We, the People were lied to about 9/11 and the reasons to bomb people in Afghanistan, then Iraq. There has never been any reason to go to war with these countries since the "attack" of 9/11 was perpetrated by Saudis and a couple of misfits, none from those two countries. Yet we have destroyed them. Why? Oil and now, we are learning about precious minerals in Afghanistan, plus pipelines, et al, et nauseum.
If we are to have any credibility in the future of this planet, we must take the lead in holding accountable every single leader who led us down this road to disaaster. I think that begins with the former president-select, George W. Bush.
Indeed, the rule of law is the "strongbox that keeps all our other values safe." We can write laws that say we have certain freedoms and rights, and we can build courts and elect lawmakers, but if there is no rule of law, then we lose our rights bit by bit until they are no longer recognizable. While the goppies will cry "partisan witch hunt," even the Bush State Dept. recognizes that no democratic society can tolerate abuses when people are tortured or kidnapped under rendition in violation of our rule of law or tolerate the failure to prosecute in compliance with our Constitution.
Signing the petition drafted by budhydharma and Docudharma is not in defiance of our President-Elect Obama, but rather a sign of support for the difficult times that he and Holder will face when performing their clear constitutional duties. As President, Obama will have the constitutional duty to faithfully execute our laws.
The constitutional oath of office will require President Obama to faithfully execute the office of President and preserve, protect and defend our Constitution. Our constitution also requires that our presidents "shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed." The principle of the rule of law is partially based on this Faithfully Execute clause which requires our President to comply with laws, our Constitution and treaties because our Constitution established a government of laws, not of men and women. The Geneva Convention is one of the laws which must be faithfully executed.
Wow! While this was the first mainstream report, it certainly is not the most informative. Be sure to read the post that follows, because the picture is much more horrific: This was systematic abuse of immigrants and Native Americans in the service of racism and profit. Texas Grand Jury Indicts Cheney, Gonzales on Charges Related to Prisons Associated Press Wednesday, November 19, 2008 McALLEN, Tex., Nov. 18 -- Vice President Cheney and former attorney general Alberto R. Gonzales have been indicted on state charges involving federal prisons in a South Texas county that has been a source of bizarre legal and political battles under the outgoing prosecutor. The indictments, returned Monday and made public Tuesday, have not yet been signed by the presiding judge, and no action can be taken on them until that happens. The seven indictments issued in Willacy County also targeted some public officials connected to District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra's own legal battles. […] Guerra said the prison-related charges against Cheney and Gonzales are a national issue, and experts from across the country testified to the grand jury. Cheney is charged with engaging in an organized criminal activity related to the vice president's investment in the Vanguard Group, which holds financial interests in the private prison companies running the federal detention centers. Cheney is accused of a conflict of interest and "at least misdemeanor assaults" on detainees because of his link to the prison companies. [my bold] […] The indictment accuses Gonzales of using his position while in office to stop an investigation in 2006 into abuses at one of the privately run prisons. […] Willacy County has become a prison hub with county, state and federal lockups. Guerra has gone after the prison-politician nexus before, extracting guilty pleas from three former Willacy and Webb county commissioners after investigating bribery related to federal prison contacts. Last month, a Willacy County grand jury indicted the GEO Group, a Florida private prison company, on a murder charge in the death of a prisoner days before his release. The three-count indictment alleged the GEO Group allowed other inmates to beat Gregorio de la Rosa Jr. to death with padlocks stuffed into socks. [my bold] The death happened in 2001 at the Raymondville facility. In 2006, a jury ordered the company to pay de la Rosa's family $47.5 million in a civil judgment. The Cheney-Gonzalez indictment makes reference to the de la Rosa case. None of the latest seven indictments had been signed by Presiding Judge J. Manuel Bañales of the Fifth Administrative Judicial Region. Last month, Bañales, an appointee of Gov. Rick Perry (R), dismissed indictments that charged Guerra with extorting money from a bail bond company and using his office for personal business. An appeals court had earlier ruled that a special prosecutor was appointed improperly to investigate Guerra. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/18/AR2008111804164.html?sub=AR
