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Tom Parker, policy director for terrorism, counterterrorism and human rights for Amnesty International USA, issued the following statement in advance of the release of former Vice President Dick Cheney's memoir.
"One can only hope that former Vice President Cheney's memoir will not serve as yet another vehicle through which to peddle the same discredited mix of half-baked assertions and dark threats that marked his time in office. These have been comprehensively debunked by every new piece of information that emerges about the Bush administration's failed counterterrorism policies.
"Military commissions have been a decade-long debacle, coercive interrogation has tarnished the United States' reputation around the world, and the vast majority of detainees held at Guantanamo Bay have long since been released because they had little or no connection to Al Qaeda. Yet in the more than two years since Cheney left the White House, he's touted this record as one to be proud of.
"The former vice president along with other senior Bush administration officials crafted policies that institutionalized torture, arbitrary detention and enforced disappearances. These are all egregious abuses that the United States has excoriated when used by other states.
"Former Vice President Cheney's role as an architect of the Bush counterterrorism strategy is well documented. Amnesty International continues to call for accountability for the policies and remedy for the victims of the so-called war on terror including Maher Arar.*
"Additionally, Amnesty International is reiterating its call to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to immediately open a criminal investigation into the role former President George W. Bush, former Vice President Dick Cheney, and other officials played in the use of torture on detainees held in U.S. custody."
Amnesty International has launched Cheney's Conscience (@fakecheney), a parody account on Twitter and asks people to follow the account and retweet messages. Amnesty International activists will protest outside the Department of Justice building in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, August 30, urging the Attorney General to open a criminal investigation into the officials who green-lighted Bush administration war-on-terror policies, of which Cheney was a key architect. For persons interested in taking action, please visit www.amnestyusa.org/cheneyaction.
*Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen, was travelling home to Canada from visiting relatives in Tunisia in 2002. While changing planes at New York City's JFK airport, he was detained by U.S. authorities and then transferred secretly to Syria, where he was held for a year and tortured. Released without charge and allowed to return home to Canada, Maher Arar received an apology and compensation from the Canadian government for its role in his treatment. But the U.S. government has failed to apologize or offer Maher Arar any form of remedy - despite its obligation to do so under the U.N. Convention Against Torture and other human rights treaties.
Amnesty International is a global movement of millions of people demanding human rights for all people - no matter who they are or where they are. We are the world's largest grassroots human rights organization.
(212) 807-8400"We are shutting down—not building—coal and nuclear plants," the German foreign ministry said. "Coal will be off the grid by 2038 at the latest."
The German foreign ministry on Wednesday issued a rejoinder to Republican nominee Donald Trump's debate claim that Germany had reverted back to a "normal" energy policy after, as he implied, failing to transition away from fossil fuels.
Near the end of the televised presidential debate, Trump addressed Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, saying:
"You believe in things that the American people don't believe in. You believe in things like we're not going to frack. We're not going to take fossil fuel. We're not going to do, things that are going to make this country strong, whether you like it or not. Germany tried that and within one year they were back to building normal energy plants."
The Germans replied forcefully and included a snarky reference to Trump's baseless claim, made earlier in the debate, that immigrants were eating Americans' pets.
"Like it or not: Germany’s energy system is fully operational, with more than 50% renewables," the German foreign ministry, which is led by Annalena Baerbock of the country's green party as part of a coalition arrangement, wrote on social media. "And we are shutting down—not building—coal and nuclear plants. Coal will be off the grid by 2038 at the latest. PS: We also don't eat cats and dogs."
Like it or not: Germany’s energy system is fully operational, with more than 50% renewables. And we are shutting down – not building – coal & nuclear plants. Coal will be off the grid by 2038 at the latest. PS: We also don’t eat cats and dogs. #Debate2024 pic.twitter.com/PiDO98Vxfo
— GermanForeignOffice (@GermanyDiplo) September 11, 2024
"The former president is not famous for his grasp of the finer details of European energy policy," Bernd Radowitz wrote Wednesday in Recharge, a trade news publication.
Radowitz and other commentators took Trump's "normal" to mean fossil fuel-driven energy production.
"As usual with Trump, it takes some patience to interpret his incoherent line of argument, but what most U.S. viewers and potential voters likely understood from this statement is that Germany tried to ditch fossil fuels, but within a year had to give that up. The assumption here is also that Trump by 'normal energy plants' meant fossil-fired generation."
Germany has since 2010 undertaken an Energiewiende aimed at drawing down on fossil fuel use and nuclear-powered energy and ramping up renewables. The transition plan hit a rough patch in 2022 following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russia had supplied more than half of Germany's natural gas, as well as some of its oil and coal. German authorities turned some nuclear plants back on, added more coal consumption into the energy mix, and imported more natural gas from elsewhere, drawing criticism from climate campaigners.
