Dear North Carolina State Senator:

You've heard of the "torture flights," I am sure. I wanted to let you know that most of the "torture flights" are departing from a civilian airport in North Carolina.

The government will pick out a person who looks like a terrorist (I believe that skin color is a prime determinant), abduct him, and fly him out of his country to a nation such as Syria, Morocco, or Egypt, where torture is commonplace, and he will be tortured there and kept in a tiny cell for anything from a year to the rest of his life.

We don't know how many people have been "disappeared" in this manner, how many are still being tortured, or how many have died in this international gulag.

We do know that innocent people have gotten caught up in this web and have been flown out of the United States for a year of constant torture in spite of their innocence. This has happened to a Canadian citizen, Maher Arar. Although we don't currently know of any other Canadian or US citizen to whom this has happened, if it has happened to one, it has probably happened to others.

Our state is being used as the source for these flights. The rented planes are here and the pilots are North Carolina citizens. I think any decent person who believes in America and the Bill of Rights would be as angry as I am that we are being used in this way to subvert the constitution and the promise of America.

As an aside, I must state that torture doesn't yield useful information even when it is applied to people who have knowledge that is needed. People will say anything to avoid pain, and smart but evil people will tell willful and misleading lies that can be more harmful than silence. Further, for the US to torture people of other nationalities opens the door for other groups or nations to abduct and torture Americans (soldiers, business people, diplomats, and tourists for example) and we will have no leg to stand on when we object, because we have behaved no better.

Imagine for a moment if North Korea abducted people on the street because they were identified as dangerous or opposed to North Korea or Kim Jong-Il, and were flown to some North Korean prison for torture. If this were to happen, it would be very difficult for us to say that it is improper, since we have done similar things ourselves.

There is a petition circulating in the North Carolina legislature which requests that the governor and the SBI investigate these torture flights and prosecute anyone who has broken the law. Could you find it in your heart to sign?

This petition makes no allegations, but only requests a thorough investigation of the civilian company (Aero Contractors) that is participating in this program of kidnapping, extralegal extradition, and torture.

I hope you will give it some thought. This is the Christmas season, the time when we celebrate the prince of peace, the one whose torture and execution has freed us from our earthly sins. If you can't see your way clear to sign on as a politician, please consider it as a duty to your savior.

Thank you and Merry Christmas.