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Center for Constitutional Rights Supports National Lawyers Guild Call for Dismissal and Prosecution of John Yoo
On April 1, a secret 81-page memo written by former Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo in March 2003 was made public. In that memo, Yoo advised the Bush administration that the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel would not enforce U.S. criminal laws, including federal statutes against torture, assault, maiming and stalking in the detention and interrogation of enemy combatants. The week after the publication of Yoo's memo, the National Lawyers Guild issued a press release calling for the Boalt Hall Law School at the University of California to dismiss Yoo, who is now a professor of law there. The NLG also called for the prosecution of Yoo for war crimes and for his disbarment.
Two days later, the Center for Constitutional Rights released a letter supporting the NLG's call for Yoo's dismissal and prosecution. CCR Executive Director Vincent Warren wrote, "The 'Torture Memo' was not an abstract, academic foray. Rather, it was crafted to sidestep U.S. and international laws that make coercive interrogation and torture a crime. It was written with the knowledge that its legal conclusions were to be applied to the interrogations of hundreds of individual detainees... And it worked. It became the basis for the CIA's use of extreme interrogation methods as well the basis for DOD interrogation policy... Yoo's legal opinions as well as the others issued by the Office of Legal Counsel were the keystone of the torture program, and were the necessary precondition for the torture program's creation and implementation."
The day after the NLG issued its press release, Boalt Hall Dean Christopher Edley, Jr. posted a statement on the Boalt Hall website, responding to "the New York Times (editorial April 4), the National Lawyers' Guild, and hundreds of individuals from around the world" who had criticized or questioned Yoo's continuing employment at Boalt Hall.
Dean Edley cited the University of California's Academic Personnel Manual sec. 015, which lists under "Types of unacceptable conduct: ... Commission of a criminal act which has led to conviction in a court of law and which clearly demonstrates unfitness to continue as a member of the faculty." Edley said he was not convinced Yoo had engaged in "clear professional misconduct -- that is, some breach of the professional ethics applicable to a government attorney -- material to Professor Yoo's academic position." Edley was likewise not convinced "the writing of the memoranda, and [Yoo's] related conduct, violate[d] a criminal or comparable statute."
Edley felt Yoo's conduct was not "morally equivalent to that of his nominal clients, Secretary Rumsfeld, et al., or comparable to the conduct of interrogators distant in time, rank, and place." Edley wrote, "Yes, it does matter that Yoo was an adviser, but President Bush and his national security appointees were the deciders."
Indeed, ABC News reported last week that Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell, George Tenet, and John Ashcroft met in the White House and micromanaged the torture of terrorism suspects by approving specific torture techniques such as waterboarding. George W. Bush, the decider-in-chief, admitted, "yes, I'm aware our national security team met on this issue. And I approved."
These top U.S. officials are liable for war crimes under the U.S. War Crimes Act, and for violation of the Convention Against Torture and the Geneva Conventions, which are all part of U.S. law. They ordered the torture which was carried out by the interrogators.
But John Yoo and the other Justice Department lawyers, including David Addington, Jay Bybee, William Haynes and Alberto Gonzales, are also liable for the same offenses. They were an integral part of a criminal conspiracy to violate U.S. laws. In U.S. v. Altstoetter, Nazi lawyers were convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity for advising Hitler on how to "legally" disappear political suspects to special detention camps. The United States charged that since they were lawyers, "not farmers or factory workers," they should have known their technical justifications for circumventing the Hague and Geneva Conventions were illegal.
The cases of Altstoetter and those of the Bush lawyers share common aspects. Both dealt with people detained during wartime who were not POWs; in both, it was reasonably foreseeable that the advice they gave would result in great physical or mental harm or death to many detainees; and in both, the advice was legally erroneous. More than 108 people have died in U.S. detention since 9/11, many from torture. And the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel later withdrew the memoranda, an admission that the advice in them was defective.
Furthermore, the Bush lawyers have engaged in ethical violations which should result in their disbarment. As New York University School of Law Professor Stephen Gillers wrote in The Nation, H. Marshall Jarrett, counsel for the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility, who is examining the legal advice these lawyers provided, "should find that this work is not 'consistent with the professional standards that apply to Department of Justice attorneys.'"
