Gonzáles and former CIA Director George Tenet. For that, there can be no apology.