HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda - 12-13-2016 - 6-d - Resolution In Support of the North Carolina Commission of Inquiry on Torture 1
ORANGE COUNTY
BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT
Meeting Date: December 13, 2016
Action Agenda
Item No. 6-d
SUBJECT: Resolution In Support of the North Carolina Commission of Inquiry on Torture
DEPARTMENT: Board of County
Commissioners
ATTACHMENT(S): INFORMATION CONTACT:
Clerk to the Board, (919) 245-2130
Draft Resolution
PURPOSE: To consider a Resolution in Support of the North Carolina Commission of Inquiry on
Torture.
BACKGROUND: Peggy Misch, a member Orange County Bill of Rights Defense Committee
and the NC Commission of Inquiry on Torture, has requested that the Board of Commissioners
consider the attached Resolution in Support of the North Carolina Commission of Inquiry on
Torture. Ms. Misch has requested that the Board of Commissioners support the North Carolina
Commission of Inquiry on Torture, a 501(c)(3), non-profit organization described
at wwwmnccitmmorg. The organization was created to address the issue of North Carolina's role in
secret detention and torture, and to craft a model of accountability that can inspire similar efforts
elsewhere.
FINANCIAL IMPACT: There is no financial impact associated with this item.
SOCIAL JUSTICE IMPACT: The following Social Justice Goal is applicable to this item:
• GOAL: FOSTER A COMMUNITY CULTURE THAT REJECTS OPPRESSION AND
INEQUITY
The fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race or color;
religious or philosophical beliefs; sex, gender or sexual orientation; national origin or
ethnic background; age; military service; disability; and familial, residential or economic
status.
RECOMMENDATION(S): The Manager recommends that the Board approve and authorize the
Chair to sign the resolution.
RES-2016-081 DRAFT 2
ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF THE NORTH CAROLINA
COMMISSION OF INQUIRY ON TORTURE
WHEREAS, the non-governmental North Carolina Commission of Inquiry on Torture (NCCIT) is being
established to examine the role of North Carolina in the United States' secret, global torture program launched soon
after 9/11/2001; and
WHEREAS, it is documented in the declassified executive findings and conclusions summary of the Study of the
Central Intelligence Agency's Detention and Interrogation Program by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
that at least 119 human beings were secretly transferred for torture in CIA-run facilities, while many others were
rendered to allied foreign custody for torture; and
WHEREAS, most of those rendered and tortured were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, or had names
similar to those of suspects, and have been released without criminal charges; and
WHEREAS, it is further documented in the report titled "The North Carolina Connection To Extraordinary
Rendition and Torture" (Weissman, et. al., UNC School of Law, January 2012) that North Carolina played a
significant role in the torture program through the operations of Aero Contractors, an aviation front company
established by the CIA in 1979 at the Johnston County Airport in Smithfield which, after 9/11/2001, undertook a
leading role in kidnapping suspects, including from a hangar it built and operated at the state-run Global TransPark
in Kinston; and
WHEREAS, that Aero transported at least 34 detainees to secret detention and torture, 18 of which cases appear in
the heavily redacted executive summary of the Senate Intelligence Committee's 6,900-page report on CIA torture,
most of which is still kept from the public; and
WHEREAS, the NCCIT will address the harms that torture causes, such as serving as a recruitment tool for
extremist and terrorist organizations, endangering U.S. troops abroad, reducing our security here at home, and
providing dangerously misleading information, and
WHEREAS, torture is illegal, and violates faith and ethical traditions, and the trauma inflicted on torture survivors
affects them for the remainder of their lives, causes lasting psychological injury to those ordered to perpetrate it,
and
WHEREAS, the U.S. government, the State of North Carolina, and political subdivisions of this state have ignored
their obligations to acknowledge and repair the harms created by the secret detention and torture program, even
though impunity compounds those harms and allows their repetition; and
WHEREAS, when governments fail to act, citizens have both a duty and an opportunity to do so, and citizen-led
inquiries have a long and honorable history, in North Carolina and beyond, of exposing human rights abuses and
creating momentum for accountability and redress;
NOW, THEREFORE,BE IT RESOLVED, that the Orange County Board of Commissioners hereby supports the
North Carolina Commission of Inquiry on Torture, a 501(c)(3),non-profit organization described at www.nccit.org,
created to address the issue of North Carolina's role in secret detention and torture, and to craft a model of
accountability that can inspire similar efforts elsewhere.
This the 13`h day of December 2016.
Mark Dorosin, Chair
Orange County Board of Commissioners