After poking around the internet I've found up with a post which is more detailed and less "diplomatic" in describing the offenses committed by Dick Cheney and Alberto Gonzales: Posted by Brenda Norrell - November 19, 2008 at 12:49 am Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales indicted for criminal conspiracy in private prison profiteering, resulting in prisoner assaults By Brenda Norrell WILLACY COUNTY, Texas -- US Vice President Dick Cheney was indicted today for a prison profiteering scheme and charged with abuse of prisoners. Cheney invested millions in the Vanguard Group, an investment management company with interests in the prison companies in charge of detention centers. Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was also indicted in the prison profiteering scheme, resulting in ongoing prisoner assaults and at least one murder. Human rights activists urged a probe into prison profiteering after the private prison corporations GEO Group and CCA (Corrections Corporation of America)[my bold] began receiving enormous federal contracts to build detention centers to imprisonmigrants.[my bold] GEO's new migrant prisons including prisons in Laredo, Texas and Jena, Louisiana. [my bold] [dear old Jena, home of the notorious lynching tree and the Jena 6 --click on "Jena 6" in tags for more posts on that story] Human rights activists said the fever-pitched racism mounted toward immigrants at the US/Mexico border was induced for the purpose of prison profiteering by US officials reaping enormous profits. The increased arrests of migrants resulted in profits and a long list of new prison construction contracts for the GEO Group, formerly Wackenhut, [my bold] both with a long history of assaults and murders in prisons. A Texas grand jury indicted Cheney today and accused him of at least misdemeanor assaults of inmates by allowing inmates to assault fellow inmates. Gonzales was charged with having used his position to stop investigations into assaults committed in a prison for profit in Willacy County, Texas. Both Cheney and Gonzales were charged with engaging in organized criminal activity. Last month, a Willacy County grand jury indicted the GEO Group, on a murder charge in the death of a prisoner days before his release in 2001. The indictment alleged the GEO Group allowed other inmates to beat Gregorio de la Rosa Jr. to death with padlocks stuffed into socks. The death happened at the Raymondville facility. A jury ordered the company to pay de la Rosa's family $47.5 million in a civil judgment in 2006. The Cheney-Gonzales indictment refers to the de la Rosa case. Human rights activists protested both Raymondville and Hutto prisons in southwestern Texas in recent years. At Hutto, migrant women and children were abused. ICE refused to allow a UN Rapporteur into Hutto. [my bold] During the Bush-Cheney regime, prisons of torture and prisons for migrants became synonymous with the name GEO, from Guantanamo to migrant prisons in the south and along the southwest border. Cheney said Guantanamo was vital in 2005 and detainees could expect to be treated better here than "by virtually any other government on the face of the earth." Geo was awarded a contract for the continued management of the Migrant Operations Center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in Nov. 2, 2006. Recently, GEO received a contract for a migrant prison in Jena, La. GEO also received a contract for housing "criminal aliens" in the US, as stated on the GEO website. GEO's migrant prisons were not restricted to the US. GEO also assumed a management contract in the Campsfield House Immigration Removal Center in England. GEO was not the only one profiteering. The Wackenhut Corp. was also profiteering from transporting migrants from the border after their arrests. The two companies split in 2003. All along the border, while GEO was building prisons, GEO's other half, Wackenhut Corp., was profiteering from the arrest of migrants from the borders. The United States Customs and Border Protection agency entered into the contract with Wackenhut Corp., to transport arrested migrants from the border. Wackenhut is now the domestic subsidiary of the U.K.-based security giant Group 4 Securicor. [my bold] It comes as no surprise that the Vanguard Group is also currently a major shareholder in Halliburton, [my bold] the longtime war profiteer in Iraq. Cheney's investments in the Vanguard Group are estimated at between $25 and $86 million, since exact numbers have not been released. While the US filled its prisons with migrants, with a price on their heads, the number of Native American prisoners soared. The US Department of Justice recently released a study showing that Native American inmates in Indian country jails increased by 24 percent between 2004 and 2007. [my bold] The figures for Native Americans in all facilities -- tribal, federal and state -- increased 4.5 percent. Suicides, attempted suicides, deaths and escapes were cited as the result of deteriorating prison conditions. Human rights activists hope the indictments of Cheney and Gonzales are the first of many indictments of the Bush-Cheney administration. http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/brenda-norrell/2008/11/cheney-indicted-prison-profiteering-texas
