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After Torture, Resurrection
Three years ago, Easter dawned on Crawford, Texas, for the many friends of justice and peace who were gathered there to celebrate new hope.
Rev. Joseph Lowery gave an inspired message that morning, in what turned out to be a warm-up for his Benediction at the Inauguration of our new president in January 2009.
Camp Casey that Easter 2006 was a relatively quiet occasion to reflect and celebrate new life and one another. The best known resident of Crawford had decided to avoid the crowd assembling there, opting instead to spend Easter at Camp David in the mountains of Maryland. There troublesome questioners could be kept farther away-I mean people like Cindy Sheehan, who would not stop asking why our sons and daughters were being killed and maimed in an unnecessary war.
The previous summer Sheehan had become the Rosa Parks of Crawford, challenging the president to tell her what was the "noble cause" for which her son Casey died in Iraq on April 4, 2004. Sadly, we were not surprised that an answer-less president preferred clearing brush to clearing up what he meant by saying such deaths were "worth it."
Ironically, President George W. Bush seemed supremely comfortable talking about evildoers-other evildoers. We, in contrast, saw evil in the launching of what the post-WWII Nuremberg Tribunal labeled a "war of aggression," defined as the "supreme international crime, differing from other war crimes only in that it contains the accumulated evil of the whole."
As I gathered with other pilgrims in Crawford those sad summers of 2005 and 2006, there was a strong sense of responsibility and determination to confront "the accumulated evil of the whole"-particularly torture.
Presidential Sweat
In August 2006, the timid journalists of the western White House told us the president had sweat on his brow from clearing brush. And as we gathered one evening, someone quoted from the musical Camelot: "I wonder what the (self-styled) king is doing tonight; what merriment is the king pursuing tonight."
With damning disclosures coming left and right about the torture procedures unleashed by that president, it seems a good guess that, rather than making merry, he was sweating the evenings away, as well. You see, President George W. Bush had left his fingerprints on accumulated evils for which he was likely eventually to be held accountable, in one way or another. And during the summer of 2006 the chickens were coming home to roost.
On June 29 of that year, in a 5 to 3 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that the Bush administration was wrong in denying detainees the protections afforded by the Geneva Conventions. Bush had done so by Executive Order of February 7, 2002. Don't look for it in the Fawning Corporate Media (FCM); simply Google it.
Worse still from Bush's point of view, Justice Anthony Kennedy saw fit to say out loud the obvious; i. e., that disregarding Geneva amounts to a war crime. One Bush aide is reported to have gone quite pale when Kennedy warned that violations of Geneva "are considered ‘war crimes,' punishable as federal offenses."
So as we stood watch in Crawford in August 2006, Bush sweat was dripping not so much from clearing brush, but rather from a hasty effort to have the Republican-controlled Congress pass a law granting administration officials-from Bush on down- retroactive immunity from prosecution for the illegal detainment and abuse of detainees. That effort came to fruition in September when Democrats as well as Republicans acquiesced in passing the so-called "Military Commissions Act."
"Is this a great country, or what?" you may be saying to yourself. But wait; laws can be amended, changed; new laws can be passed. The stay-out-of-jail pass that was given to the perpetrators of accumulated evil can bear an expiration date. Despite the best efforts of crafty lawyers and loyal legislators, perpetual immunity is probably not in the cards.
Still Feeling the Heat
On December 11, 2008, after a two-year investigation, Sen. John McCain and Sen. Carl Levin released the summary of a Senate Armed Services Committee report, issued without dissent, demonstrating that Bush's Executive Order of February 7, 2002 had "opened the way to considering aggressive techniques" that were then ordered implemented by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Coming soon: the full text, which, even with heavy redactions, will provide ample grist for courses in criminal law for years to come.
More damning still is an authoritative report by the International Committee of the Red Cross-the body legally responsible for monitoring compliance with the Geneva Conventions and supervising the treatment of prisoners of war-that was given initially to CIA acting general counsel John Rizzo in February 2007 but not published in full until this past Sunday. That report describes in gory detail the torture techniques let loose by Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/ and their Mafia-style attorneys for use on so-called "high-value" detainees. Google that report too, if you have the stomach for it and can bear the shame.
