Scapegoating for Their Lives

The right wing smear machine is desperately trying to rewrite history and create propaganda to advance the notion that we were "safe" under BushCo. because W was so tough on terrorists.  These are lies and dangerous assertions which could radically impact on our democracy.

To that end, we must prosecute BushCo. for its lying us into the willful destruction of Afghanistan and Iraq.  If we don't our children will grow up believing that might makes right and power is the only thing than matters.  Tell CBS to support free speech and critical thought.  Our democracy depends upon an informed populace which holds elected officials responsible for criminal deeds.  Please take a moment to sign this petition and pass it on. 
The principles of the U.S. Constitution are not "attack advertisement"
CBS attempts to silence IndictBushNow movement!
The petition reads:  I am writing to express outrage at CBS Outdoor's recent decision to silence those who want to stop torture and who demand accountability from elected government officials by denying IndictBushNow.org the ability to purchase ad space on buses in Washington, D.C.
The proposed ad stated these simple words: "TORTURE is not just wrong ... it is ILLEGAL. Because NO ONE is above the law," followed by the organization's website address. The CBS Outdoor legal team abruptly classified this as "attack advertising" in its sudden refusal to place the ads after weeks of planning.
Opposition to the illegal practice of torture or equal application of the law to all is not an "attack" on anyone. In fact, these are fundamental values enshrined in the U.S. Constitution and law--values that are cherished by people across the United States.
Clearly, CBS Outdoor does not feel the same way.
For our part, we will not allow political influence to cover up crimes or trample the Constitution, human rights and our civil liberties. We insist that CBS Outdoor rescind its decision and allow these bus ads to go forward immediately.
http://www.impeachbush.org/site/PageServer?pagename=homepage

Along these lines it's important to recognize that the increasing vitriol being spewed at Barack Obama serves to deflect attention from BushCo.'s failure to protect AND defend America on 9/11/2001.  Here is an interview from the Joe Scarborough show featuring Lawrence O'Donnell attempting to get the facts straight:  The original video was removed without my knowledge.  I got this from youtube.

Lawrence O'Donnell Rages On Bush Speechwriter Marc Thiessen: 'Your Administration Invited The First Attack' (VIDEO) 
 The original video was removed without my knowledge.  I got this from You Tube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqfpvvDCU9w
Fireworks erupted on the set of "Morning Joe" Friday, after MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell took umbrage with former Bush speechwriter Marc Thiessen's claim that President Obama was inviting a domestic terrorist attack.
Things started off rocky after Thiessen -- in the process of justifying the coercive counter-terrorism techniques used under the Bush administration and condemning Obama for "eliminating" the CIA's interrogation program -- insisted that his former boss was required to essentially start from scratch.
"You gotta think back to the period after 9/11," he said. "We didn't even know who hit us. [my bold]  We didn't know that Khalid Sheik Mohammad was the mastermind of 9/11 or the operational commander of al Qaeda. And then we started rounding up these terrorists..."
O'Donnell responded quickly, barking out his bewilderment with Thiessen's assertion that there had been no pre-9/11 warning that an attack was coming.
"Isn't it true that the president you worked for invited the first attack by having no idea what was going on with al Qaeda? You just admitted that when you were hit on 9/11, you just said, 'We didn't know who hit us'. You were told who was going to hit you before 9/11. And your administration invited the first attack, for which you should live in shame."
Those charges were some of the milder in the heated exchange. Later in the segment, O'Donnell told Thiessen that he was hopelessly ill-equipped to talk about terrorism or torture.[...]

See the video and read more here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/12/lawrence-odonnell-rages-o_n_459907.html

My last comment on this subject, in case you've forgotten:

"Bin Laden determined to attack inside the U.S."--August 6, 2001 Presidential Daily Briefing

BushCo., Go Directly to JAIL

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

Tonight's Debate--Email Action!!!

