A disturbing posture from the President has become painfully apparent. His desire to handle the alleged war crimes during the previous administration. I would remind all Democrats that it is not the place... if we are to believe the campaign rhetoric, let alone the LAW... of the President to decide the path of an investigation that could lead to indictments that lead to prosecution. This he should know from his days as a constitutional lawyer let alone his predecessor. Saying that those that carried out torture are absolved of responsibility is as heinous an act as those that devised torture policy and is against everything that we learned from World War II. If there is a course that he should follow, it would be silence. Let Congress investigate, turn over their findings to the Justice Department and any decision to proceed with any criminal investigation of perpetrators from the top to the bottom would be taken from there. President Obama may NOT make up law as he goes along, UNLESS he has taken the stand of President Bush and his "if I say it, it must be lawful". The President has the power of the pardon and if it is appropriate, he may use it in the future, but now is NOT the time.
Once again to hammer home the point. There are alleged war crimes that have been commited and as such NO president has the power by law to ignore or push for glossing over the now obvious fact that crimes were commited and no matter how inconvienent to his agenda, he must not interfere. Not only by US law, but by international treaty, we are compelled to investigate and prosecute where the facts support such prosecution. Again, there are NO exceptions on who is open to investigation and possible legal action. President Obama needs to bone up on international treaty laws including the Geneva Conventions. Ask any constitutional law professor, start with Jonathan Turley at George Washington University if he needs any clarification or John Dean, from another era, or those that died at the hands interrogators in WWII and Korea to name but a few conflicts where our troops suffered at the hands of the enemy. Are we to forget the past and in so doing be doomed to repeat it?
What are the repercussions of glossing this over? In my opinion, the President becomes an unindicted co-conspirator to torture. All of our troops captured during military conflict will have had their rights to any protection afforded by the Geneva Conventions rendered null and void. Not to mention that he has willfully broken US law and perhaps fatally wounded our stature in the world in addition to validating the arguments of the militant extremists that would do our country harm. I'd say that is very serious. The President has made a jaw-dropping positive start to his administration (except for taking away my governor, Janet Napolitano) that I would not like to see rendered irrelevant by his continuing path on not holding those accountable for their actions, well accountable.
Accountability...seems like I heard that word used in the campaign. I also seem to remember that President Obama was going to restore the Justice Department to an independent entity to do their job of investigating and carrying out the prosecution of those that break the law. The President is dangerously close to breaking the law now. I for one, hope he opens his eyes on this matter of overriding importance, for it affects both the proper re-alignment of our government back to the intent of the Constitution and laws on the books, but also restores the power, given by law, to agencies of the government to be free of political interference.
"THE WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING"
BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE
Accountability: America's Moral Responsibility to Humanity
Eight years of Republican "leadership" has left America both economically devastated, and globally humiliated. Yet, far from apologizing for the damage that they've done to the stability and image of this great nation, instead, they've circled their wagons and gone into damage control mode–not to control the damage that they've done to the nation, but in an attempt to rewrite history in order to control the damage that they've done to themselves.
So now, as President Obama goes about the business of desperately trying to return America to its former position of economic stability at home, and respect, admiration, and moral authority abroad, the GOP leadership seems to be completely oblivious to the nation's desperate and immediate need for a concerted effort in that regard. They're like clueless children who find it impossible to see the big picture. Thus, at this point it has become abundantly clear that their primary concern is not with restoring America to a sound footing in the world, but rather, simply restoring themselves to power at any cost.