Excellent commentary on WHY we must prosecute the criminals of BushCo. McClatchy Washington Bureau Commentary: Moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue Joseph L. Galloway last updated: November 18, 2008 With two months still to go before his inauguration as the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama and his transition team are already getting off on the wrong foot, signaling that they have no intention of investigating anyone in the Bush administration for possible war crimes. What we're talking about here is the torture of detained terrorist suspects in American custody in a grotesque violation of both our treaty obligations under the Geneva Conventions and our historic principles as a democratic nation. By their own machinations and attempts to redefine and pervert both treaties and our own laws, President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Attorneys General John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales, Cheney's chief of staff David Addington and any number of lesser suspects sought to shield themselves from, or put themselves above, justice. They did so knowing full well that what they were doing — clearing the way for interrogators at Guantanamo and in the Central Intelligence Agency’s secret dungeons around the world to do anything it took, short of murder, to extract information from terror suspects. The "harsh interrogation methods" included water-boarding, stripping and humiliating prisoners, subjecting them to extremes of temperature, putting them into stressful physical positions for hours, the use of psychotropic drugs and doubtless other equally uncivilized practices. Water boarding has always been treated as a criminal act in this country. Military officers were court-martialed at the turn of the last century for water boarding Filipino guerrillas. More recently, an East Texas sheriff was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for water boarding a suspect and extracting a confession from him. Moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue, and its no way to begin an administration that was elected on promises of change. What it says is that if you're one of the elite and powerful, your violations of the law will be overlooked, no matter how much damage you did to our country’s standing in the world. What signal does it send to Mr. Bush's gang of unindicted co-conspirators, who've unwrapped a Pandora’s boxful of other offenses — from perverting the administration of justice, to illegally eavesdropping on the phone conversations and e-mails of ordinary Americans, to salting the stream of intelligence with bogus material, to inviting their cronies to loot the Treasury with no-bid military contracts, to lying under oath to congressional oversight committees, to applying political litmus tests to the hiring of civil service employees to the wholesale destruction of White House e-mails and records? Etcetera. Etcetera. This nation was founded on the principle of equal justice under the law. No one — no one — ought to be able to skate or hold a get-out-of-jail-free card by virtue of having been the most powerful felon in the land, or of working for him. This signal on torture investigations says that Sen. Obama wants to start his administration as a uniter, not a divider, trying to untangle the unholy mess that the Decider and Co. are leaving behind them in the economy, in our military, in virtually every walk of our national life. It speaks to his desire to reach across the aisle to the defeated Republicans and try to bring them back into the fold as Americans. That's all well and good, but not if it comes at the cost of lifting the blindfold off Justice’s eyes and letting her pick and choose who'll pay for criminal acts and who won't. That's no way to begin, and no way to continue. Out in West Texas, crusty old ranchers plagued by coyotes killing their calves and baby sheep shoot the offending beasts and hang their carcasses on the nearest barbed wire fence as an object lesson to the rest of the pack. Unless the newly empowered Democrats in the White House and on Capitol Hill hang a few coyotes on some fences in Washington, D.C., they're making a huge mistake that will come back to haunt them, and all the rest of us, too. Unless the truth, the whole truth, is unearthed, justice is done and the Republican closet is emptied of festering transgressions, the next pack will do it again, secure in the knowledge that their positions will protect them from the penalties that more ordinary citizens must pay for the same crimes. The people of this nation have spoken loudly. They voted to throw the rascals out. They voted for a different way of governing, a different way of law making. They voted for equal rights under the law. If their desires aren't satisfied — if the new broom sweeps no cleaner than the old one — the next time around they may move things up a notch and throw all the bastards out — and they'd be fully justified in doing so. http://www.mcclatchydc.com/339/v-print/story/56115.html