Even Dean Edley appears to recognize that the case of John Yoo is not a simple issue of academic freedom, such as "merely some professor vigorously expounding controversial and even extreme views."
As CCR President Michael Ratner wrote in the forthcoming book, The Trial of Donald Rumsfeld, "Had these various opinions been written as a law school or academic exercise, they could be merely condemned and their authors would fail their class, but they would not be held criminally accountable. But they were not an academic exercise. They were written by high-level attorneys [such as John Yoo] in a context where the opinions represented the governing law and were to be employed by the President in setting detainee policy. This was more than bad lawyering; this was aiding and abetting their clients' violation of the law by justifying the commission of a crime using false legal rhetoric."
It is inconceivable that Attorney General Michael Mukasey, who has served as a rubber stamp for Bush's illegal policies, will bring any of these leaders or lawyers to justice. There is a chance that a future attorney general will do so. Barack Obama has pledged to have his Justice Department and Attorney General "immediately review the information that's already there and to find out are there inquiries that need to be pursued . . . if crimes have been committed, they should be investigated . . . Now, if I found out that there were high officials who knowingly, consciously broke existing laws, engaged in coverups of those crimes with knowledge forefront, then I think a basic principle of our Constitution is nobody above the law." Congress should repeal the provision of the Military Commissions Act that would give these deciders and lawyers immunity from prosecution for torture and other mistreatment committed from September 11, 2001 to December 30, 2005.
In addition to criminal prosecutions, disbarments, and the dismissal of John Yoo from the Boalt Hall faculty, Jay Bybee, who was rewarded for his illegal advice with a federal judgeship, should be removed from the bench by impeachment.
It is time for the impunity enjoyed by the Bush administration to come to an end.
Marjorie Cohn is a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and the President of the National Lawyers Guild. She is the author of "Cowboy Republic: Six Ways the Bush Gang Has Defied the Law." Her articles are archived at www.marjoriecohn.com.
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Show AllFrom Wikipedia: "Goebbels remained with Hitler in Berlin to the very end, and following the Führer's suicide he was the second person to serve as the Third Reich's Chancellor—albeit for one day. In his final hours Goebbels allowed his wife, Magda, to kill their six young children. Shortly after, Goebbels and his wife both committed suicide."
If a war criminal won't do himself in, the matter should be dealt with according to law. Real law, not signing statements, memos, or directives, but laws voted upon and ratified. Guilty, Yoo are.
If ever there is a time for prayer for justice to finally be brought to all involved in these war crimes, it is now. Or should I not get my hopes up and go back to my place in the pasture? Go CCR!!!
Getting Cheney, Bush, Rumsfeld and the rest in a court of justice would be like a vampire entering a place of holiness. Love to see the show...
The article told about how after WW2 the US prosecuted Nazi lawyers. It goes on to draw an analogy, and says it's unlikely the US Justice Dept will prosecute Bush&Co. Why would the US Justice Dept prosecute it's own people? Isn't that like saying after WW2 the Nazi lawyers prosecuted the Nazi lawyers? Shouldn't another country be doing the prosecuting of Bush&Co?
I've already sent a letter to Berkely suggesting that Yoo might qualify for a custodial position because of the practice he's had mopping the floor with our Constitution and Bill of Rights. Better yet, he should be mopping the floor in one our numerous penal institutions.
Marjorie Cohn ...excellent article; make no mistake about it...
Mr. Edley; Yoo is no more connected to the crimes committed by the lice in Washington than the shareholders of companies that make cluster bombs are connected to dead and maimed children.
Quit your dodging and pledge yourself to the truth.
This is a country of law not men. No one is above the law. My only regret is that Yoo is the sacrificial lamb. The main deciders are still the Bush, Cheney & CO. These guys are the "evil doers." They make the laws and change it as they see fit. How hypocritical....
Starting with anti-American Yoo would be like going after Libby for Cheney's treason. So we "get" Yoo, the rest walk free, Yoo gets pardoned. Like how "we" got Lindee England for "letting off a little steam" with her "frat boy" antics but continued and continue to allow Bush and his Torture Cabinet to do whatever they want, all laws be damned.