However, those changes were meant to be temporary and Germany has since made progress on implementing its green transition plans. In March, the government declared itself on target to reach its 2030 climate goals. Over 60% of the country's electricity was powered by renewables in the first half of this year, a marked increase from 2022.
The foreign ministry's social media post had been viewed by over 1 million people as of Wednesday morning. It was not entirely clear why the ministry raised Trump's pet remarks, which were seemingly aimed at immigrants of color from low-income countries. Trump's claim, which The New York Timescalled "false and outlandish," was based on a rumor that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating pets for sustenance. Trump's running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), had spread the racist rumors on Monday.
As president, Trump had a scratchy relationship with Germany, which he frequently criticized for its export surplus to the U.S. and its lack of defense spending. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, of the center-left Social Democratic Party, made remarks in July that indicated that he hoped Harris would win the election. Scholz, who's held office since 2021, had last year endorsed President Joe Biden for reelection, speaking in unusually direct terms about the U.S. race.
U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal said that "we cannot simply accept" the Israeli military's claim that its killing of Aysenur Eygi was "an accident."
U.S. President Joe Biden faced furious backlash on Tuesday after regurgitating the Israeli military's claim that its killing of an American citizen in the occupied West Bank last week was accidental, a narrative that eyewitnesses have denied.
Speaking to reporters, Biden said the killing of 26-year-old human rights activist Aysenur Eygi—a recent graduate of the University of Washington—was "apparently an accident," adding that the bullet that struck her in the head "ricocheted off the ground."
U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) denounced Biden's statement as "unacceptable" and "outrageous."
"We cannot simply accept the IDF's version that this was an 'accident,'" said Jayapal. "We do not know that, it's why we need an independent investigation. What accountability will there be when we keep supplying the weapons against our own laws?"
Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said in response to Biden's remarks that "if you are an American, your president not only provides Israel with the bullets that Israel uses to kill you."
"Not only does he not object after Israel has killed you," he continued. "Much worse, he even comes up with insulting excuses to exonerate Israel for murdering you."
The U.S. president's comments mirrored a statement issued earlier Tuesday by the IDF, which said its internal inquiry "found that it is highly likely" that Eygi "was hit indirectly and unintentionally by IDF fire which was not aimed at her" but at another demonstrator whom the Israeli military described as "the key instigator" of a "riot."
"This was no accident and her killers must be held accountable."
Eyewitnesses have disputed the Israeli military's characterization of the moments before the IDF fatally shot Eygi.
Haaretzreported Sunday that it spoke to three eyewitnesses who said that Israeli soldiers shot Eygi "for no reason" and that "there had been no clashes at the time."
"First we heard a shot and it hit a dumpster that two volunteers were sitting behind and then there was a shot that hit Aysenur in the head," one eyewitness, identified as an American told the Israeli newspaper. "I was immediately just so shocked when I saw her laying on the ground, not moving. It was a direct shot to the head, it was not an accident. She was being extra safe out of all of the volunteers, she and her friends were standing the furthest back, in the safest spot that we thought."
Hours after echoing the Israeli military's findings, Biden issued a statement Wednesday saying he was "outraged and deeply saddened by the death of Aysenur Eygi," adding that "the shooting that led to her death is totally unacceptable."
The president went on to once again cite the results of Israel's internal investigation, noting that it indicated Eygi's killing "was the result of a tragic error resulting from an unnecessary escalation."
While pledging to "continue to stay in close contact with Israeli and Palestinian authorities regarding the circumstances that led to Aysenur's death" and calling for "full accountability," Biden did not pledge to launch a U.S. investigation.
Kamala Harris, the vice president and Democratic nominee, released a separate statement Wednesday calling Eygi's killing "a horrific tragedy that never should have happened."
"Israel's preliminary investigation indicated it was the result of a tragic error for which the IDF is responsible," Harris added. "We will continue to press the government of Israel for answers and for continued access to the findings of the investigation so we can have confidence in the results. There must be full accountability."
Eygi's family, which has pushed Biden to order an independent probe of their loved one's killing, said Tuesday that the U.S. president has yet to call to offer his condolences directly.
Hamid Ali, Eygi's partner, said Tuesday that "for four days, we have waited for President Biden to pick up the phone and do the right thing: To call us, offer his condolences, and let us know that he is ordering an independent investigation of the killing of Aysenur."
"This was no accident," Ali added, "and her killers must be held accountable."