Here we go again, Fake "war crimes" by Israel bashers exposed - damning effect still on Reports of IDF Crimes: Fiction Based on Rumors - Defense/Middle ...Claims that IDF soldiers deliberately killed civilians during Operation Cast Lead were based in hearsay, a military investigation has concluded. The two soldiers who first reported the alleged incidents several weeks ago had not seen the incidents themselves, and had no personal knowledge to support the allegations... B'Tselem, accused the IDF... ... www.israelnationalnews.co... Then again, it (false accusations by the infamous un-reliable radical political group: B'tzelem) reminds us all the UN's such loud & harsh "accusation" of Israel of "killing Kids in Gaza", then later on "woke up" told the truth, AKA retracted it , UN retracts claim over Gaza school attack [Feb 4, 2009] ... The UN has retracted a claim that an Israeli strike, which killed more than 40 people in northern Gaza last month, hit a school run by a UN ... www.rte.ie/news/2009/0204... www.abc.net.au/news/stori... news.yahoo.com.au/a/-/wor... www.worthychristianforums... yet, the damage of the false accusations on innocent Israel is still there, full force.
Here we go again, Fake "war crimes" by Israel bashers exposed - damning effect still on
Reports of IDF Crimes: Fiction Based on Rumors - Defense/Middle ...Claims that IDF soldiers deliberately killed civilians during Operation Cast Lead were based in hearsay, a military investigation has concluded. The two soldiers who first reported the alleged incidents several weeks ago had not seen the incidents themselves, and had no personal knowledge to support the allegations... B'Tselem, accused the IDF... ... www.israelnationalnews.co...
www.israelnationalnews.co...
Then again, it (false accusations by the infamous un-reliable radical political group: B'tzelem) reminds us all the UN's such loud & harsh "accusation" of Israel of "killing Kids in Gaza", then later on "woke up" told the truth, AKA retracted it ,
UN retracts claim over Gaza school attack [Feb 4, 2009] ... The UN has retracted a claim that an Israeli strike, which killed more than 40 people in northern Gaza last month, hit a school run by a UN ... www.rte.ie/news/2009/0204... www.abc.net.au/news/stori... news.yahoo.com.au/a/-/wor... www.worthychristianforums...
yet, the damage of the false accusations on innocent Israel is still there, full force.
What is bias in the middle east conflict? [March, 2009]
Arabs’ racist killing (specifically) Jews *, is accepted “freedom fighting’'.
Israelis worried of Arab terror *, branded as “racists”.
*
War crimes, crimes against humanity by Palestinian Arab leadership - regime in Gaza * * * of using Arab civilians, making sure their kids die, for the “greater good (Jihadi-fascism’s goodness) of making Israel look bad…” * * * * * * *, using hospitals *, schools, UN medical vehicles * *, even aid material sent by humanitarian Israel * for murder, targeting at Israeli civilians, - shoved aside, ignored *.
Israel’s humane army’s extreme measures not to hit civilians (including 250,000 warning phone calls to Arab residents to evacuate a particular area designated to be included in an op., knowing full well terrorists can cease the opportunity and flea, as well as risking young soldiers’ lives in going door to door) * * * * aiming only at Hamas terrorists is denounced of “random shooting” and “war crimes”.
[Arab led pressure forcing Israel to conduct] Uprooting Jews from their homes and their ancestors’, AKA Transfer * * AKA Arab Palestinian Apartheid * is “good for peace”.
Transfer of Arabs (who don’t have more than 2 or 3 generations of history in Judea / Israel / Palestine * * * *) is “apartheid, fascist and racist” * (AKA Avigdor Lieberman).
While Hamas or even “Moderate” Fatah refuses to recognize Israel *, international aid is flowing their way.
UN is “busy” condemning Israel * * on whatever is being told (forced) by the global Arab Muslim oil lobby.
The Obama adminstration upholds the threat to Britain to withhold from them security information about potential terrorist threats, if they release evidence in their possession that strongly supports the assertion that Binyam Mohamed was seriously tortured and held captive for years - by the United States government. He is facing the death penalty and the only evidence againt him is his own confession, obtained by torture. The Obama administration has "thanked the UK government for its continued commitment to protect sensitive national security information"...and that the US will "preserve the long-standing intelligence sharing relationship".