George W. Bush had better have a swimming pool in his new Texas digs, because that report puts the final nail in the coffin, so to speak, of any plans he may have had for foreign travel. If he steps onto an international flight, he is likely to have more to duck than shoes, wherever he lands.
Even if the administration of Barack Obama continues to shirk its duty to appoint a nonpartisan, independent prosecutor to launch an appropriate investigation, the former president and his accomplices cannot risk the possibility of being apprehended abroad, brought to The Hague, and tried for war crimes.
I am not making this up. Remember how former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had to sneak out of France in October 2007, reluctant to wait for a Paris prosecutor to decide how to handle a criminal complaint against him for approving torture?
Hope
Rev. Lowery's Easter sermon to the gathering alongside Prairie Chapel Road just three years ago rings ever more true:
"Don't tell me Easter's not real! Don't tell me righteousness will not overcome evil! Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. That's the message of Easter."
Let the church say Amen.
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16 Comments so far
Show All"That effort came to fruition in September when Democrats as well as Republicans acquiesced in passing the so-called "Military Commissions Act."
And that says just about all you need to know about "Democrats as well as Republicans".
That was also just before the midterm elections, when Democrats were hoping to become the majority. Might have been some electoral politics, but I have no doubt many Congresspeople simply don't give a shit about creating a tyranny as long as they continue to get corporate payoffs through being reelected over and over.
The world has witnessed a revival of the Nazi blueprint. The Bush Gang not only used fear to initiate aggressive war, and denounced all opposed as unpatriotic, but actually invoked and administered the use of torture. Even if confined within our borders, thanks to one gutless man in the White House these same men - this very moment - are regrouping for another day.
Protecting those who commit supreme world crimes is itself a supreme crime against posterity. If the US is ever to "rise again," Obama must look to the law, not his friends.
If a Damocrat administration had done what Bush and his gang did, and the Repugs came into power, how long would it have taken to convict and jail the whole bunch? They will no doubt be impeaching Obama any day now with the help of some Damocrats for traitorous actions.
Oh yes! Mr. Rev. Lowery, the kingdom is coming on earth as it is in heaven as so many Roman Catholics have prayed for! The king in heaven is a ruthless, dictatorial, power hungry, self inflated, paranoid, angry, vengeful, threatening and jealous ruler of his frightened slaves who are demoted if they so much as question his dictatorial decrees!! Sound like anyone you know down here on planet earth? As above , so below! Or conversely, as you think, so you become!
"Cuz", (if indeed you are), I wish you could smell what it is you are shoveling.
Wovoca, reportedly a Paiute, was one of many who believing in the "Jesus" myth needed to justify the foolishness of that myth with a "twist" that fit his audience.
The Ghost Dance "religion" was mostly a figment of the imagination of the Reservation Agents who were in the last throws of the "management schedule", and yet one more play upon the collective imaginations of the American Public.
The premise however was not a bad idea, "let's all get together and dance---until the White Man goes away, and the buffalo return---oh yea don't forget all those 'Indians' that died will come back as well.
Now what our people need to do is "get together", and assert ourselves much the same way the African Americans in the sixties----but unfortunately far to many of our "relations" would rather "dress up their regalia, and dance for the White folks at the Rodeo"----so they remain as they are-----"Domestic Dependant Nations" (Vine Deloria Jr, in the Nations Within, read it---you might learn something)
You play into the "Blanket Indian" imagery with much of your writing, and it still stinks long after it has fallen out of popularity.
It was ridiculous in the early twentieth century, and it still is, the irony is that most of the readers are far to young to make the reference.
Taking into consideration how miserably the Christians have treated the Native People where ever they go, but especially us, I would think that the thought of "spending eternity in heaven with them"---would seem more like HELL----it would to me.
You refer to yourself as "This Old Indian"----what part of India do you come from?
