Day One Initiative

Nearly a year ago, the American Civil Liberties Union began drawing up a plan for what we would ask the new president to do when he, or she, came into office. The plan is called “Actions for Restoring America -- How to begin repairing the damage to freedom in America.”

The plan sets an agenda for the new administration and for the Congress, starting with a First Day Agenda and then a First 100 Days Agenda. The complete plan can be found at www.aclu.org/transition/

The pace is quick, but it’s do-able. Even the items we’re asking to be accomplished on President Obama’s first day in office are do-able. That’s because the current administration did much of its work -- especially the work repugnant to civil liberties -- through executive order or administrative action. The work can be undone the same way.

On his first day in office, we want President Obama to issue orders to do three things:

• Close the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba
• Stop torture
• End extraordinary rendition

We would like the Vermont Legislature to approve a resolution calling on the president to remove these stains from our constitutional democracy.

We invite human rights groups, peace groups, faith groups, and Vermont citizens to join us in urging that the Vermont Legislature pass the following resolution:

Whereas, terrorists hijacked four airplanes on Sept. 11, 2001, crashing two into the World Trade Center towers in New York City,one into the Pentagon, and one into a rural Pennsylvania field, and

Whereas, the federal government immediately began searching for the perpetrators of the violent actions, and

Whereas, an extra-territorial prison known as “Guantanamo” was established on United States-controlled land at Guantanamo, Cuba, to hold and try alleged terrorists, removed from the due process protections afforded detainees within the United States, and

Whereas, in violation of the Geneva Convention, torture has been used in the interrogation of detainees at the Guantanamo prison, and

Whereas, a practice known as “extraordinary rendition” has been used to seize, without warrants or other judicial orders, citizens of other countries and secretly transport them to foreign jails for interrogation, and these individuals have often been subjected to torture, and

Whereas, these practices are inconsistent with core American values, and

Whereas, the Day One Initiative is a national effort to persuade President-elect
Obama to close the Guantanamo Prison, stop torture of detainees, and end
the practice of extraordinary rendition through the issuance of executive orders
on the first day of his presidency, now therefore be it

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives:

That the General Assembly urges President-elect Obama, on his first day in office, to adopt the Day One Initiative by issuing executive orders that the Guantanamo prison in Cuba be closed, that the torture of detainees stop, and that the practice known as “extraordinary rendition” be ended, and be it further

Resolved:  That the secretary of state be directed to send a copy of this resolution to President-elect Obama and to the Vermont congressional delegation.