AfternDowningStreet.org must have been reading my mind. I've been looking for some direction to continue the necessary work of redeeming at least two aspects of our American heretage and national imperative: respect for the rule of law and maintaining equality in the eyes of the law. At there site you will find lots of reports to inspire you and hopefully move you to action. Go to this link for specific Obama reports, including one about getting Robert Gates OUT of the administration (and into the docks at the Hague?): http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/obama
PEACE IN OUR TIME There are major signs of real change and discouraging signs of the same old militarism emerging from the Obama transition team. We're tracking this news online:
http://afterdowningstreet.org/obama United for Peace and Justice and other peace and justice groups will soon be urging local groups and coalitions and newly forming collections of citizens to schedule meetings between now and January to meet at length with our newly elected or reelected U.S. representatives and senators. Not only do we need to communicate the public demand to FULLY end the occupation[my bold] of Iraq AND the occupation of Afghanistan, but there is an opening right now for us to advocate a shift of resources from killing to living. Find out what your representative wants to fund, build a coalition with labor, environmental, and other domestic groups, and talk about how much money is going into wars and wasteful militarism. Ask your Senators to insist that Bush not negotiate a treaty in Iraq without the Constitutionally required approval of the U.S. Senate. Watch for details on this and other actions at:
http://afterdowningstreet.org/activism IMPEACHMENT AND PROSECUTION President Elect Obama has committed to abandoning the practice of rewriting laws with signing statements, to ending warrantless spying, to working with Congress to rewrite the PATRIOT Act, and to asking his Attorney General to investigate the crimes of Bush and Cheney. It will take everything we have to hold him to those commitments, but that will not be enough.
The coming year is our opening to begin shifting power back from the White House to where the Constitution put it: in the hands of our representatives in Congress. If we do not accomplish this under a relatively law-abiding president, we cannot expect to do so under the next outlaw. In this regard it is frightening to see committee chairs behaving as if no oversight will be required in the coming years, and as if all the outstanding subpoenas and contempt citations of the past two years were just campaign gimmicks. We must demand that Congress reissue all outstanding subpoenas in January or, better yet, enforce them itself. Work with us on this at:
http://afterdowningstreet.org/congress We also need to build resistance in the country and in Congress to the possibility of Bush pardoning his subordinates for crimes he authorized. Impeachment is possible, and has been done before, during the final months in office, as well as after the offenders are out of office. And prosecution is now finally possible at the local, state, federal, foreign, and international levels. Improved policies are well worth celebrating and pushing forward, but if the penalty for Bush and Cheney's crimes is merely that Obama and Biden cease committing some of them, we will be guaranteeing ourselves another Bush and Cheney, or worse, down the road. This newly released book includes Congressman Dennis Kucinich's 35 articles of impeachment, a list from Elizabeth de la Vega of crimes committed, and an essay by David Swanson on how we can prosecute the crimes:
http://tinyurl.com/3kkwpy Please get involved in the many aspects of the campaign for accountability at:
http://convictbushcheney.org TAKE ACTION NOVEMBER 10th The National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance (NCNR) is planning a protest at the U.S. Justice Department on November 10th. Its members are willing to risk going to jail to urge the indictment of Bush and Cheney for war crimes. Let's all of us contact the Justice Department urge Attorney General Mukasey to meet with NCNR.
In September organizers from NCNR sent a letter to Mukasey urging the indictment of Bush and Cheney and requesting a meeting to discuss the matter. Mukasey has not responded. Please sign this petition, which will send an email to Mukasey asking him to meet with NCNR.
Then mark November 10, 2008, on your calendar and plan to either phone the Department of Justice or join us at the protest there at noon. The phone numbers are 202-514-2000 and 202-353-1555. Stay involved in the campaign to convict Bush and Cheney. SIGN THE PETITION http://democrats.com/mukasey-indict-bush-cheney CHANGE THE MEDIA: NO MORE CROOKS AND LIARS
On November 4, 2008, the American people demanded change in Washington DC. One of the most important changes must be removing criminals and proven liars from serious national policy debates, including our commercial airwaves and and opinion pages. Sign this petition:
http://democrats.com/change-the-media-no-more-crooks-and-liars
I must introduce this by apologizing to David Swanson for limiting his excellent essay for this blog. Please follow up and read the entire thing by clicking on the link below:
Sweeping Astroturf
By David Swanson
Imagine for a second that it's November 5th, and the Democrats are set to control both houses of Congress and the White House. Perhaps they even control 60 Senate seats, making Republican filibusters impossible. Now what?