I'd like to add a little something to the mix. Mr. McCain endured "brainwashing" during his time at the Hanoi Hilton, during which time he "sided" with the Vietnamese who were defending their nation. This condition seems to have been repeated throughout his career, as Mr. McCain continues to change position based upon whom ever he thinks is in control. Since he was "brainwashed" into supporting the Vietnamese cause, how does Mr. McCain know he isn't brainwashed today?
McCain Tonight
By David Swanson, Fri, 2008-09-26
Prior to tonight's debate and each time during it that John McCain brags about his torture victimhood (or Jim Lehrer does it for him) or any of the participants touch on the topic of torture in any way without mentioning the facts below, please send Mr. Lehrer a note at onlineda@newshour.org along these lines.
Dear Jim Lehrer,
Are you aware of the following history?
In February 2008, John McCain voted against a bill that would supposedly have banned torture, and then applauded Bush for vetoing the bill.
In 2006 McCain voted in favor of the Military Commissions Act which supposedly left torture decisions up to the president.
In 2005 John McCain championed the McCain Detainee Amendment to the Defense Appropriations bill for 2005, which passed the Congress and was signed into law by Bush, adding one more redundant ban on torture to existing U.S. law, despite Vice President Cheney having lobbied hard against it. But McCain allowed a major loophole for the CIA and then kept quiet when Bush threw out the whole thing with a "signing statement." Bush and Cheney's administration continued to torture without any apparent slow-down or alteration in actual policy whatsoever.
Some Background:
On February 7, 2002, President George W. Bush signed a directive purporting to authorize torture.
In 1994 the United States ratified the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT), requiring that the United States work to prevent all forms of torture.
In 1992 the United States ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), banning torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
In 1968 John McCain was tortured.
In 1949 the United States ratified the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, banning violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture, as well as outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment.
In 1948 the United States ratified the Universal Declaration of Human Rights banning torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
In 1791 the United States ratified the Bill of Rights, banning cruel and unusual punishment. [my bold]
In 1788 the United states ratified the Constitution, ordaining that all treaties made under the authority of the United States shall be the supreme law of the land.
So, why, Mr. Lehrer, could you not ask Senator McCain this question:
If you will reverse yourself on torture, why should anyone believe there is anything you would not reverse yourself on? In other words, why should we listen to a word you say?
And, why, Mr. Lehrer, could you not ask Senator Obama whether he too believes the United States can toss out international law and authorize war crimes if it sees fit? And if not, why does he believe those crimes should not be prosecuted? [my emphasis]
Sincerely,
We the People
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/36336

Evicted and Tortured for Olympic Games?!!!

These may be China's crimes, but it is still our moral obligation to help, in any way we can. Please spread the word and if you can, make a donation. Thank you.

While you and I are watching the Beijing Olympics in August, Ye Guozhu and thousands of other Chinese are going to be sitting in prison, locked up for peacefully protesting government policies.
You can help Amnesty International USA focus world attention on these prisoners of conscience, not just the star athletes and thrilling competition, with your donation to our China Olympics Legacy Campaign.
First, let me tell you about Ye Guozhu and his family, who were evicted from their home and restaurant in 2003, which were razed to make way for the Beijing Summer Olympics.
Three days after he requested permission to hold a public demonstration [my bold] against the forced evictions, Ye Guozhu was arrested. He was convicted of "stirring up trouble" and sentenced to four years in prison. In jail, he has reportedly been beaten, subjected to electro-shocks, and forced to hang from his arms for extended periods.
These next few weeks are crucial for our China Olympics Legacy Campaign. With your gift today, we will:

• Press U.S. officials to call for the release of peaceful human rights defenders like Ye Guozhu and others when meeting with Chinese officials during the Games

• Provide American athletes with toolkits to help them speak up - if they choose - about Chinese prisoners of conscience and the government's human rights record
• Encourage corporate sponsors such as Coca-Cola and McDonald's to use their influence to call for an end to ongoing abuses

While we're watching the Olympic Games on TV, many Chinese citizens are unable to speak out for basic human rights without the risk of persecution and prison. That means you and I must speak out on their behalf.
Please make a tax-deductible contribution to help Amnesty draw worldwide attention to the plight of Ye Guozhu and so many others like him. Together, you and I can send a message that everyone is entitled to human rights, whether they're a gold-medal-winning athlete or an ordinary Chinese citizen.

