EMAIL SIGN UP!
Most Popular This Week
- Corporate Win: Supreme Court Says Monsanto Has 'Control Over Product of Life'
- How the US Turned Three Pacifists into Violent Terrorists
- Cornel West: Obama 'Is a War Criminal'
- Revealed: How US State Department 'Twists Arms' on Monsanto's Behalf
- Victory in Seattle as Teachers Win Battle in Standardized Test Boycott
Popular content
Today's Top News
Human Rights Groups United in Demand for Bush's Prosecution
Several human rights groups are united in their demand that former president George W. Bush face prosecution following his open admission that he authorized the use of waterboarding, one of the cruelest forms of torture. Former president Bush made his admission during interviews publicizing his book, Decision Points. Bush's admission of having authorized torture, however serious the claim is, is just one of the reasons the former president could be prosecuted.
During an interview with NBC News Bush said, "Three people were waterboarded and I believe that decision saved lives." And he added, "My job was to protect America. And I did." This is not the opinion of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Amnesty International (AI) and Human Rights Watch, three of the most prestigious human rights organizations.
"The Department of Justice has made clear that waterboarding is torture and, as such, a crime under the federal anti-torture statute.18 U.S.C. 2340 (c). The United States has historically prosecuted waterboarding as a crime. In light of the admission by the former President, and the legally correct determination by the Department of Justice that waterboarding is a crime, you should ensure that Mr. Durham's current investigation into detainee interrogations encompasses the conduct and decisions of former President Bush," says the ACLU in a letter addressed to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.
According to Human Rights Watch, the U.S. government's conduct on alleged torture of its detainees sends an "ugly message" to the international community. "It sends the ugly message that there are no legal consequences in the United States for committing the most heinous of international crimes," said in a statement Joanne Mariner, a counter-terrorism program director at Human Rights Watch.
While the U.S. has so far taken a lenient attitude towards those that committed or ordained human rights abuses such as torture, both Argentina and Peru have shown that it is possible to indict and punish the highest officials in the land.
In Argentina, more than 30 high ranking officials, including several members of Argentina's military juntas, were prosecuted and sent to prison on long sentences following their indictment for human rights abuses committed while the military were in power. Among those crimes were the torture and enforced "disappearance" of prisoners.
In Peru, in 2009, former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori was sentenced to 25 years in jail for ordering killings and kidnapping by security forces. Mr. Fujimori was already serving a six-year term after being found guilty in 2007 on separate charges of abuse of power.
"Under international law, the former President's admission to having authorized acts that amount to torture are enough t trigger the USA's obligations to investigate his admissions and if substantiated, to prosecute him," said Claudio Cordone, senior director at Amnesty International. And he added, "His admissions also highlighted once again the absence of accountability for the crimes under international law of torture and enforced disappearance committed by the USA."
Regarding its request to prosecute former President Bush the ACLU stated, "The ACLU acknowledges the significance of this request, but it bears emphasis that the former President's acknowledgement that he authorized torture is without parallel in American history. The admission cannot be ignored. In our system, no one is above the law or beyond its reach, not even a former president."
During his recent visit to Indonesia, President Barak Obama urged the leaders of that country to acknowledge the human rights abuses of the Suharto regime. Among those abuses is the 1991 killing of over 200 East Timorese civilians in Dili, East Timor. The same principles should be applied to the conduct of former president George W. Bush. As stated by the ACLU, "A nation committed to the rule of law cannot simply ignore evidence that its most senior leaders authorized torture."
Comments
Note: Disqus 2012 is best viewed on an up to date browser. Click here for information. Instructions for how to sign up to comment can be viewed here. Our Comment Policy can be viewed here. Please follow the guidelines. Note to Readers: Spam Filter May Capture Legitimate Comments...
32 Comments so far
Show AllMaybe Obama should be investigated at the same time, just to keep it "bipartisan"
Maybe so.
Maybe so.
Do not lose sight of the fact that the Iraq attack is clearly the Capital Crime of a "War against the Peace".
I would include Afghanistan.
And I would prosecute Oilybomber for his use of Universal Executive Extrajudicial Executions claim.
Bring America Back !!!!