The president of the AFL-CIO called the November election a "fundamental choice," slamming Trump as "an unhinged serial union buster who betrays working people."
The 2024 U.S. presidential debate in Philadelphia Tuesday night presented what progressive organizers and labor leaders described as a stark choice between a former president dedicated to slashing taxes for the rich and assailing fundmental freedoms and a vice president committed to protecting abortion rights, combating corporate abuses, and alleviating the nation's housing crisis.
Over the course of the 90-minute debate, Republican nominee Donald Trump repeated well-worn lies about the 2020 election, regurgitated racist falsehoods about immigrants, bragged about the conservative-dominated Supreme Court's decision revoking the constitutional right to abortion care and refused to say he would veto a national abortion ban, and doubled down on his plan to "cut taxes very substantially."
Kamala Harris, who is leading the Democratic ticket, repeatedly took aim at Trump's economic agenda, saying that "it's all about tax breaks for the richest people" and accusing the former president of being "more interested in defending himself than he is in looking out for you." Harris also touted her endorsement from the United Auto Workers and decried the offshoring of manufacturing jobs during Trump's first term.
On reproductive rights, Harris noted that Trump "hand-selected three members of the United States Supreme Court with the intention that they would undo the protections of Roe v. Wade, and they did exactly as he intended."
"Now in over 20 states there are Trump abortion bans which make it criminal for a doctor or nurse to provide healthcare," said Harris. "In one state it provides prison for life. Trump abortion bans that make no exception even for rape and incest."
"Understand what that means," Harris continued. "A survivor of a crime, a violation to their body, does not have the right to make a decision about what happens to their body next. That is immoral. And one does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree the government, and Donald Trump certainly, should not be telling a woman what to do with her body."
Kamala Harris’ full response on abortion pic.twitter.com/QEVkM5WjkR
— Acyn (@Acyn) September 11, 2024
Swing Left, a progressive advocacy group, said following Tuesday's debate that "there is only one candidate who will protect and expand our freedoms," adding that "the choice couldn't be clearer."
"Harris has a clear plan for her presidency: Building an opportunity economy, securing reproductive freedom, making housing more affordable, and protecting access to healthcare for millions of Americans," the group said. "Donald Trump wants to tax the middle class while giving tax cuts to his billionaire buddies, further strip away reproductive rights—including abortion, IVF, and birth control—and implement Project 2025 on day one. But rather than present his vision, he struggled to communicate a single coherent point."
On housing, said the co-executive directors of the Center for Popular Democracy Action, Harris "did what no other presidential candidate or elected president has done."
"Harris laid out a future to boost first-time homeowners and demonstrated her commitment to America's working people," said Analilia Mejia and DaMareo Cooper. "Trump is a racist slumlord. The contrast couldn't be more stark and for the Center for Popular Democracy Action, the choice is clear."
Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, similarly described the 2024 contest as a "fundamental choice," characterizing Harris as a "principled, tough fighter who'll work to create opportunity for all of us" and Trump as "an unhinged serial union buster who betrays working people."
"As tonight's debate reminded us, a second Trump term would be a corporate CEO's dream and a worker's nightmare," Shuler said in a statement late Tuesday. "Trump and Vance are ready to make their Project 2025 agenda a terrifying reality: eviscerating unions, slashing millions of union jobs, and making it nearly impossible for workers to organize, while cutting wages and benefits and threatening health and safety on the job. They're running a campaign based on division and fear to cover up the fact that they are in this for themselves and their rich donor friends—not the workers who make this country run."
"Harris' comments on Gaza continue to offend voters appalled by Netanyahu's U.S.-funded killing campaign."
But it wasn't all praise for Harris following her debate performance.
Climate groups voiced outrage over her expressed support for fracking and touting of "the largest increase in domestic oil production in history" under the Biden administration.
"Tonight, Harris spent more time promoting fracking than laying out a bold vision for a clean energy future," said the youth-led Sunrise Movement. "That's a big missed opportunity. With an election this close, every young climate voter we turn out matters."
Harris' response to the lone question about Israel's assault on Gaza also sparked anger from progressives who have been pushing the vice president to support an arms embargo against the Israeli military—a position that, according to recent polling, would boost her support among U.S. voters.
On the debate stage Tuesday night, Harris reiterated her support for a cease-fire while emphasizing that "Israel has a right to defend itself."
"Harris' comments on Gaza continue to offend voters appalled by Netanyahu's U.S.-funded killing campaign," said Abbas Alawieh, co-founder of the Uncommitted National Movement. "They offer nothing new and perpetuate the murderous status quo. It's simple: To stop the war, our government must stop sending the weapons fueling the war."