For the past two years, numerous activist groups have opposed the demands of their own members by arguing that the Democrats were helpless. They couldn't get past filibusters or vetoes, and were therefore as impotent as newborn babes.
[...]While you can't get any results from watering or fertilizing astroturf, you can sweep it. If the Democrats take both houses of Congress and the White House, and especially if they take 60 senate seats, their principal recent excuses for all variety of crimes of both omission and commission will vanish. Accomplishing this with margins of victory too large to plausibly steal remains an uphill fight requiring full attention. And fighting election fraud, which is already almost openly underway, will require working on the behalf of candidates who will not lift a finger to help themselves. We need all hands on deck for this one for the next two weeks and possibly far beyond.
But come November 5th, pseudo-grassroots groups, also known as astroturf organizations will have to begin thinking hard about how they will relate to both their members and to a government swept by the party whose wishes they habitually defer to. With that in mind, here are my recommendations:
First, begin to think and act more in terms of individual representatives, senators, and president, and less in terms of party. [my bold]The health care plan we all favor, H.R. 676, has 94 cosponsors, and we are about to elect more. No longer can our silence on such legislation be justified by the need to elect someone other than McCain. We've already elected Obama. He's in the White House.
Second, begin to think in terms of Congress as the first branch of our government. [my bold]If we allow all power to continue to remain in the White House, we will be represented less well during the next four years, and all power will still remain in the White House when the next Republican lives there. We need to restore the power of the purse, the power of subpoena, the power to ratify or reject treaties, the power to legislate free of editing by "signing statement," and the power to begin and end wars. If we cannot restore those powers to the branch of our government they were supposed to belong to now, while we have the supposed people's party cooperatively running the Congress and the presidency, then when can we?
Third, clearly and publicly lay out the policy demands that you, as a legitimate activist organization, are making of our government, and do so in November.[my bold][...]
We should demand an end to our imperial wars in the Middle East. This will have been the third consecutive election in which we voted for that change. If the will of the voters is matched by the official election outcomes, and if those outcomes remove the major recent excuses for inaction and regression, then it will be time for us to demand clearly what we, the people, the sovereigns of this nation, want. We don't want to reduce any occupations or move them anywhere else. We want our men and women brought home. Now.
We don't want to enlarge the world's largest military. We want to shrink it. We want to shift our resources to where they will do some good for people. We don't want to put our children into debt funding weapons, wars, or Wall Street. We want major investment in green energy, jobs, affordable housing, education, and foreign aid. And I mean major investment, with no excuses about the needs of poor struggling billionaires and arms dealers.
[...]Remove the cap on income taxed for Social Security. Remove the loopholes and tax corporations. Undo the Bush tax cuts for millionaires. Undo Paulson's Plunder. Tax financial transactions. End wars, and begin closing the 1,000 or so military bases we maintain to our great detriment in other people's nations around the world. [...]
We want the minimum wage made a living wage and indexed to the cost of living. We want the right to organize a labor union restored. We want corporate trade agreements shredded and new trade policies written to benefit people, not corporations. [...]
We also want money removed from politics. If a completely Democratic government does not create public financing and free air time for candidates, then they can drop all pretense that they want it. If they don't give the District of Columbia representation in Congress, then the people of DC should hear that message loud and clear. If the Democrats who constantly tell you they can't do things because they're afraid of the media are swept into power and refuse to break up the media cartel, we can henceforth assume they enjoy being afraid. And if they do not establish the right to vote and to have our votes openly counted, including universal registration, weekend elections, and on-site hand-counted paper ballots, we can henceforth assume winning didn't feel as good to them as it does to normal people.