No - f**k Yoo. Offer him a plea in exchange for testimony and documents. Then Congress should call for the Military Police to arrest any and all DOMESTIC ENEMIES of our Constitution presently using the White House as a safe house. Those who have already fled the war criminal ship - from Rummy to Powell to Hughes to Rove to Ashcroft to Fredo - should also be immediately arrested and moved off-shore where they would be unable to continue their treason against The United States of America.
It is imperative for our standing in the world that these thugs be brought to justice. If they aren't then we are no longer that shining city on the hill. Justice now!
Although I don't believe that Yoo will ever get touched, I do see a thousand dominoes in a nice little row. When one of them finally falls, the entire mess of them is going to go down.
"The week after the publication of Yoo's memo, the National Lawyers Guild issued a press release calling for the Boalt Hall Law School at the University of California to dismiss Yoo, who is now a professor of law there. The NLG also called for the prosecution of Yoo for war crimes and for his disbarment. Two days later, the Center for Constitutional Rights released a letter supporting the NLG's call for Yoo's dismissal and prosecution."
***********************
Perhaps no more striking -- and chilling -- evidence of the damage done over the past seven years to adherence to fundamental US principles of constitutional governance and due process could be found than these calls for vigilante justice by -- of all people! -- the NLG and the CCR, organizations whose highest calling has been to safeguard constitutional liberties.
In my view, Yoo's Memorandum is abhorrent. The actions of his clients are abhorrent. It would be an honor to prosecute the lot of them in The Hague (or in Nuremberg -- now there'd be some poetic symbolism) on many, many counts.
But none of that means that the University of California should be called upon to fire Yoo, any more than universities should have been called upon to fire those whom the NLG and/or CCR has defended or would defend.
We have in this country the "quaint" (to quote the Honorable Alberto Gonzales, Esquire, writing on the Geneva Conventions) technicality that even persons whose conduct is found abhorrent by the NLG, the CCR, and me have a right to be tried before sentencing.
And the University of California, in common with many other colleges and universities in this country, has the equally "quaint" concept of the contract, which specifies the conditions under which, and only under which, a tenured professor can be fired. Whatever one may think of Boalt Hall Dean Christopher Edley, Jr.'s comments on his personal assessment of Yoo's conduct (comments that in legal terms are "mere dicta" -- i.e. not material to the holding), the Dean is absolutely correct in his reading of the University Academic Personnel Manual's provisions regarding termination.
And in all candor, no one should be more grateful for the UAPM's provisions, and for the Dean's upholding of those provisions, than organizations such as the NLG and the CCR, committed as they are constitutional governance and due process.
Far too many people have been the victim of precisely the vigilante justice uncharacteristically championed in this case by the NLG and CCR. Adding John Yoo, whom I would indeed be happy to prosecute, to the list will do more harm -- great harm --, not redress the harm already done, to principles that the NLG, the CCR, and all of us should champion because they're right, not because at the moment they protect someone with whom we sympathize. The way to work for an end to the abhorrent conduct sanctioned by Yoo, ordered by Bush et al., and carried out by many is the long, hard slog of political action – not the quick cry for vigilante justice.
PS to LifeofQuest, April 17th, 2008 at 1:13 p.m.("This is a country of law not men. No one is above the law"):Precisely so. And no one is beneath it. What the CCR and NLG have called upon the U. of Cal. to do is not "the law". It's a lynching.
I had a dream last night ...
Barack Obama was being sworn in as our next President, and during his acceptance speech, you see Cheney and Bush standing behind Obama. Then Obama makes his first official decree of his presidency. You see military police slowly move into view behind Obama, and then he says it,
"My first action as President is to put George W. Bush and Richard Cheney under arrest for crimes against humanity," Then you see the MPs cuff Bush & Cheney and perp-walk them off the stage. The crowd at the inauguration goes nuts!!!
Then Obama says, "This is the first in many actions I will take to try, best we can, to apologize to the rest of the world for the criminal, murderous acts committed by George W. Bush and his administration over rthe past 7 and a half years."