President Obama, we realize that you are busy dealing with the current financial crises. But, we also know you are fully aware that, as Washington Independent's Daphne Evitar put it:
the Obama administration is continuing the Bush administration’s policy of concealing evidence that the U.S. sponsored torture and other abuse
We find this policy to highly disturbing and unacceptble given expectations you yourself set during your campaign. And, we demand an immediate change, including a revesal of the following Obama santioned practices.
Read more here:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/02/19/exceptionalism/index.html
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/02/humane-altern-1.html
Chicago reader
The 'Qassam Kindergarten' Jihad
'Palestinians' Islamic Hamas, "loves" children, well, in their special 'death cult' type of way anyway.You already know how they love their own children... to die for propaganda, and make every effort in succeeding in it - unfortunately.But there are also other children under the "wings of Jihadi love" of Hamas, the Israeli children in schools, in kindergartens, they are "favorites", favorites in Hamas' targets that is, planning the time/place when/where they go to school, thank God for so many miracles where children weren't harmed.Call it 'Qassam kindergarten', 'Kindergarten Jihad', or plain 'Jihad on kids' the broader reality.
---
Qassam Kindergarten[Dec 2007]http://www.solomonia.com/blog/archive/2007/12/qassam-kindergarten/index.shtml
May 15, 2007 ...Major Injuries In Sderot Rocket Barrage. Children Wounded As Rockets Score Direct Hits On School and Home. http://www.mererhetoric.com/archives/11273760.html
The reality of Sderot, the city where I liveBy Noam Bedein January 22, 2008Barrage of rockets hits Sderot as kids go to school ... ...http://web.israelinsider.com/views/12586.htm
Kassam alert- kindergarten http://sderotmedia.comhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFss6p5sTPE
SderotMedia - 'Kindergarten'http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1T4HPID_enCR310US204&q=site%3Asderotmedia.com+kindergarten
Qassam hits kindergarten; 2 children lightly wounded - [Jul 28, 2006] ... News: Rocket lands next to kindergarten in town south of Ashkelon; 2 children hurt, 8 suffer shock. Earlier a number of rockets hit central ...http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3282603,00.html
Qassam lands near Sderot kindergarten Rocket hits neighborhood in southern town, causes damage to private house located near kindergarten; several people suffer from shock, one woman loses consciousness. Military sources say IDF policy in Gaza may change [Published: 05.07.07] http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3396608,00.html
12 Sderot Children Hospitalized for Shock After Kassam Attacks ...Sep 3, 2007http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/123570
Two IDF soldiers, civilian lightly hurt as Gaza mortars hit Negev Three rockets struck the Eshkol region, two of them landing in open fields and the third between two kindergartens. [01/02/2009] http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasen/spages/1060562.html
Rocket hits Ashdod kindergarten - "Thankfully, no children were in the kindergarten, and no one was badly hurt... [Jan 11, 2009 8:08 | Updated Jan 12, 2009 2:37] http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1231424913241
Pat Dollard | Hamas Violates Humanitarian Cease Fire, Shells Kindergarten ... hit a house next to a school in the Israeli southern city of Sderot, ... Children would also drill evacuating their class rooms...http://patdollard.com/2009/01/hamas-violates-humanitarian-cease-fire-shells-kindergarten/
[January 6, 2009] a Hamas leader warned that the Islamists would kill Jewish children anywhere in the world http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article5454204.ece?Submitted=true
STRATEGIC QASSAM vs. DIPLOMATIC BLITZ Harari, now an analyst at the Herzliya Center, warned that if a Qassam rocket hits a crowded synagogue or kindergarten it will trigger a massive IDF ...http://www.isracast.com/article.aspx?ID=769
The "brave" masked "freedom fighters" Islamic butchers
The Israeli innocent Victims
Disgraceful 'Jihad Appeaser' Jimmy Carter LIES openly on CNN's Larry King and no one refutes him? Sat. (Feb. 7, 2009) night, Jimmy Carter said: ’Israel, it could have responded to the rocket attacks without firing on churches (excuse me, what churches in Islamic Gaza is he talking about???) and on Mosques’.
