March, 04 2009, 09:38am EDT
Senate Hears Testimony On Proposed Truth Commission
Committee Would Investigate Bush Administration’s Abuse of Power
WASHINGTON
A
key Senate committee met today to hear testimony from constitutional
experts and legal scholars to determine the focus and scope of a
proposed "truth commission" to investigate the national security and
executive power policies of the Bush administration. Senate Judiciary
Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) initiated the hearing after announcing
last month that he sought to form the commission.
The
American Civil Liberties Union is urging the establishment of a Select
Committee that will work in conjunction with Senator Leahy's
commission, believing that the combination of both committees would be
an effective format for congressional review of Bush administration
policies. The Select Committee would have the ability to allocate the
necessary time and resources outside of the day-to-day demands of the
standing committee structure. It would also bring together members from
the relevant committees with jurisdiction over the relevant issues to
share their expertise concerning the programs under review.
"Americans'
faith in government has been deeply shaken," said Caroline Fredrickson,
Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. "While a truth
commission is a valid and admirable suggestion, Congress must go
further. Congress' complacent approach to oversight has done our
country irreparable harm and legitimized illegal and counter-productive
intelligence programs. It's time for Congress to step up in a very real
way and assert its role of oversight."
The
ACLU believes that the legendary Church Committee, formed by Congress
to investigate the egregious abuses of executive power of the 1970s, is
a good model for a Select Committee to investigate Bush administration
policies. In nine months, the Church Committee interviewed 800
individuals and conducted 250 executive and 21 public hearings. Its
report had far reaching impact and resulted in the creation of the
permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the passage of the
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, among other reforms. The ACLU
believes that a new Select Committee could have similar results,
ensuring that future administrations would follow the law and respect
individual rights, regardless of the party in power. The
ACLU is also encouraging the Department of Justice to appoint a special
prosecutor to conduct its own investigation and, if warranted by the
facts, to bring any criminal charges.
"The work of Frank Church and ten other Senators should not be lost on the 111th
Congress," said Fredrickson. "For eight years, our system of checks and
balances has been woefully unbalanced in favor of the executive branch.
The Truth Commission is a beginning for Congress to reassert its power,
but it must go further. A Select Committee would pave the way for the
reform our government so desperately needs."
To read the ACLU's statement for the record, go to: https://www.aclu.org/natsec/gen/38913leg20090304.html
The American Civil Liberties Union was founded in 1920 and is our nation's guardian of liberty. The ACLU works in the courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to all people in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.
(212) 549-2666LATEST NEWS
1,500 Block Manhattan Bridge Demanding Lasting Gaza Cease-Fire
"We will make business as usual impossible until the U.S. stops funding and fueling a genocide," Jewish Voice for Peace said.
Nov 26, 2023
In what organizers said was the largest action of civil disobedience in New York City since the Iraq War, more than 1,000 protesters blocked traffic on the Manhattan Bridge for hours Sunday to demand a permanent cease-fire in Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza.
The action, organized by Jewish Voice for Peace, began around 2 pm Eastern Time, and traffic began moving again around 5:30 pm, The New York Times reported. The group included 1,500 Jews, Palestinians, religious leaders, and elected officials, Jewish Voice for Peace said on social media.
"These kind of things where you stop traffic brings more attention to the issue," 74-year-old participant Joan Glickman, who lives in Westchester, toldGothamist. "I do think there are many Americans who don't really pay attention to how serious this is."
The protest came on the third day of a negotiated four-day pause in hostilities between Israel and Hamas. On Sunday, Hamas released a third group of 17 hostages while Israel released 39 Palestinian prisoners, The Associated Press reported. However, activists expressed concern about what would happen when the temporary truce ended.
"There are only two days left before the Israeli government resumes its genocidal onslaught against the people of Gaza—funded and fueled by the U.S. Netanyahu has said, 'We will come back to annihilate them,'" Jewish Voice for Peace tweeted Sunday.
On October 7, Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking around 240 hostages. In the month and a half since, Israel has killed more than 14,800 Palestinians in Gaza, including 10,000 women and children. That figure is more than double the number of women and children confirmed killed in Ukraine in two years of war against Russia. More than 800 legal scholars have said Israel may be committing a genocide in Gaza, and one human rights lawyer and former United Nations official called Israel's campaign in Gaza a "textbook case of genocide."