I woke up and DAMN! It is only April 17!
Disbar Mukesey as well...he is part of the team.
sdw917 April 17th, 2008 2:53 pm: Be grateful that what you report was only a dream. Fortunately for all of us the President in this country does not have authority to order the military (or anyone else) to arrest people. Be assured, were that not the case many people of whom you are presumably fond -- or to whom you wish no ill -- would have been arrested over the past seven years.
from the ACLU:
"Attorney General Mukasey is taking a radical approach to law enforcement. He stated that he won't investigate or prosecute anyone for waterboarding by the CIA because government lawyers had written a memo approving its use. In Mukasey's view, a lawyer's memo can be an unquestioned license to commit crimes. Ironically, in a week in which Senator John McCain is close to clinching a presidential nomination, the Attorney General is flouting the McCain Amendment prohibiting torture. The McCain Amendment specifically provides that reliance on an attorney's advice can be part of a CIA agent's defense, but does not bar any torture prosecution. Everyone but Mukasey seems to know that you can't break laws simply because your lawyer gives you bad advice."
Hector -
Let me have my moment of happiness, OK? :-)
When it comes to national policy and action...Congress should have to approve such things..explicitly. A lawyer's memo should be scrutinized closely by the majority.
When a lawyer starts using memos to write such radical policy...the whole bunch needs booting out.
Law is law, a memo doesn't change it. Lawyers would and should be ill advised to break the law, or encourage it to be broken.
Hector
I am sure the President got the memo on that as well...martial law and he can arrange to have anyone arrested...without any approval from anyone.
swd...
Great dream...oh that it were true!!!
Hector...
Lots of people end up arrested without the authority to do so...Gitmo is full of them. And what do you think all those 600 detention centers are for? And Blackwater? And the surveilence?
Bushco will stop at nothing while they are in.
As Cheney states, we will keep going until someone stops us.
Who has the guts to stop them? The Dems? cough cough...
Dismissal of a gov't employee such as Yoo, Rummy, Wolfy, etc means nothing. They just go thru the revolving door of gov't/private industry and do just as much damage there. They need the unrevolving, slamming door of prison.
BUSH IMPEACHMENT HEARINGS - MUST-SEE TV!!
Check this out:
http://www.barefootsworld.net/admiralty.html
Yap Chong Yee,
5a Prinsep Road,
Attadale, WA 6156
Email :ychongyee@yahoo.com.au
Blogg. http://yapchongyee.blogspot.com
To,
HRH, Yang Mulia' Regent Perak,
Raja Nazrin Shah,(forgive my ignorance of Royal Protocol)
Re: Re : Originating Petition No. D2-26-41 OF 2001 ;
Lim Choi Yin v. McLaren Saksama (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd
Yang Mulia,
I read your address to the conference of judges at the Marriot Hotel, Putra Jaya, and I have to say that if your wish for an independent judiciary is progressed along the path that you had enunciated in your speech, then Malaysia will indeed REGAIN the respect & trust in the Malaysian Judiciary that was the admiration of all of South East Asia.
The present state of the Malaysian Judiciary is the laughing stock of the world and if I might add, the state of the Malaysian Judiciary today can only be rivalled by the standard of Administration of the LAW & JUSTICE THAT EXIST IN INDONESIA. Forgive me for saying so, but there is a state of utter lawlessness prevailing in Malaysia. Judge Dato Zainon binti Mohd. Ali, who now sits on the bench of the Malaysian Court of Appeal, and who as the judge of 1st instance UNLAWFULLY AND ILLEGALLY STRUCK OFF MY WIFE'S ABOVE PETITION, the details of her criminal behaviour is fully documented in my blogg. At http://yapchongyee.blogspot.com. The details are too lengthy to discuss here; however, I can state that I graduated from the University of Singapore in Law in 1967 and I practised at the Malaysian bar from 1967 until I migrated to Australia in 1978.