A short while after that Larry confronted the worst-ex-president “You said earlier that Israel fired on mosques and on schools, what was Israel supposed to do as they responded to where the FIRING CAME FROM”?
Jimmy, "I don’t known I wasn’t there, I only know that the UN said that Israel fired on them and there were only civilians there".
Hey, Jimmy, so what if we show you now the updated version by the UN where they retracted their false accusation on Israel will you have the guts and say the truth about humane Israel that Israel was (as always is) humane on targeting only Islamic terrorists but Palestinian (”legitimate voted govt in Gaza - Hamas”.) Muslims commit crimes against humanity - target civilians?
—
UN: IDF did not shell UNRWA school Feb. 4, 2009. A clerical error led the UN to falsely accuse Israel... http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1233304687916&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter UN retracts claim strike hit Gaza school …The United Nations has retracted a claim that an Israeli strike which killed more than 40 people in northern Gaza city of Jabaliya last month hit a school … http://www.republicanoperative.com/forums/international-politics/17399-un-retracts-claim-strike-hit-gaza-school.html
(Your Tax Dollars at Work in the Middle East)
The state of Israel is facing charges of war crimes following the slaughter of innocent civilians including hundreds of children in its recent campaign against Palestinian militants on the Gaza Strip. Israel's powerful ally, the United States, also faces charges of complicity in the slaughter as Palestinians declare: "This Damage Made in USA."
UN human rights expert Richard Falk said on Thursday that the recent Israeli military operation on the Gaza Strip "raises the specter of systematic war crimes" and needs to be investigated. Falk told journalists in Geneva from his home in California that he had little doubt as to the "unavoidably inhuman character of a large-scale military operation of the sort that Israel has initiated... against an essentially defenseless population." Charging that "unlawful targets have been selected" by Israeli forces during the fighting, Falk insisted that Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip including children and the wounded were effectively trapped in a war zone and prevented from fleeing.
Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has issued demands for a full explanation of "outrageous" Israeli attacks on UN facilities on the Gaza Strip including a school used as a refuge for civilians, killing dozens. The UN chief noted that Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert had promised to provide results of an Israeli inquiry into the attacks "on an urgent basis" and said he would then decide on "appropriate follow-up action." On January 12, the 47-member UN Human Rights Council voted by a large majority to launch an investigation into "grave" human rights violations by Israeli forces against Palestinians. Israel is also facing questions from human rights groups regarding the use of illegal weapons, including white phosphorus munitions, against Palestinian civilians on the Gaza Strip.
These charges come amid renewed calls for a global boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israel from groups such as the Global BDS Movement. Recently, Canadian journalist Naomi Klein wrote in support of such a boycott: "The best strategy to end the increasingly bloody occupation is for Israel to become the target of the kind of global movement that put an end to apartheid in South Africa." Some are also calling for a boycott of US exports for its continuing support of Israeli actions against Palestinians.
The Palestinian death toll from Israel's recent war on Gaza currently stands at around 1300, most of whom were innocent civilians, and around a third of whom were children. Ten Israeli soldiers and three civilians were killed in Israel during the same period, an indicator of Israel's massively disproportionate response to Palestinian attacks on Israelis. A total of twenty-eight Israelis have been killed by Palestinian rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip since 2001, a tiny fraction of the number of Palestinians killed in Israel's recent Gaza actions alone. These numbers echo casualty figures from the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict which consistently show innocent Palestinian dead including children massively outnumbering Israelis.
Rocket attacks on Israel from the Gaza Strip deserve both condemnation by the international community and a proportionate response by Israel. The killing of one Israeli in a rocket attack does not, however, entitle Israel to respond by slaughtering twenty, thirty, or forty innocent Palestinian civilians. Such slaughter, furthermore, will no more stop Hamas' rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip than it stopped Hezbollah's rocket attacks from Lebanon in 2006. Just as Hezbollah could declare victory in the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war simply by surviving to fight another day, so Hamas can declare victory in Gaza this day. Meanwhile, Israel increasingly becomes a pariah state in the eyes of the world, as does the United States for its complicity in the slaughter. Ever-growing anger particularly in the Arab world serves America's national security interests no better than it serves Israel's.