Good Luck, you really need it.
It is difficult to look into the eyes of children and know that their elder leaders have undone the Golden Rule, and are practicing horrors and destruction beyond imagination. How can we expect them to behave when there is precedent for them to ultimately get away with murder, of people, of planet, legally? WE need to quit blindly falling down the rabbit hole and stand for what is right, and teach the children by example of what we want to see, and not tolerate excuses of us and them mentality...we are one...amen
"If he [George W. Bush] steps onto an international flight, he is likely to have more to duck than shoes, wherever he lands."
Nice thoughts, nice prose.
But since leaving the White House for the new fraternity pledge class to clean up, Little George has already made it safely in and out of Canada, delivering a speech to a chamber of commerce type group in Alberta that wanted to hear the ex-President's words of wisdom.
On Ray's larger point, however, I entirely agree.
We can all vicariously take some solace in the prospect that Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Alberto Gonzales, and a few other top GWOT decision makers of the Bush/Cheney regime now do have to legitimately fear the fate of Pinochet if they travel indiscriminately around places like Europe, for instance, where international human rights law sometimes gets taken seriously. Solace however is a poor substitute for justice.
I still say the preferable route to go (rather than a special prosecutor) is for Attorney General Eric Holder to simply have the regular federal grand jury process utilized. That delivers the message loud and clear that nobody is beyond the reach of existing federal war crimes and anti-torture statutes, no matter how high the public office the suspect once held.
Why a special prosecutor? Who says there is some sort of a "duty to appoint a nonpartisan, independent prosecutor to launch an appropriate investigation" of criminal wrongdoing by these particular criminal suspects?
Here, the duty to act rests exclusively with Attorney General Eric Holder as head of the Department of Justice, not with Barack Obama. Congress could certainly help that process with some hearings so that documents could be subpoenaed and de-classified, and whistle blower witnesses would have a secure forum. And of course the Military Commissions Act and FISA statute immunity grants should also be repealed.
To me, if restoring respect for the rule of law is what we want to achieve, then the appeals for action should be addressed first and foremost directly to the nation's top prosecuting attorney. That's Eric Holder's job. Barack Obama has plenty of other big fish to fry, and the President of the United States has no business whatsoever telling the Attorney General who he or she should, or should not, investigate and/or indict.
Bill from Saginaw
It has been said, tell me your politics and I will know who your god/God is:
A god of war, or the God of peace? A god of injustice, or the God of justice? A god who seeks vengeance or the God of compassionate mercy? A god of violent retaliation or the God of nonviolence?
When we who claim to be Christian learn of and worship the God Jesus illuminated; the God of peace and nonviolence, not the god of state or nation, we will be a person who seeks peace by pursuing justice and remain physically nonviolent, but never silent.
Jesus was NEVER a Christian; the term 'Christian' was not even coined until the days of Paul, about 3 decades after Jesus/AKA: The Prince of Peace walked the earth and taught that it is the peacemakers who are the children of God, NOT those that bomb, occupy or torture others.
2,000 years ago The Cross had NO symbolic religious meaning and was not a piece of jewelry.
When JC said: "Pick up your cross and follow me" everyone THEN understood he was issuing a POLITICAL statement, for the main roads into Jerusalem were lined with crucified agitators, rebels, dissidents and any who disturbed the status quo of the Roman Empire and Military Occupying Forces.
Jesus, while never a Christian, was a social, justice, radical revolutionary Palestinian devout Jewish road warrior who rose up against the corrupt Temple authorities and challenged their job security by teaching the people they did NOT need to pay the priests for ritual baths or sacrificing livestock to be OK with God; for God LOVED them just as they were:
Sinners, poor, diseased, outcasts, widows, orphans, refugees and prisoners all living under the Roman Empire and Military Occupation.
What got JC crucified was disturbing the status quo of the Roman Empire and Occupying Forces by teaching the subversive concept that God preferred the humble sinner, the poor, diseased, outcasts, widows, orphans, refugees and prisoners all living under the Roman Empire and Military Occupation above the elite and arrogant.