Either through ignorance of the law relevant to issues raised in my wife's petition, Judge Dato Zainon binti Mohd. Ali or that she intentionally DISREGARDED the provisions of the law relevant to my wife's case or even more heinously she acted CORRUPTLY, Judge zainon binti Mohd. Ali committed several criminal offences while adjudicating my wife's case on the bench. This ridiculous turn of events must be unprecedented in all of history of the British Commonwealth (since we all share the same legal history).
I have written to the Chief Justice of Malaysia and I enclose a copy to this letter. I had written to the Chief Justice several times but I have never ever received ny replies. This is an official compliant so I do not see under what circumstances can the Chief Justice or the Attorney General can refuse to reply.
If Yang Mulia, is serious about what you said at the conference of Judges, then allow me to reiterate that even a JUDGE OF THE HIGHEST COURT OF MALAYSIA MUST BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR COMMITTING CRIMES. Judge Zainon binti Mohd. Ali committed several criminal offences and must be held accountable for them.
As a demonstration of my good faith, IF UPON INVESTIGATION OF THE FACTS THAT I CHARGED JUDGE ZAINON BINTI MOHD. ALI WITH HAVING COMMITTED IS FOUND TO BE TRUE THEN IS IT NOT THE DUTY OF THE A.-G TO PROSECUTE JUDGE ZAINON BINTI MOHD. ALI ? In this event I will be available to defend myself in court. TO PROVE THAT MALYSIA WANTS AN INDEPENDENT JUDICIARY THAT IS ETHICAL, HONEST AND ADMINISTER THE LAW IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAW, The Malaysian Attorney General can do the following, upon police investigation of the facts that I have charged her with :
(1) IF POLICE INVESTIGATION INTO MY CHARGES AGAINST JUDGE ZAINON ARE VALID AND THERE IS/ARE REASONABLE CAUSE TO CHARGE JUDGE ZAINON BINTI MOHD. ALI WITH COMMITTING CRIMINAL OFFENCES, THEN I WILL COME TO KL TO BEAR WITNESS,
OR
(2)If upon police investigation there is no basis for charging judge Zainon binti Mohd. Ali with criminal offences then obviously I have both libelled or more seriously for committing the more serious crime of SEDITION in with case the Malaysian Attorney General is under a duty to apply for my extradition to be charged in a Malaysian Court.
If Yang Mulia is serious about bringing change to the Malaysian Judiciary then this case is the most open demonstration of that resolve.
Yours Sincerely,
Yapchongyee
Date 10 April, 2008
Copy : ATTORNEY GENERAL, CHIEF JUSTICE MALAYSIA, MALAYSIAN BAR, PRESIDENT & SECRETARY, JUDGE ZAINON BINTI MOHD. ALI, EMAIL TO ALL AND SUNDRY LEGAL PRACTITIONERS.
Thank you Spike for your humor. - and irony.
Having Yoo as a law professor is like having Dr. Mengele on a med school faculty.
If you only know Berkeley by its reputation as the last bastion of the Wobblies, you should go down to Fourth Street the next time you're there. The city, the last place you'd ever expect to find a Starbucks or a chain of any kind, has been successfully gentrified and yuppified. It is, therefore, no surprise that a rat bastard like Yoo has a post at Cal. This is a perfect example of how far the poison of Bushism has seeped into our overall culture. Berkeley? Yes, even Berkeley.
Edley wrote, "Yes, it does matter that Yoo was an adviser, but President Bush and his national security appointees were the deciders."
But if Yoo didn't agree with the "deciders", he could have told them to take a hike and "google" the brand of toilet paper they were looking for.
I have published my letter to his Royal Highness, Regent of Perak, who by the way is well educated in the law and hold a Phd. from some American Ivy league University.
His Royal Highness has made numerious claims publicly that Malaysia need to regain the respectability of the judiciary in Malaysia which is notorious for their judges ABUSING THEIR POWERS. Judges do not deliver JUDGMENTS, they merely make such orders as they feel like, and there is no accountability for their abuse of power. How is it possible for a litigant TO APPEAL A WRONG THAT HAS BEEN KNOWINGLY PERPETRATED BY THE JUDGE IF HE (JUDGE) DOES NOT DELIVER HIS GROUNDS FOR HIS DECISION ? I have been fighting for over 8 years to obtain justice before the law and to date I have not been given any reply whatsoever.