Behold, America: Your tax dollars at work in the Middle East.
Out of the tragedy of Gaza, perhaps, will come renewed opportunity to hold Israel accountable for its actions, to press for a new US policy on the Middle East, for peace, and for an end to Israel's long and bloody occupation of the Palestinian Territories. Boycott, divestment, and sanctions efforts such as those promoted by the Global BDS Movement have a proven track record of success as in the case of South Africa, and deserve our support. UN efforts to hold Israel accountable for its actions also deserve our support, but are likely to require UN Security Council action of the type America with its power of veto most often and most notoriously obstructs. Pressure, therefore, needs to be applied to the White House and Congress for a new US approach to the conflict and a new US attitude in the UN Security Council. Whether our new ambassador to the UN offers active support with a "yes" vote or passive permission by abstaining on UN efforts to hold Israel accountable for its actions, our message to the new administration regarding these efforts can be stated clearly and briefly as follows: NO VETO!
Sources: Agence France Presse, Time, Los Angeles Times, Haaretz, New Straits Times, Bay Area Indymedia, B'Tselem, Human Rights Watch.
Slide show: Gaza Massacre by Sabbah.
Photo gallery: Child victims of Gaza violence.
Contacts:
The White House
US Mission to the UN
Contact your US Senators
Contact your US Representative
Seasonal Forgiveness Has a Limit. Bush and His Cronies Must Face a Reckoning
Heinous crimes are now synonymous with this US administration. If it isn't held to account, what does that say about us?
by Jonathan Freedland - Published on Wednesday, December 24, 2008 by The Guardian/UK
'Tis the night before Christmas and the season of goodwill. The mood is forgiving. Our faces warm with mulled wine, our tummies full, we're meant to slump in the armchair, look back on the year just gone and count our blessings - woozily agreeing to put our troubles behind us.
As in families, so in the realm of public and international affairs. And this December that feels especially true. The "war on terror" that dominated much of the decade seems to be heading towards a kind of conclusion. George Bush will leave office in a matter of weeks and British troops will leave Iraq a few months later. The first, defining phase of the conflict that began on 9/11 - the war of Bush, Tony Blair and Osama bin Laden - is about to slip from the present to the past tense. Bush and Blair will be gone, with only Bin Laden still in post. The urge to move on is palpable.
You can sense it in the valedictory interviews Bush and Dick Cheney are conducting on their way out. They're looking to the verdict of history now, Cheney telling the Washington Times last week: "I myself am personally persuaded that this president and this administration will look very good 20 or 30 years down the road.".........
ENTIRE COMMENT - http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/dec/24/george-bush-guantanamo-bay-us-government
by Marjorie Cohn - Published on Friday, December 19, 2008 by CommonDreams.org
U.S. courts have long held that waterboarding, where water is poured into someone's nose and mouth until he nearly drowns, constitutes torture. Our federal War Crimes Act defines torture as a war crime punishable by life imprisonment or even the death penalty if the victim dies.
Under the doctrine of command responsibility, enshrined in U.S. law, commanders all the way up the chain of command to the commander-in-chief can be held liable for war crimes if they knew or should have known their subordinates would commit them and they did nothing to stop or prevent it..........
ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/12/19
by Jeremy Brecher and Brendan Smith - Published on Thursday, December 18, 2008 by The Nation
As the officials of the Bush administration pack up in Washington and move into their posh suburban homes around the country, will they be able to rest easy, or will they be haunted by the fear that they will be held accountable for war crimes committed during their reign?
