February, 24 2009, 10:37am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Marjorie Cohn, NLG
President, marjorie@tjsl.edu,
619-374-6923
Heidi Boghosian, NLG Executive Director, director@nlg.org, 212-679-5100
Statement on Prosecution of Former High Officials
NEW YORK
We urge Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint
a non-partisan independent Special Counsel to immediately commence a
prosecutorial investigation into the most serious alleged crimes of former
President George W. Bush, former Vice President Richard B. Cheney, the
attorneys formerly employed by the Department of Justice whose memos sought to
justify torture, and other former top officials of the Bush Administration.
Our laws, and treaties that under Article VI of
our Constitution are the supreme law of the land, require the prosecution of
crimes that strong evidence suggests these individuals have committed. Both the
former president and the former vice president have confessed to authorizing a
torture procedure that is illegal under our law and treaty obligations. The
former president has confessed to violating the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act.
We see no need for these prosecutions to be
extraordinarily lengthy or costly, and no need to wait for the recommendations
of a panel or "truth" commission when substantial evidence of the crimes is
already in the public domain. We believe the most effective investigation can
be conducted by a prosecutor, and we believe such an investigation should begin
immediately.
Drafted by The Robert Jackson Steering Committee
https://www.afterdowningstreet.org/robertjackson
Signed By:
Center for Constitutional Rights
The National Lawyers Guild
After Downing Street
https://www.afterdowningstreet.org
American Freedom Campaign
https://www.americanfreedomcampaign.org
Ann Wright, retired US Army Reserve Colonel and
US diplomat
https://www.voicesofconscience.com
Backbone Campaign
https://www.backbonecampaign.org
Brad Blog
Cities for Peace
CODE PINK: Women for Peace
https://www.codepink4peace.org
Daniel Ellsberg, Truth-Telling Project
Defending Dissent Foundation
https://www.defendingdissent.org
Delaware Valley Veterans for America
https://www.delvalvets4america.org
Democrats.com
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power
in Space
Gold Star Families for Peace
https://www.cindysheehanssoapbox.com
Grandmothers Against the War
https://www.grandmothersforpeace.org/gatw
Grassroots America
https://www.grassrootsamerica4us.org
High Road for Human Rights Advocacy Project
https://www.highroadforhumanrights.org
Iraq Veterans Against the War
Justice Through Music
Marcus Raskin, co-founder of Institute for
Policy Studies, member of editorial board of the /Nation/, member of the
special staff of the National Security Council in the Kennedy Administration
Media Freedom Foundation/Project Censored
https://www.projectcensored.org
Naomi Wolf, author of /End of America: Letter of
Warning to a Young Patriot/, and /Give Me Liberty: A Handbook for American
Revolutionaries/
National Accountability Network
Northeast Impeachment Coalition
Op Ed News
Peace Action
Peace Team
The Progressive
Progressive Democrats of America
Republicans for Impeachment
https://republicansforimpeachment.com
United for Peace and Justice
https://www.unitedforpeace.org
Velvet Revolution
https://www.velvetrevolution.us
Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
https://www.afterdowningstreet.org/vips
Veterans for Peace
https://www.veteransforpeace.org
Voters for Peace
https://votersforpeace.us/index2.php
War Crimes Times
https://www.warcrimestimes.org
Wisconsin Impeachment/Bring Our Troops Home
Coalition
World Can't Wait
Organizations and individuals can add their
names to this statement at https://prosecutebushcheney.org
The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) works to promote human rights and the rights of ecosystems over property interests. It was founded in 1937 as the first national, racially-integrated bar association in the U.S.
(212) 679-5100LATEST NEWS
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In what researchers call a "biological annihilation," human activities are driving entire groupings of vertebrate species to extinction at a rate 35 times what it would have been without human interference.
The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Monday, found that 73 genera—the next thickest branch from species on tree of life—had been lost since A.D. 1500. Without the mass exploitation of the natural world that took off around that date with European colonization, the number lost in the past 500 years would have been only two, and it would have taken 18,000 years to reach 73 extinctions.
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Nancy Altman, president of the advocacy group Social Security Works, noted in a statement that "the White House has accurately labeled a commission as a 'death panel' for Social Security," referring to a Biden administration spokesperson's response earlier this year after House Republicans and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) floated the idea of a bipartisan commission for the program.
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Legislation
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