***Moreover, "W" is admitting quietly He acted on
'faulty' US Intelligence to invade Iraq ! Naturally,
when He realized those Errors he odered an immediate
end to the War, Right ? No sane world Leader would
continue a War based on false, illegal, immoral premise?
No, seems King George pursued the erroneous War by
hunting down its Third rate Dictator and seeing to it
he was hanged in execution==esp since Saddam had
threatened "W:'s Daddy Bush !
General Wesley Clark is well on record stating "W"
never wanted to hear any intelligence or evidence
that Iraq had no WMD's, nor was involved in 9/11 !
"W" wanted only data blaming Iraq for terrorism or
tying it to al Qaeda and the Taliban.==even though
all such data was false and erroneous.
****Admitting to the Torture programs does not bother
Bush because it produced the 'Patsies' from detainees
later admitting to "masterminding' 9/11. The waterboard
program produced exactly the Patsies needed by the
corrupt Bush and company. This came in handy when
Boogeyman bin Laden went invisible, and just now
e-mails us rarely since he hates our freedoms.
***The US military-industrial complex is really good
at producing Patsys, esp when they can waterboard
them a couple hundred times.
"As stated by the ACLU, 'A nation committed to the rule of law cannot simply ignore evidence that its most senior leaders authorized torture.'"
This gives new meaning to the "yes we can" slogan.
There is no commitment to the rule of law anymore, and I've never seen this so blatantly paraded in front of the public. One of these days Obama's going to stride behind a podium and declare martial law. Why wait for the inevitable fallout of our economic demise? The prisons have been built and await us. Would even this awaken the public to insanity all around them? Somehow, I think not. Prisons mean jobs! They're one of our few growth industries, and most people seem to think this is keeping them safer. The pundits will discuss endlessly whether this is a good thing as new laws are passed criminalizing poverty, debt, and dissent.
We have become a nation of ethically bankrupt, propagandized champions of brutality. At least before the Soviet Union fell, there was some reason behind the grotesque wars and invasions: the Soviets actually had weapons, nuclear weapons, so there was some basis in the fear of encroaching Communism. At least the war crimes were not openly aired on the news, and when they were, they were denounced or at least denied. Now our "enemy" is some desperate people blowing themselves up with IEDs. And people here endlessly debate whether this manufactured enemy justifies torturing and murdering people.
Really excellent comment. I especially like the allusion to the "yes we can" slogan.
In writing instruction, it's called a "hook." Hope it made you decide to read the rest. This is not to say I consider my thoughts cynical.
"A nation committed to the rule of law cannot simply ignore evidence that its most senior leaders authorized torture,"...
I want my country back, back from a former president who are tortured and committed war crimes and from a current president who ignored torture and war crimes.
I agree with your comment up to the point of "encroaching Communism." That was the same phony bogeyman as the "terrorists" of today that are used to keep people living in irrational fear.
I know it was a bogeyman. It was just a more believable one. The bogeymen we have now--how can people even imagine a threat to the nation? Don't they think at all? The other day a student asked me about the Iraqi military. She didn't know they don't have one.
if indicted, junior can plead insanity:
"hey - I actually believed God told me to do it."
The political class in this country is the most cowardly, selfish, arrogant and useless segment of society. They make laws that they themselves as members of congress don't have to abide by. They implement policies that they KNOW will cause suffering and dismay, but they really don't CARE.
And when it comes time for them to hold one of their own accountable for horrendous decisions that were based on the worst of reasons, they FOLD. I remember Ford saying that he would pardon Nixon because "the country couldn't take an impeachment". He should have ASKED some of us, we were ALL FOR IT. Oh, the republicans, in full class warfare mode, were willing to pull it out for BULLSHIT reasons, but then REAL reasons come along, it's all "look forward, not backward" and other such COMPLETE bullshit.
If ANY of US gets caught doing the most minor of infractions, WE go to jail. These scum bags lie us into wars, spy illegally on us, torture people, kidnap people, and shit all over the constitution , and they get to write books bragging about their illegal actions. And STILL, NOT ONE of our "leaders" has a single testicle between ALL of them, because when presented with OBVIOUS evidence and a damned confession in public, they STILL sit on their asses and do nothing. But you can bet that pro sports somewhere will have a scandal that they can WASTE our time and money on.