Help us shine a light on the unjust imprisonment of peaceful activists in China.

The Horrific Legacy of BushCo

Did this administration sincerely believe that by offering a bounty, the warring tribes of Afghanistan would unite against the “evil do-ers” and turn in known terrorists? Those people have suffered for so long, and they will see NATO as the enemy, too. This will not have a happy ending, I fear.
America's prison for terrorists often held the wrong men
By Tom Lasseter, Posted on Sunday, June 15, 2008
GARDEZ, Afghanistan — The militants crept up behind Mohammed Akhtiar as he squatted at the spigot to wash his hands before evening prayers at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.
They shouted "Allahu Akbar" — God is great — as one of them hefted a metal mop squeezer into the air, slammed it into Akhtiar's head and sent thick streams of blood running down his face.
Akhtiar was among the more than 770 terrorism suspects imprisoned at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. They are the men the Bush administration described as "the worst of the worst."
But Akhtiar was no terrorist. American troops had dragged him out of his Afghanistan home in 2003 and held him in Guantanamo for three years in the belief that he was an insurgent involved in rocket attacks on U.S. forces. The Islamic radicals in Guantanamo's Camp Four who hissed "infidel" and spat at Akhtiar, however, knew something his captors didn't: The U.S. government had the wrong guy.[...]
Please click the link to read on. I cannot edit an article so important to our national psyche. We must face the monster we have created, or let exist, and we must deal with it.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/259/story/38773.html

Wesley Clark for Vice President!

Or maybe Secretary of Defense? Whatever post, he's got to be placed where he could influence national security. I thought he should have been the 2004 Presidential candidate instead of John Kerry, but things do happen for a reason. Watch General Clark and be prepared to be impressed!
Wes Clark on "Morning Joe" takes on McCain and defends Obama


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5bYzL2y7xQ

BushCo “Hoodwinked" General Myers

Could this be the story that opens the eyes of the "faithful?" To deliberately undermine and deceive the chief of command in Iraq, BushCo's only goal was the complete destruction of Iraq and destabilization of that region. I hope the American "faithful" will begin to see that the monsters in the White House planned the Iraq chaos as far back as Richard Nixon's White House days with one purpose: to fill their personal coffers and ensure their own comfort and security as the world reels from the troubles brought to them by BushCo. I agree with Mr. Wilkerson that they must be brought to an international criminal court. Read on, from The Guardian:
Top Bush aides pushed for Guantánamo torture
Senior officials bypassed army chief to introduce interrogation methods
· Richard Norton-Taylor · The Guardian, Saturday April 19 2008