We have an opportunity to either do great things or expose great flaws. We want war profiteers in prison, not just off our payroll. We want predatory lenders in prison, not multi-million-dollar public housing. We want torturers, war criminals, Richard B. Cheney, and George W. Bush prosecuted, imprisoned, and impeached. We want every future government to know that we are a nation of laws. If an election alone could communicate that to future tyrants, then the election of Jimmy Carter would have prevented the presidency of George W. Bush. [my bold]
We can't expect to accomplish everything we want by next spring or even in the space of four years, but if we are afraid to even articulate what we want, we will never begin to accomplish it.
Rep. Dennis Kucinich will present his petitions supporting impeachment of George W. Bush at a news conference which will be held on Wednesday, September 10, 2008 at 1:00 p.m. in room 2456 of the Rayburn House Office Building. If you can make it, please join us! Even if not, please sign the petition: http://www.kucinich.us/ Rep. Kucinich laid out the case for impeachment at a meeting with the Progressive Democrats of America in Denver on Thursday, August 29. Watch the video of Dennis Kucinich as he addresses and begins the panel discussion held at Progressive Central:Dennis Kucinich addresses impeachment at PDA event: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOrn9sIdBwo Also during the Democratic Convention, PDA and The Nation hosted a panel discussion entitled Restoring and Maintaining our Constitutional Rights with Congressmen Robert Wexler (D-FL) and Keith Ellison (D-MN) Moderated by John Nichols with Victor Navasky, publisher emeritus of The Nation. PDA hosted a second panel, Constitutional Law and Congress with John Nichols moderator; joined again by Rep. Keith Ellison, with Steve Cobble, Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and PDA Advisory board member; Leslie Cagan, National Coordinator United for Peace and Justice; and Jamie Raskin, Maryland State Senator, Law Professor at American University, and author. Listen to the PodCasts of Progressive Central events: http://blog.pdamerica.org/?p=2075 Vincent Bugliosi, author of "The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder also spoke at Progressive Central. You can see him in Virginia at various events coming up. Stay tuned for more details. Please ask your Representative to cosponsor H Res 1258: Call his or her office at 202-224-3121 (Capitol Switchboard) this Monday and/or use our action alert to send them an email and find the direct number to call. Contact the national and local media: Demand they cover impeachment and the effort to pass H Res 1258 Support our Impeachment efforts: Order buttons, bumper stickers, shirts and ImpeachMINTS Read the articles of impeachment here: http://afterdowningstreet.org/bush
Prosecuting Bush and Cheney Submitted by David Swanson on Sun, 2008-08-03 Criminal Prosecution Last week two judges encouraged me to look to courts to help us recover from the damage done by an outlaw executive and a spineless corrupt legislature. The first was Bush-appointed federal Judge John Bates who ruled that people must comply with Congressional subpoenas even if they used to work for the president, and this because - you know - the law requires it. The second was Judge William Price in Iowa who was hearing the case of citizens arrested for trying to make a citizens' arrest of Karl Rove. When told what they had been trying to do, the judge said "Well, it's about time!" Sort of makes you want to go out and arrest a war criminal or two, doesn't it? Here's how. Next month, on September 13th and 14th in Andover, Massachusetts, a major conference will be held to discuss the possibilities for prosecuting high-level American war criminals, including Bush and Cheney. The agenda and information on how to attend can be found athttp://war-crimes.info. A somewhat similar conference was held in Paris, France, in September 2005, organized by the Association for the Defence of International Humanitarian Law, France (ADIF) and the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH). The remarks of a long list of outstanding expert speakers have been updated, translated, and just published as "International Justice and Impunity: The Case of the United States," from Clarity Press. It would be enlightening to many Americans to read this book, which documents the discussion of top proponents of human rights from around the world, including the United States -- a discussion focusing on the single biggest impediment to establishing the international rule of law, to eliminating war as an instrument of policy, and to defending human rights around the world, namely the fierce opposition of the U.S. government to all of the above. Of course, the United States played a key role in creating the United Nations, in convening the tribunals in Nuremberg and Tokyo, in developing and promoting the ideas of human rights and international law. And, of course, the United States favors, to this day, the