The early followers and lovers of Jesus were called members of THE WAY-being THE WAY he taught one should be and that his sisters and brothers were those that DID the will of the Father: "What does God require? He has told you o'man! Be just, be merciful, and walk humbly with your Lord." -Micah 6:8
"Everyone in the world knows that Jesus and his teachings were non-violent: except Christians."-Gandhi
Jesus has been accused of being a pacifist, but his nonviolent responses to evil were never passive!
Jesus vented his righteous wrath when ever confronted with hypocrisy by being outspokenly courageous, aggressive and sarcastically witty. He also was always gentle with humble sinners, children, misfits, outcasts, cripples, diseased, widows, orphans, prisoners, refugees and preferred to spend his time alone in prayer or in the company of regular people.
Legend has it that President Bush got a message from God to go and bomb Baghdad. I contend that had he meditated/thought upon what his self-proclaimed favorite philosopher-Jesus-actually taught and modeled, he would have changed course.
A few months after America began to bomb Baghdad, President Bush granted an interview with a TV reporter who asked had he prayed for Saddam Hussein before bombing his country. Bush looked like the proverbial deer caught in the headlights, stuttered some and then admitted he had not.
Jesus was very clear that one must pray for, forgive and bless/do good towards one's enemies.
One's enemies can teach one more about oneself than listening to one's own voice.
Jesus warned the adults of his time to never do anything that would cause harm to children. USA sanctions on Iraq before 2005 had already killed nearly a million people- over half of them children under five.
There is nothing about Jesus' life and teachings that can support the anti-democratic dictatorships and State in the Middle East, some of which would collapse without benefit of American foreign policy and USA tax dollars.
No pretext, rationale or spin can change the fact that Jesus would never condone violence, no matter who wears the uniform or how noble one believes their cause; not for mom, apple pie, democracy or Zionism, would Jesus say it was OK to wage war that terrorize children and all innocent beings.
It will take an evolutionary step-a transformation of hearts and minds to stop the cycle of violence, and the only force that can defeat that evil, is by NOT mirroring it.
Jesus called us to love all our neighbors, to show compassion toward everyone, to seek justice for the poor, to forgive our enemies, to put down the sword and take up the cross of struggle for justice and peace. Jesus laid down our life and calls his followers to risk theirs for love of God in all of humanity, and that includes our enemies.
Jesus' death on a cross said: enough! This violence against another life ends with my broken body. But, many did not know what they were doing, because they did not know god was already within all themselves and every other, for all are gods; all are children of the Most High God.
Jesus might call it a blasphemy what is spun as "collateral damage" for human kind was created in the image of the Divine. The command remains "thou shall not kill" and the promise he gave was that the peacemakers are the daughters and sons of The Lord.
Eileen Fleming, Author, Founder WAWA:
http://www.wearewideawake.org/
Producer "30 Minutes With Vanunu" and "13 Minutes with Vanunu"
Simple answer? If it is true we are made in G-d's image, then it is true G-d can be as wonderfully charitable, or as brutally evil, as we can be.
Sioux Rose
EILEEN: Bravo. Your explanation is one I totally agree with. The fact that so many believe that 'god' is behind these wars for conquest impresses on me the need to relate that the only 'god' such action can and ever did serve is Mars. The elites who require religion to move the masses have discovered Jesus' name works like a charm. And as you well explain, any form of aggression is as alien and anathema to Jesus' teachings as could be possible. To try to liberate many true believers from their misguided notions would be like courting a death sentence. I applaud your efforts at removing blindfolds.
Why have we not brought these criminals to justice? Nancy Pelosi, what the hell are you thinking? Welcome to AmeriKKKa!!!
Nancy Pelosi was on The Daily Show tonight, and while Jon nailed her a few times, he never asked THAT question, which he should have.
Great job by Ray McGovern.
If the gov't won't do it,
PRIVATIZE NUREMBERG.
Fund injured parties' legal teams.