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RES-2016-081 DRAFT 2
<br /> ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
<br /> RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF THE NORTH CAROLINA
<br /> COMMISSION OF INQUIRY ON TORTURE
<br /> WHEREAS, the non-governmental North Carolina Commission of Inquiry on Torture (NCCIT) is being
<br /> established to examine the role of North Carolina in the United States' secret, global torture program launched soon
<br /> after 9/11/2001; and
<br /> WHEREAS, it is documented in the declassified executive findings and conclusions summary of the Study of the
<br /> Central Intelligence Agency's Detention and Interrogation Program by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
<br /> that at least 119 human beings were secretly transferred for torture in CIA-run facilities, while many others were
<br /> rendered to allied foreign custody for torture; and
<br /> WHEREAS, most of those rendered and tortured were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, or had names
<br /> similar to those of suspects, and have been released without criminal charges; and
<br /> WHEREAS, it is further documented in the report titled "The North Carolina Connection To Extraordinary
<br /> Rendition and Torture" (Weissman, et. al., UNC School of Law, January 2012) that North Carolina played a
<br /> significant role in the torture program through the operations of Aero Contractors, an aviation front company
<br /> established by the CIA in 1979 at the Johnston County Airport in Smithfield which, after 9/11/2001, undertook a
<br /> leading role in kidnapping suspects, including from a hangar it built and operated at the state-run Global TransPark
<br /> in Kinston; and
<br /> WHEREAS, that Aero transported at least 34 detainees to secret detention and torture, 18 of which cases appear in
<br /> the heavily redacted executive summary of the Senate Intelligence Committee's 6,900-page report on CIA torture,
<br /> most of which is still kept from the public; and
<br /> WHEREAS, the NCCIT will address the harms that torture causes, such as serving as a recruitment tool for
<br /> extremist and terrorist organizations, endangering U.S. troops abroad, reducing our security here at home, and
<br /> providing dangerously misleading information, and
<br /> WHEREAS, torture is illegal, and violates faith and ethical traditions, and the trauma inflicted on torture survivors
<br /> affects them for the remainder of their lives, causes lasting psychological injury to those ordered to perpetrate it,
<br /> and
<br /> WHEREAS, the U.S. government, the State of North Carolina, and political subdivisions of this state have ignored
<br /> their obligations to acknowledge and repair the harms created by the secret detention and torture program, even
<br /> though impunity compounds those harms and allows their repetition; and
<br /> WHEREAS, when governments fail to act, citizens have both a duty and an opportunity to do so, and citizen-led
<br /> inquiries have a long and honorable history, in North Carolina and beyond, of exposing human rights abuses and
<br /> creating momentum for accountability and redress;
<br /> NOW, THEREFORE,BE IT RESOLVED, that the Orange County Board of Commissioners hereby supports the
<br /> North Carolina Commission of Inquiry on Torture, a 501(c)(3),non-profit organization described at www.nccit.org,
<br /> created to address the issue of North Carolina's role in secret detention and torture, and to craft a model of
<br /> accountability that can inspire similar efforts elsewhere.
<br /> This the 13`h day of December 2016.
<br /> Mark Dorosin, Chair
<br /> Orange County Board of Commissioners
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