I see a similarity between what is going on with the case of John Yoo and that of my wife; in both cases there has been abuse of powers and no accountability AT THE HIGHEST OFFICE OF THE LAND. This Judge zainon binti Mohd. Ali is a judge of the Court of Appeal and she sits of the bench of the Constitutional Court, the highest court of the land AND SHE DOES NOT KNOW THE LAW !
I only appeal to the moderators of Commondreams.org/ to allow my post above of my letter to His Royal Highness, the Regent of Perak to remain because I want the Lawyers in Malaysia to know that even at the highest office, THE LAWS OF MALAYSIA IS NOT ENFORCED. WHAT SORT OF LEGAL & JUDICIAL SYSTEM EXIST IN MALAYSIA. I WANT THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY TO KNOW THAT MALAYSIA HAS NO LEGAL SYSTEM AND THE JUDICIARY DISPENSE ONLY THE LAW OF THE JUNGLE.
deathtotyrants Said On April 17th, 2008 1:22 pm: "It is imperative for our standing in the world that these thugs be brought to justice. If they aren't then we are no longer that shining city on the hill. Justice now!"
Sorry, but I have to say this, yet again... The US has NEVER been that shining city on the hill... That was a lie taught to you from a very young age.
El Mysterio is absolutely right and he shouldn't have to be saying it again. The US was never a shining anything. The US has been for a long time a rapascious thief that sows destruction all over the world for the benefit of the rich and their companies. Take your shining beacon on the hill and put it were nothing shines.
Hector, the Military Commissions Act of 2006 invests in the President the power to designate anyone an illegal enemy combatant, and therefore their arrest with indefinite detention without trial or access to an attorney.
This Act needs repealing since as the article notes it also provides retroactive immunity for torture.
lizard and el mysterio
Never, zilch, nada? How about the right you take for granted by spouting off on these pages? I doubt it would be allowed to happen in China. For all it's crimes, faults and hypocrisies, the US has moved humanity forward in many ways. Your anger and bitterness blinds you to these facts.
Many of the failings of the US are age old human failings and greed that are difficult to overcome - they were nothing new. But the US did introduce many ideas and practices that has moved humankind forward and has served to inspire others to higher goals. The US was - and still is (despite BushCo)- a shining example of hope to many. You doubt this? Ask yourself whose documents and philosophies peoples around the world look to when they have thrown off their oppressors and endeavor to create a nation for themselves.
You are expecting a bit much, I think, to believe that a nation should hatch perfectly from the egg. Humanity progresses in steps and stages - and sometimes it goes backwards. You guys need to get some perspective.
Some of you sound like the black-listers during the early and mid-fifties. The headline of the article has it backwards--first prosecute Yoo and then (depending on the result of the prosecution) arrange for his dismissal from UC Berkley law school. Ditto for the likes of Feith at Georgetown, and Ashcroft at Pat Robertson Univ.
if the national lawyer's guild and the center for constitutional rights want to prosecute yoo, there must be a legal basis for the prosecution. as for his job, that is more a matter of politics.
what jurisdiction should prosecute him? if bill clinton's perjury necessitated a disbarment, what would slimy memos creating legal advice that sidesteps our constitution do?
if yoo gets disbarred, can he still teach law at berkeley?
here in detroit we have the case of a mayor who clearly perjured himself and did a few other things, but the city council cannot force him out of office against his will until he has been convicted in court.
The left could really divide and conquer the right by talking about Hitler. Talk about how the left supports a strong military to put down the next Hitler. Then the left can say that it does not support military action against any lesser threat than Hitler. This will divide the extremists from the moderates on the right. The extremists will lose their moderate support, and the right will finally be split, and the extremists may finally be caged. So far the left has failed to draw a line on military force, but rather has remained highly ambiguous as if it really doen't want to use the military at all, or it just wants to leave everything to the militant extremists - neither of these positions will split the moderate support away from the extremists.
You know the old scenario, ticking bomb, capture bad guy who won't talk, torture bad guy, he talks, hero finds bomb, defuses it in the nick of time.
