A group of 200 political and religious leaders, including retired military and intelligence officers, called Wednesday for President George Bush to ban torture and allow congressional and court oversight of detention and interrogation policies in the war on terror.

Acts such as waterboarding and sending detainees to countries that torture prisoners undermine U.S. effectiveness in the war, help radical jihadists recruit fighters and are immoral, organizers said in a press conference.

Alberto Mora, former General Counsel of the U.S. Navy, said claims that torture has prevented new acts of terror and made the U.S. safer are wrong.

"I think the reality is exactly contrary to that," he said.

David P. Gushee, an Atlanta professor of ethics at Mercer University's McAfee School of Theology, helped pull the politically bipartisan group together and helped draft the statement against torture.

Three former U.S. secretaries of state, three former secretaries of defense and three former secretaries of national security signed it, along with Army Gen. Paul J. Kern (retired), who oversaw the internal investigation into abuse at Abu Ghraib. Gushee said it took the organizers about a year to pull the group together.

"I am excited for the quality of the signatories and also for the fact that we are working in coalition with some of our nation's leading civil and military voices," Gushee said.

A group he helped start, Evangelicals for Human Rights, is holding a national conference on torture in Atlanta Sept. 11-12.

Gushee and his fellow protesters created a Web site to get more people to sign the statement. Though the Bush administration will know of their work through news reporting, the group will present the statement to the White House later this year.

"We are seeking public affirmation of this document as well," said Linda Gustitus, president of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture.

A White House spokesman told the New York Times Tuesday that President Bush issued an order last year prohibiting torture but preserving the CIA's right to use coercive interrogation methods. The spokesman reaffirmed the administration's stance that the CIA's interrogation program has prevented new attacks.

Gen. Kern and others question the efficacy of torture to gather reliable information.

The Rev. John Thomas, leader of the United Church of Christ, said getting national security experts and military leaders to affirm the campaign is important to the group.

"Unless we address the fears around national security, we will not prevail," he said.