It's time to get rid of damn near ALL of these assholes and replace them with people who are NOT millionaires, who are NOT big business supporters, who are NOT bought and sold by the selfish and greedy class. Public financing of all elections would be a start, as would a constitutional amendment to remove even the IDEA of corporate personhood. And put the tax rate back to the Eisenhower rate. I believe it was 92% or very close to it. NO LOOPHOLES.
The most amazing if not deeply disturbing aspect of the whole "waterboarding" affair is the total absence of "taking responsibility" by anyone for anything. When President Bush approved waterboarding no one seems to have given any thought to "what if waterboarding is a war crime after all" and "who is responsible if a person dies during waterboarding"? It is clear from Bush's book that he washed his hands in the advice from his lawyers. "What, me responsible? You must be kidding pardner".
Even today when there is a pretty strong consensus that waterboarding is a war crime President Obama and AG Holder pretend that waterboarding was a nasty, shameful and unfortunate happening during the past but that the nation must now "look forward". In other words: forget it. You, Mr. President, accept no responsibility for what the law demands of you.
Mr. Holder, has it ever occurred to you that you will not be arrested and sent off to a concentration camp if you state as a minimum that the role of the former President and his advisers must now be investigated for the possibility of having committed a U.S. crime?
If nothing is done it is one more reason to dump Obama in 2012. The downside of that will be that his successor will be just as loath to take responsibility as he is.
The problem, of course, is the age-old issue of assigning responsibility in the master-servant relationship, especially when that relationship is itself based on a charade.
Who are the responsible masters of the U.S. and its governance anyhow? If you accept the charade, it's "the people", but we all know that's not true and the collectivity would never sanction its own indictment in any case. On the other hand, the real masters simply can't countenance the exposure that would be involved in bringing charges against their most senior servant.
Ergo, it ain't gonna happen. So just forget about it, be "good Americans", and move on as you've been told.
No patriotic American can have anything to do with our criminal government.
If Obama wanted a second term, which he seems hell-bent on avoiding, he would do all in his power to prosecute the water torture crimes of Bush. Sadly, he won't and just as he has done all he can to avoid any of his obligations to turn away from the illegal and disgraceful policies and practices of his dishonorable predecessor.
I see him with a set of horse blinkers on, refusing to be Presidential and rolling over on his back like a well-trained dog. His nickname "Obambi" seems increasingly accurate.
One truism is that it was not Bushes ADMITTING to the crime that made him guilty. He was a war criminal the day he authorized the Invasion of Iraq and the waterboarding of detainees.
This was NOT unknown at the time. Any newspaper or Journalist with the slightest bit of intergity could have revealed this.
I spent literally weeks in an online debate trying to point this out (Bushes Criminality) and got no where with the people there who all more or less said that stating such was "anti-American" and that "If it really went right to the top SOMEONE would have come forward to reveal it".
Bush won re-election (albeit with some help in Ohio) even though he was a WAR Criminal.
The MILLIONS who voted for Bush did not care that he was a war criminal.
This willful and blind ignorance speaks to the true nature of the problem and helps explain why it is so many psychopaths rise to positions of power in the United States of America.
The Public has been conditioned not to question their leaders or to hold them accountable because to do so would be "anti-american" and would reveal truths that they would rather not have revealed.
It like the Mother who when approached by one of her Children claiming to being sexual molested by the father, refuses to believe it and punishes the child instead. The abuse goes on and then the mother claims "she never suspected".
It is this "Patriotism" and belief in "Myth" that leads to Fascism. These are the exact tools The Nazi Party used in Germany.
That's very close. While the Greatest Democracy on Earth (TM) is essentially a charade, it does still, to some extent, serve the useful purposes of popular 'legitimization' and diversion of blame. When everybody's responsible, no one is. In fact, the multitude of 'co-conspirators' will greatly assist subsequent denial efforts in what they perceive as being in their own 'loyal and patriotic' interests.
I absolutely agree, especially when the gist of these blogs wants to blame Bush when the Democrats were maybe more guilty in the Iraq War farce. (As an opposition party, they really should have resisted more, but the resistance was absolutely nothing.) That "they" are continuing to use of the word "war" to describe our illegal occupation of Iraq amplifies my point.