The protesters Sunday blocked the Manhattan entrance to the bridge and sat down in the center of the entrance ramp, The New York Times reported. One person scaled the arch over the ramp to unfurl a Palestinian flag.
"We needed to continue to raise our voices and continue to speak out because there's thousands of Palestinians that are under the rubble right now," Jewish Voice for Peace member Jay Saper said at the protest, as the Times reported.
At one point, the protesters said they would refuse to leave until U.S. President Joe Biden called for a permanent cease-fire to the conflict, and they unfurled banners reading, "Lasting cease-fire," and "The whole world is watching."
"We will make business as usual impossible until the U.S. stops funding and fueling a genocide," Jewish Voice for Peace tweeted.
A spokesperson for the New York Police Department told Gothamist that it made "multiple" arrests.
"I hope that this message is strong and they're listening in the White House," Palestinian American activist Linda Sarsour said during the protest, as Gothamist reported.
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In Possible Hate Crime, 3 Palestinian Students Shot in Vermont
"The surge in anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian sentiment we are experiencing is unprecedented, and this is another example of that hate turning violent," one advocate said.
Nov 26, 2023
Three university students of Palestinian descent were shot and wounded Saturday night in Burlington, Vermont.
The students were identified as Brown University studeht Hisham Awartani, Haverford College student Kinnan Abdel Hamid, and Trinity College student Tahseen Ahmed. In a Sunday morning statement posted on social media, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (AOC) said they had "reason to believe that the shooting was motivated by the three victims being Arab."
"We are praying for a full recovery of the victims, and will support the families in any way that is needed," AOC executive director Abed A. Ayoub said in a statement. "Given the information collected and provided, it is clear that the hate was a motivating factor in this shooting. We call on law enforcement to investigate it as such."
"The surge in anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian sentiment we are experiencing is unprecedented, and this is another example of that hate turning violent," Ayoub continued.
The three 20-year-olds were visiting one of the trio's family members in Burlington for Thanksgiving, police said, as the Burlington Free Press reported. They were walking along a residential street near the University of Vermont campus around 6:30 pm Eastern Time when a white man confronted them, according to Seven Days.
"The suspect was on foot in the area. Without speaking, he discharged at least four rounds from the pistol and is believed to have fled on foot," police said, as the Burlington Free Press reported.
Police said that two of the men were wearing keffiyehs at the time of the shooting, while AOC said that all three were wearing keffiyehs and speaking Arabic. Police, however, said they did not yet know the shooter's motives.
"The hate crimes against Palestinians must stop. Palestinians everywhere need protection."
"My deepest condolences go out to the victims and their families," Burlington Police Chief Jon Murad said in a statement reported by the Burlington Free Press. "In this charged moment, no one can look at this incident and not suspect that it may have been a hate-motivated crime. And I have already been in touch with federal investigatory and prosecutorial partners to prepare for that if it's proven."
The three men were taken to the University of Vermont Medical Center where two are stable and one "has sustained much more serious injuries," police told Seven Days on Sunday.
Two of the students are U.S. citizens and the third is a legal resident.
The families of the three men circulated a statement through the nonprofit Institute for Middle East Understanding.
"We call on law enforcement to conduct a thorough investigation, including treating this as a hate crime," the statement read in part. "We will not be comfortable until the shooter is brought to justice."
"We need to ensure that our children are protected, and this heinous crime is not repeated. No family should ever have to endure this pain and agony," the families continued.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said it was offering $10,000 to anyone providing information that led to the arrest or conviction of the shooter or shooters, and the FBI said it was aware of the incident and prepared to investigate if local police found evidence of a federal crime, according to TheAssociated Press.
The head of the Palestinian mission to the United Kingdom, Husam Zomlot, linked the shootings to the killing of six-year-old Wadea Al Fayoume last month, a Palestinian boy who was stabbed 26 times by his family's landlord in Chicago.
"The hate crimes against Palestinians must stop," Zomlot tweeted. "Palestinians everywhere need protection."
Independent Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders also issued a statement.