US military chief General Richard Myers.
Photographer: Khalil Mazraawi/AFP

America's most senior general was "hoodwinked" by top Bush administration officials determined to push through aggressive interrogation techniques of terror suspects held at Guantánamo Bay, leading to the US military abandoning its age-old ban on the cruel and inhumane treatment of prisoners, the Guardian reveals today.
[...] In his new book, Torture Team, Philippe Sands QC, professor of law at University College London, reveals that:
· Senior Bush administration figures pushed through previously outlawed measures with the aid of inexperienced military officials at Guantánamo.
· Myers believes he was a victim of "intrigue" by top lawyers at the department of justice, the office of vice-president Dick Cheney, and at Donald Rumsfeld's defence department.
· The Guantánamo lawyers charged with devising interrogation techniques were inspired by the exploits of Jack Bauer in the American TV series 24.
· Myers wrongly believed interrogation techniques had been taken from the army's field manual.
The lawyers, all political appointees, who pushed through the interrogation techniques were Alberto Gonzales, David Addington and William Haynes. Also involved were Doug Feith, Rumsfeld's under-secretary for policy, and Jay Bybee and John Yoo, two assistant attorney generals.
[...] The Bush administration has tried to explain away the ill-treatment of detainees at Guantánamo Bay and Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq by blaming junior officials. Sands' book establishes that pressure for aggressive and cruel treatment of detainees came from the top and was sanctioned by the most senior lawyers.
Myers was one top official who did not understand the implications of what was being done. Sands, who spent three hours with the former general, says he was "confused" about the decisions that were taken.
Myers mistakenly believed that new techniques recommended by Haynes and authorised by Rumsfeld in December 2002 for use by the military at Guantánamo had been taken from the US army field manual. They included hooding, sensory deprivation, and physical and mental abuse.
"As we worked through the list of techniques, Myers became increasingly hesitant and troubled," writes Sands. "Haynes and Rumsfeld had been able to run rings around him." [my bold]
[...] Larry Wilkerson, a former army officer and chief of staff to Colin Powell, US secretary of state at the time, told the Guardian: "I do know that Rumsfeld had neutralised the chairman [Myers] in many significant ways.
"The secretary did this by cutting [Myers] out of important communications, meetings, deliberations and plans.
"At the end of the day, however, Dick Myers was not a very powerful chairman in the first place, one reason Rumsfeld recommended him for the job".
He added: "Haynes, Feith, Yoo, Bybee, Gonzalez and - at the apex - Addington, should never travel outside the US, except perhaps to Saudi Arabia and Israel. They broke the law; they violated their professional ethical code. In future, some government may build the case necessary to prosecute them in a foreign court, or in an international court." [my bold]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/19/guantanamo.usa

Please Smack Scalia...HARD

You might feel nauseated as you read this from BBC News:
US judge steps in to torture row
The most outspoken judge on the US Supreme Court has defended the use of some physical interrogation techniques.
In the interview with the Law in Action programme on BBC Radio 4, he said it was "extraordinary" to assume that the ban on "cruel and unusual punishment" - the US Constitution's Eighth Amendment - also applied to "so-called" torture.
[...] Justice Antonin Scalia told the BBC that "smacking someone in the face" could be justified if there was an imminent threat.
[...] In the interview with the Law in Action programme on BBC Radio 4, he said it was "extraordinary" to assume that the ban on "cruel and unusual punishment" - the US Constitution's Eighth Amendment - also applied to "so-called" torture.
[...] Justice Scalia also mocked European criticism of the US use of the death penalty.
"If you took a public opinion poll, if all of Europe had representative democracies that really worked, most of Europe would probably have the death penalty today. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7239748.stm

Canada Flip Flops on Torture

Did someone get their nuts squeezed? Monsieur Bernier does look a bit, er, stressed. How awful to be stuck in a “diplomatic” position over reprehensible policies. You can't cover your ass and be a nudist at the same time!
The link to the original Reuters report follows the sorry attempt to reframe shit for brains:
Torture watch list with US, Israel not govt policy: Canada FM
1 day ago
OTTAWA (AFP) — Canadian Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier disavowed Saturday the inclusion of Israel and the United States on an official list of countries where prisoners can be tortured, and said the document would be revised.
"I regret the embarrassment caused by the public disclosure of the manual used in the (Foreign Affairs) department's torture awareness training," Bernier said in a statement.[...] Training diplomats to make them more aware of torture began after Syrian-Canadian Maher Arar in 2002 was deported by the United States to Syria, where he was imprisoned for nearly a year and said he was tortured.
A Canadian inquiry cleared Arar of all suspicions of terrorism and the Canadian government issued an apology and awarded him a substantial compensation. [my bold]
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5g3U1eWP6wkS7eJJxucVIEFyrLz_w
Canada places U.S., Israel on torture watch list
Thu Jan 17, 2008 3:13pm EST
By David Ljunggren
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's foreign ministry has put the United States and Israel on a watch list of countries where prisoners risk being tortured and also classifies some U.S. interrogation techniques as torture, according to a document obtained by Reuters on Thursday.
[...] The document -- part of a training course on torture awareness given to diplomats -- mentions the U.S. jail at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba where a Canadian man is being held.
The man, Omar Khadr, is the only Canadian in Guantanamo. His defenders said the document made a mockery of Ottawa's claims that Khadr was not being mistreated.
[...] Other countries on the watch list include Syria, China, Iran, Afghanistan, Mexico and Saudi Arabia.
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSN1762987120080117

