By Laura Sanicola
Fordham Faculty Against Torture has a mission. It has a Facebook page. It has a Tumblr blog. It has “ask me about torture” buttons. But does it have support from the Fordham community?
Yes and no. On one hand, there seemed to be a steady stream of students flowing into and out of sessions of its first “teach-in,” a half lecture, half workshop on torture, human rights and restorative justice, held in the Campbell Multipurpose room on Tuesday. The event lasted from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. The students in attendance participated in discussion on the ethics of torture in modern society and what can be done to enlighten the Fordham community about the mission of the organization and call support to its cause.
Dr. William Meyers, professor of history, addressed the crowd before delivering a presentation comparing and noting similarities between medieval torture tactics to those performed by U.S. soldiers in the past fifty years.
Meyers is one of the organizing faculty of FFAT, a group of Fordham professors calling upon Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of the University, to revoke the honorary doctorate given to John Brennan, President Deputy National Security Advisor for Counterterrorism and Homeland Security and Fordham alum from the Class of 1977.
On the other hand, the petition that FFAT circulated in early February has only grown to 357 signatures by early Tuesday, up slightly over 150 since The Fordham Ram first reported on it in February. In early March, the Commuting Students Association gained 240 signatures for their petition to include commuters more in Integrated Learning Communities on campus in one weekend, a rate that dwarfs FFATs efforts. The undergraduate community alone has 8,345 students currently enrolled.
“People talk about student apathy as if it were this natural thing, but it is not,” said Dr. James Kim, professor of English and FFAT faculty organizer, to students during a discussion.
“Apathy is not your natural state. Powerlessness is not your natural state. They were produced by structural forces like student debt and the suppression of free speech, which together function to depoliticize you. The good news is that occasions like today give you the opportunity to take your power back.”
The petition is supposed to be presented to McShane at the Board of Trustees meeting on April 23rd. As of this issue, McShane has declined to comment.
FFAT formed in December 2014 following the release of a report from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence regarding the use of torture by the CIA against war criminals.
The report found that the CIA was performing torture tactics against war prisoners. Brennan, who was the commencement speaker at Fordham in May 2012, has since publically defended the CIA’s actions. Brennan stated in a press conference following the reports release that “there were no easy answers, and whatever your views are on [enhanced interrogation techniques], our nation and in particular this agency did a lot of things right during this difficult time to keep this country strong and secured.”
It seems that apathy is not the only potential barrier to the group’s efforts to gain support among the student body — student opinion on Brennan’s implication in Brennan’s involvement in the CIA torture tactics is far from unified.
Aaron DeVera, FCRH ’16, believes the admonishment of director Brennan by the faculty may be displaced. “As CIA director it’s his job to be face of an organization purposely faceless, no matter the issue,” DeVera said. “Director Brennan has made unprecedented and monumental changes to modernize the CIA, despite the medieval reputation of its methods from previous administrations.”
“As an employee of the administration it is not acceptable to disagree with the president,” he added.
Graham Bass, FCRH ’17, commented on the one-sided view of torture tactics by Americans. “A lot of people in the United States have this view that if something works and its for a good cause, like stopping communism or terrorism, that the ends justifies the means,” Bass said. “But torture does often produce lies more than truth…even if we take the cynical cross benefit analysis there’s still an issue of moral consistency.”
He went on to say that those who support torture in some situations must approach similar actions and tactics emplyed by our enemies with the same mindset.
FFAT has begun referencing themselves on social media as “Fordham Against Torture,” a name that signifies the inclusiveness of faculty and students alike.