"It is shocking and deeply upsetting that three young Palestinians were shot here in Burlington, Vermont," Sanders said on social media. "Hate has no place here, or anywhere. I look forward to a full investigation. My thoughts are with them and their families."
In the wake of Hamas' October 7 attacks on Israel and Israel's bombardment of Gaza afterword, both Islamophobic and antisemitic incidents have increased in the U.S., The Guardian reported. CAIR said it had received 1,283 reports of discrimination and petitions for help between early October and early November, a 216% increase from the same time period last year.
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The request would remove most conditions on Israel's use of a U.S. weapons stash, including a requirement that it only use surplus or obsolete weapons and a cap on how much the U.S. can spend resupplying the stash.
Nov 26, 2023
President Joe Biden has requested that Congress to lift most of the restrictions on Israel's access to a U.S. stockpile of weapons in the country, The Intercept reported Saturday.
The request came in the administration's supplemental budget request to the U.S. Senate, sent October 20. It concerns the War Reserve Stockpile Allies-Israel (WRSA-I) that the U.S. has stored in Israel since the 1980s for its own use in a potential conflict in the region. The U.S. allows Israel to access the stockpile under certain conditions, but Biden's request would remove most of these conditions, including a requirement that Israel only use surplus or obsolete weapons and a cap on how much the U.S. can spend resupplying the stash.
"The President's emergency supplemental funding request would essentially create a free-flowing pipeline to provide any defense articles to Israel by the simple act of placing them in the WRSA-I stockpile, or other stockpiles intended for Israel," Josh Paul, a former State Department official who resigned over U.S. arm transfers to Israel in the midst of its bombardment of Gaza, told The Intercept.
"The Biden administration's supplemental budget request would further undermine oversight and accountability even as U.S. support enables an Israeli campaign that has killed thousands of children."
The news comes in the midst of a four-day cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, which has given journalists and humanitarian organizations a moment to assess the extent of the death and destruction unleashed by Israel in Gaza since October 7, when Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking around 240 hostages. In retaliation, the Israeli military has killed more than 14,800 people in Gaza, around 10,000 of them women and children. That means the number of women and children killed in Gaza in less than two months is more than double the number confirmed killed in Ukraine in two years of fighting with Russia, The New York Times concluded Saturday. One of the reasons for the high civilian toll, the Times said, is Israel's use of 2,000-pound, U.S.-made bombs in a densely populated Gaza Strip.
Despite this, Biden's request would allow Israel to access all weapons from the WRSA-I, not just excess or obsolete ones, something that could hurt U.S. preparedness, Paul told The Intercept. The request would also remove a requirement that Israel provide concessions to the U.S. in exchange for accessing the weapons, lift the $200 million per year restocking cap, and shorten a requirement that the government inform Congress 30 days ahead of a weapons transfer under "extraordinary" circumstances.
"The Biden administration's supplemental budget request would further undermine oversight and accountability even as U.S. support enables an Israeli campaign that has killed thousands of children," John Ramming Chappell, a legal fellow with the Center for Civilians in Conflict, told The Intercept.
The U.S. typically provides Israel with $3.8 billion in military aid every year, more than it sends to any other nation, according to Al Jazeera. The House has already approved additional aid this year to the tune of $14.3 billion.
The Intercept story came the day after Biden seemed open to the idea of putting conditions on military aid to Israel while answering questions from reporters in Nantucket.
"I think that's a worthwhile thought, but I don't think if I started off with that we would have gotten where we are today," Biden said, as HuffPost reported. "We have to take this a piece at a time."
On the campaign trail in 2020, Biden said the idea of putting conditions on aid to Israel was "absolutely outrageous." But the administration's seemingly unconditional support for Israel as it carried out its siege, bombardment, and invasion of Gaza has led to backlash among progressives, who have marched for a cease-fire and carried out direct actions in several major cities. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on November 15 found that 68% of the U.S. public backed a cease-fire.
In an appearance on NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan did not rule out the idea that Biden would sign legislation putting conditions on military aid to Israel, though he said currently what was proving effective was behind-doors diplomacy with Israel and Arab nations.
"He is going to continue to focus on what is going to generate results," Sullivan said.
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