Some of Obama's own top appointees would undoubtedly receive scrutiny in an unconstrained investigation--Obama's reappointed defense secretary Robert Gates, for example, has had responsibility not only for Guantánamo but also for the incarceration of tens of thousands of Iraqis in prisons in Iraq like Camp Bucca, which the Washington Post described in a headline as "a Prison Full of Innocent Men," without even a procedure for determining their guilt or innocence--unquestionably a violation of the Geneva Conventions in and of itself..........
ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/12/17/douthat/
No One Can be Above the Law
Prosecuting Bush and Cheney for Torture
By DAVE LINDORFF @ counterpunch.com
A month before he takes office, it has become the conventional wisdom in our conventional media that Barack “No Drama” Obama will not seek or even allow any prosecution of Bush administration officials for crimes committed over the past eight years—not even for authorizing and promoting the illegal use of torture on captives of America’s wars on Iraq, Afghanistan and “terror.”
Take that pillar of conventional thinking, the New York Times. A lengthy December 18 editorial laid out a solid case that approval for torture had come from top Bush/Cheney administration officials, and then concluded that “A prosecutor should be appointed to consider criminal charges against top officials in the Pentagon and others involved in planning the abuse.” But then the paper’s editors went on after that to give Obama a pass, saying, “Given his other problems—and how far he has moved from the powerful stands he took on these issues early in the campaign—we do not hold out real hope Barack Obama, as president, will take such a politically fraught step.” In the view of Times’ conventional-thinking editors, it would appear that the American government cannot be expected to prosecute criminals and fight a recession at the same time. .....
ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff12182008.html
Constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley believes that not only did Vice President Dick Cheney "unambiguously" confess to a war crime during an ABC interview on Monday, but the US' future as a nation may depend on taking action.Asked by MSNBC's Keith Olbermann whether Cheney had just confessed to a war crime on national television, Turley at first replied wryly, "It's an interesting question, isn't it? ... If someone commits a crime and everyone's around to see it and does nothing, is it still a crime?""It most certainly is a crime to participate, to create, to in many ways monitor a torture program," he added.
ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Turley_Cheney_actions_unambiguously_war_crime_1217.html
I know that most - if not all - of the people who choose to read this are well aware of the recent ABC interview with Dick Cheney during which the sitting Vice President of the United States admitted to, among other crimes, the knowledge and facilitation of torture during the course of the current war. I am astonished at the deafening silence with which this admission has been met in the MSM, and among the people of our country generally. More astonishing yet is the silence of democrats on the Hill.
Regarding the larger case against the Bush Administration - that of an illegal war of aggression against a sovereign nation - Benjamin Ferencz, a former chief prosecutor of the Nuremberg Trials, stated in a recent interview from his home, that "humanity isn't yet civilized enough to prevent this type of illegal behavior."
Ferencz further stated that he does believe the United States is guilty of war crimes, however, "the international community is not sufficiently organized to prosecute such a case. … There is no court at the moment that is competent to try that crime." Sadly, I believe Ferencz is correct.
Cheney's words concerning the decision to invade Iraq (whether WMD were present or not) are open to a certain amount of interpretation. Those with sharper scalpels than mine are already parsing them. Cheney's unapologetic confession to 'enhanced interrogation', however, crosses a bright line.
Justice Anthony Kennedy's ruling in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld indicates that the current administration's attempt to ignore the Geneva Conventions in its treatment of terror suspects may leave it open to prosecution for war crimes.
Water boarding, and other 'enhanced interrogation techniques', must certainly be considered violations of Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions: "cruel treatment and torture [and] outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment." Such violations, as Justice Kennedy wrote, "are considered 'war crimes' punishable as federal offenses."
The silence of representatives of the Democratic Party in the face of Cheney's recent admissions is tantamount to tacit approval of the conduct of the war. I am thankful for Justice Kennedy's voice, speaking, though it seems, in the wilderness.
Where are the voices of our Democratic leaders? Focus on the economy is not an excuse to ignore such an outrage upon our own democracy - a democracy that claims to adhere to the rule of law. Cries of corruption - in the Blegojevich matter; concerning SEC failures; concerning Bernard Madoff's alleged investment fraud; - surely must pale in comparison.