concept of international law as applied to the crimes of any nation other than the United States. But this two-tiered system in which the United States operates with a set of rules completely unlike those for everyone else is eroding support for the entire idea of law as something applicable to the actions of nations, rulers, and militaries. As one example of the intense attack the Bush-Cheney White House has launched against international law, we can look at the case of Belgium, where the national government was developing the laws and practice needed to prosecute crimes against humanity whether or not related in any way to Belgium. But in May 2003 an attorney lodged a complaint on behalf of a number of Iraqi and Jordanian victims against U.S. General Tommy Franks and some members of his staff for war crimes in Iraq. The crimes included the bombing of civilian targets, the use of cluster bombs, and the targeting of the Palestine Hotel, which was known to house only journalists. The U.S. Congress quickly passed a law allowing the U.S. president to attack anyone (including Belgium) who would detain members of the U.S. military. The White House also told Belgium to drop the case and change the law that permitted it ever to be brought, or the headquarters of NATO would be moved to another country taking thousands of jobs with it. The law was changed and the case dropped before the US media ever mentioned it. To learn much else that the US media doesn't tell you, read this book and go to http://convictbushcheney.org. At that site we are organizing ongoing activities and reporting on the possibilities for prosecuting members of Cheney-Bush Inc., through the International Criminal Court, through the courts of foreign countries, through the U.S. Department of Justice, and through state and local district attorneys. The purpose, of course, is not vengeance but deterrence, not retribution but justice for the sake of peace. The aim is not to disguise the complicity of so many thousands in the government and the military or to excuse the apathy of the public, but to begin a healing process by holding accountable the chief instigators of the worst crimes against the human race that we have seen in recent years. If we do not do so, all will fade into silence within the fragile bubble stretching from Atlantic to Pacific, while a raging storm of anger and resentment gathers into a global hurricane. http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/35260
A U.S. soldier from Second Stryker Cavalry Regiment crosses a river near Qara Tappah, about 75 miles northeast of Baghdad in Diyala province July 22, 2008. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
U.S. OCCUPATION RECRUITING DRIVE IN HIGH GEAR; RECRUITING FOR THE ARMED RESISTANCE THAT IS
Iraqi citizens forced out of their house at gunpoint by foreign occupation soldiers from the USA are forced to lie down in the street with their faces in the dirt during a home invasion military terror operation ordered by U.S. command in Baghdad's Sadr City July 12, 2008.[Photo: REUTERS/Damir Sagolj] [There’s nothing quite like invading somebody else’s country and busting into their houses by force to arouse an intense desire to kill you in the patriotic, self-respecting civilians who live there. [But your commanders know that, don’t they?Don’t they?] Iraqi citizens have no right to resist home invasions by occupation soldiers from the USA.If they do, they may be arrested, wounded, or killed. “In the States, if police burst into your house, kicking down doors and swearing at you, you would call your lawyer and file a lawsuit,” said Wood, 42, from Iowa, who did not accompany Halladay’s Charlie Company, from his battalion, on Thursday’s raid.“Here, there are no lawyers.Their resources are limited, so they plant IEDs (improvised explosive devices) instead.”
GI SPECIAL 6G15:
DO YOU HAVE A FRIEND OR RELATIVE IN THE SERVICE?
Forward GI Special along, or send us the address if you wish and we’ll send it regularly.Whether in Iraq or stuck on a base in the USA, this is extra important for your service friend, too often cut off from access to encouraging news of growing resistance to the war, inside the armed services and at home.Send email requests to address up top or write to: The Military Project, Box 126, 2576 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10025-5657.Phone: 917.677.8057
Vietnam:They Stopped An Imperial War
“The single largest failure of the anti-war movement at this point is the lack of outreach to the troops.”Tim Goodrich, Iraq Veterans Against The War
“The military are the final, essential weak point of Bush and Cheney.”David McReynolds 9.29.07
We, the People were lied to about 9/11 and the reasons to bomb people in Afghanistan, then Iraq. There has never been any reason to go to war with these countries since the "attack" of 9/11 was perpetrated by Saudis and a couple of misfits, none from those two countries. Yet we have destroyed them. Why? Oil and now, we are learning about precious minerals in Afghanistan, plus pipelines, et al, et nauseum.
