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ReutersCandidates urged to sign anti-torture pledge
Tue Jul 31, 2007 4:34PM EDT
By Claudia Parsons
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A coalition of civil rights groups launched a campaign on Tuesday urging presidential candidates to sign an "American Freedom Pledge" rejecting torture, detention without trial and warrantless wire-tapping.
Around 130,000 people have signed a petition of the American Freedom Campaign, which bills itself as a bipartisan effort to defend democracy from "abuses of power" under U.S. President George W. Bush.
"By trading our liberties for a false sense of security, the president has granted himself the power of tyrants," said Vincent Warren, executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, a legal group that has frequently challenged Bush's counterterrorism policies in court.
The White House has denied accusations that it condones torture and repudiated internal administration documents recommending a definition of torture that critics called extreme.
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