Sunday NYC Demo

December 23rd: "Stand Against Torture" Sunday

Tapes Destroyed . . . The Torture Goes On . . .
Bush & Co. have been caught red-handed lying, torturing and covering it up and yet the crimes continue. We must respond, beginning NOW – right now in the middle of the “holiday season” -- and build towards major actions and events on January 11th: Be part of a “Stand Against Torture” – this Sunday, December 23rd.
NYC World Can’t Wait is making a broad call to peace organizations, the religious community and all who oppose torture to come together on Sunday, Dec. 23rd, and at 2:00 PM, to assemble at 5th Avenue and 50th Street, to line the streets, many clad in orange jumpsuits, as those tortured in Guantanamo are forced to wear, and the rest carrying signs in orange or black. This Sunday we need to have the simple and clear message made in a visually compelling way that “torture is wrong, it is criminal, it is immoral, it is being done in our name, and it has got to be stopped.”
http://www.wcw-nyc.blogspot.com/

An American Inquisition

Is That Legal?
November 12, 2007
If It Was Torture in Mississippi, Then It's Definitely Torture, Right?
[...]In 1926, the Mississippi Supreme Court called the water cure torture. No qualifiers. No hedging. Just plain, good ol' fashion torture . . . and therefore a forbidden means for securing a confession. These men were hardly a group I'd call *activist* or *liberal* and certainly not bent on subverting our country in the name of coddling criminals.
In a case called Fisher v. State, 110 So. 361, 362 (Miss. 1926), Mississippi's highest court ordered the retrial of a convicted murderer because his confession was secured by a local sheriff's use of the water cure.
http://www.isthatlegal.org/archives/2007/11/if_it_was_tortu.html
Here's the new AG. He seems pleasant enough, but he's confused about this centurys old approach. Write him a letter to help him figure out what justice means.
Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey
Michael Mukasey was born in the Bronx, New York, in 1941 and graduated from Columbia College and Yale Law School, where he was on the Board of Editors of the Yale Law Journal. Prior to becoming Attorney General, he had a lengthy career as an attorney, including service as an Assistant United States Attorney from 1972 to 1976 in New York. From 1975 to 1976 he also served as chief of his district's Official Corruption Unit. From 1976 to 1987 he was an associate, and then member, of the firm Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler

WE ARE BETTER THAN THIS

Elect to End Torture:
Sign the Petition Today

Join these 16,782 other Americans for Human Rights
and stand against torture.

http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/us_law/etn/elect08/index.aspx?source=flash

We Know the Definition of Torture

Calling All Activists!

EMERGENCY DEMO on the Selection of

Michael Mukasey as Attorney General

We will leaflet and hold a silent vigil at the office of

NY Senator Charles Schumer

11 am - 1 pm, Monday November 5^th

757 Third Avenue (near 47th St)

WE SAY NO!

NO TO WATERBOARDING AND ALL FORMS OF TORTURE!
(see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterboarding)
NO TO UNLIMITED PRESIDENTIAL POWER!
NO TO DETAINING PEOPLE WITHOUT CHARGE!

INFORM THE DEMOCRATIC SENATORS SCHUMER and FEINSTEIN (CA)

DO NOT PROMOTE TORTURE AS A US POLICY!

