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RES-2016-081 89F
<br /> tOL
<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 established to
<br /> examine the role of North Carolina in the United States' secret,global torture program launched soon after 9/11/2001;and
<br /> WHEREAS, it is documented in the declassified executive findings and conclusions summary of the Study of the Central
<br /> Intelligence Agency's Detention and Interrogation Program by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that at least 119
<br /> human beings were secretly transferred for torture in CIA-run facilities, while many others were rendered to allied foreign
<br /> 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 similar to
<br /> 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 Rendition and
<br /> Torture" (Weissman, et. al., UNC School of Law, January 2012) that North Carolina played a significant role in the torture
<br /> program through the operations of Aero Contractors,an aviation front company established by the CIA in 1979 at the Johnston
<br /> County Airport in Smithfield which,after 9/11/2001, undertook a leading role in kidnapping suspects, including from a hangar
<br /> it built and operated at the state-run Global TransPark in Kinston;and
<br /> WHEREAS,that Aero transported at least 34 detainees to secret detention and torture, 18 of which cases appear in the heavily
<br /> redacted executive summary of the Senate Intelligence Committee's 6,900-page report on CIA torture, most of which is still
<br /> kept from the public;and
<br /> WHEREAS, the NCCIT will address the harms that torture causes, such as serving as a recruitment tool for extremist and
<br /> terrorist organizations, endangering U.S. troops abroad, reducing our security here at home, and providing dangerously
<br /> misleading information,and
<br /> WHEREAS, torture is illegal, and violates faith and ethical traditions, and the trauma inflicted on torture survivors affects
<br /> them for the remainder of their lives,causes lasting psychological injury to those ordered to perpetrate it,and
<br /> WHEREAS, the U.S. government, the State of North Carolina, and political subdivisions of this state have ignored their
<br /> obligations to acknowledge and repair the harms created by the secret detention and torture program, even though impunity
<br /> 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 inquiries
<br /> have a long and honorable history,in North Carolina and beyond,of exposing human rights abuses and creating momentum for
<br /> accountability and redress;
<br /> NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Orange County Board of Commissioners hereby supports the North
<br /> Carolina Commission of Inquiry on Torture, a 501(c)(3), non-profit organization described at www.nccit.org, created to
<br /> address the issue of North Carolina's role in secret detention and torture,and to craft a model of accountability that can inspire
<br /> similar efforts elsewhere.
<br /> This the 13d'day of December 2016
<br /> Mark Dorosin,Chair
<br /> Orange County Board of Commissioners
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