In his first press conference, President Obama stated the following: "My view is also that nobody's above the law, and if there are clear instances of wrongdoing, that people should be prosecuted just like any ordinary citizen. But that generally speaking, I'm more interested in looking forward than I am in looking backwards."
Fine, but what about the situation that exists right now?
Mr. President, you have placed me in an unenviable position. Though, God knows, I'm no insider, I must, like a latter-day John Dean, inform you that there is a cancer growing on your presidency. It is rooted in the past, but it continues obscenely in the present and seriously jeopardizes the change that Americans want and need, presenting a clear and present danger to the Constitution and the Rule of Law.
I can testify that for a quarter century at least, the military, intelligence, and law enforcement apparat has engaged in COINTELPRO-type political persecution. Acting under color of law and "national security," persons and agencies have employed secret technology in an orchestrated program of mental torture, as well as (in my case) chemical-biological attack and assault with ionizing radiation.
Mr. President, there is only one agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, mandated to investigate violations of such federal laws as 18 USC 241, 18 USC 242, and 18 USC 245. For at least two decades, it has refused to do so. Complaints from citizens are routinely rejected out of hand, sometimes most outrageously. No effective remedy is provided. Victimized and outraged persons have no recourse under law. That's why I tried three times to escape from the USA.
Indeed, even the US Senate has proved complicit, attaching "understandings" to the definition of mental torture that provide convenient loopholes for the forms of abuse employed. Victims who complain are presumed to be mentally ill. I am sane and very articulate. What I write is the truth, so help me God.
When my own victimization began, I was 40 years old. Next month, I'll turn 67. I may not last much longer. I've got to "tell it like it is," lest yours prove just one more administration of torturers and cover-up artists. I must inform you of a technology that jeopardizes the very existence of human civilization in any acceptable form.
That’s not the worst of it. In the past, thought was always free, thought was always private. Even in the deepest dungeon, one’s thoughts were one’s own.
This is no longer so. The sanctity and privacy of one’s home, one’s bathroom, one’s bedroom, one’s very brain, are and can be violated with impunity. Shrouded in secrecy, probably classified, this technology has made possible the perfect crime. The victim who tries to complain is presumed insane.
The military and intelligence agencies of the United States have no right to keep this awful secret from the world. Congress must address this issue, must hold these criminals against humanity accountable. Let them explain why they have seen fit all these years to wage war against an American citizen in his own home -- and I am not the only victim. Let them explain why this technology is not used to find Osama Bin Laden, to rescue hostages or kidnapping victims, to find out where bodies are buried. Let them explain why they have subverted the Rule of Law and made a mockery of the Bill of Rights.
Additionally, executive nonfeasance, misfeasance, and malfeasance demand an effective remedy. Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution requires the President “to take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” Refusal of a president or any of his subordinates to enforce the laws should admit of some penalty short of impeachment. Given the Supreme Court’s precedent in Marbury v. Madison, this would require a constitutional amendment. I submit that full revelation of the truth will establish that the matter is sufficiently grave to warrant such a radical solution.
I have taken to describing myself as a survivor of human rights crimes. That I have managed to survive, managed to preserve my sanity and articulate intelligence, does not mitigate in any way the gravity of these crimes. Other victims have not survived, but their suffering and my own compel me to speak truth to power. Let the truth at last be known. Let justice at last be done, that the concepts of human rights and human dignity may survive in this millennium.
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