Torture Info Broadcast

Fellow blogger and Israeli peace activist “Desert Peace” has provided an opportunity for American citizens to hear an interview with Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights on the legal and political implications of torture:
WHAT THE MEDIA DOESN'T TELL YOU ABOUT TORTURE
What responsibility do Bush administration lawyers bear for torture?
That provocative and important question will be examined by Massachusetts School of Law Dean Lawrence R. Velvel and Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights(CCR) on Monday, November 5, at 9:30 a.m., on"What the Media Doesn't Tell you," aired on the World Radio Network's European and North American affiliates.
…The Ratner interview will be live online at http://ustream.tv/channel/what-the-media-doesnt-tell-you and will be broadcast in its entirety on World Radio Network's European and North American networks on November, 10 at 11:00 a.m. It will be available for direct audio download from http://velvelonmedia.libsyn.com beginning Monday afternoon.
Here’s the blog where I got the info:
http://desertpeace.blogspot.com/2007/11/what-media-doesnt-tell-you-about.html

The Moral Authority? Impeachable Scum!

A new book written by ACLU attorneys interviews an Erie County judge who says both Bush and Rumsfeld directed and supervised his work. From the Erie Times News:
Orders from the top
Dunlavey: Guantanamo mission came straight from Bush, Rumsfeld
BY LISA THOMPSON, lisa.thompson@timesnews.com
Published: November 02. 2007 6:00AM
When military investigators questioned Erie County Judge Michael E. Dunlavey about reported prisoner abuse during his tenure at the Guantanamo Bay camp for suspected terrorists, Dunlavey told them he got his "marching orders" from President Bush, according to a new book about U.S. policies regarding torture.
…In a statement Dunlavey provided to a U.S. Air Force lieutenant general investigating FBI reports of detainee abuses at Guantanamo Bay, Dunlavey explains that as leader of interrogations at Guantanamo, he reported directly to President Bush and then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
...The SECDEF said he wanted a product and he wanted intelligence now. He told me what he wanted; not how to do it."
... The directions changed and I got my marching orders from the President of the United States."
…"Virtually no one had a degree of expertise to deal with these people. They do not subscribe to our values legally and morally." [Emphasis added]
…The Erie Times-News currently has an appeal pending over the Department of Defense's refusal to release to the newspaper documents relating to Dunlavey's tenure at Guantanamo.
http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071102/NEWS02/711020374/-1/NEWS

Proud Vets of PO Box 1142

Interesting story about a WWII veterans who participated in a top-secret mission called P.O. Box 1142. Their job was to interrogate Nazi prisoners of war at Fort Hunt, but in this article they expressed dismay and disgust at BushCo’s interrogation tactics.

Fort Hunt's Quiet Men Break Silence on WWII
Interrogators Fought 'Battle of Wits'
By Petula Dvorak, Washington Post, Saturday,October 6, 2007

Several of the veterans, all men in their 80s and 90s, denounced the controversial techniques. And when the time came for them to accept honors from the Army's Freedom Team Salute, one veteran refused, citing his opposition to the war in Iraq and procedures that have been used at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

"During the many interrogations, I never laid hands on anyone," said George Frenkel, 87, of Kensington. "We extracted information in a battle of the wits. I'm proud to say I never compromised my humanity."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/05/AR2007100502492_2.html?hpid=topnews

Today we grieve, listen, watch, prepare

If you’re in NYC, the action will mostly be at and around Ground Zero, where many diverse protesters will converge. The forecast calls for rain, but that won’t stop us. Bring orange ponchos if you can!

The 11th is almost here. We hope everyone does their best to be seen and heard tomorrow. Signs, banners, and clothing are very important so people know what you’re striking about. Wearing orange could be a powerful and unified symbol of dissent.

Some people have asked what the demands of this strike are. Your demands are up to you. But here are some ideas: reinstate habeas corpus, end torture and illegal surveillance, impeach (all of those complicit within the US government), and convene a truth and reconciliation commission headed by citizen activists and community leaders.

In other words, we’re not going to take FASCISM lying down, we’re going to fight with nonviolence, truth, and civil disobedience.

Remember to document your actions with photos and video.

Forward…

http://www.strike911.org/