How about this scenario? ticking bomb, capture bad guy who won't talk, torture bad guy and he talks, hero find he is on a wild goose chase but before he can get back to torture the bad guy again to find the real location of the bomb, Boom!!
The abrogation of the law by lawyers is nothing new; it's been going on since about the time Nixon's War on Drugs started. The Fourth Amendment was burned during the initial Drug War run-up and the lawyer class went right along with it. After all, there was money to be made with the War on Drugs; it's kinda like blood in the water to the lawyer class. Now, imagine my shock when lawyers are legitimizing torture and other heinous crimes while the majority of their brethren are sitting quietly by the way-side hoping to rake in some more loot from the next waves of unsuspecting schmucks unlucky enough to get caught up in the War on Terror. It's nice to know that some things never change.
SWEET!!
My lawyer gave me a memo saying in his opinion I don't have to pay my taxes anymore...
They violated the law, it is that simple. Now they MUST be prosecuted, given a fair trial, which they would deny others, and sentenced to long terms in prison, should they be found Guilty. This includes both Bush and Cheney who must also answer to the American people for their crimes.
Sorry Hector, for wherever you went to law school, but in my law school they didn't teach us that contracts trumped war crimes.
The point always comes back to simple fact that Bush has created a bizarre, "Alice in Wonderland" place where the Presidents is only accountable once every 4 years at the election. The right of "executive privilege" means the voters can only have the information he deems fit and he is free to declare the meaning of any law at his discretion. Wow... with power like that why bother with the election. (The GOP do promise to be compassionate conservatives so it is alright.)
Don't hold your breath.
Hector - Excellent posting.
We don't want to become what we oppose.
Until and unless many, many Americans (and most likely they will have to be Americans of majority European ancestry) are disappeared and tortured or an equal number are drafted into militray service and end up as casualties nothing of the sort suggested here as a remedy will occur. We are too comfortable, not really invested, simply think that the victims somehow deserve torture or have arguably less right to humane treatment or too frightened of losing our livlihood to do anything collectively about the catalog of high crimes and misdemenors that are alleged against the Bush administration. The underlying reason for that condition is that most Americans do not really really value the Constitution or sincerely believe that "we" are so right (Manifest Destiny and all that) that nothing like fascism could ever happen in America. And anyway if it did the victims would only be the people who were un-American.
We have folks asking a Presidentail candidate if he believes in the flag! The oath of office says nothing about the flag. It is a pledge to uphold and protect the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. Even David Duke and the KKK wear American flags!
well said frank. you are spot on, the world needs to see these people stopped now..
"Congress should repeal the provision of the Military Commissions Act that would give these deciders and lawyers immunity from prosecution for torture and other mistreatment committed from September 11, 2001 to December 30, 2005."
this from the President of the National Lawyers Guild!!!
the US Constiution explicitely prohibits ex post facto legislation.
there should be no need to repeal.
Styve April 17th, 2008 3:21 pm
BUSH IMPEACHMENT HEARINGS - MUST-SEE TV!!
Thank you Styve.
What in the hell happened to the National Lawyers Guild's resolution to impeach Bush/Cheney?
Let me guess: the NLG is a group of 5 people who, like the other 1,500,000 other groups of 5 in this country, would rather die at the hands of the NeoCons than maintain focus on a common cause.
I know, sticking to the simplicity of a methodology is soooo boring, we gotta get sucked up by the excitment of all the hypotheticals that are spawned from them. I've seen this in the fields of natural health, where the simplicity of a certain diet provides by far the greatest health benefits than chasing the magic pill and consuming dozens of suppliments daily; same thing in the area of body/mind work.
I know, each Sisyphus has gotta roll their rock...just why does Bush/Cheney's gotta keep squishing my body and soul?
jehosepha: Your Patriotism is admirable, yet horribly misdirected. You must have a lack of historical knowledge as to what the US actually stands for, how it was created, for WHOM it was created... I know it's hard for you to understand as you've probably been brainwashed from a young age to think the US is the greatest country in the world, but alas, it is just a lie.