Bush was not alone. An overwhelming majority of Congress supported giving him their responsibility to declare war! The Democrats were just as hawkish as the Repuplicans about Iraq. Let's hold all of them accountable! How can anyone continue to think "Democrat" or "Republican" after what the two of those pseudo-parties have done to us?
The two-party system is just too easy for the powers that control us. If we had 10 parties, their contributions would be too diluted to impact at all.
You are right. Americans were lazy and left their responsibility to the President and Congress without holding them accountable. I think that Americans are waking up, but it's probably too late. Maybe they trusted too much the institutions that were hell-bent on destroying them. But, I really have to add this: How long did Americans think they could continue with gas-guzzling vehicles and using about 1/4th of the world's oil supply when the rest of the world was economizing with smaller vehicles? We cannot support our own consumption of the world's resources without consequences. I actually think, though, regarding our expenditures in Iraq, that we could have developed alternative energy sources much more cheaply without killing our own soldiers and who knows how many Iraqis.
It would help us understand the mind of W. if he were interviewed after spending his first two years in a life sentence for crimes against humanity.
He has never had to struggle or work to earn a living, or had to be afraid of a rival gang, or wonder whether his actions might totally ruin his life. Daddy Bush was always there with his check book.
He would feel as if he had been kidnapped and taken to another planet if he were called on to defend the suffering he has caused for no better reason than just to see what would happen.
Not like being interviewed on a TV show, but knowing that his judges had the power to send him to prison forever without appeal or parole.
Abu Graib springs to mind.
Yeah, let's prosecute Bush, Wolfowitz, Perle, Pelosi (because she was implicated with giving secrets to Israeli lobbies), Geithner, Emanuel, etc., basically all of them. They are like the end of the end of a pile of political crapola. Please give me a reason to respect any of the aforementioned.
Did anyone connect the dots there?
Those "Human Rights Groups" are wasting our VITAL RESOURCES! Only a fool or a religious person would believe in such a useless campaign. What are the chances that Bush will be prosecuted? ZERO!
Instead, we should concentrate on things that can actually happen:
a) ONE-TERM-ONLY MANDATES for politicians
b) PUBLICLY-ONLY-FUNDED CAMPAIGNS, where it is illegal to use your own money.
a) and b) will empower our politicians to be normal, instead of being terrified of MEDIA CONTROL and selling out in return for political survival.
IT'S TIME TO ELECT THE LEADERS OF OUR "HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS".
Did Obama happen to mention who supplied "90% of the arms," according to Noam Chomsky, as the Indonesians killed some 200,000 (not 200, as mentioned here) East Timorese, during Suharto's reign, in the late 1970s?
http://youtube.com/DrKenHildebrandt
"the exporting from the United States of warlike instruments and military stores is not to be interfered with." - G. Washington, 1793
If Americans want to prevent any further egregious lawbreaking by their elites they must demand prosecution and incarceration of Bush as a lesson to all others.
The only chance that anyone in the Bush administration will be prosecuted will be if a foreign country like Spain, or if the international criminal court were to prosecute them; taking them while they are in another country for an event (like on The Simpsons where Crusty is lured to the Hauge with the promise of a Nobel Peace Prize, and is tried for crimes against humanity). There's no way they could be kidnapped like Nazi war criminals since they are surrounded by Secret Service Agents and Body Guards.
I think it is important to still demand this, because we can't relinquish the moral high ground like the Dems who keep letting the Republicans dictate the boundries of the debate, but in the end we may have to use the lack of action of this and lack of action on the stealing of the 2000 and 2004 elections as reasons why people can't trust their government anymore, and must take to the streets and go on general strikes to change it.
People have to care, or there is nothing we can do about anything. Our only power is in organizing and group action. If people don't feel outrage we have no power. There are so many reasons for Americans to be outraged, but they just keep rationalizing everything that happens, and if it's not on TV it doesn't exist. We have to reverse this reality. This acceptance of extream corruption is a sign of Fascism. At this point even their own growing poverty is not a reason to rebel. I fear there may not be anything left for us to do.