I hope President Obama will hold those who ordered the violations discussed above accountable, and foster an atmosphere of general accountability and transparency within our nation, and with respect to the rest of the world.
THAT is Change We Need.
I am writing this blog entry to beg the Obama administration to prosecute George Bush and all others involved for war crimes. It is frustrating to think that after having to live under the current administration for eight years, that they might get away scott free. Yes I am just one person posting blogs on the internet, but this is one way to raise my voice. I watch quite a lot of liberal media shows, and they are worried that the American people will just give a big, collective yawn and not stand up for the injustice of what has gone on in this country.
Some of us feel fairly powerless, especially single individuals with enough going on in our daily lives to make bigger issues seem insurmountable. But we can still speak out. If you read this and agree, post a blog. Write your newspaper. Do something. Make a stand, because you have a voice, and even if one or two people see your post or several people read your letter to the editor and decide, "Hey, I should say something about this too," you will have made a difference. Without individual links there is no chain.
Let's make sure the world knows that America as a whole does not back up what Bush and his cronies have done. And to the man who will soon be president, I don't know if you'll ever read this... but if you hear the message of what needs to be done in this specific instance from any source, I hope you listen. We're trusting you with a lot. One of those things is restoring honor to this country, the honor your predecessor stripped away so flagrantly.
In his opening statement Jackson very purposely stipulated, "...Let me make clear that while this law is first applied against German aggressors, the law includes, and if it is to serve a useful purpose it must condemn aggression by any other nations, including those which sit here now in judgment."
Can there be a better reason for prosecuting George Bush and his administration for war crimes than those words from the chief prosecutor of the Nazis, a U.S. Supreme Court Justice, with the full support of the U.S. government? Robert Jackson's words and the values this nation claims to stand for provide sufficient moral basis for putting Bush and Cheney, their underlings who implemented their policies and the perverted legal minds who justified them all in the dock. If those are not sufficient reasons, there is a long list of binding law and treaties -- written in black and white in surprisingly plain English........
ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/19235
Rewarding War Crimes
by Robert Dreyfuss @ thenation.com
A doddering old former US secretary of state wants President-elect Obama to do more than keep Robert Gates on a secretary of defense. He suggests that Obama ought to retain W.'s policy of preventive, unilateral military assaults on, well, anyone we don't like.
No, it's not Henry Kissinger. George Shultz, who served under President Reagan, in an interview with the Washington Times, said that Bush's "doctrine of pre-emptive defense against terrorism" was "a controversial but important idea," adding.....
ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.thenation.com/blogs/dreyfuss/384294
by Donald Macintyre
JERUSALEM - The Israeli Attorney General has been urged to launch a criminal investigation into whether Shaul Mofaz, a leading prime ministerial candidate, ordered "war crimes" to be committed when he was the military's chief of staff.
A leading Israeli law professor has written to justice officials, calling for the investigation into claims - highlighted by The Independent last month - that during a briefing to army officers in May 2001, after the start of the second Palestinian uprising, Mr Mofaz ordered a daily "quota" of Palestinian deaths..........
........The letter to the Attorney General, Menachem Mazuz, refers to a book by two Israeli journalists, Raviv Drucker and Ofer Shelah, which says that Mr Mofaz, after ensuring he was not being officially recorded, called for a Palestinian death toll of 70 per day............
ENTIRE ARTICLE- http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/09/10-6
On August 1 the Independent reported claims made in a book by two Israeli journalists that Shaul Mofaz in 2001 called for a death toll of 70 Palestinians a day. (Getty Images)
Sooner or later George Bush and Dick Cheney must stand trial for their crimes. OR are we no longer a nation of laws?
![[On August 1 the Independent reported claims made in a book by two Israeli journalists that Shaul Mofaz in 2001 called for a death toll of 70 Palestinians a day. (Getty Images)]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/mofaz.0910.jpg "mofaz.0910.jpg")
