To: Ronald C. Machen, Jr., U. S. Attorney for the District of Columbia

Impanel a Federal Grand Jury Probe into CIA Torturegate!

Now that the U. S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has publicly released a report of its findings and conclusions arising from its years-long investigation of the U. S. Central Intelligence Agency's use of torture in interrogating suspected terrorists (an investigation relying on analysis of smoking-gun documentary evidence), what should be the next phase of holding the Agency and other culpable entities accountable for this egregious violation of the public trust and for degradation of democratic principles by personnel who knew, or should've known, the gravity of such official wrongdoing?

We, the undersigned petitioners, hereby answer that question by calling upon the U. S. attorney for the District of Columbia to promptly impanel a federal grand jury to exercise its investigative-and-reporting function to determine the extent of any and all criminality behind the official decision-making and practices leading to CIA Torturegate. We submit this petition as accountability stakeholders in helping to protect all subpoenaed witnesses' testimony as well as to facilitate emergence of whistleblower-derived evidence.

Why is this important?

This petition expresses the will of free people everywhere to reject state-sponsored torture of any detainee -- and to expose, condemn, and punish its perpetrators and enablers. The sought-for grand jury probe can help dethrone official torture as the epitome of "the end justifies the means." That negative public policy makes a mockery of the democratic process and hence endangers public safety.